“New Hampshire Nine” Status Conference featuring Footloose

The “New Hampshire Nine” are a group of peaceful people who largely didn’t know each other that were arrested in October 2021 at a meeting of the “executive council”. They were arrested on victimless “crime” charges like “disorderly conduct”. Here’s video of their last court hearing where a crazed bailiff threatened “Absolute Defiance” founder Footloose in the lobby with video cameras.

Today, the nine and a courtroom packed full of supporters were back at Concord’s district court for a short status conference. During the hearing, Footloose was charged with additional counts of “disorderly conduct”. Now, in addition to the disorderly charge that kicked off the NH9 arrests, where he was sitting quietly in the audience, they are charging him with ANOTHER disorderly for speaking loudly in protest while he was being arrested. Further, he’s being hit with a disorderly and “breach of bail” for speaking in the hallway at the Legislative Office Building in November.

Stay tuned to Free Keene for more on this developing free speech case.

Here’s the video of today’s hearing:

Footloose Sentenced for “Disorderly Conduct”, Goes Off on Court Goons!

At the end of December of 2021, Frank “Footloose” Staples was put on trial for “disorderly conduct” for allegedly speaking “too loudly” outside NH governor Chris Sununu’s house. The robed woman at Exeter District Court in Brentwood, NH found him guilty and scheduled a sentencing date, which was today.

Here’s the full video of the entire hearing, where Footloose goes off on the court goons, getting much louder than he did outside Sununu’s house. He also outright refused to pay the fine and demanded he be put in jail instead – the robed woman ignored it and left the court. Enjoy!

Jay Noone vs DCYF Goons

Recently some busybody reported Jay Noone’s family to DCYF when his wife Shalon allegedly went into a store and left their 2-year-old strapped safely into a carseat with the car running. The meddling family-destroying goons dropped into the Noone’s “Domestead” in Henniker on Friday to try to search the premises. Despite showing Jay a written threat from a robed person, Jay refused to allow them in and wisely recorded the encounter. Stay tuned to Free Keene for updates.

Here’s the video of the encounter:

NH HB 1682: Bill to Establish “Police Conduct Review Committee” Gains Steam

New Hampshire HB 1682 was introduced by Rep. David Welch (R – Rockingham13) on 1/5/2022, followed by a public hearing on 1/14/2022. The House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety voted that the bill “ought to pass with amendment” and has been referred to the House Finance Committee for further review.

On the Surface It Sounds Great: Hold Police Accountable for Their Actions

The idea of this bill is to establish a committee that’s considered “independent” and separate from local police jurisdictions in order to ensure police officers are held accountable for their actions (or inactions.) According to Rep. David Welch, the aim of the bill is “to establish a single, neutral, and independent statewide entity to receive complaints alleging misconduct regarding all sworn and elected law enforcement officers.” – HB 1682 public hearing, 1/14/2022 – watch here

As outlined in the bill, officers could potentially face the new Conduct Review Committee for a number of reasons, including: if they’ve been convicted of committing a felony, any sentence of incarceration, excessive use of force, driving while intoxicated, moral turpitude (dishonesty, deceit, theft), acts of omission, lying in a police report or criminal proceeding, falsification of records, tampering with or falsifying evidence, racist conduct or statements, etc.

This all sounds great, because of course law enforcement officers should be held accountable for their actions! Which makes me wonder, why aren’t they now?

Policing the Police With Police

There’s already an established Police Standards and Training Council that handles internal reviews in New Hampshire. The new Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee would fall under that umbrella, dealing exclusively with misconduct reviews. In recent years the public’s interest in holding police accountable has skyrocketed. Perhaps there are so many cases of police misconduct in the state that they can no longer handle the workload or process them quickly enough. 

Since the new Conduct Review Committee would fall under the already established Standards Council, the governor would (again) be appointing its members. The current Police Standards and Training Council consists of mainly a bunch of police officers appointed by Governor Sununu. Since it is the governor who will be appointing members here again, I’m not sure this bill will be as effective as it looks. A politician hand-picking members within the context of “maintaining absolute objectivity” is a farce.   

The Law Enforcement Conduct Review Committee would consist of:

  • Four law enforcement officers appointed by the governor
  • Three public members with no familial associations to a police officer, lawyer, or judge

It’s A Step in the Right Direction

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Copblocker Defeats Keene Police Charges for Fleeing on Motorcycle While Underage

Alexander Short

Local Snitch, Alexander Short of Swanzey

In 2016 we featured a video from then-eleven-year-old Mikey Gordon as he shut down a state trooper’s speed trap in Alstead. In the Summer of 2020, at age 15, Mikey was arrested for allegedly refusing to pull over while riding a motorcycle in Keene, leading police on a high-speed chase that ended near Rt 12.

According to police, the then-unknown motorcycle operator ditched the bike and ran into the woods before police were able to catch up. Fortunately for the cops, a local snitch, Alexander Short – the owner of Short’s Detailing at 58 Forest Ave in Swanzey – approached them and told officers he knew who the operator of the motorcycle was, as the two had been hanging out in the Target parking lot the same night. The snitch placed a phone call to Mikey’s cell phone and officers were then able to locate and take him into custody, ultimately returning him home to his parents’ house.

Months later, Mikey was subsequently charged with two misdemeanor counts: “disobeying an officer” and “operating without valid license”. The first count was charged as “class A”, which could result in up to a year in jail and the second count charged as “class B” which could be a large fine. The Keene Police prosecutor offered a plea deal which would have dropped the class A charge in return for his guilty plea on the class B with the punishment being a 30 day loss of license and $620 fine plus $720 suspended on condition of good behavior. Now-seventeen-year-old Mikey heroically refused the plea deal and took the charges to trial earlier this month:

After the state presented its case, Keene district court judge Patrick W Ryan took the case “under advisement” and complimented Mikey, telling him, “you did a good job”. It was Mikey’s first time in court and he appeared pro-se, defending himself without the help of an attorney.

Normally, when a robed man takes a case under advisement it is a good sign that the verdict will not be “guilty”, because usually they are hesitant to deliver a not-guilty verdict in front of an audience and cameras. Judges are likely to issue more favorable verdicts when the cameras are off and no one is around, and that is exactly what happened in this case. Actually, the charges were “dismissed” according to the case file, which means Mikey wasn’t found “not guilty”. Dismissing charges after the trial has finished is an unusual result, but it’s still a solid win for the teenage Cop Block activist.

Observers reported that the snitch Alexander Short laughed and told Mikey outside of the courtroom to “have fun in jail”. Who is laughing now? One benefit of taking charges to trial is the police have to put snitches – or any undercover agents – on the witness stand to make their case, whereas if the defendant takes a plea deal the snitch is protected from public view. So now everyone knows that Alexander Short of Swanzey New Hampshire is happy to throw his friends under the bus and rat them out to the police for victimless crimes.

Congratulations to Mikey for his victory!

NH HB 1027: Elected Officials Who Abuse “Emergency Powers” Could Incur Felony Charges of Treason

New Hampshire HB 1027 was introduced by Rep. Tim Baxter (R – Rockingham 20) and Rep. Josh Yokela (R – Rockingham 33) on January 5, 2022, followed by a public hearing on January 19th. It’s now sitting in committee until March 10, 2022.

  • “This bill establishes the crime of subversion of the legislative process-treason for any act to subvert the legislative process based on a false claim of emergency caused by COVID-19.”

Politicians and bureaucrats that violate our medical freedom by enforcing unconstitutional and unlawful mandates should go to prison. The legislative process is sacred. President Joe Biden is not a king, and the executive department cannot subvert the legislative process when it is convenient. It is up to individual state legislatures and the United States congress to enact legislation that impacts the citizens…It is well within the authority of the general court to protect its constituents from overreach of federal executive power. This bill aims to check the power of the federal government, and to defend the people of our state from unconstitutional executive actions and decrees that encroach on their ability to conduct business freely. This bill protects the right of private businesses to make their own decisions in what they require of their employees, and frees them from being shackled by executive overreach.” – Rep. Tim Baxter, HB 1027 public hearing, 1/19/2022 – watch here

 

Arguments Presented at the Public Hearing 

Rep. Baxter’s arguments focused on how covid-19 mandates in New Hampshire have affected employers/employees negatively by forcing them into catch-22 situations. One example was a mother in tears because she didn’t agree with the vaccine mandate, but would lose her job if she didn’t comply. Rep. Baxter argued that businesses should be in charge of setting their own parameters, without government intrusion or intervention whatsoever.

Rep. Yokela’s arguments focused on how using covid-19 as the basis for “emergency powers” is an abuse of the legislative system. Over two years into the pandemic, any “emergency powers” enacted are unnecessary, as the entire world is well aware of the situation. Employers do not need hand-holding, and employees should not be forced into unconstitutional positions by the government. Rep. Yokela argued that legislatures have enough time, at this late stage, to follow the legitimate legislative path instead of enacting laws by executive decree. If they do not follow the proper path, it should be considered an act of treason.

I became actively involved in this process in the end of 2021, beginning of 2022, and I was actually appalled with the way people are being discriminated against because of this pandemic. Not only in our communities, but right here in our legislative body. This bill would hold those people responsible and accountable at every level. It needs to be done. I was in a Senate hearing yesterday and one of the senators who spoke…said the bottom line is that we don’t want to approve this because we want everyone vaccinated. That’s not appropriate. That is not appropriate for someone to take that kind of a stand. He’s representing the people of New Hampshire. Not everyone in New Hampshire wants this vaccine. Not everyone in New Hampshire believes in this vaccine. Not everyone in New Hampshire trusts our federal government, or even our state government at this point. I’m here today to support this bill; it’s a good start.” – Russan Chester (NH citizen), HB 1027 public hearing, 1/19/2022 – watch here

 

Abusing “Emergency Powers” Is an Act of Treason

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