This article was posted on LadiesInKeene.com last night regarding the standoff in Greenland, NH.
Around 6:30PM, April 12th in Greenland, NH, five police officers were seen standing on the front porch and peering into the windows of 517 Post Road. The officers were at the home to serve a ‘search warrant’ as part of a ‘drug related investigation.’ Kevin Clay from WMUR reports: “Police went to 517 Post Road and entered the home. They were confronted by an armed suspect.” A man who noticed the police officers on the porch and a cruiser on the lawn as he was driving by said that he then heard gunshots and saw police running away from the home. After the passerby pulled over to direct traffic away from that area, the cruiser went flying past him, presumably to the hospital with an injured officer.
A woman living across the street from the house said she was cleaning when she heard the gunshots and looked out the window to see four police officers running away from the house and three of them falling. More officers arrived very quickly and steadily continued arriving. The woman reported that an officer came to her daughter’s bedroom window and told her that they needed to stay in their basement. Other neighbors were told to stay in their homes and as the area was blocked off, other residents were prevented from returning home.
As of right now, the standoff is still underway: helicopters, SWAT teams, and police officers from numerous areas throughout the state are present in the area of the home. Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where the five officers shot – one who did not survive – were taken for medical attention, is swarming with LEOs from dozens of departments.
WMUR reports, “That [male] suspect and a female were still inside the home Thursday night as police tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution.”
It is very unfortunate that this incident occurred, and though many will blame the man who shot at police officers entering his home for the outcome of this interaction, he probably did not act with malicious intent. Reacting to an aggressor with force is commonly known as self-defense and generally viewed as acceptable and often applauded – unless the aggressor wears a badge or is deemed a “government official.”
New Hampshire State Representative Kevin Avard (R) (Hills-20) is doing amazing work on giving voice to people who have suffered abuses by the NH Judicial Branch in his new show “Speak Up New Hampshire.”
I was honored when Rep. Avard asked me to be his second guest to speak of the abuses suffered by Ademo Freeman and Jason Talley of Keene by the hands of the judiciary. That interview now has over 1,000 views.
Rep. Avard is shining a much needed spotlight on a branch of government that operates almost completely unaccountable to anyone.
He also needs your help.
Rep. Avard is asking that all people who support accountability in the New Hampshire Judicial Branch come to a press conference he is holding at the Legislative Office Building (LOB) in Concord next week in support of House Speaker William L. O’Brien’s continued support of the Redress of Grievances Committee.
I’d argue that whether your individual political ideology makes you a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Voluntaryist, Anarchist, Communist, or simply someone who doesn’t care about politics at all, you should agree that criminal public officials need to be held accountable by someone.
04/17/12 (Tuesday) at 12:00PM
Legislative Office Building
33 North State Street
Concord, NH 03301
I know and respect two of the officers who were shot in the violent drug warrant service last night.
Deceased Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was a very nice person who was always very kind to me when I interacted with him. When Chief Maloney was the police chief in North Hampton, NH and I was a brand new officer, the Chief took time to help me with prosecution of my cases in the Hampton District Court. He didn’t have to, he was just a good guy.
Seriously injured Newmarket and Attorney General’s Drug Task Force Officer Scott Kukesh is quite simply an outstanding human being. I guarantee you that if any of you met him (and didn’t know what he did for work) that you’d like him for sure.
Although I disagree with the violation of the NAP that comes from the enforcement of victimless-crime drug policy, I just wanted to take an opportunity to remind people in the liberty community that although people in law enforcement frequently enforce public policy that we disagree with, it doesn’t make them bad people.
No one, including the people being investigated, needed to die. Violence is not the solution to the drug abuse/addiction problem faced by society.
New Hampshire State Representatives Randy Brownrigg (R) (Hills-27) and Kevin Avard (R) (Hills-20) respond to Attorney General Michael Delaney’s displeasure with the Redress of Grevance Committee.
I must respectfully disagree with the Attorney General’s position on this issue. The committee is doing excellent work and is giving a voice to people who have been ignored when reporting government abuses.
There is a reason it was specifically codified in the New Hampshire Constitution in 1784.
[Art.] 32. [Rights of Assembly, Instruction, and Petition.] The people have a right, in an orderly and peaceable manner, to assemble and consult upon the common good, give instructions to their representatives, and to request of the legislative body, by way of petition or remonstrance, redress of the wrongs done them, and of the grievances they suffer.
