This video of Beau’s arrest for wearing a hat in court (charged with direct criminal contempt) and the subsequent “right of alocution” hearing shows some important things about the NH liberty movement today. Continue reading after the video for analysis:
The good news: The numbers of liberty-oriented people moving to and getting active in NH are growing, and those willing to take a risk are increasing. There is strength in numbers, and the more of us there are that are willing to laugh at the aggressors as well as noncooperate and disobey, the more they lose their precious legitimacy and control. The robed man in this video, Edward Burke, desperately attempts to flex his power by attempting to clear the courtroom.
The bad news: Burke is largely successful at clearing the court. (more…)
It’s all arbitrary. In Keene, sometimes activists are arrested for wearing hats, sometimes not. Sometimes people are threatened and arrested for using video cameras in the court lobby, sometimes not. Here’s video of Free Talk Live host Mark Edge taking a speeding ticket to trial and being found guilty. You’ll also see court security attempting to intimidate Liberty on Tour’s Pete and Ademo into removing hats and gum. They fail. Chief of security Lance Walton instructs the lumbering goons to back off and let the robed man decide, then the robed man ignores the hats and gum.
Liberty activist Jim Johnson was fined after being found guilty at a trial several weeks ago. Jim never paid the fine, so the court bureaucrats demanded he show up at a hearing about that. He was told he needs to fill out a financial affidavit so the court bureaucrats could determine if he could pay the fine, or else he’d be charged with contempt. Jim did not fill out the form and was jailed indefinitely.
In addition, court security officers Tebo and Fredriksen attempted and failed at intimidating the audience into standing for the robed man. Tebo also attempted to order me around, violating my right to cover a public hearing as a member of the press. In addition, Tebo actually assaulted me and grabbed me by the arm in an attempt to remove me from the courtroom. He and his security continued to threaten the crowd with arrest. All of this is on video:
Derrick Horton is a newer mover to Keene from Philly. He was out at the court yesterday doing outreach when he heard his friend Ademo Freeman was arrested for talking to Edward Burke, Keene district court’s robed man. Derrick went to investigate with his video camera, and was threatened and arrested for recording video in the same court lobby where videographers Dave Ridley and Sam Dodson have also been arrested for the same thing. Here’s his video of what happened, which also includes activist Jason Repsher being threatened by the same court security officers that arrest Derrick later. Why was Repsher not arrested when Derrick was? I’d speculate because Repsher is twice the size of Derrick. The court bullies picked on the little guy:
Derrick has been charged (and released) with the old standby, “disorderly conduct”.
Lori Stabile from Masslive.com reports from Palmer, MA, where Josh Noone‘s brother Jay, a fireman, has never paid property tax on his home. Or, what he thought was his home. Now the town government people are preparing to steal it and throw Jay’s family out into the street. Activists drove down from Keene on what was supposed to be the day of eviction in a show of support. The government people did not make a move on Jay yesterday, but it’s probably only a matter of them waiting until the supporters drop off. Unlike the government guys who threaten and steal for a living, we actually have to be productive in the market to succeed. Here’s masslive’s story:
PALMER – As the town prepared to hold a tax-title auction on Tuesday at the Town Building, a group of people gathered at the home of Joseph F. “Jay” Noone at 3157 Main St. in Bondsville to protest his eviction notice over non-payment of $23,000 in taxes.
During the auction, two men from Keene, N.H., videotaped the proceedings; beforehand, they asked questions of Police Chief Robert P. Frydryk about what was happening.
Pete Eyre, wearing a T-shirt that said “I don’t talk to police, I record them,” said they are part of libertyontour.com, which, according to its website, advocates for self-governance, personal responsibility and consensual interactions. They left the auction after the first sale to join the group at Noone’s. (more…)