Well over 100 turned out for a 420 celebration at the Concord state house, now in its third year! The Shire Choir performed several “Chronic Carols” inside the state house, while plenty of cannabis was smoked in front of the building as state police looked on. Thanks to the police for doing the right thing and standing down and allowing peaceful people to be free.
This nearly 24 minute audio includes all the radio traffic the KPD scanner received between 10pm and Midnight on April 17th, 2012. It’s everything from the initial report from Diversified Computers of noise on the roof, to the shooting of the suspect on Marlboro St., to the manhunt for the other two suspects, to the afterwards.
The Keene police scanner audio reveals that the two suspects were taken into custody AFTER the police shot the third man to death. The Sentinel’s report makes it sound like the reverse happened:
At least one person was on the roof of the building when police arrived. He and another man were taken into custody after a short pursuit, authorities said.
A man who was not captured allegedly left the area in a car and led police on a pursuit to Marlboro Street.
Their mis-reporting led FK’s Ademo to write his opinion piece, in which he assumed the Sentinel got it right and therefore makes several mistaken conclusions. Remember, as you listen to this audio, the blank spaces have been mostly excised from the piece to make it easier to listen. In the full audio, it’s more than ten minutes before officer Jennifer Uhas (118) announces she has the first suspect in custody. Less than a minute later, the second suspect is in custody as well. In their report, the Sentinel claims to have their own scanner – so why the botched reporting?
The audio is pretty intense, and Keene police for the most part, do the best they can to bring aggressors to justice, backed by four state troopers, a couple of county sheriffs, and mutual aid units from Winchester, Dublin, and Troy. Sadly, some officers opted to use deadly force to stop the third suspect from running, which seems entirely inappropriate and even reckless (more…)
After a cost of eighteen days in a cage and a few months of legal threats, there is good news to report on chalking freedom out of Orlando, Florida. The ABA Journal published yesterday that Timothy Osmar, who was twice arrested for chalking at the Orlando city hall plaza, had his rights violated when he was legally kidnapped over protected political speech. US district magistrate David Baker’s ruling deemed the arrest for violation of a city ordinance to be an overreach of a code designed to prevent unauthorized commercial advertising. Unlike NH, Florida’s towns and cities are endowed with the power to write words powerful enough to invoke arrest for their violation.
Prior to the decision Friday, Orlando officials indicated that they would be appealing an “adverse ruling”. The city would find it difficult to play a purer than thou antichalk attitude in this case. Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer encouraged downtown businesses to chalk their sidewalks in support of the home team Magic when they were in the NBA playoffs in 2009. The city also permits a yearly chalk art festival held by the local Rotary Club. David Baker told Orlando bureaucrats, “The city may not selectively interpret and enforce the ordinance based on its own desire to further the causes of particular favored speakers.”
Mayor Dyer did not seem thoroughly interested in the deeper constitutional and moral issues regarding chalking arrests. His comment, while charges were pending was, “This was a guy who wanted to be arrested, by all accounts, and has been… This guy was given every opportunity not to go to jail, but he chose to go to jail.” (more…)
This article was posted on LadiesInKeene.com last night regarding the standoff in Greenland, NH.
Around 6:30PM, April 12th in Greenland, NH, five police officers were seen standing on the front porch and peering into the windows of 517 Post Road. The officers were at the home to serve a ‘search warrant’ as part of a ‘drug related investigation.’ Kevin Clay from WMUR reports: “Police went to 517 Post Road and entered the home. They were confronted by an armed suspect.” A man who noticed the police officers on the porch and a cruiser on the lawn as he was driving by said that he then heard gunshots and saw police running away from the home. After the passerby pulled over to direct traffic away from that area, the cruiser went flying past him, presumably to the hospital with an injured officer.
A woman living across the street from the house said she was cleaning when she heard the gunshots and looked out the window to see four police officers running away from the house and three of them falling. More officers arrived very quickly and steadily continued arriving. The woman reported that an officer came to her daughter’s bedroom window and told her that they needed to stay in their basement. Other neighbors were told to stay in their homes and as the area was blocked off, other residents were prevented from returning home.
As of right now, the standoff is still underway: helicopters, SWAT teams, and police officers from numerous areas throughout the state are present in the area of the home. Portsmouth Regional Hospital, where the five officers shot – one who did not survive – were taken for medical attention, is swarming with LEOs from dozens of departments.
WMUR reports, “That [male] suspect and a female were still inside the home Thursday night as police tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution.”
It is very unfortunate that this incident occurred, and though many will blame the man who shot at police officers entering his home for the outcome of this interaction, he probably did not act with malicious intent. Reacting to an aggressor with force is commonly known as self-defense and generally viewed as acceptable and often applauded – unless the aggressor wears a badge or is deemed a “government official.”
I know and respect two of the officers who were shot in the violent drug warrant service last night.
Deceased Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was a very nice person who was always very kind to me when I interacted with him. When Chief Maloney was the police chief in North Hampton, NH and I was a brand new officer, the Chief took time to help me with prosecution of my cases in the Hampton District Court. He didn’t have to, he was just a good guy.
Seriously injured Newmarket and Attorney General’s Drug Task Force Officer Scott Kukesh is quite simply an outstanding human being. I guarantee you that if any of you met him (and didn’t know what he did for work) that you’d like him for sure.
Although I disagree with the violation of the NAP that comes from the enforcement of victimless-crime drug policy, I just wanted to take an opportunity to remind people in the liberty community that although people in law enforcement frequently enforce public policy that we disagree with, it doesn’t make them bad people.
No one, including the people being investigated, needed to die. Violence is not the solution to the drug abuse/addiction problem faced by society.
Well over 100 turned out for a 420 celebration at the Concord state house, now in its third year! The Shire Choir performed several “Chronic Carols” inside the state house, while plenty of cannabis was smoked in front of the building as state police looked on. Thanks to the police for doing the right thing and standing down and allowing peaceful people to be free.
