When he first moved to New Hampshire, it was Keene that was Ridley’s destination. He’s since lived in multiple places across the Shire and is now back in the Keene area! Upon his return, Ridley’s first target for his trademark ambush interviews was the Keene school board meeting, after it was revealed by the Sentinel that an elementary librarian apparently assaulted a student. Dave wants answers and in this series of videos he corners multiple school bureaucrats and gets everything from people pretending he doesn’t exist to blow-offs to stonewalling to even more ridiculous, unaccountable behavior.
In the first video in the series, Dave is mostly ignored or blown off by various school board members and superintendent Wayne Wooldridge:
In the second video, Ridley catches up with Keene school district human resources director Tim Rohr, who refuses to give up any information. When Ridley asks Rohr if people should stop paying taxes since the school people won’t tell parents any details about the supposed punishment to the assaultive librarian, Rohr says:
“My guess is you’ll be motivated to pay your taxes if you try to stop.”
Rohr is referring to the fact that the government will threaten to steal your home if you decide you don’t want to support their awful school system anymore: (more…)
This afternoon the hypocrite governor of New Hampshire spoke at Keene State College’s 2015 graduation ceremony. Maggie Hassan, the boss of the state’s executive branch, is likely to veto the cannabis decrim bill if it makes it through the NH senate. It already passed the NH house with a supermajority of votes. It’s clear that decriminalization is what the people of New Hampshire want (it’s also the humane choice), but Hassan throws her loyalty into the camp of the police and cares not one bit about the lives that continue to be ruined because of her inhumane war on pot.
Oh, and to make her position even more outrageous, it turns out she herself has used cannabis in her college days. That raging hypocrisy didn’t stop her from showing up at Keene State College and acting like she actually gives a damn about the very same students that her police regularly threaten and harass over victimless crimes like cannabis and alcohol possession. Rich Paul and I went down to KSC today to confront her on these things and were accompanied by local education activist Ed Bryans who was upset with Hassan’s veto of the anti-common core bill. We found her at the end of the commencement and had plenty of time to give her a hard time while she was unable to leave, much to the dismay of a few of her sycophants. Here’s the video:
It’s not too late for cannabis decrim to pass, but Hassan and the NH senators need to hear from you. Please reach out to your senator here and ask them to support HB618, the cannabis decriminalization bill. Then please call Hassan’s office and encourage her to do the right thing and let decrim pass.
Dozens of New Hampshire’s inhabitants braved constant rain and cold to come out for the epic event, which also featured state representative Kyle Tasker toking up. Tasker later said in an interview exclusive to Free Keene, “The message sent by law enforcement and heard loud and clear by protesters was police have more important things to do than harass otherwise law abiding citizens over marijuana possession and public use even when it was clear there were amounts present at the protest that could be charged as a felony. The New Hampshire senate needs to consider how productive it is to keep an unenforced, indeed nearly unenforceable law on the books with which the public disagrees.”
No one has ever been arrested at these events despite mass civil disobedience of the cannabis possession laws taking place right outside the state house’s front doors. In fact, obvious police presence was near-zero this year, with a lone state trooper sitting across the street idling in his cruiser for a short time. In previous years, troopers have stood inside the state house windows, watching with crossed arms. This year, nothing!
Rich Paul kicked off the ceremony with his traditional invocation and a short speech. Afterwards the megaphone was open to anyone with something to say, and several attendees spoke out on various subjects. See the raw video here, courtesy Garret Ean. Here’s an edited clip of the beginning of the event:
Even mainstream media is speculating that cannabis decrim may pass in NH this year. 80% of the house voted for decrim already and now it awaits its turn in the NH senate. However, the state’s governor, Maggie Hassan has promised to veto it. This, despite the fact that she admitted to having used it when she was younger. Do you think Maggie would be better off today had she gotten a misdemeanor on her record had she been caught with her pot in her college days?
Unless Maggie finds her conscience, the senate would have to pass cannabis decrim with a veto-proof margin (as did the house – solidly) to protect the legislation from her veto. Now is a good time to contact “your” state senator and talk to them about how they feel about decriminalizing cannabis.
Matthew “Boston Strong” Schmidt believes “everyone loves” it when he lays on his horn as he drives by the Keene Activist Center. That’s what he did last week, while Keene Cop Block‘s JP Freeman was on the front porch. Once Boston got back to his house a few doors down, he taunted JP, which led to an unfortunate shouting match between the two. Then, Rich Paul went over to chat and following that, Boston came into the street and told JP more than once that he was going to “rap your head with a ratchet”, while brandishing a set of tools. Here’s the video:
To Boston’s credit, he’s a pretty dedicated activist. He recently even acquired a megaphone, which you see used in this video. He really doesn’t understand how to be a good neighbor, but he sure is an entertaining one. A little while back, Matt “Boston Strong” Schmidt was subpoenaed to a no contact hearing called for by JP at Cheshire superior court. At the hearing, Boston admitted to having been laying on his horn, which JP, who lived in the neighborhood at the time, claimed had woken up his small children. At the court hearing, Boston agreed to an order by the robed man which specifies Boston and JP should not have contact with each other and that Boston will not honk or blare his horn after 4pm. He’s been honking his horn in civil disobedience ever since the order was written. Personally, I find his antics amusing, but JP takes them personally.
While both men are responsible for creating the scene last week, (as JP did not have to react in-kind), Boston definitely instigated it, and escalated it. (more…)
As reported here at Free Keene yesterday, buses for the Gilford school district have been illegally equipped with video cameras that capture audio. Now, much better, longer video has been posted where drivers admit that the cameras have been present for months and without any posted notice until Tuesday of this week. This is a clear violation of the awful NH “wiretapping” statute. There is a section of the statute exempting school districts, but only if notice is posted. It wasn’t, as the drivers make clear. Though the police in NH have arrested countless average folk and activists for violating the statute, the school board will avoid any consequence – just watch.
Congrats to whatever brave teens who produced this VERY entertaining video. It’s particularly entertaining thanks to the ridiculous third bus driver who gets on her two-way radio to report the dastardly students who are conducting an investigation. Thanks also to Josh Youssef for posting the hilarious video:
At a recent, well-attended and lengthy hearing held by the criminal justice committee at the state house regarding studying cannabis legalization, a state representative from Rockingham, Kyle Tasker, put his freedom on the line.
The cop behind him didn’t seem to know what to do. After all, he likely wouldn’t hesitate to arrest Tasker for possessing cannabis in the streets. However, arresting him in front of the committee would only prove the point of the cannabis freedom activists – that people are arrested all the time for cannabis – something about which the police frequently mislead the legislators. (more…)
