Brandon Pinney Awaits Trial in a “Fuck Cops” Handmade Shirt
After being found guilty last year in Keene District Court of “disorderly conduct” for telling state police to “fuck off”, NH-native Brandon Pinney appealed to a jury trial. I’m happy to announce that thanks to a hung jury, Brandon is victorious, as the state has decided to not retry the case. In an email, Brandon says:
Just letting you know that the deadline has passed for the state to retry me and the hung jury stands. While i am disappointed I was not fully exonerated i am glad and fortunate that in my case a jury of my peers was able to see that the situation did not unfold as the state presented it.
For the full initial district court trial video, you can check out this post. At the time, he heroically wore a “FUCK COPS” homemade t-shirt into court. Free speech includes the right to say unpleasant things to government officials. The district court judge, Edward Burke, was wrong to uphold the charge against him and it was good to see some jurors could see the situation clearly. This is a clear free speech issue, and in the long run the state would have lost in its own courts. Brandon stated further: (more…)
NH’s Top Newspaper Regularly Features Libertarian Activists
I’ve long stated that libertarians in New Hampshire are making a bigger impact than anywhere else. That’s because we’ve concentrated our efforts here as part of an ongoing NH Freedom Migration, and turns out – concentrating activists in one geographic area actually works! Besides the haters who target our activists, you can also tell we’re effective because the media not only writes about our activism regularly, but also reaches out for comment on other issues that don’t even directly involve us.
This happens here because libertarians in New Hampshire are a relevant political force and we cannot be ignored, like happens to libertarians in other states.
Today, I had the honor of being included in two different newspaper articles, in two different newspapers.
“Apparently the chief (Suokko) and town council just can’t let go of the insane war on drugs and just have to keep pushing to extract more money and obedience from peaceful cannabis users who are our neighbors, co-workers, and friends,”
This post was originally made on CopBlock.org. I’m posting it here as well, as who knows what’s going to happen with that site:
Hi, I’m Ian Freeman. I’m one of the original Cop Blockers, which is why I possess badge number five. I’ve been a longtime Cop Blocker, financial supporter and occasional blogger here. Both of Cop Block’s founders, Pete Eyre and Ademo Freeman have lived with me in my home and they are great friends with whom I’ve had some amazing times.
I was alarmed this Summer when Ademo announced that he was putting CopBlock.org up for sale. I wasn’t surprised that he wanted out. Ademo has seen his share of burnout and has suffered greatly in his quest to hold police accountable. Ademo was a trailblazer in police accountability activism and deserves as much of a break as he wants. He’s currently describing himself as a “happily retired activist” and he should be. Our world is better off because Cop Block is in it.
What surprised me about his request to sell the site was the fact that Ademo felt he had to resort to a sale at all. Where were all the Cop Blockers who should have stepped up to take the reins? Ademo had asked the primary contributors to the site about taking over lead roles. Apparently no one stepped up, so Ademo decided to auction the site. When I found this out, I asked around and sure enough, while some people were willing to help, no one wanted to lead. (more…)
According to Alex Pappas, the author of a petition begging college admins to rescind the policy, the college is threatening students with $100-per-guest fines and “disciplinary action” if they are caught with visitors.
Pappas’ birthday is within the timeframe and he’d been planning on having his family visit. Now because of fears surrounding riots that likely involved students who are no longer at KSC, the simple freedom of association has been stripped away.
Students shouldn’t be surprised, KSC has prospective students sign away all their rights at the beginning of their school career there. If the school security wants to stop and frisk a student, or inspect their dorm room, they can and will. Better hope they don’t see Raised in a government school system for more than a decade prior, many students are used to police searches thanks to the insane “war on drugs” that has been raging against the rights of students in the hallways of government schools at all levels for years.
KSC’s spokesbureaucrat says the policy is for the “safety” of the students. According to the Union Leader story, they will not be rescinding the restriction despite the hundreds of petition signatures.
This year, students have a new tool in their repertoire, should they choose to use it. Cell 411 is a free cell phone app that allows you to send emergency alerts to your friends and family if something bad (like a police or campus security encounter, medical emergency, or whatever) happens to you. It also allows you to easily stream live video of the situation for your friends to see. I highly recommend downloading and getting familiar with it before next weekend.
On Thursday evening, a very large crowd turned out to speak to the city council’s FOP committee on a proposed resolution to make Keene a “sanctuary city”. I’m happy to say that not a single police state xenophobe spoke during the hearing. Every speaker was pro-immigrant. Here’s video of the entire hearing:
Earlier this year, Cheshire County Sheriff Eli Rivera made headlines by announcing his policy to not assist the federal government with immigration enforcement activities targeting peaceful migrants. That made Cheshire county into NH’s only “sanctuary county”.
The resolution is well-intended and everyone in the packed council chambers supported it, but it doesn’t go far enough. First, it allows for Keene police to assist the federal immigration enforcement if they merely have a warrant, which aren’t hard for police to get with rubber-stamp courts. Second, the city’s new manager, Elizabeth Dragon, is claiming the city government can’t tell police what to do, per some state statute. That’s not exactly the whole truth, since the council is able to pass certain ordinances that the police are directed to enforce. While they may not legally be able to tell a police chief what not to enforce, they certainly have the ability to have the city manager fire anti-immigrant police, don’t they? Perhaps there are union protections in place to make that difficult, I don’t know.
MALIC Center Imam Will Coley Speaks to the Committee
According to the Keene Sentinel, new Keene police chief Steven Russo has not specifically commented on the resolution’s proposals, though the group behind the proposal, KIRP, has said they’ve had a positive meeting with him.
At Thursday evening’s FOP meeting, after 100% support from the speakers there and many rounds of applause for those who spoke, the councilors on the committee voted 5-0 to give more time to the issue, specifically asking city staff to meet with KIRP and finalize the language of the proposed resolution.
Only five DJVCS posters exist – one will be raffled at the screening!
Recently Derrick J Freeman announced a special five-year anniversary screening of his documentary film, “Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree” to take place in Portsmouth this Sunday 9/17 at 7pm at the Seacoast Repertory Theatre. Admission is free, first come, first seated. Refreshments will be available for cash, bitcoin, or DASH. If you’re new to Victimless Crime Spree, it’s a feature length, 90min documentary that was originally recorded and edited in Keene, NH (with a little footage from Derrick’s previous home of Philadelphia). Here’s how Derrick has described the movie from his perspective today which he included this on the facebook event for Sunday’s screening:
Victimless Crime Spree is the story of Derrick J, a lovable rebel on a mission to achieve freedom and independence from government. He moves from Philadelphia to New Hampshire for the Free State Project and almost immediately finds himself behind bars. Despite his friendliness to the cops and government bureaucrats, they keep putting him in cages. Inspirational, intelligent and fearless; this documentary demonstrates the will and perseverance of civil disobedience activists that risk their liberty for hope of a better world. If you don’t already, this movie will leave you questioning your relationship with “authority.”
After the screening, we’ll have a Q&A with Derrick J and also do a raffle for one of only five existing original theatrical release posters from the movie’s theatrical premiere in Keene back in September of 2012.
Since its release, the movie has racked up more than 175,000 views on YouTube, sold hundreds of DVDs, and received plenty of positive reviews and ratings, with an 8.6/10 on IMDB and 4.3 stars on Amazon! Those aren’t the only measures of the movie’s success, however. It’s also accomplished helping turn libertarians on to the NH Freedom Migration and multiple people have cited it as their reason for moving to New Hampshire. It’s also introduced new people to the ideas of liberty. I really couldn’t be more proud of what Derrick and editor Beau Davis created and am honored to be the film’s executive producer.
Whether you’re new to the movie or are a longtime fan, we’ll look forward to seeing you at the Seacoast Rep in Portsmouth at 7pm this Sunday, September 17th for this special theatrical presentation. Bring a friend! If you can’t make it on Sunday, you can always watch it for free online anytime or hold your own screening where you live!
Finally, if you’re around Portsmouth a little earlier in the day, be sure to stop into Derrick’s new “Free State Bitcoin Shoppe” as they are having their grand opening from 12p-6p!
