Back in October 2012, I was arrested for recording video in the town hall of Palmer, MA. The arrest was clearly illegal, but that didn’t stop Palmer Police officer Raymond Tenczar from putting handcuffs on me, then putting me in a cage. After all, the legal council for the town had told them they could and they’d even posted hastily-printed signs on the building that morning that prohibited recording. They didn’t want a repeat of 2011, where CopBlock‘s Pete Eyre and I walked all around the building, recording and asking the bureaucrats tough questions. (We were there to view a tax sale and support our friend Jay Noone who was having his home stolen by the people calling themselves the “Town of Palmer”.)
Their plan would have worked if it weren’t for those pesky liberty activists and the ACLU of Massachusetts!
Not only did Palmer district court eventually dismiss the “disorderly conduct” charges “with prejudice” (meaning they can’t bring them back against me), but the town bureaucrats paid out $5,000 as a settlement.
Takeaways from the experience:
1. Just because bureaucrats print a sign saying you can’t do something, doesn’t mean you can’t do that thing. They are liars.
2. Don’t stop recording. Be polite about it, but stand your ground. (more…)
Bradley Manning’s 4th year of incarceration began recently, and his trial began today at Ft. Meade. Manning is facing 2 dozen charges after leaking documents to the website Wikileaks. Before giving the documents to Wikileaks, Manning attempted to give the documents to the New York Times and Washington Post, among other news outlets. Manning offered a plea bargain during a pretrial conference on February 28. His guilty plea to 10 lesser charges included possessing and willfully communicating to an unauthorized person all the main elements of the WikiLeaks disclosure. The UK Guardian reported, “That covered the so-called ‘collateral murder’ video of an Apache helicopter attack in Iraq; some US diplomatic cables including one of the early WikiLeaks publications the Reykjavik cable; portions of the Iraq and Afghanistan warlogs, some of the files on detainees in Guantanamo; and two intelligence memos.
These lesser charges each carry a two-year maximum sentence, committing Manning to a possible upper limit of 20 years in prison.” (more…)
Coming strong and solid following the denunciation of the program by the Keene Sentinel, we’re proud to present the fourth installment of AKPF #1. In this episode, we continue to explore the media explosion surrounding the Robin Hood of Keene lawsuit, while highlighting some golden oldies from the files of Aqua Keene.
1. 00:10 Opening AKPF Intro feat. the music of Too Short
2. 01:54 James Fallon introduces the Robin Hooders
3. 02:38 Dr. Dave joins the AKPF haranguement squad
4. 08:10 James shows how it is done on a very special FOX News broadcast
5. 12:10 Bill Miles delivers and important message about science in this submission
6. 14:03 CC.FPP puppy interlude (German Shepherd)
7. 14:09 WTNH Voice of the People heaps praise on Robin Hood of Keene and the Merry Men
8. 15:23 James F intros Pete Eyre’s RHK lawsuit overview from CopBlock.org
9. 20:43 Court Jester Tom Mullins declines communicating on the record.
10. 23:23 Peace News Now reports on the case (more…)
We’re only three episodes into the hottest new weekly variety series on Cheshire TV’s local access channel 8, and already AKPF #1 has received a scathing denunciation from the anonymous editorial board of the Keene Sentinel! AKPF is allegedly tied to the devious Robin Hooding ‘campaign’, and the nameless author alleges all sorts of terrifyingly vague safety concerns that may come about as a result of filling meters. First sensationalizing the material, the author attempts to marginalize the Robin Hooding footage selected by referring to it as ‘mundane’. Clearly, they have not watched much of the hundreds of hours of footage at Fr33manTVraw if they think that a riveting discussion that myself and James Cleaveland had with parking enforcer Jane exemplifies mundane footage.
Before the conclusion of the editorial, there’s a video cited which, based on facts referenced, likely is this months-old video, which was produced by Chris Cantwell, a comedian from New York who is not affiliated with Robin Hood of Keene nor is named in the lawsuit. Though it would not take much investigating on the part of the Slantinel, it was apparently too much work to figure out the names of the individuals they make broad allegations against, not so much alleging crime as they are “childish behavior playing out in the streets”. Despite a functioning website, and presence on the internet for several years, the Slantinel also fails to link to the video they absorbed so much knowledge from. It is almost as though they would rather you just take their word for it. (more…)
Yesterday morning, I sat down with city attorney (or court jester to use the royal parlance) Thomas Mullins, who was responsible for signing the paperwork filing suit against the Merry (wo)Men allegedly associated with Robin Hood of Keene. I was trying to find out why I was named in a ‘harassment’ lawsuit along with five others. I came only to represent myself and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the city’s position is that the purpose of Robin Hood of Keene is to engage parking enforcement officers in psychological warfare. Mullins used the phrase “emotional violence” to describe Robin Hooding. “You want them to quit. Everybody wants them to quit,” Mullins asserted. “From our perspective, you’re trying to force the termination of these individuals by getting them to quit.”
It seems that city bureaucrats have some gross misconceptions about the goals of Robin Hood of Keene. Over the course of the meeting, there was no specific instance cited in which I had done anything to wrong parking enforcers. For this reason, I offered to agree continuing not to commit any crimes against parking enforcement and suggested others would likely do the same to bring about a mutually beneficial conclusion to the lawsuit. The city’s attorney wasn’t ready to put forward an agreement yet, but suggested that there will be discussion of such. Below is a transcript of the meeting constructed from memory and extensive written notes, as Mullins had refused to engage in dialogue if an objective record was to have been made. (more…)
I don’t know if they can just do it on their own or they’ll need city council approval, but the city of Keene people, according to a Sentinel article, want to raise both parking rates and fines over the next couple of years.
UPDATE: I’m told someone was told by a city councilor that any increase in rates or fines must be approved by city council and public comment must be heard by them. Should make for an interesting campaign issue this year!
I don’t know if they can just do it on their own or they’ll need city council approval, but the city of Keene people, 
