YouTube vlogger, Amanda Billyrock, who recently moved to Manchester, reports from the Concord meeting about the BEARCAT, which was packed with peace-loving protestors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYTWScLF3TM
According to the Concord Patch, the turnout for the BEARCAT hearing had about 48 speakers, 4 in favor, 44 against the militaristic tank sought by police to crush Free Staters and Occupiers.
Attendees report the meeting room itself was maxxed out and there were at least 150 more people protesting outside. Thanks to all who came out to support freeom! Now the question is, will any city councilors change their vote and vote against this monstrosity? Apparently they put off the vote to a future meeting – a sneaky, cowardly, and all-too-common political move, likely in hopes of dampening turnout at the vote meeting.
While Robin Hooders prepare to spend a full day in court, this evening Concord city bureaucrats will hold the public hearing on the now infamous BEARCAT grant sought by the police. At 7pm, the public meeting is slated to begin at the council chambers on Green Street. Check out the informative response from Occupy New Hampshire, reformed following the decision to label them a terrorist group by the local police, who gathered to express their opposition to militarism and corporate protectionism. Additional coverage has recently run in Mother Jones, The Washington Times, Common Dreams, and The Boston Liberal. As posted to the Concord-NH.patch.com:
Participants and sympathizers of what was the Occupy New Hampshire movement are shocked to learn that the city of Concord considers us a potential threat to public safety and that we “present daily challenges.” In fact, the city considers us such a threat that it filed a fraudulent grant request to purchase a quarter of a million dollar armored attack vehicle to protect the community from non violent activists in this state.
Occupy NH established an explicit nonviolent ethic at its onset. No ONH event has ever witnessed a single act of violence. Furthermore, while Chief Duval claims that this is for the protection of the citizens of Concord, and wonders about the concern of citizens outside of Concord, he made this process a statewide issue and invited non-Concord residents to participate in the discussion and decision making process by targeting statewide organizations such as Occupy New Hampshire, and the Free State Project. (more…)
It’s a lame excuse and he doesn’t apologize for basically calling free staters “domestic terrorists”. He’s just trying to cover his ass in his letter back to Free State Project president Carla Gericke. Here’s his letter and her reply on the FSP website.
Also, big thanks to Mother Jones’ Gavin Aronsen for his recently published story on the Concord BEARCAT controversy. You can read that below:
After the public release of a document where he suggested that Occupiers and libertarians pose a domestic terror threat to Concord, New Hampshire, the city’s police chief has backed away from the claim. (more…)
Marc Stevens helped me draft this post-hearing motion to dismiss the DMV case against me filed by Keene Police prosecutor Jean Kilham.
The motion focuses on the fact that Kilham failed to prove the statutes apply to me as well as the denial of a fair hearing.
You can read the motion to dismiss here.
Here is the statement from Free State Project President, Carla Gericke: The Concord NH Police Department has made false and misleading statements in a grant application for $258,024 in federal funds from the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) to receive a Lenco Bearcat armored vehicle, hereinafter the “Tank.”
The DHS grant application states: “The State of New Hampshire’s experience with terrorism slants primarily towards the domestic type. We are fortunate that our State has not been victimized from a mass casualty event from an international terrorism strike however on the domestic front, the threat is real and here. Groups such as the Sovereign Citizens, Free Staters and Occupy New Hampshire are active and present daily challenges. Outside of officially organized groups, several homegrown clusters that are anti-government and pose problems for law enforcement agencies.”
![Gericke_Carla2008[1]](https://i0.wp.com/freekeene.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Gericke_Carla20081.gif)
As president of the Free State Project (“FSP”), a NH-based non-profit organization with the sole mission of attracting 20,000 pro-freedom people to the Granite State, I am alarmed and appalled at the cleverly worded insinuation that the FSP is a domestic terrorist threat, or that “Free Staters” are “active and present daily challenges” to the Concord Police Department.
Individuals who sign up for the FSP generally subscribe to the non-aggression principle, an ethical stance which asserts that "aggression" is inherently illegitimate. "Aggression" is defined as the initiation of physical force against persons or property, the threat of such, or fraud upon persons or their property. Our website specifically states: "Anyone who promotes violence, racial hatred, or bigotry is not welcome." (more…)
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