Last week I published a story here at Free Keene about local hate group member Justin Paquette being arrested on two counts of felony armed robbery for allegedly holding up two local convenience stores with a knife.
Very soon after publishing, I was contacted directly by a local business owner who disputed that the Justin Paquette that had assaulted my friend Derrick J back in 2014 and was present during a physical attack by his friend on a peaceful local chalker, was in fact not the same Justin Paquette as was arrested last week for allegedly robbing the gas stations.
Turns out, there are indeed two Justin Paquettes in Keene. It also turns out, after some research at Cheshire superior court this week, that both Justin Paquettes have been arrested for felony armed robbery.
The original, Justin M. Paquette, just had a birthday this month and is now 32. Court records show that this summer he took a plea deal on a felony armed robbery and misdemeanor “criminal threatening”. You can read the case summary in this PDF, which includes his sentence. (He’s currently out on probation and has a suspended sentence for five years.)
New Justin Paquette is younger, 27, and is now currently facing the fresh armed robbery charges from last week’s robberies, where he allegedly brandished a knife at convenience store clerks.
I am sorry for my mistake. Thanks to all who brought it to my attention. Now we know to beware of anyone named Justin Paquette. Any good person named Justin Paquette may want to file for a name change with their local probate court.
Presidential season is in full swing — and what better way to celebrate than by indulging in the latest episode of AKPF #1? In this week’s installment, ‘BarnStorm‘, we tour the vile underbelly of modern political figure’s social media ventures. Primarily focusing on Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump (also known as Barnie Sandlers and Dolan Tramp), we are also treated to appearances by lesser candidates such as a metal version of Ben Carson and DWP. Stay tuned to the very end for a sneak preview of the newest colorful coins in circulation.
For the second-annual HALLOWKEENE costume dance party, we moved to a new, better venue. The new venue allowed the party to go later than last year, had a super-nice staff, their drink prices were cheaper, and had plenty of power outlets, which made setting up Bill Domenico’s multiple AWESOME lasers possible.
Of course, you never know whether a new party is going to work until it happens, and thankfully, this one worked well – we had approximately 50 people attending at one time! That’s up significantly compared to last year’s approximately 30 attendees.
This year, Renee Kate of Anarchics was the winner of the costume contest as “Corpse Bride”, with Dan Gaudreau’s Ian Freeman costume, and Christopher David’s Satoshi Nakamoto costume as runners-up. Ann Leverette, your Rebel Mistress, MC’d the event, judged the costume contest, and did a great job – even buying drinks for the best dancers in a dance-off!
Big thanks to event organizers Danica, Renee, Johnson, and Derrick J! Please like the HALLOWKEENE facebook page and keep following the Keenevention blog for further news about HALLOWKEENE 2016.
Today, more than 600 households statewide (39 in the Keene area) were delivered full Thanksgiving meals including turkey, stuffing, gravy, eggs, cornbread mix, vegetables, pumpkin pie ingredients, and some cooking supplies as part of the “Shire Sharing” charity now in its fifth year. Shire Sharing is based in Manchester and headed by state representative Amanda Bouldin, a Free State Project early mover.
Amanda has managed to continually grow the yearly charity event, which she began in memory of her father who did something similar in Dallas when she was growing up. In an interview for Free Keene today, Amanda reported that fundraising for 2015 reached record levels, allowing more than 600 families to be fed. She was hoping to raise enough for 500 families. (Last year, Shire Sharing fed 350 families – a huge increase in just one year!) This year, at least $17,000 was raised by direct contributions and fundraiser events.
State Representative Amanda Bouldin, Founder of Shire Sharing
Though the first year of Shire Sharing was supposed to be a one-time event, Amanda says, “when the second year rolled around, everyone encouraged me to repeat the project. so we just keep going”. Despite the obviously high stress level involved in organizing such a massive operation, she’s committed to continue: “I know SS is very important to a lot of people — not just the recipients but the volunteers, too. I can’t quit!”
Last night, newer Keene-area mover Maria Korfiatis headed to Manchester to grab dozens of the bags for delivery, then this morning volunteers from this area gathered at the Church of the Invisible Hand’s “Society for Love and Peace” (SLAP) at 75 Leverett Street to head out on routes taking meals to Keene, Winchester, Ashuelot, Westmoreland, Swanzey, and Chesterfield.
It was Keene’s second year as part of the ever-growing Shire Sharing operation, and like last year, recipients were grateful for the special delivery! (more…)
Dozens of liberty-loving people came together for the first day of New Hampshire’s only Fall freedom convention: Keenevention! The weather is sunny and beautiful and many trees still have colorful fall leaves on them, despite it being relatively late in the “leaf-peeping” season.
The first day of this third-annual event kicked off with the first-ever Political Action Panel where panel host Darryl W. Perry and his guests discussed working for political change outside of the two major parties. After that, Cop Blockers from Manchester and Keene took the stage in an informative panel hosted by Keene Cop Block‘s JP Freeman. We broke at noon for lunch, which this year is expanded from 90 minutes to a two-hour block, giving Keeneventioneers more time to explore Keene’s dining experiences and get back to the hotel with time to spare.
The 2015 Bitcoin Panel
Following lunch, this year’s Bitcoin Panel began, hosted by Neocash Radio‘s Darren Tapp featured multiple bitcoin experts including head bitcoin programmer Gavin Andresen. The panel attracted many questions from the engaged audience. Following that, Darryl W. Perry took the stage for the first-ever Keenevention live auction benefiting the Ross Ulbricht legal defense fund, which totaled $436! Up next was the Secession Panel, hosted again this year by Rob Mathias of the Foundation for NH Independence. The independence advocates discussed how to move closer to secession becoming a reality in New Hampshire.
Finally, oathkeeper and Alstead town selectman Chris Rietmann took the stage to deliver the Friday night keynote address, covering his news-making open carry activism, his pro-liberty actions as a selectman, and support of activism of all stripes.
Chris Rietmann Delivers the Friday Keynote
Friday’s attendance was up from last year and included visitors from San Francisco, Missouri, Indianapolis, Wisconsin, and New York. One guy just made the move from Michigan as part of the Free State Project! He packed up his life into his car and made Keenevention his destination and first stop in New Hampshire. We’re here at the Best Western in Keene all weekend – come on our and join us. The daily admission is only $30 and includes admission to tomorrow night’s HALLOWKEENE Costume Dance Party!
Remember, if you can’t make it in reality – all the panels and speakers will be released on video over the weeks following Keenevention, so stay tuned to the Keenevention blog for more announcements (you can sign up for emails when the blog has new posts using the signup box in the right column). You can also follow the new Keenevention Twitter, Keenevention’s facebook page and join the official facebook event here.
It has been one year since the 2014 Keene Pumpkin Festival and subsequent riot which spilled into the streets through the following morning. While snipers perched above the festivities for the second year in a row, no one was aware at the time that the riots would spell the end of PumpkinFest as a downtown Keene tradition. This saturday, the Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey as well as the city of Laconia will be hosting their own independent Pumpkinfests. With few places to position snipers at the fairgrounds, unless special towers are brought in, there will likely not be such a militarized presence there. The situation in Laconia is more likely to host police with rifles, as also the organizer of previous Keene Pumpkinfests, ‘Let It Shine’ is also coordinating this year’s Laconia event.
In the time since last year’s chaos, I had since discovered two different articles hosted by the Blaze and Vocativ which feature content from facebook posts I had made that day. While I was unsure whether or not I had in fact captured an image of someone pointing a firearm in my direction, upon seeing the image as presented in the Vocativ piece, it appears to very clearly be a rifle aimed at the are where I was filming from (which was a heavily populated area at the time).
Laconia police are likely stocked up on riot gear as part of their preparation for the motorcycle weekend sponsored there each year. With luck, the relocated festival won’t deteriorate into a glass bottle war, and riot squads will not make an appearance.
