In a six page decision issued this week, NH Hillsborough superior court judge Gillian L. Abramson dismissed the misdemeanor wiretapping charge against Alfredo Valentin – affirming the right to record police in public includes secret recordings. The judge cites both the Glik and Gericke cases which were important federal cases affirming the right to record police in public. The state argued in this case, that since the recording was secret, the right to record doesn’t apply in NH, where the wiretapping statute is ridiculously oppressive. The judge smacked that claim down:
the Court finds that the First Amendment protects secretly filming police in public, for the same reasons that the First Amendment generally protects filming police. The public has the right to gather and disseminate information about the police.
Free State Project early mover and attorney Brandon Ross is Valentin’s lawyer (Ross has previously beaten wiretapping charges at the NH supreme court.) and had this to say, in an exclusive interview for Free Keene, about the judge’s decision: “By charging him with a felony, the state destroyed my client’s career–and made things much worse with this wild goose chase prosecution. I’m glad the court wasn’t fooled by the state’s manifestly incorrect representations about the law. I look forward to him getting his day in federal court.”
Attorney Brandon Ross
Ross also excoriated the NH legislature for their inaction on fixing the horrible wiretapping statutes, saying, “This never needed to happen. Numerous bills have been brought to the legislature to fix this. Each time, the legislature has failed to act to bring simple, necessary clarity to a law which police are continually abusing. But the NH chiefs of police scare them each time, and nothing happens. The resulting litigation from that spineless failure to act, does nothing but inconvenience citizens and cost taxpayers.”
You can read the full six-page order here. Will the state attorney general’s office appeal to the NH supreme court and risk making this decision apply to the entire state? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
Over the past two weeks, I provided 16 hours of availability for the 20 candidates for city council (10 At-Large and 2 from each of the 5 Wards) to come to the Cheshire TV studios to record a 5 minute segment for Candidates’ Spotlight. I’d like to thank the candidates who made the effort to come to Cheshire TV to record a segment for Candidates’ Spotlight.
Click on a candidate’s name to watch their segment:
If there are only a few bad apples in policing, how do they rise to the top of the ranks? The last case of a corrupt police chief reported on this blog, less than one year ago, involved New London, NH’s then-chief threatening college girls into stripping so he could photograph them nude in the police department basement.
Now, in the case of Canterbury police chief John Laroche, he’s accused of multiple cases of sexual assault (rape) against a teenage girl. To be clear, the girl was of the age of consent, however Laroche was in a position of authority over her, as he was in charge of the Police Explorers program, where teenagers explore whether they would like a career in law enforcement. Apparently, it’s also not uncommon for them to explore their sexuality with the officers.
The crackdown on Uber (check out the first installment in this story here) has escalated in Portsmouth, as the first Uber driver has been issued a $500 citation for peacefully attempting to drive people home after a night of drinking. The target of police aggression in this case was Stephanie Franz, a 63 year old grandmother and bus-driver who has been driving for Uber in her spare time.
This story was first reported by Seacoast Online, who got a great quote from Franz when they called to interview her:
“I can’t speak for what Uber’s going to do,” she said. “It’s up to them. But I hope this gets worked out so I don’t have to keep playing cat-and-mouse with the police.”
Do you hear that, city of Portsmouth? You haven’t even managed to scare Stephanie Franz. She and the other Uber drivers will continue to play your cat and mouse games, and liberty activists in New Hampshire will continue to shine light upon your protectionist scheming.
Here’s a video from the leader of freeuber.org – activist Christopher David – who catches a little bit of the stop, and provides some context as to what’s been going on in Portsmouth recently.
After watching the video, the question remains – why are the Portsmouth police sending multiple police cars to stop peaceful people from helping their neighbors get home from a night of drinking in exchange for a smaller fee than the local taxi cartel?
Christopher David Threatened by Snitching Bouncer from Daniel Street Tavern
According to David, the police officer recorded in his initial video called him to say that the bouncer who snitched on him for offering Uber rides is upset and “threatening to press charges” because Christopher allegedly didn’t get his permission to record their interaction. We’ll keep you updated as that situation progresses.
If you want to support Christopher in his heroic efforts to nullify the Uber ban in Portsmouth (and perhaps lay a groundwork for nullifying these ridiculous bans worldwide), head over to FreeUber.org and get involved.
For additional coverage of the Free Uber movement in Portsmouth, check out Rights Brigade, a New Hampshire based activism group that has been assisting Christopher in canvassing the city with flyers to raise awareness for the city council’s protectionist schemes.
After organizing and hosting the recent Mayoral Debate that aired live on Cheshire TV, I was encouraged to do something for City Council candidates. Because of the difficulty of coordinating 20 people into a single event, I decided to give candidates an opportunity to record a segment to air on Cheshire TV, and thus Candidates’ Spotlight was born. Candidates’ Spotlight will give local candidates a platform to speak to the community about the issues they find important during upcoming municipal, school board and state rep elections.
In order to give ample opportunity for candidates to record their 5 minute segment, I set aside 16 hours over the course of two weeks, (4 hours each Tuesday and Thursday, last week & this) for candidates to record their segment presenting their ideas to the public. The video segments are airing on Cheshire TV as filler content, and will be compiled into a long-form program also to air on CTV.
Bitcoin.com’s news wing has published a detailed feature article on Keenevention 2015’s upcoming Bitcoin Panel and the event as a whole. The piece by Jamie Redman details each speaker on the panel and even breaks the news about new addition Jeremy Kauffman of new bitcoin media streaming startup LBRY! The reporter also took the time to contact the panelsts to get their thoughts in advance of the panel. The article is worth reading and sharing. Check it out here at Bitcoin.com!
