Today was a major activism day in Keene as over 100 gathered at Railroad Square and after a meeting walked down to Central Square. During the walk, traffic was blocked for a few minutes (a tactic with which I don’t agree).
The occupation began at 12:15pm and was still active late this afternoon. A hardcore contingent of activists seems committed to camping out on the ground that is supposedly “public”. Will the aggressors called “the city of Keene” make a move against the peaceful demonstrators on the first night? Only time will tell.
Stay tuned here for more, but for the latest, drop into the Occupy Keene facebook page and discussion group. (more…)
This morning (September 23, 2011) around 8:40 AM, Jason Talley, Cecelia, and I went to the Superior Courthouse in Keene for Ian Freeman’s habeas corpus hearing scheduled for 9:00 AM. At the ‘security’ checkpoint, Jason checked his bag of recording equipment in exchange for a receipt. He then walked through the metal detector and was immediately questioned about the device attached to his belt. Jason replied, “That’s my personal camera,” then expressed that he was walking to the window a few feet away to fill out a form asking permission to film the proceedings upstairs.
As Jason approached the window, the bailiffs began touching him. At first it appeared that the bailiffs were patting down his pockets, but they then attempted to steal his camera from his belt. Jason held onto his property while the bailiffs were grasping his wrists, very tightly it appeared, and trying to pull his hands away from the camera. Jason was told he was under arrest and put into handcuffs. Although he did not resist, Jason did not assist the bailiffs in his kidnapping. One of the bailiffs grabbed onto the handcuffs, in the center, and dragged Jason, backwards, into the elevator.
The bailiff, when questioned, stated that Jason was going to be seen in Keene District Court on two misdemeanor charges, including resisting arrest. He would not state the specific charge for which Jason was arrested, only that it was in relation to walking through security with a recording device. Cecelia and I went to the Keene District Court to inquire about when Jason would be seen by the judge, but the clerk was not able to provide any information.
At the Cheshire County Sheriff’s Department (located in the Superior Courthouse), we were informed that Jason would be seen by a judge this afternoon. We then spoke with the County Attorney and learned that Jason will be seen “sometime after 1:30 PM” this afternoon at the Superior Courthouse.
I can’t speak for Pete, but for me, the outcome of our trial on Monday doesn’t matter – we’ve succeed at making our point. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to go to jail (who does?) but my conscious is clear. I know without a doubt that Pete and I didn’t harm anyone (though one officer claims he was ‘scratched’ when arresting us – yep, a scratch – lock us up now!) nor did we damage anyone’s property.
To me, we’ve already “won” (for lack of a better word) by making an impact. We’ve personally met 100?s of people here and brought the issues of police accountability to the streets of Greenfield without the local paper, city officials or other major forms of distributing information. Instead, we’ve – with on the ground activism and outreach – distributed thousands of fliers, DVD’s, business cards and shown people how effective (and scared) a camera is when interacting with police, especially when they’re doing (or have done) wrong.
Folks in the downtown area of Greenfield are consistently stopping Pete, Beau and myself to thank us for highlighting the our issue here. Several have gotten, or are talking about getting, cameras of their own, with plans of using them for police encounters in the future. Others have continued the Robing Hooding that we introduced them to on our last visit to the area. Even a current Greenfield Police Officer bought one of our shirts and said, “You’re doing valuable work.”
Slate.com is huge. Alexa ranks it as around 1,200th most popular in the world and 385th most popular in the US. It’s a respected online magazine and reporter David Weigel has over 30,000 twitter followers. Thanks to David for making the drive to Keene to explore the unique liberty movement that is the Free State Project, and more specifically the interesting cast of liberty activists that call Keene their home. Here’s his excellent article. Be sure to hit the like button at the bottom of their article!
Oh, and several people David met are older than him, including me, but he’s right, there are a lot of younger adults in this movement. The families and business owners take a longer time to move, but they are coming! Also, I’m sure many liberty activists would self describe as pro-liberty or being in favor of self-government rather than describe as anti-government. Even without those minor corrections this is an amazing piece.
Jason Talley, left, of Grafton, talks with Jim Johnson of Winchester, who operates the “Answer Wheel” at the Free Keene Fest event on Railroad Square Sunday afternoon. Free Keene members, self-described liberty activists, put on the yard sale along with entertainment, as well as distributing informational fliers about their philosophy.
Interestingly, Free Keene Fest was described as a “yard sale”. I’m not sure if that is better or worse than “flea market”…
Today was a major activism day in Keene as over 100 gathered at Railroad Square and after a meeting walked down to Central Square. During the walk, traffic was blocked for a few minutes (a tactic with which I don’t agree).
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