Last night in Keene’s Central Square, nine liberty activists gathered after the New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu’s seventeenth “order” went into effect at 11:59pm, demanding all “nonessential” people stay at home and close their businesses for the next month. I’m happy to say that police, despite passing by the group more than once, ignored the peaceful activists. We enjoyed each other’s company, ordered Domino’s pizza, and imbibed some tasty beverages.
Not long after “HIS EXCELLENCY” – no, I’m not kidding, the orders actually refer to Sununu this way – issued the “order” the people calling themselves the “NH Department of Justice” issued a 33-page memorandum to law enforcement, instructing them on how to handle people disobeying the “order”. Page three of the memo encourages police to use their discretion when enforcing the diktat, first telling them to give out warnings and attempt to propagandize people who are acting free into believing the fearmongering about this virus that has been purposely overhyped.
The government goons want you to believe this is about safety when it’s really about them grabbing as much power as they can get away with. And they’ve gotten away with a lot. People who would normally be skeptical of politicians’ lies have fallen under their spell and are now lashing out with “quarantine shaming” at those who would dare to continue to live normally. You can see examples of this in the comments on recent posts about Coronavirus noncooperation here on Free Keene. These Stockholm Syndrome victims will even go so far as to threaten violence and wish death upon those who question the media and government claims about this virus and choose to exercise what few freedoms we have left.
It’s essential to have the company of other humans. It’s also a human right.
To Sununu’s credit, and he doesn’t deserve much, his order does have an interesting provision that gives more flexibility than is found in other governors’ orders like Illinois. It allows people to leave their homes for several reasons, including:
any other errands an individual determines to be for essential needs
Given that most people need to have contact with other humans, as we are a social animal, it could be considered essential to the need of good mental health to go out and be with others. It’s also interesting that the language allows the individual to determine, not state agents, so he does deserve some credit for this carve-out. However, Sununu is not a defender of freedom and his overall actions here are contributing to the spread of fear and the destruction of New Hampshire’s economy.
Though we were not able to reach over ten people at last night’s Nightcap, we likely will at the upcoming event at the state house on April 1st at 2pm that Sununu’s challenger in the 2020 republican gubernatorial primary, “Nobody” announced this week. Ten is most recent limit on the number of humans who can gather in the same place, per Sununu’s “order” on the subject earlier this week. In case you missed it, Nobody received excellent coverage for his views this week from the Boston Globe. Hope to see you in Concord on April 1st at 2pm at the state house steps to make a stand for the freedom to assemble, a basic human right.
Also, Keene Nightcaps will continue Friday nights, at 11:59pm, at Central Square. Attend at your own risk, bring your substance of choice and enjoy the company of other humans, as is your right to do.
Last year, Bedford police targeted 2020 Republican candidate for governor of New Hampshire, “Nobody” for felon-in-possession of a weapon charges over a machete they found with other garden tools in the trunk of his car. This, despite the fact that a machete does not qualify as a weapon in New Hampshire unless used, intended, or threatened as such.
After charging him and dropping the charge, not once, but twice, Nobody, who at the time was called by his given name Rich Paul, was finally able to get the robed man at Hillsborough Superior Court North in Manchester to order the police to allow Nobody to pick up his machete.
This video includes the full hearing for the return of the machete and our visit to the police department in Bedford to retrieve it:
It’s a plant. Holding it should not result in jail.
Three years after cannabis possession by adults in New Hampshire was first decriminalized, there’s another bipartisan house bill in play this session that will go even further. I recently reported here on HB 1648 when NH 2020 gubernatorial candidate “Nobody” and I went to testify at the house committee hearing for the bill. Of all the speakers at the hearing, only one person spoke against it. Not even the police bothered to send a speaker to speak against the bill – it was an amazing hearing.
Now, the votes are in from the full state house, and it has passed the house with a veto-proof margin – 236 to 112! Though it was veto-proof, it was just barely so, with just over 67% of those attending today voting in favor of it. In 2017, the state house voted nearly 90% in favor of the initial cannabis decrim bill.
HB 1648 is a really good cannabis decrim bill that improves on the one passed in 2017 that made possession of under 3/4ths of an ounce of flower and under 5 grams of concentrate a violation instead of a misdemeanor. If it passes this year, HB 1648 will eliminate any penalty for people over 21 possessing those amounts. It will no longer be something police can act on at all. The bill, significantly, also allows adults to grow their own cannabis at home.
The bill is not perfect, of course, as I pointed out during my testimony in the two-hour long hearing. It still treats people under 21 like children by retaining violation-level penalties for people between 18 and 21, and also penalizes people under 18 for possession by forcing them into the juvenile system. That’s not fair or right. Also, the limits on the amounts that would be legal to possess are too low. That said, it’s a major step in the right direction and does it without creating a taxing and regulatory structure. Also, please note my summary of the bill is based on its text as-introduced. It was passed with an amendment that is currently not available to read online.
Hardcore civil disobedient activists who came out in the rain for 4/20/2019!
Next, the bill heads to the NH senate and its sponsors already include one democrat and one republican state senator, so hopefully that bodes well for its chances. We know that the current republican governor, Chris Sununu signed the first cannabis decrim bill in 2017 but has opposed legalization. That he opposes legalization is actually a good thing however, as all of the legalization bills so far have included regulations and taxes on cannabis. People who want freedom support ending prohibition but should not support taxing and regulating cannabis. Cannabis should be free to grow, sell, and possess without any penalty and that includes having to beg permission from the state gang to offer it to others.
While the decriminalization bill doesn’t decrim sales of cannabis, it is still a big step away from reducing the harm done to adults by the insane war on drugs and allows people over 21 to possess it without fear of police assault. Hopefully the governor will support this continued decriminalization of this amazing plant. If not, hopefully the NH senate will also pass it with a veto-proof margin. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
Manchester Police’s Robert Harrington Threatens, Arrests Think Penguin’s Chris Waid
National talk show host, Linux entrepreneur, and Cop Block activist Christopher Waid knew there was a chance he could be arrested for holding the police accountable at a DUI checkpoint in Manchester, but he probably didn’t expect it to be as ridiculous as it was. Moments after he and I had arrived on the scene in April of 2017, Waid walked across one half of Bridge St in order to reach the median to get a closer shot with his video camera. Immediately, Manchester’s own badge #1, Robert Harrington charged over and yelled at Waid, “Get over on the sidewalk where you belong, NOW!”
Harrington then got up in Waid’s face and demanded ID to which Waid declined, correctly stating he has no obligation to provide the angry cop with ID. Harrington then arrested Waid, and charged him with the police’s favorite catch-all of “disorderly conduct”. I caught the entire thing on video, which you can see here. The “disorderly conduct” charge was a “Class A”, which carries up to a year of jail time. Later in the mail, the police sent an additional “violation” for crossing the street outside of a crosswalk.
Now, two years later, the people calling themselves the “City of Manchester” have cut a check to Waid for $15,000 of taxpayers’ money for Harrington’s obviously illegal arrest. For the first time since his arrest, the video from Chris’ camera that was confiscated is now available for you to see. I’ve augmented it with a little of my camera’s view for perspective:
After hiring attorney Seth Hipple, both charges against Waid were dropped – further proof the police knew they had no case and the charges were brought as an excuse to harass a police accountability activist and get him away from the DUI checkpoint on the night in question. Waid, through attorney Hipple, sent the City of Manchester a letter with his intention to file a lawsuit against them and Harrington in Federal court. In the letter, Hipple included his proposed lawsuit where he cited federal code title 42 section 1983, deprivation of rights.
Over the last several days the video and story about Keene High’s “school resource officer” Joshua English attacking and tackling a student for allegedly vaping in the school’s bathroom, has gone viral. However, there’s more to the story than cop-attacks-teen, though this incident alone is bad enough. In case you haven’t heard about this incident, according to other students the young man who was viciously attacked by English was vaping in the bathroom and English confronted him. The student heroically refused to identify himself to the armed, intimidating, uniformed man and walked out of the bathroom. Moments later, English bursted out of the bathroom and tackled the peaceful student, subduing him with a shocking level of force.
Thankfully, another brave student pulled out their phone upon hearing a commotion from inside the bathroom and captured the entire tackling on video:
Understandably many are outraged at the officer’s use of force over a simple vaping incident, but that’s not really what caused English to fly into a violent rage. The young victim’s real crime was disobedience. The youth had the gall to act as though he were a free man, walking away from a threatening, potentially violent anti-nicotine nuisance and attempting to go about his day. English has his “authority” to worry about and can’t possibly be seen by others as someone who one could just walk away from without consequence, so he used violence to dominate the young man in front of a crowd of people.
Keene Police have been making headlines nationwide for proclaiming that English was fully within police guidelines for his use of force against the “subject” – yes, that’s actually how they refer to the rest of us non-gang members. Keene police chief Steve Russo exonerated English in a recent release, saying his agent had not violated any department guidelines or state statutes, but Russo said further that English was worried the young man was a potential trespasser, claiming to the Union Leader, “At that point, he didn’t even know he was a student”.
Keene Police Officer Joshua English
Perhaps English needs to have his memory tested. While it would certainly be hard to remember previously seeing one random male in a school with over one thousand students, how could English forget that he’d written the same young man a ticket for “possessing tobacco products” two weeks prior? The student’s father showed the proof of this claim to WHDH-TV in Boston.
While Keene Police are trying to make English look like a hero protecting the school from a potential intruder, the reality is much different. In KPD’s official release, they claim the Keene Police and the school district are, “committed to maintaining the safety and security of the students…which may regrettably include when necessary, the use of force to secure that safety.” There were no allegations the young victim was doing anything violent. He was allegedly vaping in the bathroom. No one was threatened by the young man. The only dangerous, violent threat in Keene High School that day was Keene Police’s Joshua English. Who is he?
Don’t expect the mainstream media to do a modicum of digging about English. Otherwise you might have already discovered English shot a man to death in Keene back in 2010. Free Keene blogger and former police officer Brad Jardis covered the story here when English was found to be within the state’s use-of-force guidelines in the shooting incident. In that case, the man who was shot by English was holding a knife to a woman’s throat, so our blogger Jardis agreed with the shooting as necessary. However, is it really the best decision to assign one of the only officers at KPD who has violently taken another human being’s life the duty of being the high school’s cop? (more…)
