The following video is of Will Hopkins, director of NH Peace Action, reading a statement before the Occupy New Hampshire general assembly on July 22, 2012.
Today was the second day in which Occupy New Hampshire’s recent division was covered with stories on the front page of the Concord Monitor. An in-depth article on last week’s separation was published on July 22, the date of the first GA since the split. (1, 2) At the GA, only one of the board members of the new Occupy New Hampshire corporation was present, and she apologized for having participated in the incorporation and announced that she would be removing herself from the board. An article published in today’s Monitor reports on the first GA since the split. (1, 2) Also published in Sunday’s Monitor was an editorial on the split by Occupier Theresa Earle. (1) (more…)
Radley Balko, HuffPo journalist and chief of The Agitator blog reportson the increasing corporate media focus around a “war on cops”. 2012 is shaping up to be one of the safest years for law enforcement since 1944; a much different time for policing in the US.
A few other media outlets are now picking up on the massive drop in police fatality statistics this year (Welcome to the story!) But so far, none of them have questioned what happened to all of those alleged trends (gun ownership, increasing contempt for cops, videotaping of police misconduct, anti-government sentiment, decreases in funding for police departments) that they all reported were behind the non-existent “war on cops” they were all reporting last year. Or in the case of the New York Times, as recently as April.
If we use the numbers from the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, there are 800,000 cops on the streets. There have been 53 on-the -job fatalities so far this year. But 21 of those were car accidents. There have been 19 firearms homicides against police. I looked through the descriptions of this year’s officer deaths at the NLEMF page. Two of the fatalities were from firearms injuries sustained in previous years (in one case, 30 years ago). That puts us at 17 for this year. I then looked through the 13 deaths classified as “other.” Four of those appear to have been homicides—three stabbings, and one officer who died from a blot clot resulting from an altercation with an inmate. So let’s add those to our 17. That gives us 21 homicides in the first half of 2012 (I’ll go ahead and count the two officers killed during SWAT-like drug raids, even though it’s possible the tactics themselves may have contributed to the officers’ deaths).
By my math, that gives us a homicide rate of 5.25 (more…)
The first meeting of ONH, Arms Park, Manchester. 6 Oct 2011
I have been waiting to publish information regarding the status of Occupy New Hampshire as of the general assembly held on the state house lawn on July 15, 2012. Before I arrived at the scene, a clear division had formed and meetings were occurring between two separate camps. I noticed many familiar faces at the camp closest to where I had parked and began walking toward them with my camera rolling. Hearing what appeared by all indicators to be a productive discussion in progress, I set the camera down and tried to see who I could recognize in the farther crowd. Seeing both friends and strangers, I saw others in the movement whom I considered to be more failed politicians than impassioned grassroots organizers. Among the many who have come and gone over the span of ONH since its first GA on October 6, 2012, my observation would only place two or three individuals in this category. In all popular power struggles, it is these individuals who act upon opportunity to declare themselves the vanguard. Vanguardism in popular movements is dangerous in that it offers the revolutionary a sense of entitlement over the masses as had existed for the class which had been overthrown. If there comes to be a conflict over who truly represents the Occupy movement in New Hampshire, may we listen most cautiously to the loudest voices.
The individuals who seceded from the general assembly without engaging in any sort of consensus process are reportedly trying to retain the Occupy New Hampshire name by unknown means. There has been discussion of possible lawsuits pending against members of the group who did not participate in the ostracism campaign and secede from the main group. While I am still gathering information about what happened on Sunday and its consequences, information continues to be released by different parties. My raw footage from the inclusive circle (which welcomed all individuals) will be online by the end of the week. The seceding circle’s meeting was recorded through written notes and some still photography, but it is believed that no video exists. The meeting minutes, as taken by Katie Talbert, are the most complete public record of what occurred on the other side of the park.
Meanwhile, here’s a perspective from Rich Angell, a newcomer to the Occupy movement who describes himself as a periphery supporter from the beginning. Rich is from a more rural area of the state than most and has been involved with sustainable intentional communities since moving to New Hampshire for the Free State Project in 2007. He recalls the unwelcome reception that some gave him when he arrived.
Some accounts of the event with false information have been released, and there will be links to valid sources of information as well as corrections included in the post released with the full video.
It was a strange morning at the Keene Activist Center on Thursday, June 14, when Fred Parsells, Gary Lafreniere, and a slick videographer named John walked their unwelcome way into the private residence. With a warrant for a dubious inspection, and asking vague questions about tenants from years past, the uncomfortable fire captain and the ever-mcgruff housing inspector creeped their way around the house. Looking for smoke detectors, they awoke the sleeping Darryl, who was ignored thereafter when he requested an explanation and apology for why he was woken up. Darryl works a late shift and has a long commute, so his sleep cycle began earlier that morning, and he had to go to work later that day. He has since filed suit against the bureaucratic interrupters of his rest.
Here is the video of the Keene city bureaucrats invading the KAC, with the assistance of the Toilet Safety Administration, a homeland security program with offices in South Park, Colorado. Original raid video w/out TSA (youtube).
Riot police responded to the scene of a Chalk Walk celebration in Los Angeles last evening and forcibly disbursed a crowd. Unfortunately, some in the crowd responded to the police’s violence in kind, escalating the situation, and motivating the better armed aggressors to deploy rubber bullets and batons on civilians. Seventeen people were arrested in total, nine for chalking (including a juvenile), two for failure to disperse, one for receiving stolen property, two for simply resisting arrest, and three for assaulting a police officer. Two of those charged with assaulting the police also received the subtitle ‘with a deadly weapon’. One officer was reportedly given a minor concussion by a bottle smashing against her helmet.
The chalking protest itself was a response to the arrest of twelve Occupy LA chalkers over the past four weeks in the United States’ second largest city. Organizers of the Chalk Walk scheduled the event to coincide with the annual Art Walk occurring simultaneously nearby. Free chalk was made available to those who cared to participate.
Journalist Nancy Casanova tweeted this picture of the night’s violence kicking off. (more…)
At best, it was a clerical error that sent Ademo Freeman’s notice of jury selection from Manchester superior court to 47 Schultz Street, an address that does not exist in Keene. At worst, it was a deliberate attempt to deny his right to a jury trial in the Chalking 8 case. Though the post office informed the court that the notification was not delivered, no further attempt was made to contact Ademo about the hearing that he had requested. As a result, on Wednesday, Judge Lyons ordered him caged for 60 days without consideration of the court’s error. He passed the buck to the supreme court, advising that the only challenge to the imposition of the sentence could be made through the third, and highest layer of NH judiciary.
Unless the supreme court intervenes, Ademo will serve sixty days, possibly forty if afforded all of his good time. Video of the scene in the courtroom is embedded below.
At best, it was a 
