Yesterday was the inauguration ceremony at the state house and a number of other scheduled festive events to ring in the new administrations. After doing some promotional chalkings around the perimeter of the building, I headed inside and met with other independent media personalities visiting town from Keene. When we discovered a line outside of the governor’s office, we were struck with the urge to file in.
A staffer noticed our rolling videocameras and informed us that the line was for a photograph with governor Maggie Hassan, but that she would not have time to dedicate to a videotaped interview. Darryl, Kate, and James decided to find other items to film, while I perused the posters featuring the event’s corporate sponsors, which included everything from New Hampshire businesses to pharmaceutical multinationals.
It was a very rushed encounter, as most happenings with lines tend to be. I quickly asked after handing off my rolling camera and being flashed by still cameras, “Will you be doing anything to decrease New Hampshire’s dependence on the United States federal government?”
“Uh, well, I think that’s something we’ll all talk about, thanks.”
I picked up a cheesecake item and walked to the house chamber to listen to a colorful choir. Outside of the office, the line to see the new state president grew. In the lobby, chocolate bears were being distributed. It was a statist synthesis of Christmas and Easter, and there was free stuff to go around.
It comes as a modest victory that the case of State v Garret Ean, relative to a bicycle headlamp violation dating back to June 2011, was closed without a guilty finding on December 18. Judge M. Kristin Spath issued the order which I received on the 20th stating that, “The court is using its discretion pursuant to RSA 262:42 and placing this complaint on file without a finding for a period of six months…” This ‘neither guilty nor not-guilty’ ruling is a legislative creation for New Hampshire courts which reads, “A complaint against a person…may be placed on file at the discretion of the court, if the violation appears to have been unintentional, or if no person or property could have been endangered thereby.” This provision applies most to the ambiguous motor vehicle statutes and some other infractions that do not fall under the more straightforward criminal code. While I complete a summary article on the entire court performance, here is a brief history of the case chronicled with court documents.
The first court appearance I had for this incident was in September 2011, when I received discovery from the state and traded with them my evidence and witness list. The case was continued a number of times while my witness was traveling. When a date of late September 2012 was set for the trial, I was concerned that my witness may not have returned to New Hampshire by this time. Before I had a chance to file another continuance request, I received one from the state’s attorney Heather Flanner, which requested the trial be moved to a date later than October 25. I did not object to the continuance, but apparently it must have been withdrawn by the prosecution, because on September 28, I received a Notice of Fine from the court, claiming that I had been found guilty in abstentia for a trial date that I had missed on September 25. (more…)
Yesterday an appearance on Peace Love Liberty Radio from last week was released as an isolated segment. Today was published another radio appearance by Garret Ean on the Ladies in Keene program, which airs Saturdays from 11pm to 1am on the Liberty Radio Network. In the first of two segments, hosts Cecilia and Shaunna welcome Garret to discuss videos recently produced in the area. The second segment of the program finds them on the subject of UAV drone warfare. The 18 minute piece has been illustrated with relevant videos. You can hear the entire December 11 episode as linked.
One may have noticed that a good amount of the content featured here in the past week has followed a bicycle headlamp trial endeavor of this blog’s editor, Garret Ean. The full trial video with very minimal editing has finished uploading and is now available via youtube.com/freeconcordtv. About 2/3 of the video’s fifty-four minute run time consists of the cross examination of detaining officer Michael Pearl. The raw videos from which the complete piece was crafted have been available since shortly after the event at Fr33manTVraw. There has been an entry featuring new media from the trial almost every day since, including coverage of the camera fiasco prior to the trial, a raw podcast segment overviewing the trial, and a visually illustrated discussion of court issues from Tuesday evening’s episode of Free Talk Live.
Published today is a half hour of discussion from Tuesday night’s episode of Free Talk Live covering the happenings around the recent bicycle headlamp/audio recording trial. Included are video from incidents cited during the radio show, featuring the coerced removal of a videographer from the lobby of the Concord District Court. See the full trial video at the FreeConcordTV youtube channel.
Media from the December 11 bicycle headlamp/audio recording trial continues to be created. Here’s an audio summary that was produced for Derrick J’s Peace News Now. Videos in raw format are available as arranged on a playlist here. Stay tuned for more.
It was a very rushed encounter, as most happenings with lines tend to be. I quickly asked after handing off my rolling camera and being flashed by still cameras, “Will you be doing anything to decrease New Hampshire’s dependence on the United States federal government?”
