An excellently produced video report by Dave Ridley. He addresses the need for students to be prepared to document the increasingly closed environment of the government school system.
When you lose with a camera rolling, you win. If the video survives to become public, some of the abuse you suffered is proven. If the authorities snatch the camera and the video doesn’t survive, they show themselves to be thieves…That camera might not save the student. It might get her into more trouble initially, but it should give her some ethical high ground she wouldn’t have had had she kept the camera in her pocket. Whipping out that camera forces the authorities to choose between censorship and openness. Whichever one they choose, you win, as long as the public is well informed of what happened.
Richard,
I received an email from Ian Freeman. It seems you have took issue with an article I wrote, or at least part of an article I wrote.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say that cops are part of a gang of thugs, especially when they commit thuggish acts and get away with them. Last January the Chief Inspector of the London Metropolitan Police said, “You might have 100 people in your gang – we have 32,000 people in our gang. It’s called the Metropolitan Police.” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16825265
Do you remember when the Denver Police made shirts displaying a cop holding his night stick that read “We get up early to beat the crowds”?
A recent study concluded that “at least half of the estimated 375 to 500 people shot and killed by police each year in this country have mental health problems.” Police routinely act outside of their supposed authority, yet they are rarely ever punished.
As Ian said, “If all the police did was go after criminals who create victims like murderers, rapists, robbers, arsonists, I doubt anyone would label them in that manner.” I certainly would not!
I’ll be happy to discuss this with you either on the air or off, on my show or yours. I host Peace Love Liberty Radio every Sunday from 3-5p with open phone lines during the first hour. Feel free to call in at 603-435-1105
A friend of mine, Amanda Bouldin, is among the 11 nominees. She posted on facebook that she believes Dr. Julianne Cooper, Co-Founder and President of Liberty Harbor Academy should win, but is honored to have received a large number of votes. At the time she posted, she was winning the poll with a few hundred votes.
Since then, a Police Officer, Dan Doherty, has received a large amount of support. This support likely came after another Officer from MPD sent out an email, which was reposted on Masscops.com, reads:
“IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM NHPA SERGEANT AT ARMS & MANCHESTER NH SERGEANT KEN CHAMBERLIN:
NHPA member Dan Doherty has been nominated for Manchester area Person of The Year. He is running against several people one being Amanda Bouldin. Amanda is a Free Stater. Yesterday when the Free Staters noticed Dan was ahead in the voting they posted on the Ron Paul website asking people to vote for Amanda so the cop would not win. Last night a MPD Officer was approached by Amanda Bouldin and asked him why should Officer Doherty get Person Of The Year “Just because he got shot”. She then asked the officer for his vote.
We can not allow a Free Stater to win this against a Police Officer who was SHOT in the line of duty and was almost killed. I am asking IMPLORING all of you if you have not voted to PLEASE vote, and if you have voted you can vote again. You can vote as many times as you want. Dan was leading last night now he is losing by a substantial margin. PLEASE put out an email to all your members at your agencies asking them to vote. Below is the like to vote on. It only takes about 5 seconds to vote.”
It seems that getting shot and being employed by a gang of thugs is reason enough to win “Person of the Year” instead of a woman who has created an organization which donates holiday meals to needy families.
One of these two people depends solely on stolen funds, harms peaceful people and was shot; the other person has honest employment that does not rely on stolen funds and helps people.
I honestly don’t care how this poll turns out, as most online polls are decided by which participant is able to “get out the vote.” That said, I’m a little disgusted by the tactics used by thye MPD in an effort to make sure a “boy in blue” gets an award, just because he was shot AND is not part of the Free State Project.
Ridley has released the second half of his ambush interview with Department of Homeland Security spokesman Aaron Snipe. Part 2 begins where the first left off, with Snipe denying that US forces tortured a taxi driver in Afghanistan to death. Ridley responds emotively when Snipe repeats, “That’s not true” with, “He wasn’t tortured to death?! He’s dead!” The suited handler, who at this time is walking in advance of Snipe calls over his shoulder, “Do you really want to respond to this?” While Snipe continues to play politician and give fluffy, pro-US policy answers, Ridley lets his frustration show but surprisingly does not cause the spokesman to flee into the camera-free zone. He gets another 90 seconds of dialogue, including a response noting that “President Obama has banned torture, the United States does not torture. That’s core to American foreign policy.” Text flashes on the screen interjecting that if he were thinking on his feet, he would have asked how Obama’s supposed torture ban meshes with the mistreatment of Bradley Manning.
The remainder of the video features polite security guards, and Dave considering on camera whether to conduct a second ambush interview after the closed event or consider the first complete. Walking out, he explains his reasoning. Independent of how Snipe painted roses around the empire, he maintained the utmost professionalism doing it.
Dave Ridley yesterday uploaded one of his most intriguing camera-ban videos. Aaron Snipe, spokesman for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, on October 9 delivered a speech at the UNH Manchester campus. Snipe is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston and it appears has been going on speaking tours for the federal government for the past few years. Early in the video, we see a poster advertising the event entitled, “US Policy in the Middle East”. At the bottom is printed, “Free and Open to the Public”. Despite this, Ridley is told by an event organizer that he would not be allowed to audio or video record the event, but that he was free to attend and take notes.
The video ends with an ambush interview of Snipe as he walks from the hallway into the venue. Snipe enters with another man in a suit and carrying a satchel, allowing him to keep his hands free. When Ridley asks why recording is banned from the evening’s engagement, Snipe appears confused, and his presumed assistant replies, “Why is he off-the-record? It’s just because that’s the ground rules we set, thank you.” (more…)
As reported here previously, Free State Project participant Tim O’Flaherty was elected in Manchester’s Ward 5 as a Democrat and open anarchist. He won the race against a Republican small-government Free State Project participant.
It’s not the first time and won’t be the last that a vote has been so close in NH. Your vote may not matter a whit at the national level, but it definitely does at the local and state level here in NH. All those activists who have given up voting out of frustration really need to think again.
