Saturday, February 4th was a national day of action against agitation for war with Iran. With my camera charged up, I made my first stop on the mild winter day the Barack Obama campaign office in Nashua, which had an opening celebration at 10:00am. I showed up to meet Occupy NH participants who had brought literature to distribute. I went about my usual chalking, focusing on messages that I hoped would make supporters of the president question their commitment.
Some suits emerged from the building, looked around, and went back inside. As I was keeping the chalking away from a portion of pavement under an overhang, and in the public area of the sidewalk, I knew that there could not be a claim that I was chalking any private property. Aside from myself, only one other person chose to participate in the chalking.
As the NH house and senate return to a full schedule for public hearings, I’ve made an effort to maintain camera coverage for certain bills. Last week was a house hearing on HB 1705, which would heavily restrict, but effectively legalize home consumption of cannabis in the state of New Hampshire. The ‘tax and regulate’ bill was complimented with a decriminalization bill. The decrim bill, heard on February 2nd, would have set the penalty for cannabis possession of under an ounce at a $100 fine. The bill was amended to criminalize the third possession, so in a sense, this bill only decriminalizes cannabis possession for one’s first two offenses. The bills are imperfect, as all are, but both represent a very progressive step forward for cannabis policy reform in New Hampshire, a state which is far behind all other New England political subdivisions in this sense.
As is to be expected, those that escalate the drug war, the enforcers who invest their consciences into the fight, will speak at hearings impassioned to continue what they consider to be important work. Occasionally, those who are invested in such work recognize it to be harmful in nature, and separate themselves from the job that they do to speak out against the ill caused by the role that they play. Such rejection of the standard rally cry to continue the war on drugs is voiced by Richard Van Wickler, who in his day job is the administrator of the Cheshire county jail. He comes to the hearing acknowledging that he is not representing the role he plays at his job, and that he has taken a vacation day to express his personal feelings before decision makers in Concord. Richard is one of the few speakers on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition who is currently employed in the criminal justice industry, showing how unpopular holding such a viewpoint is while actively working in the field. Below is a link to his testimony favoring the legalization legislation, as filmed by Biker Bill.
Photo journalism activist Carlos Miller was arrested Tuesday evening while he was attempting to cover the police’s eviction of Occupy Miami. Carlos is no stranger to arrest for photography. He has beaten two separate prior charges for photographing police. This most recent arrest sounds very similar to what occurred during the Chalking 8 incident in Manchester, in which the police criminalize a group and then arrest all those they associate with the group. In my case, though it came up at one point, I did not need to address whether I was acting as press at the time of my arrest to demonstrate that the seizure was unfounded. In this case, protesters were ordered away from an area where press were allowed to remained. Carlos was swept up after the protesters had already been cleared despite identifying himself as press when addressed and being near other reporters.
Photo: Carlos Miller
The police have deleted the footage he had taken in the moments leading up to his arrest. Another journalist is believed to have captured footage of (more…)
Since it was posted the day following the New Hampshire primary, a video by a watchdog group showcasing exploits of election security has reached over 350,000 views. I remember seeing several friends sharing the video on Facebook, and although I didn’t find it stimulating enough to watch from start to finish (it needed more editing for my taste), I found it to be an interesting piece of investigative journalism bound to start some heated debate over election security.
Back in 2010, on a visit to the NH Attorney Genital’s office, we met “investigator” Dick Tracy. More recently, Copblock’s Ademo and I were in the area so we dropped in again with some more questions, this time meeting “investigator” James Brown. Neither man was interested in speaking on the record and Brown attempted to intimidate us into not recording. We did not stop. Here’s what happened:
Remember, it is supposed to be your right to record government bureaucrats in public places. Though, we know they don’t care about what your rights are, so there’s always a chance you could be aggressed against and caged. Sometimes it can be scary when they threaten you, but if you have backup also willing to not back down, your odds of walking away without being caged increase.
On January 9, the public hearing on Manchester police department’s CALEA accreditation was held. CALEA is the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Agencies seeking certification must pay CALEA for the process, which is administered by current and former law enforcement officers. CALEA certification is primarily intended for larger departments, and aids the department in insuring itself against liability. The biannual hearing is open to anyone with input, positive or negative, on whether a police department should be given passing certification. A quick Google search does not reveal evidence of a department ever having failed the CALEA certification process.
In the past, such hearings have been better attended by critics of departments. With this year’s hearing falling the night before the New Hampshire presidential primary, I was not surprised that I was the only voice critical of MPD at the event. I spoke about the Chalking 8 incident, which I had been swept up in and later found not guilty of two bogus criminal charges.
Some suits emerged from the building, looked around, and went back inside. As I was keeping the chalking away from a portion of pavement under an overhang, and in the public area of the sidewalk, I knew that there could not be a claim that I was chalking any private property. Aside from myself, only one other person chose to participate in the chalking.
