I’ve settled into 208, the least restrictive block outside of the work camps at this caging facility.
The other prisoners are taking great care of me. I’ve been given everything I need: vitamins, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste, paper, pen, stamped envelopes (a few), etc. Most have been gifts, a few I borrow, and some i traded the meals to get, which are of little use to me.
Having experienced the government’s system first hand, most really understand and appreciate what I’m doing. I let them read most of the letters that come in, and they think I’m some kind of superstar.
Last night I awoke to them talking after lockdown about what they could do to support me. Many are considering joining the hunger strike.
Today I was called down to the nurse to find her, Van Wickler, and a guard. Richard was pissed that I hadn’t taken the TB Test and kept stressing that everyone is treated the same here.
I’ve been reading a great book, Chicken Soup for the Soul. I recently finished The Animal School on p. 95. It’s a great store explaining why treating everyone the same, what government strives to do, is such a flawed idea. I would love for somebody to print it out and send it into Richard Van Wickler with your thoughts.
He was visibly upset that I had not been cranked through the machine like everyone else.
Sad, really, that great men overlook such obvious flaws.
So far, Sam’s arrest and imprisonment indefinitely without trial have barely scratched the surface of the internet, let alone the mainstream media. This is similar to the lack of coverage my case received when I was locked up for “contempt of court” and my tenants’ couch in their yard. Arguably, Sam has gotten more coverage as the Keene Sentinel did publish two front page articles as a result of his arrest, but those articles never broke into other papers in NH and the AP did not pick them up. Thank you to the few bloggers on the internet who have picked up the story. To everyone who has contacted their favorite blog or news service and suggested they cover Sam’s story, thank you. If you haven’t please take a moment and do so.
Also, here’s an easy task to complete on Sam’s behalf. You can help get him on and his story covered by “Freedom Watch”, the popular online-only FOX News show. Just visit this list of potential guests, scroll to Sam Dodson and click Vote and select 3 you may then spend up to seven more votes on other guests (I recommend also voting for Free State Project founder Jason Sorens.). Then you can do the same on this list of topics. Vote 3 for “Right to Record, Reporters Getting Arrested Everywhere” (and you also may want to vote for “Discuss the Free State Project”).
I spoke with Sam this morning. He’s wondering if he should stay in jail as the writ of habeas corpus is taken to the NH supreme court. (The superior court judge denied it, saying he couldn’t let Sam out without having his “legal” name.) Sam also didn’t get mail yesterday, which he seemed bummed about. I suggested the guards have been holding his mail. I also suggested he start eating. The hunger strike hasn’t done anything to gain publicity for his case, and will only serve to weaken his composition and distract his mind. Two weeks is enough, especially for someone with Sam’s body type. So, to get out of jail, he can either wait there and see what happens, pay $10,000 cash bail (which you can bet will have whatever fines he’s ordered to pay taken out of it after a trial, so this is the worst option), or give up his “legal name”, which may lead to a bail hearing and release on recognizance.
What should Sam do? Leave your thoughts and suggestions in the comments and I’ll print them out and send them to Sam via mail-to-jail.
[Sam wrote me a letter and asked that I transcribe it and share it with everyone who wrote him a letter in jail. The words in square-brackets below are my input, not Sam’s. – Mike Barskey]
Mike,
I can’t thank you enough for running Mail-to-Jail. The letters and postcards mean so much. You should have seen the look on the guards’ face the second day I got the bulk of the letters. I’m letting the other prisoners read some of them. They are amazed that letters are coming from everywhere. Around New Hampshire, Florida, California, Israel, the UK, and even Tasmania, Australia. The post cards that come in with the inspirational saying give me hope. (more…)
I would like to thank Phillip Bantz for the front page article in the Sentinel covering activists in Keene. I would also like to offer some clarification as I feel much of the article can be confusing taken out of context of certain facts. If you aren’t familiar with Free Keene, here are a few points you should be aware of when you read the article.
The controversial “Free Town Project” website, as I understand it, was never a group project but rather the brainchild of a single individual, an anti-social internet troll, seemingly with a bizarre obsession with cannibalism and bestiality, and that individual never moved to New Hampshire and as the article points out, was in fact banned from any association with the FSP.
First, grab this Friday’s episode of Free Talk Live and listen as Sam describes his situation for the first hour of the show. He is fasting but in relatively good shape after being injured by the court security bureaucrats on Monday. He has given up some info and is now in population with the other nonviolent inmates though still listed as “John Sam Doe”. Sam reports success in reaching his fellow inmates about liberty, relates a tale of compassion on the part of the jail’s violent offenders, and more. Also, today activists we able to visit Sam and nine of them came to the Cheshire County jail on just a few hours notice. Afterwards, the visitors walked around the outside of the jail’s perimeter holding signs, eliciting smiles, positive hand signals, and window banging from the inmates. Tomorrow, there is another protest scheduled at 2:45p for shift change at the jail as well as a candlelight vigil at Keene’s Central Sq. at 9pm.
Finally, here is some video of Sam, originally streamed live:
So far, Sam’s arrest and imprisonment indefinitely without trial have barely scratched the surface of the internet, let alone the mainstream media. This is similar to the lack of coverage my case received when I was locked up for “contempt of court” and my tenants’ couch in their yard. Arguably, Sam has gotten more coverage as the Keene Sentinel did publish two front page articles as a result of his arrest, but those articles never broke into other papers in NH and the AP did not pick them up. Thank you to the few bloggers on the internet who have picked up the story. To everyone who has contacted their favorite blog or news service and suggested they cover Sam’s story, thank you. If you haven’t please take a moment and do so.
