City Targets Keene Activist Center with Hundreds Per Day in Fines

by | Feb 13, 2013 | 13 comments

smokeDetector[1]As you may recall, last June the Keene Activist Center was raided by code enforcement and the fire department. They contend it was being operated as a “lodginghouse” or “tourist home” and cited claims posted online in early 2012 by former tenants to make their case to the judge to receive the search warrant. Despite having no evidence the current tenants at the time of the raid were doing the same things the previous tenants were, they issued a “NOTICE OF VIOLATION” in September. I challenged that notice by responding that the judge (Burke) is biased against Free State Project participants and should recused himself, invalidating his warrant.

Later in the year in December I received an “ORDINANCE VIOLATION” from the fire department. In it, they allege that I am in violation of the city’s smoke detector ordinance 2-2011-02. It appears the ridiculous ordinance in question requires all homes in Keene to have multiple smoke detectors, all hooked to AC power, and all interconnected (meaning if one goes off, they all go off).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never lived in or heard of a home that has a system like that. I can see the benefit in having one smoke detector on each floor, and the KAC has that, but the rest of the ordinance is ludicrous and who knows what it would cost to have AC-powered interconnected detectors installed in a home. I suspect most homes in Keene do not have such a system. Does yours?

Fred ParsellsIt’s pretty clear that I am being targeted because of my activism. Fred Parsells, one of the city’s code enforcers, has told me that he thinks I’m going to leave Keene. His continued campaign of harassment against me and my tenants is clearly designed to encourage me to leave through constant threats and court engagement.

I responded to their “ORDINANCE VIOLATION” and contested their violation to district court. I received a “SUMMONS” to come to court for an arraignment on a criminal town ordinance violation for the smoke detector issue. I showed up and a trial date was set for 5/29 at 10am. I then filed the following: (more…)

Vice News: Information Liberation Prosecutions

by | Feb 11, 2013 | 0 comments

2013_schwartz_manning_assangePosted hours ago to Vice News was an article connecting the zealous prosecutions of Aaron Schwartz and Bradley Manning. John Cornyn, a US senator from Texas authored a letter to current US attorney general Eric Holder inquiring as to whether Schwartz’s FOIA requests related to Manning’s treatment were a motivating factor for his own prosecution. See DJ Pangburn’s article Aaron Swartz and Bradley Manning: How the US Government Contains Those Who Would Free Information.

When Swartz walked into the MIT server room to liberate millions of academic papers (freeing knowledge in the process), he was unwittingly opening the door to his very own cell alongside Manning. One need not be in a tiny room to feel the walls closing in. The law does a great job of that—the shadow of America’s boot heel spreading all around, snuffing out the light. Defendants are forced to deal: plead guilty and serve a short sentence, or fight the system and serve much more time. Justice indeed.

Favorable Press from the Union Leader

by | Feb 10, 2013 | 10 comments

On February 7, the Election Law Committee of the NH House of Representatives heard testimony on HB521, a bill that proposes to establish a committee to examine all of New Hampshire’s election laws and see where there’s room for improvement.

The Union Leader has the following report:

Darryl Perry of the New Hampshire Liberty Party said “the perfect solution” to increase voter participation is “to create ballot access fairness.”
He said opponents claim that would create confusion. But, he said, “New Hampshire is actually very proud of the fact that they have a larger number of candidates running in the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. So if ballot or voter confusion is not a problem for the primaries, why would it then all of a sudden become a problem for the general election?”
“The answer is: It’s not a problem,” he said.

The Election Law Committee will hold an Executive Session at some point in the near future (the date and time has not yet been added to the House calendar). During the Executive Session, the committee will decide whether or not to adopt the amendment I proposed and also vote on whether or not the bill should go before the full House.

Subscribe to Peace News Now on YouTube!

by | Feb 8, 2013 | 1 comment

For the last month, I’ve been delighted to produce what I believe is the best daily 5-minute newscast anywhere. You’ve heard it on LRN.FM, but have you subscribed yet? Subscribing to Peace News Now is easy, cool, and free.

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Below is the latest episode of Peace News Now. I usually include at least one story emanating from the Shire in each episode of PNN. This episode features James Cleaveland of FreeKeene’s Robin Hood fame. Enjoy!

When School Cops Go Bad, Should Your Kids Film?

by | Feb 5, 2013 | 1 comment

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.school_securitycam