A few weeks ago in Keene there was a standoff in West Keene to which dozens of cops and state police responded. They brought out the BEARCAT, MRAP, a bomb robot, all kinds of cruisers and trucks, and apparently every state cop from all over – in full camouflage, plus Keene police and Cheshire Sheriffs.
To their credit, the cops didn’t hurt the man in the home this time, but they didn’t need to respond like this. This is a scary level of police militarization and very dangerous to liberty.
Think this was the first time something like this has happened in Keene? Think again. In 2012 police had a similarly ridiculous response to an even less-threatening domestic incident in West Keene where a man stormed off into the woods while armed. Oh and don’t forget the lockdown of part of Downtown prior to that in 2010 over an abandoned backpack full of beer. More recently, who could forget the ridiculous response to the Pumpkinfest Riots the police created in the first place by raiding peaceful day parties.
Here’s the final video from the series of videos from this year’s 4/20 Rally in Concord, NH at the state house steps where a lone state trooper walks up and attempts to intimidate the peaceful cannabis users into leaving a place where they have a right to be by bellowing, “If you’re smoking marijuana here you need to leave… move out now!”
A few inexperienced attendees begin to make an exit but most of the crowd stays in defiance. After being greeted by state representatives who were attending the event including Dan Hynes, the lone trooper tries again with a much more timid, “If you’re smoking marijuana, please move off the property.”
No one leaves. While he could have written tickets for anyone smoking the now-slightly-decriminalized cannabis, he instead exits the scene, never to return.
For those keeping track, this is the first time in nearly a decade of 4/20 rallies at the state house steps where any such intimidation was tried. At previous rallies, all participants were risking misdemeanor possession charges, yet no one was ever arrested. This year was the first where decrim for under 3/4 oz has been in effect.
Thanks to Garret Ean of Free Concord for capturing this on video.
Boy did the gun control advocates make a mistake! Since 2010, liberty activists and cannabis users have gathered every year on April 20th at 4:20pm to take part in mass cannabis civil disobedience at the state house steps. Of course, given that the state house is public property, you never know who else might show up and this year the gun grabbers held a rally very nearby the 4/20. Theirs was right out by the street while the 4/20 was up by the state house steps.
As Shire Liberty Media blogger Carla Gericke points out in her blog covering both events, the contrast between the two events was stark – one group wanting to just be left alone (the cannabis users) and the other wanting to be controlled and to control others (the anti-gunners).
After blazing up some primo herb, guns-and-weed-loving libertarians targeted the authoritarian gun controllers for a little trolling. Some came prepared, open carrying guns or armed with pro-freedom, pro-gun signs like “Scared of Guns in NH? Move to: Massachusetts ‘the Nanny State'”. The reaction of the freedom-hating gun-grabbers was hilarious. They made a desperate effort to try to cover up the libertarians’ signs with their own, which made for some hilarious video, captured by Vincent Freeman at Shire Free Media on YouTube:
The speeches from the Concord 4/20 just keep coming! This time it’s two videos featuring two of the New Hampshire state representatives who are actual Libertarian Party of NH members, Caleb Dyer of Pelham and Joseph Stallcop of Keene. Both flipped to Libertarian after being elected as Republican and Democrat in 2017, respectively. (Here are articles about Caleb and Joseph’s historic party changes.)
New Hampshire has more Libertarian Party state reps (three) than all other states combined (zero)! Oh, and in case you missed it, here’s footage from 2017’s event, including the reps enjoying the celebration: (more…)
Now that Keene’s original Bitcoin and DASH vending machine has been majorly upgraded to the top-of-the-line General Bytes brand, the Shire Free Church was able to move the popular and rock-solid Lamassu brand Cryptocurrency Vending Machine to a new location in Keene!
I’m excited to announce that Thirsty Owl, directly across Winchester St from Keene State College, immediately stepped up to take the Lamassu. Thirsty Owl, (formerly known as D’s Cafe) offers beer, wine, and liquor along with excellent and affordable food like sandwiches, tacos, burgers, and even breakfast all day. Owner Darren Humphrey began accepting cryptocurrency at the register in 2017, including Bitcoin Core (BTC) and DASH and was excited to host the area’s third public CVM.
Now, two of the area’s three CVM’s are open seven days a week in downtown Keene, with Thirsty Owl extending cryptocurrency availability into the late night in Keene, as it closes at 2am Thursday through Saturday and 11pm Sunday through Wednesday. You can see full location detail, machine info, and hours on the Thirsty Owl’s new Coin Radar entry here.
The cryptocurrency-accepting bar in Keene, Thirsty Owl, now features a CVM!
Thirsty Owl is also the destination for this week’s Keene Crypto Network Meetup group. We’ll be there at 2pm today (Sunday) so if you have questions about cryptocurrency, there’s no better place to go than our meetup. If you can’t make it, we have meetups every eight days.
This also means Keene continues to be the dominant cryptocurrency hotspot in the Northeast United States and one of the top on the planet. Not only do we have a high amount of cryptocurrency-accepting businesses per-capita (more than major cities worldwide), Keene also trounces bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Manchester on CVMs per-capita!
If you’re into cryptocurrency and you aren’t living in New Hampshire, especially the hotspots of Portsmouth and Keene, you’re missing out.
Now we’re proud to announce another major upgrade. As of today, Route 101 Local Goods will now be home to a top-of-the-line General Bytes brand Cryptocurrency Vending Machine selling both BTC and DASH. (You can check it out on the CoinATMRadar site here.) The new CVM is massive and attractive, with a huge touch screen interface and beautiful color-cycling LED lighting. General Bytes is the top CVM manufacturer in the world today and they’ve really earned that distinction.
Keene has also earned its distinction as a cryptocurrency hotspot, having the longest-operating CVM in the Northeast United States and one of the highest concentrations of cryptocurrency-accepting-businesses-per-capita in the world! For a while, our CVM was the only one northeast of New York City, until the Shire Free Church launched our machine in Manchester in 2016.
Route 101 Local Goods sells cool NH-made products and accepts crypto!
In the last several years, people have traveled from across the Northeast United States to use our machine. Its low price in comparison to other BVMs is worth the trip, plus the customer service from its location, Route 101 Local Goods, is unmatched. Store owner Chris Rietmann is a huge cryptocurrency advocate and even gives his customers 5% off any item in the store – if they pay with cryptocurrency – and Rt. 101 accepts a BUNCH of them.
In late 2017, we added DASH (aka “Digital Cash”) to the machine, making it the region’s first Cryptocurrency Vending Machine! In fact, both DASH and BTC are accepted by multiple businesses in the Keene area. More announcements about that will be coming soon, so stay tuned here to the Free Keene blog for the latest on the cryptocurrency evolution happening here in New Hampshire.
By the way, you haven’t seen the last of the Lamassu. It’s still an excellent unit and in great shape after serving customers day-after-day. It’s staying in Keene, but I can’t announce the new location yet. Soon!
