The ranks of allies of the Aqua Keene Parking Force continue to swell, as Keene housing inspector Fred Parsells is the most recent recruit of the elusive organization. He spent a good portion of Friday afternoon watering chalkings along Main Street as Robin Hood’s Merry Men filled parking meters to keep civilians safe from the King’s tariff. The forces of free speech won out in the end as Fred eventually retreated, allowing the curbs to be colorfully overtaken. Stay tuned for the continuation of this exciting development in the soon to be released AKPF Episode 6. Episode 5, Aqua Keene PF Recruits Freddie P is embedded below.
Yesterday I was engaged in conversation with Keene police’s Fintan Moore regarding a small chalking that was cleaned off of a barrier wall on a parking garage ramp downtown. Supposedly the city attorney considers there to be legal protection for sidewalk chalkings, but not chalkings on vertical surfaces.
There is a question as to what public property can lawfully be chalked and what cannot. The wall of a handicap ramp at the Manchester district court has been decorated with chalk numerous times in the past as bailiffs have looked on, only acting when the wall of the building itself has been marked. The spot in question in Keene was in a location which would have washed away naturally, and there are plenty of sidewalk areas covered by a canopy which prevents chalk from washing away. While I may not agree with the determination of the city’s legal agent, I did inform his messenger that I would relay his communication to the chalking masses. Here’s the video of our dialogue.
This past Friday morning, Keene State College was host to parents and prospective students from around the country. During a campus open house event, which gathered in the Mabel Brown auditorium, current KSC students organized a protest directly in front of the venue’s doors inside of the student center.
Organized actions are rare for Keene’s campus, and no one present was able to recall the last sit-in style protest. According to a 1990 Nashua Telegraph article, over 250 students camped out in front of an administrative building for multiple days following the questionable firing of an administrator at the time.
Students were, and continue to be discontent with the unfunding of the Multicultural Affairs Department, which is reported to receive less of a budget them some of the student clubs. A correspondent for the school’s newspaper, The Equinox, was present to collect perspective from the students, accompanied by a photographer and videographer. I was asked by participating students to provide documentation of the event. As I arrived (more…)
Today Manchester police sergeant Stephen Coco was fired from the force, where he was reported to have worked on undercover narcotics investigations. Though WMUR reports that it is not clear who was driving the vehicle that hospitalized two teens Friday evening in Bedford, it was confirmed that the car was issued to the MPD officer. Chief David Mara spoke to press to express his shock at the incident.
Bedford police determined that a Manchester police vehicle might have been involved in the hit-and-run, Manchester police said Monday. Manchester police launched an internal investigation and determined that the unmarked vehicle was assigned to Stephen Coco, a detective sergeant working in the Special Investigations Unit.
Manchester police said the internal investigation is ongoing, but based on its findings so far, police determined that Coco violated several departmental procedures. As a result of the findings, Coco was fired. (more…)
Yesterday I delivered a presentation entitled CopBlock: Policing the Police with Alternative Media during the first block of panels kicking off the sixth annual All Power to the Imagination conference at New College of Florida. There may be video emerging soon, for now you can tune in to the audio on the Sound Cloud:
It has been over three years since the face-fracturing beating of Christopher Micklovich by four off duty Manchester police officers, and today it was announced that there was ultimately an admission of culpability from the city. For $200,000, a federal civil rights lawsuit was withdrawn by the plaintiff, with city risk manager Harry Ntapalis revealing that the case was settled privately and was paid off in May of last year. The Union Leader has the story.
The Attorney General’s distasteful exoneration of the four officers, as well as the killing of James Breton in front of his daughter in May of 2011 was what inspired a police accountability rally at the former MPD station house on June 4 of that year. The demonstration against police violence became a demonstration of petty police violence, as around a dozen cameras were confiscated and eight people were kidnapped for offenses such as chalking, standing near chalk, and not following illegal orders fast enough. The Chalking 8 incident only proved the protesters’ point.
How Micklovich’s search for justice in his case snaked through the law enforcement bureaucracy before being resolved by the city further illustrates how detached from responsibility individuals in law enforcement are. Taxpayers are the source of both police salaries and plaintiff payoffs, yet legal immunity shields those tax recipients who are directly culpable from any restitution obligation.
The ranks of allies of the Aqua Keene Parking Force continue to swell, as Keene housing inspector Fred Parsells is the most recent recruit of the elusive organization. He spent a good portion of Friday afternoon watering chalkings along Main Street as Robin Hood’s Merry Men filled parking meters to keep civilians safe from the King’s tariff. The forces of free speech won out in the end as Fred eventually retreated, allowing the curbs to be colorfully overtaken. Stay tuned for the continuation of this exciting development in the soon to be released AKPF Episode 6. Episode 5, Aqua Keene PF Recruits Freddie P is embedded below.
