Al Jazeera’s Inside Story program today published a twenty five minute segment on United States police militarization. It is a fitting story in light of the recent acquisition of Bearcats around the state. The program had previously run a story on police brutality following the violent response to police brutality protests in Anaheim, California last July.
The Union Leader’s Sunday News edition published an above-the-fold article on the findings of an independent law enforcement review panel investigating the April 12 no-knock raid in Greenland. The article indicates Attorney General Michael Delany had suspended the Drug Task Force commander James Norris, who happened to be on vacation on the evening of the raid that resulted in three deaths and four wounded police officers.
See also: Seacoast Print Publishes Anti-Prohibition Editorial
Russell arrested in NH, 2006
A report this morning by Kat Kanning relays the unfortunate news that Russell Kanning has been arrested on federal warrants on what are likely chalk related charges (or failure to pay fines related to chalking).
Suddenly alone in a truck stop in MO. We had a headlight go out. They found warrants for Waco and NH chalking incidents. Background checks hadn’t found the warrants, so Russell thought they’d been dropped. Too late at night for me to talk to anyone. They say there’s no bond, they’re dragging him off to TX or NH.
Russell has been arrested and ticketed for chalking FREE BRADLEY MANNING on a retaining wall at the federal building in Concord, NH and he was arrested in Waco, TX while chalking in support of Nazry Mustakim, who was facing deportation at the time but has since won his freedom to remain in the US. Kat was the first person videorecorded being arrested on FreeConcordTV in the blog’s debut video Federal War on Chalk Begins.
The Ridley Report has recently been publishing continued analysis of the court victory for the independent journalist following his arrest in May of 2011. Three months later, Ridley was acquitted at a bench trial of a misdemeanor charge of trespassing, and a detailed summary of the trial was posted to Free Concord the following day.
A playlist on the Ridley Report youtube channel documents all of his own coverage beginning with the arrest and protests shortly thereafter, and continuing with analyzed video from the trial of key moments. On December 1 of this year, a video published which described a possible continuation of the case into legal land, this time in the form of a civil lawsuit against the Nashua police. Illustrated with claymation produced by another youtube content creator, the video entitled, Nashua police reject demand for groper’s dismissal linked to this information posted to a public forum by Ridley.
As you may recall, Nashua police arrested me while I was trying to film their actions outside a hotel in which Joe Biden was speaking. In the process of searching me, the arresting officer Denis Linehan touched my genitals. After our defeat of trespassing charges in court, my lawyer Stephen Martin has helped me issue a pair of demands. If met, we would drop suit. The initial demand called for monetary damages in the $15,000 range. When the city rejected that we represented that firing Linehan would be enough to prevent the suit. As expected, city attorney Brian Cullen has rejected that offer too. The city has however indicated a willingness to accept some other non-monetary settlement.
Throughout this month, four additional videos of highlights from the criminal trial have been uploaded. You can see even more edited portions of the trial created in 2011 on the playlist. (more…)
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…)
November 2011 – I am pulled over for speeding on the way back from some activism in Concord with a car full of activists. Trooper Kelly Healy asks my passengers for ID – I remind her that as passengers they are in no way obligated to show her ID. As I reach for my car registration she asks about my driver’s license and why there was an NH address on a FL license. I decline to answer her probing questions, instead asking her questions of my own, like, “Am I being detained?”. Healy returns to her car and later comes back with a speeding ticket, to which I ask her if she really wants to go to court, and she claims that is my choice. I remind her that it was her choice to aggress against me and tell her I’ll see her in court.
Or, maybe not. Trooper Healy never showed up to a court hearing scheduled for this week and the case was dismissed on my motion to dismiss for failure to appear on the part of the complaining party. I “won”! Here’s video from the pullover and court hearing:
I put quotes around the win because it took many hours of my time, for which I will not be compensated. Allow me to detail the process: (more…)
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