On Saturday December 8 at 9am, the Keene Police Department held an “Emergency Vehicle Open House” where they showed off their toys. Not only did the KPD display the Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck, they also displayed a fire truck, snow plows, a police cruiser and other vehicles from the Fire Department and Department of Public Works.
It wasn’t all business, enter the Shire Choir to lighten the mood and brighten a dreary day:
On the evening of December 3, the Bradley Manning Support Network sponsored a presentation by Manning’s attorney David Coombs. Coombs played down the media’s role in covering the military tribunal, yet acknowledged the more humane treatment that positive press coverage resulted in after Manning was removed from harsh conditions in Quantico, Virginia and moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. See the full hour video embedded below, featuring Emma Cape, Michael Ratner, and David Coombs. A detailed writeup is available from the Dissenter.
If I were a busybody, I might assert that there needs to be a crackdown on the drug-addled maniacs that occasionally interject disorder into the harmony of Keene’s otherwise pleasant populous. As Keene Cop Block has been operating consistently since autumn began, something I had discovered quickly was that KPD does not pose the greatest threat to recording equipment on Friday and Saturday nights. Drunken commoners have the least concern for other’s personal property. Though not always through malevolence, some young people find it gratifying to shout praise of their alma mater while holding a Cop Blocker’s videocamera inches away from their face.
Once in a blue moon, you come across someone as disoriented and insecure as a friend we made last week, Tim. Tim considers himself to be the king of the alphabros. He had the most violent reaction to cameras of any druggie that the crew has come across. From his perspective, he may have felt infringed upon. Despite the fact that he had approached a group of videographers as his friends walked away, he had concerns about cameras being in his face. When I approached the group after seeing him stepping towards fellow filmer James in the way that a great ape squares off with its opponent, he then spoke as though he took preference for my clothes and hair. “Look at this afro mutherfucker…with a videocamera.” He began counting people, “One, two…,” and at “three”, he pounces towards me like a tranquilized animal. (more…)
Episode 10 – Oct 1st 2012
1. Winchester, NH accepts federal grant for sidewalk project and gets nowhere fast.
2. Public Service of New Hampshire predicts higher energy rates to come.
3. Mass. crime lab tech accused of faking thousands of tests.
4. Mother sentenced to 12 years in prison for $31 of marijuana.
5. Garret Ean discusses this year’s 2nd annual Chalk the Police Day.
6. This week = Banned Book week.
Earlier this month passed another Veterans Day, which formerly commemorated the signing of the armistice which would end Europe’s World War the first. Often forgotten in the celebration associated with the cessation of war are the victims who suffer from its ills long after alleged peace deals are signed. The effects of WWI on the culture of the US and the world were not fully actualized as events were transpiring. If history was any indicator, the nation would find itself in the same brutish death trap just over a generation later.
Conscientious objectors at Camp Lewis, WA. Nov 1918
A violent militarism, which could be described as an antipacifism, swept the United States, with an even stronger sentiment arising in the more war-ravaged Soviet Union. One of the darkest examples of this hostility towards civilians during WWI is the treatment of pacifist Hutterites following the draft which began just over a year before the war would come to an end. While saukerkraut makers were changing their product names to ‘Liberty Cabbage’ and South Dakota was banning instruction of the German language in government schools, four members of a 400 year old pacifist, communalist Christian sect received draft notices to risk their lives in Europe for the mythical Uncle Sam. Perhaps it was by chance and perhaps deliberately that four names from an antimilitant community found their way onto the draft register. There had already been tension building between the area Hutterites and their neighbors, as the community had refused to buy war bonds the year prior. (more…)
Dave Ridley suggests that being an A word may be preferable to being an L word.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aPkEbWtk6LM
Gaza, Palestine. Nov 2012
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