Last year in a surprising decision from the district court level in New Hampshire, Manchester resident Alfredo Valentin was exonerated from the “wiretapping” charges against him for secretly recording Manchester police when they were searching his home for a tenant’s drugs. The court was clear in its ruling that secretly recording police is protected by the first amendment.
“Essentially, Mr. Valentin was arrested and charged twice because he chose to exercise his constitutionally-protected right to record the police,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director for the ACLU-NH. “We need to encourage more citizens to do what Mr. Valentin did. Here, the officers’ decision to arrest and prosecute him is indicative of a broader, troubling trend in which police continue in a variety of ways to hinder people’s right to record their work in public.”
On July 15th members of the Manchester PD and New Hampshire State gangs set up a roadblock on S Willow St near the TD bank and detained drivers and passangers at random. As is usual, several people showed up with signs to warn drivers of the aggressions ahead while there was still an opportunity to turn onto another street. That night however, we were not at site when the checkpoint started. For a while the gang members had always detained people on Bridge street, and that is where we anticipated that they would be, though it was not the only location that we checked. We were beginning to think that the checkpoint had been called off when we heard a call on the scanner (more…)
The livestream will be from 10pm to about 1am EST.
Activists gather at a police checkpoint in Manchester, New Hampshire. Two similar checkpoints this year resulted in 306 total stops and only 2 arrests. Both arrests were for (unspecified) drug possession.
Instead of Bambuser, Shire Dude is testing Facebook live video this evening. The stream will be available here.
Dave Ridley just published the first video from yesterday’s NHexit protest and litter pickup outside a federal building in Manchester. He got a couple interviews with attendees and plenty of footage of the event from various points. Here’s hoping we’ll see more events in public promoting NH independence.
Less than a week after Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a group of New Hampshire residents has decided it, too, wants out – of the United States.
“NHexit,” named after the Brexit, or “Britain Exit” campaign, is a new movement that now exists to represent those hoping New Hampshire will someday part ways with the Union and create its own republic.
At their first-ever event on Sunday night, 13 demonstrators gathered with signs displaying phrases like, “Get DC out of NH” and “New Hampshire Independence Now” in front of Manchester’s Norris Cotton Federal Building, a structure that NHexit founder and organizer Dave Ridley said he “would like to see turned into a shopping mall.” (more…)
