Keene activist and blogger Chris Cantwell was recently involved in a situation in downtown Keene where he attempted to video record some men who appeared to be abusive towards two women. When the whole group of those people then turned their ire on Cantwell and charged him, he pulled out his revolver to defend himself. Keene police showed up and handled the situation professionally.
Cantwell was totally in the right. It’s his right to record in public and it’s his right to pull a gun to defend himself from aggressors. KPD officers on-scene reviewed his footage and sent him home with both his phone and gun. No charges were filed on any party. Despite the impending attack by the drunken people, Cantwell did not press for charges. He just wanted to help keep people safe. Kudos, Chris. The video of the incident has gone viral and now has over 500,000 views, making it the top video on his channel.
Thanks to Joel Valenzuela, Riaz Kahan, and the others who are helping with this important work. If you would like to help expand the outreach to all ten counties, please join the New Hampshire Juror Outreach group on facebook.
This afternoon the hypocrite governor of New Hampshire spoke at Keene State College’s 2015 graduation ceremony. Maggie Hassan, the boss of the state’s executive branch, is likely to veto the cannabis decrim bill if it makes it through the NH senate. It already passed the NH house with a supermajority of votes. It’s clear that decriminalization is what the people of New Hampshire want (it’s also the humane choice), but Hassan throws her loyalty into the camp of the police and cares not one bit about the lives that continue to be ruined because of her inhumane war on pot.
Oh, and to make her position even more outrageous, it turns out she herself has used cannabis in her college days. That raging hypocrisy didn’t stop her from showing up at Keene State College and acting like she actually gives a damn about the very same students that her police regularly threaten and harass over victimless crimes like cannabis and alcohol possession. Rich Paul and I went down to KSC today to confront her on these things and were accompanied by local education activist Ed Bryans who was upset with Hassan’s veto of the anti-common core bill. We found her at the end of the commencement and had plenty of time to give her a hard time while she was unable to leave, much to the dismay of a few of her sycophants. Here’s the video:
It’s not too late for cannabis decrim to pass, but Hassan and the NH senators need to hear from you. Please reach out to your senator here and ask them to support HB618, the cannabis decriminalization bill. Then please call Hassan’s office and encourage her to do the right thing and let decrim pass.
In a move that shows the true nature of the state and regulations, the Manchester aldermen voted 10-3 recently to require UBER to obey their “Vehicles for Hire” ordinance which requires background checks, drug testing, and other bureaucratic nonsense. The lie of regulations is that they exist supposedly to protect you, the consumer. However, they actually just protect the established businesses in the given field. In this case, the old-guard cab companies are being protected from the innovative upstart. Regulations keep poor people poor, by making it near-impossible for them to go into business for themselves.
Despite the now possible threat of Manchester police targeting UBER drivers, heroically, UBER has announced they will continue to operate within Manchester and will likely give legal assistance to any drivers the city gang cites for violating the gang’s precious “code” (“Vehicles for Hire” is section 118). It looks like UBER is ready to go to court over this, as has been their tradition in other cities.
Of course, a free place to live would allow anyone to contract with anyone they like for a ride somewhere. The taxi companies should also be free of regulations, not just UBER. Allow the marketplace to come up with standards, if they are necessary. The cab companies will need to be free of regulatory burden to effectively compete against the nimble new competitor, UBER.
UBER’s argument, as I understand it, is they are not a taxicab company, for which all the regulations are written. UBER does not own any of the cars that its users end up riding in. UBER merely facilitates a smooth transaction between the rider and driver. It’s a matchmaking company. The next step, which may have even UBER worried, is to decentralize ride-sharing even further, to where no company is needed to make the connections between rider and driver. That actually is being worked on now, and it has a terrible name, LaZooz, but the technology is already here (and based in cryptocurrency like bitcoin) – it’s only a matter of time and software development, and participants.
For now though, UBER and other ridesharing competitors like Lyft, are innovating in a way that expands consumer choice, increases service available overall, drives down price, and rewards entrepreneurs. No wonder the city gang wants to stop them! They disrupt the current good ol’ boys network. (more…)
Interestingly, per capita, (based on data from CoinMap) Keene has more bitcoin-accepting businesses than San Francisco, which has recently been promoted in news articles as the city with the strongest bitcoin presence.
Businesses that accept bitcoin are able to tap into a new market and also virtually eliminate transaction fees. Credit card companies usually hit a business for about 3% of each transaction, and bitcoin’s fee is just pennies, no matter the size of the transaction. By adding bitcoin as an option for their customers, businesses keep more profit from each bitcoin transaction than if they were to use credit card. Whether you are a buyer or a merchant, you can learn more about bitcoin here at WeUseCoins.com.
Keene’s 101 Deals Thrift Store is now home to New Hampshire’s first public Lamassu Bitcoin Vending Machine! If you’ve tried the previous machine at 101 Deals and had a frustrating experience, the Lamassu will solve that. Come give it a try! 101 Deals is open seven-days-a-week 10a-6p Mon-Sat and 10a-4p Sundays and is located at 661 Marlboro Rd. in Keene.
Not only is the Keene BVM New Hampshire’s first public Lamassu, it’s one of only two publicly operating Bitcoin Vending Machines in all of Northern New England! Once you’ve got your bitcoin, check out CoinMap to see several local businesses that accept the exciting, international, decentralized cryptocurrency. (Or spend it at thousands of online sites like Dell, Wikipedia, Overstock, and countless others.)
![uber-app[1]](https://i0.wp.com/freekeene.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/uber-app1-300x146.jpg?resize=300%2C146)
