In 2014’s New Hampshire gubernatorial primary, then-incumbent Maggie Hassan refused to debate me in the Monadnock Debates, put on at Franklin Pierce University. Since I was the only democratic candidate for governor to respond, they graciously gave me ten minutes to speak before the republican debate. I figured this year would be different. I thought for sure that having a full field of non-incumbent candidates would mean there’d be an actual, full debate.
Surprise! Looks like the “big three” candidates Mark Connolly, Steve Marchand, and Colin Van Ostern refused to respond to the invitation to this year’s Monadnock Debates. The only two candidates who did respond are author Derek Dextraze and me, Ian Freeman. As a result, the debate organizers decided to not hold the democratic debate this year, like in 2014.
I spoke with Derek about the development today and he said, “I find it interesting that the two candidates that really aren’t politicians said yes to debate. While the other three candidates that WMUR says are the only three candidates on the Democratic side for governor said no or didn’t respond.”
Derek points out another interesting phenomenon from this year’s campaign coverage, which is that some media organizations have been completely ignoring both the Dextraze and Freeman campaigns. WMUR-TV has reported on only three of the democratic candidates in their campaign coverage so far. Similarly, Manchester’s WGIR-AM has held “debates” but only invited the “big three”.
When Derek inquired with WMUR he says they told him, “because I haven’t sent them my itinerary they did not think that I was running.” Sounds like a lame excuse to me. It’s common for NH media organizations to reach out to all ballot qualified candidates. It’s either pure laziness of these media organizations or a deliberate decision to exclude smaller campaigns, despite the face that both Derek Dextraze and Ian Freeman will be on the primary ballot on September 13th, just like the “big three”. (more…)
In New Hampshire, it’s legal to open carry a gun on public property and plenty of private property (where the property owners welcome it). However, concealing the gun is illegal without a “license” from the state. The “live free or die” state is frequently touted as being more gun friendly than other states, and that’s definitely true. However, if the state people decide they don’t like you, the concealed carry statute is written with a loophole they can drive a Mack truck through:
shall issue a license to such applicant authorizing the applicant to carry a loaded pistol or revolver in this state for not less than 4 years from the date of issue, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear injury to the applicant’s person or property or has any proper purpose, and that the applicant is a suitable person to be licensed.
The “suitable person” loophole appears to allow police to deny someone a concealed license for anything they want and so far the NH supreme court is backing them up. In 2014 Derrick J was denied a concealed license by Keene Police for basically not being obedient to police, as they later explained in court. Keene’s district court judge Edward J Burke agreed that despite Derrick J being completely peaceful, the Keene Police’s decision to deny him was legal.
The latest development in the ridiculous concealed carry denial saga is my recent rejection by Keene Police (PDF). This time their rationale for denying my supposed right is not because of what I’ve done in the past, but merely because there’s a “current drug investigation” involving me.
So, now all the police in New Hampshire have to do to deny you the right to defend yourself via concealed carry is open an investigation into you. When do they have to close said investigation? Apparently there’s no specific timeframe.
Liberty-minded state reps have been working to end the concealed license requirement entirely, but thus far it has been stopped by the governor, Maggie Hassan. Another bill attempted to remove the “suitable” loophole from the statute. Perhaps the next election will shake things up a bit more in favor of liberty. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for more on the 2016 election.
Meanwhile, I’m still considering re-applying for the concealed license, likely being denied again, and then taking the mandatory appeal to the district court just for fun.
Manch Cops Unnecessarily Intimidate Innocent People in Search for Suspect
Manchester has recently been the site of some major police state tactics including lockdowns and checkpoints. Tonight beginning at 6:00pm, Manchester-area activists and Cop Blockers will be holding a press conference at 6:30pm, then various members of the West Manchester community will be testifying to the city council about their experience in the recent police state activity. Here’s the full event announcement from Foundation for NH Independence president Carla Gericke:
Is the Manchester Police Department on the Warpath?
Concerned Manchester residents will gather at City Hall Plaza on Elm Street at 6PM on Tuesday, June 7th, 2016, to discuss the increasing use of military-style occupation tactics and deployment of military-grade equipment on the streets of Manchester, NH.
MPD Police Chief Nick Willard says, “crime is down 20 percent in Manchester,” yet in the past 3 weeks:
8 Manchester schools have been placed under lockdown;
MPD has deployed its SWAT team and armored BEARCAT at least twice;
One home was tear-gassed;
At least 3 helicopters clamored over the city for hours after an entire neighborhood of 30,000 people was placed on lockdown with a shelter-in-place order for more than 5 hours after the suspect had been apprehended.
In Manchester, a city with a population of 110,000 that often ranks highly in affordability and livability, the past few weeks have seemed like a war zone. (more…)
This year’s seventh annual Concord 420 celebration on the state house steps attracted approximately 100 hardcore attendees who faced possible misdemeanor charges for possession of cannabis as they smoked in defiance of prohibition on Wednesday April 20th at 4:20pm.
Here is a list of the scumbag senators who voted to continue the insane war on cannabis in NH and continue locking peaceful cannabis users in cages:
Republicans
Democrats
Sen. Regina Birdsell (r)
Sen. David Boutin (r)
Sen. Sharon Carson (r)
Sen. Sam Cataldo (r)
Sen. Gary Daniels (r)
Sen. Jeanie Forrester (r)
Sen. Gerald Little (r)
Sen. Chuck Morse (r)
Sen. Russell Prescott (r)
Sen. Nancy Stiles (r)
Sen. Lou D’Allesandro (d)
Sen. Andrew Hosmer (d)
Sen. Betty Laske (d)
Sen. Donna Soucy (d)
Here’s what one of the prohibitionists, Sen. Gary Daniels, a Milford Republican, said to the Concord Monitor:
“We are in a war…The last thing we need is to tell our citizens that it’s okay to use a little marijuana or any other illegal substance.”
Hopefully these sociopaths will be ejected from their seats come this November when prohibitionist governor Maggie Hassan will also be replaced by someone hopefully better on this issue.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for more media from the successful 420 event in Concord this week.
Ridley also cornered a few state reps with a good question about what depravity the federal government would have to stoop to before they would support NH secession: (more…)
At 6:00 a.m. on March 20, 2016, members of the FBI, New Hampshire State Police, and Keene PD executed a federal search warrant on our studio in Keene, NH. The search team was greeted without incident upon presentation of the warrant and the studio was secured by investigating officers.
According to the search warrant, the FBI ran an undercover TOR .onion child pornography website from their government servers in Virginia from February to March of 2015. This website was designed to deliver, besides the pictures of abused children, a piece of malware that breaks the anonymity of TOR and identifies the true IP address of the person attempting to access the website. Other information, including the computer host name, username, and MAC address were also supposedly captured by the FBI. Pursuant to an investigation into violation of 18 USC 2252 (child pornography), the FBI seized approximately 46 computer and electronic devices from our studio. No charges have been filed.
Although the seizure of our equipment was inconvenient and resulted in Free Talk Live’s internet network’s (LRN.FM – The Liberty Radio Network) audio feed going offline temporarily, we will have our studio back to normal operations within 48 hours and will continue serving the high quality, liberty-oriented shows our listeners love. No episodes of Free Talk Live have been interrupted.
We look forward to the results of the FBI’s forensic examination. Many people had access to the LRN wireless network and studio computers over the previous year. If someone accessed a child pornography website from our network, it is without our knowledge. However, we feel that in a country that has a free press, journalists should be allowed to investigate all aspects of society, including criminal ones.
Free Talk Live and all of its hosts, as if we should have to, officially denounce child pornography, child rape and child exploitation. We further remind everyone that the only organization that, at this point, is guilty of having anything to do with child porn is the Federal Bureau of Investigations, who admits to distributing pictures of exploited children, a crime worse than what they are accusing their website visitors of doing.
The search and seizure Warrants are, last we heard, sealed. We encourage anyone interested in obtaining them to contact the FBI.
