Court DENIES City of Keene’s Injunction Request Against Robin Hooders

by | Nov 23, 2015 | 44 comments

Robin Hood of Keene

Robin Hooders Victorious – AGAIN.

It has been a long road, but thanks to free speech attorney Jon Meyer and judge John C Kissinger of the Cheshire superior court, Keene’s Robin Hooders are again victorious! Nearly two years ago, the same court dismissed the two cases brought against the charitable meter-feeders, alleging we were “threatening, intimidating, and harassing” their parking enforcement officers and demanding a 50ft floating, constitution-free buffer zone to protect them.

The city appealed to the NH supreme court which ultimately upheld the superior court’s dismissal except for one part. They affirmed the lower court’s ruling to dismiss based on free speech grounds, but said the superior court needed to look at the request for the “buffer zone” injunction separately from the allegations of “tortious interference”, “civil conspiracy”, “negligence”, and the demand for financial compensation, all of which the city failed to prove to the court’s satisfaction.

Thankfully, the superior court agreed with attorney Meyer’s arguments and denied the city’s request for any injunction against us whatsoever! This effectively kills their case, unless they decide to continue spending ridiculous amounts of taxpayer money to appeal this latest failure to the NH supreme court.

James Cleaveland, Attorney Jon Meyer, Ian Freeman

James Cleaveland, Attorney Jon Meyer, Ian Freeman

The city, which had originally wanted a 50 foot floating buffer zone around each enforcer that would prevent all speech and recording by the Robin Hooders, had whittled that down over the 2.5 years this has been in court to a 5-10ft zone that would only be temporary and only if the parking enforcer requested said distance from the Robin Hooder. Mind you, we generally do not wish to be so close to them – it’s best to fill meters at a greater distance, so as to have enough time to fill the meter and leave the Robin Hood calling card on the windshield, BEFORE the parking enforcer catches up to us and gets ahead. That would mean she could successfully write a ticket if she gets ahead, so having distance is my goal, but the enforcer is constantly trying to close that gap, so sometimes we do get within ten feet. That would mean that such an injunction (besides being unconstitutional) would also prevent us from Robin Hooding, as anytime the enforcer managed to close the gap, we’d be subject to arrest for “contempt of court”.

In a fifteen-page order issued on 11/20, Kissinger writes of the city’s request for injunction:

The Court cannot conceive of any more narrow or alternative relief that would provide any meaningful protection to the PEOs without running afoul of the Respondents’ First Amendment rights…the government interests here are not sufficient to warrant an infringement on the Respondents’ First Amendment rights. Any injunction requiring a buffer zone of any meaningful distance would require a significant change in the method used by the Respondents to disseminate their protected speech.

So, despite the city’s interests in their parking enforcement continuing unabated, their significantly-reduced proposal for injunction is still beyond what is constitutionally permissible, and further, the court could not think of any lesser restrictions that would pass constitutional muster.

Kissinger, in his conclusion, does remind the city that if Robin Hooders’ conduct is rising to the level of violating criminal statutes, that they can bring such charges. Of course, the reason they never have brought criminal harassment or assault charges is because Robin Hooders are peaceful. There is zero evidence of “harassment, threatening, or intimidating” – the claims the city has long libeled us with throughout this lawsuit.

Sheriff of Nottingham

The poor, innocent parking enforcers.

In a classic case of projection, the people in this who are actually harassing, threatening, and intimidating others are the parking enforcers. They harass, threaten, and intimidate the good motorists of Keene six days a week by giving them threatening tickets for just trying to do some business downtown. Those tickets threaten, intimidate, and harass their victims into paying their fines so as to avoid the threat of having their car stolen. Talk about intimidation! This is why Robin Hood of Keene exists – we are here to save people from having to deal with the city’s threats. That’s always been the primary motivation, at least for me. I certainly don’t speak for everyone.

If the parking enforcers don’t like being called out for their threatening, intimidating, and harassing behavior, they should get jobs in the productive economy. Until the city council ends the parking department and turns over the spaces to downtown businesses to decide how to administer, per market forces, Robin Hooding will continue to rescue peaceful motorists from the threats of the city government.

The city has 30 days to appeal this latest failure. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.

Secret Service Takes Guns, Pony Away From Vermin Supreme

by | Nov 23, 2015 | 62 comments

Vermin Supreme for President

Vermin Supreme or President, 2016

Finally! A candidate worth voting for has entered the presidential race. Vermin Supreme is back for 2016’s presidential primary, this year filing in the Democratic contest. On Friday the boot-wearing candidate, who advocates mandatory teeth-brushing, is promising to buy everyone a pony if he is elected, and will go back in time to kill Hitler if elected, filed for the office of President in Concord, NH with a $1,000 filing fee.

Before heading into the state house to file, Vermin exercised his right to open carry weapons and strapped on a few guns, including a pistol attached to the boot on his head. Sadly, the Secret Service had taken over the state house and were somehow able to temporarily destroy NH’s freedom to carry a gun. Vermin was disarmed, and they would not even allow him to bring in his pony doll or even a cigarette lighter. Apparently they were protecting some lesser candidate named Ben Carson with their ridiculous security apparatus. Here’s the full RAW video of his appearance at the NH state house:

Of course, the security is all for show. If someone were intent on hurting Carson, they could simply wait until he leaves the building.

It’s supposedly illegal for the government to deprive people of their right to bear arms in NH’s government buildings that aren’t considered “secure facilities” like jails or courts. Apparently these rules do not apply to the Secret Service.

The entire encounter was captured on video by Free State Project early mover and former CPS investigator-turned-good, Carlos Morales.

Concord Monitor’s Front Page Features Keene’s Bitcoin Vending Machine

by | Nov 18, 2015 | 2 comments

Keene Bitcoin Vending Machine

Keene’s Bitcoin Vending Machine

Thanks to David Brooks of the Concord Monitor’s “Granite Geek” blog for his coverage of the Keene Bitcoin Vending Machine’s first year of operation. In addition to the front page of the Monitor’s print edition, the story also appeared in the Valley News, covering the Upper Valley of NH.

Brooks gets his reporting mostly correct, though I don’t share his view that bitcoin is doing poorly. It’s arguably the strongest currency in the world at over $335 USD per BTC as of this writing, with a myriad of businesses accepting it online and as Brooks notes, a bunch of NH businesses. By no means has it skyrocketed in popularity among average folks, but we’re talking about a major change in money here – there’s a learning curve involved at this point. It’s important to keep things in perspective: Bitcoin was released to the world in 2009. It’s been six years – a drop in the bucket of time. Bitcoin is just getting started.

Bitcoin is also easier to use than ever before. In the beginning, it was only geeks who could access bitcoin. As it spread and investors and more entrepreneurs got involved, easy-to-use wallet software became available. Now, all you need to do to get started with Bitcoin is download a free wallet and drop by the Keene Bitcoin Vending Machine at 661 Marlboro Street in Keene (Route 101), or acquire bitcoin in various other ways. Visit Bitcoin.com to learn more.

Here’s a link to Brooks’ front-page story here on the Concord Monitor’s site.

More Mainstream Media Coverage of Portsmouth UBER Controversy

by | Nov 17, 2015 | 1 comment

With the protest at the council meeting last night in Portsmouth and the second ticket issued to the Grandma UBER driver, mainstream media continues to report on the situation. Here’s a recent rundown:

First up, FOX 25 in Boston filed this report covering the protest and interviewing new Free State Project mover from Arkansas, Jessica Paxton, last night:
Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Here’s “>NH1’s package, filed prior to the protests: (more…)

Portsmouth Police Target Grandmother UBER Driver AGAIN + City Council Meeting Footage

by | Nov 17, 2015 | 18 comments

Illegal UBER Driver Stephanie Franz

Illegal UBER Driver Stephanie Franz, courtesy CBS Boston

In an article at Seacoast Online, Portsmouth acting police chief Frank Warchol uses his best, “I’m just doing my job” excuse for his department targeting 63-year old grandmother Stephanie Franz a SECOND time for what is now a total of $1,500 in two tickets. Franz is accused of driving people somewhere in Portsmouth without the city’s permission slip.

The protectionist racket will continue on unabated after Monday night’s city council meeting, where there were people who testified in favor and against driving freedom. Christopher David had a volunteer read his letter to the council, as he could not attend due to his wife having a baby. Here’s the feed from the council chambers, starting with the people addressing the council:

The second speaker is a taxi company owner who accuses UBER of “stealing” money from him, since he’s obediently jumped through the city’s hoops. However, he does suggest (perhaps sarcastically) to repeal all ordinances so his companies can lower their prices, which I think most libertarians would love to see. After him is a former fireman who suggests that UBER drivers could be a danger to passengers due to misdemeanor convictions which the city’s regulations prohibit within seven years of the background check. He also claims that the state background check is more thorough, but the Free Uber page on facebook says otherwise: (more…)