Police and federal agents are not your friends. When they talk with you, everything you say is being committed to their memory to be used against you in court, should they decide to arrest you for some arbitrary reason. Lying to them can also get you in significant trouble as it is always illegal to lie in federal jurisdiction and frequently illegal in state jurisdiction.
If you don’t believe me… just ask Martha Stewart. As rich and influential as she is, it is too bad she didn’t know to just keep her mouth shut. Had she not spoken with federal investigators she may have never been convicted of anything. This is why I frequently advise people that when they interact with government agents that the best thing they can do is always remain silent.
Back in March I wrote about how I practice the art of not answering prying questions from federal agents when returning to the United States. Some may perceive this as me purposefully being disrespectful or looking for trouble. It is not intended to be either of those things. My refusal to answer questions is an attempt to protect myself and my privacy.
Two days ago I visited Nogales, Mexico. When I returned I was arrested, handcuffed, and thrown in a cage by a US Customs Agent. It was my first time ever being arrested. I was released without charges.
Why would I be released from federal custody without any charges?
On Monday 6/27, the day after Porcfest 2011, there were two trials of liberty activists scheduled in Keene district court. Rich Angell for driving without a government license and Rich Paul for trespassing at the jail when he tried to bail someone out. You’ll see another angle of Beau’s arrest for wearing a hat as well. Rich Angell was found guilty and plans to appeal, while in Rich Paul’s case, the robed man, Edward Burke had to recuse himself and the trial will likely be rescheduled with a different robed man.
So, I called the Cheshire Sheriff’s office today in an attempt to learn how to file a complaint as I was assaulted by one of their court security officers today. Unfortunately, I could not even begin a conversation as for a long period of time I did not know to whom I was speaking. Listen to this bureaucrat, who later reluctantly just gave his first time, refuses to answer a simple question that anyone in a customer service role should be happy to answer. Instead, he robotically utters the same phrasing over and over.
This is what customer service is like when its run by a violent monopoly. You can’t switch to their competitor, so it doesn’t matter how they treat you.
Derrick Horton is a newer mover to Keene from Philly. He was out at the court yesterday doing outreach when he heard his friend Ademo Freeman was arrested for talking to Edward Burke, Keene district court’s robed man. Derrick went to investigate with his video camera, and was threatened and arrested for recording video in the same court lobby where videographers Dave Ridley and Sam Dodson have also been arrested for the same thing. Here’s his video of what happened, which also includes activist Jason Repsher being threatened by the same court security officers that arrest Derrick later. Why was Repsher not arrested when Derrick was? I’d speculate because Repsher is twice the size of Derrick. The court bullies picked on the little guy:
Derrick has been charged (and released) with the old standby, “disorderly conduct”.