September 6 was a national day of action for Bradley Manning. Some larger cities hosted civil disobedience arrests for trespassing via sit-in. The focus of the actions were mostly Obama campaign headquarters, though the Democratic Party headquarters in Washington, DC was the location of a tense letter delivery to president Barack Obama. A full report of the delivery of the letter to the national office is available here.
Sept 6 2012 – Concord, NH
The letter being delivered to the party headquarters was signed by eighty-three individuals representing a variety of organizations. Included in the list of signers is Art Brennan, a veteran and former New Hampshire district court judge who scheduled his own action to occur at the Concord Obama campaign office on September 6. He had notified the office that he would be reading his letter aloud and delivering a copy for Mr. Obama. When Mr. Brennan arrived with a small group from Veterans for Peace and NH Peace Action, the doors were locked and the lights were off. (more…)
Yesterday I was out promoting the theatrical premiere of Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree near Keene State College. I chalked the ground while Darryl held a sign with details for the screening. Security approached myself and Darryl after I had finished one chalking and was headed to complete the next one. While he approached us, you can hear him calling in re-enforcements from the Keene police, only to call them off within moments of conversing with me. Darryl happens to have a no-trespass order against him from KSC, for having gone onto campus with a friend in the past who was distributing unauthorized information, so he was careful not to accidentally step onto campus property. See the jovial encounter below. You can view photos of the chalkings in this entry from yesterday.
It's just days before the real-life premiere and "Derrick J's Victimless Crime Spree" has exceeded 20,000 views on YouTube in just over a month since its release. The feature-length documentary was shot primarily in Keene, NH and chronicles the first year of Derrick J's activism here. The film is packed with exciting footage and insightful commentary. The YouTube statistics are a testament to the movie's popularity with viewers as it currently has 589 likes and only 31 dislikes!
The real-life premiere is happening this Saturday, 9/15 at 9:45am at Keene Cinemas. Admission is free and will be first-come-first-serve. After the movie there will be a Q&A with Derrick J, executive producer Ian Freeman and editor Beau Davis. We'll be giving away an exclusive, autographed movie poster to a lucky winner and following that, there will be a bring-your-own lunch at Ashuelot Park. Details on this Facebook event.
Meet Derrick J at the real-life, big screen premiere of “Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree“! See it exclusively in Keene at Keene Cinemas, 9:45am on Saturday, September 15th (Facebook event here.). After the film will be a question-and-answer session with Derrick J and the production team.
Admission is free, though donations will be accepted to cover the reasonable cost of renting the theater. In fact, if you can’t make it in person you can sponsor a seat via the chipin below (also installed on the righthand column of this site).
By the way, we’re working on a cool contest that should involve everyone who donates to the chipin and in real life at the theater. Stay tuned here and to the facebook page or email list for updates.
On Tuesday, August 14th, 2012, I attended court at the Mount Laurel, NJ courthouse with Nicholas Shankin to observe his 7th court appearance for his drug charge. Thankfully, his case was dismissed and all charges dropped because the prosecutor did not have the evidence to back up the state’s case against Nicholas.
While there for only an hour, I witnessed a tragedy of people having their names called out and one by one they trudged up in front of the judge, in his beautiful robe! I decided that I would take a tally on how many victim crimes vs victimless crimes were taken up that hour.
Here is the tally, in all its glory:
Victim Crimes
Animal Cruelty
Check Fraud
Victimless Crimes
Speeding
Possession of marijuana
Littering
Soliciting w/o a license
Soliciting w/o a permit
Storing construction material in an unauthorized zone
Possession
Careless driving
DUI
Reckless driving
Throwing rocks into road
All of this in under 1 hour, oh the humanity! I estimated that the state garnered well over $3000 in less than one hour from mostly victimless crimes.
I also witnessed the judge being the daddy that we all need, lol!
The judge:
1. Take your hands out of your pockets! (He said this to 2 different people)
2. Grilled a woman about her living arrangements and wages.
3. Don’t interrupt me!
After Nicholas’s case was dismissed, I threw my arms into the air in victory (said nothing) and Nicholas danced his way out of the courtroom! The judge screamed at us and said that he would not tolerate that kind of behavior in his courtroom and then he yelled that we were not at a baseball game! I wanted to laugh at him, especially since I was wearing my Copblock t-shirt! I then got up slowly, all the while smiling sweetly at the judge, picked up my belongings and slowly walked out of the courtroom! The judge glared at me the whole time!
What a farce the state is, instead of focusing on real victim crimes, they spent about 96% of the hour I was there prosecuting victimless crimes. I kept thinking about what a financial racket the court system really is. This was the first time in many years that I had been inside a courthouse and I couldn’t believe it. In a few instances, people were not allowed to leave until they called each and every person they knew to pay their fines.
I walked away that day with mixed feelings, while I was ecstatic that Nicholas was exonerated, I was saddened by the victims of the state who had their hard earned money stolen from them by a man in a dress.
I also talked about Copblock outside the courthouse and handed out cards and literature!
It's just days before the real-life premiere and "
