I could technically still be in jail today for the “crimes” from the movie.
Derrick J’s Victimless Crime Spree, a full-length feature documentary about my five arrests in Keene, New Hampshire, unleashed itself to the world in Keene Cinemas four years ago today. It’s been viewed on YouTube over 175,000 times.
The world has changed since then. Recording law enforcers is now commonplace. Enforcers in a dozen more states now leave peaceful pot smokers alone. The top series on Netflix is a show about prison overpopulation. Everyone knows that the people calling themselves “the government” spy on their computers, emails, phone calls, and texts, but digital privacy is now possible for all thanks to new apps and devices with built-in encryption. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are now beginning to come into wide use.
There’s a lot of reason to be hopeful. Now more than ever, the world is ready for you to question your obedience. Dozens have told me the movie inspired them to move to New Hampshire. That’s the most rewarding part of the experience. In the end, I was facing 9 years if convicted of all charges (none involving a victim). I was sentenced to 540 days in jail, and I ended up serving 60 for my “crime spree.”
Friends made it possible: Ian Freeman (producer), Beau Davis (editor), and the people of the Shire Society who inspire action. I hope Victimless Crime Spree inspires you to achieve more freedom, peace, happiness, and the object of your dreams.
I had the pleasure this week of seeing Jim of Flex Your Rights give a presentation to a couple dozen students at Keene State College. He covered various aspects of how to handle encounters with police and encouraged not taking a plea deal and going to trial rather than just paying fines.
I found it really rewarding to see Jim’s presentation. It was informative and relevant to the students watching it and I’m glad I had the night off to be able to record it so others who couldn’t attend can benefit. When Jim started college in Keene, he wasn’t an activist. Now he’s working with one of the most prominent know-your-rights groups in the world, Flex Your Rights. His path to where he is would not have been possible without his time in Keene and the liberty activism here that had a positive, inspirational impact on his life. What an honor to have had a role in that.
Some people don’t understand why I do the activism that I do. Why take risks by standing up for your rights? Why speak out in favor of peace and liberty? Why do activism that could and does offend? Because as an activist and communicator of the ideas of liberty, you never know whose life you’ll touch. When you stay true to yourself, put your message out there, and stand up for yours and others’ rights, the right people will see it and pay attention. When the student is ready, the master appears. Your actions just might be the spark that ignites the next superactivist.
I keep one in my car and one on my keychain. In an emergency, like being pulled over or witnessing an arrest, I press it and dozens of first responders are alerted. They instantly know my emergency and location.
This is 21st-Century security. With beauty and simplicity that seems inspired by Apple, the Cell 411 Panic Button might be better-named “the Relax Button.” Finally I can relax knowing that in an emergency, I don’t need ten types of hand-eye coordination to alert first responders. One press of a button is all it takes.
My friend Link posted about it to Facebook:
“One of the coolest features is that it’s drop sensitive. Do you know how many thousands of people pay for subscriptions to emergency button services so someone will come help them up when they fall down? And now they can have that functionality for free in a way that calls people they know and trust who won’t automatically take them to the ER and drive up medical costs just to cover their asses!”
The Cell 411 Panic Button connects to your Cell 411 application running on Android or iOS smartphone wirelessly over Bluetooth, providing users with a quick and easy way to alert your friends, neighbors, caregivers and loved ones in the event of an emergency. It can be carried in your pocket or bag or worn on the wrist or around the neck with the available accessories.
After pressing the Cell 411 panic button, an emergency alert will be sent out to the chosen cell or group of friends you configured. Your GPS location will be sent to your Cell 411 friends in real time, so they can come and assist you with turn by turn direction.
Lachance recently announced the big news privately to his friends via his facebook profile, which included photos of him in uniform from his days as a Bedford officer. Then, after a final confirmation from the LEAP board late last week, he authorized Free Keene to break the news. He will have his first speaking engagement at the upcoming NH Hempfest and Freedom Rally happening at Rogers Campground August 25th through 28th.
When he started his career in law enforcement, Lachance was totally brainwashed into believing in prohibition. It didn’t take him long to realize that arresting drug users was only making their lives worse. In an email Lachance told me he, “saw first-hand how the war on drugs is a failure…Arresting someone for a small amount of cannabis or controlled substance only adds to the problem. The war on drugs encourages the cartels to make a black market for banned substances and creates a huge profit motive for the underground.”
Rick Naya, NH Hempfest Organizer and Joe Lachance
Lachance isn’t the first speaker that LEAP has had in New Hampshire. Cheshire county jail superintendent Rick Van Wickler has been speaking against prohibition for many years now. There are other LEAP speakers who are former cops from Concord and Durham as well. The more, the merrier! More police coming out of the closet against prohibition means we’re getting closer to ending the insane “War on Drugs”, which is really just a war against our friends and family.
Lachance gets why prohibition doesn’t work. He points out, “Drug violence isn’t a reason to fight the war on drugs…it is a reason to END the war on drugs. Take away the cartels’ main source of revenue and they too will go away, much like in the 1920s with Al Capone.”
Last year in a surprising decision from the district court level in New Hampshire, Manchester resident Alfredo Valentin was exonerated from the “wiretapping” charges against him for secretly recording Manchester police when they were searching his home for a tenant’s drugs. The court was clear in its ruling that secretly recording police is protected by the first amendment.
“Essentially, Mr. Valentin was arrested and charged twice because he chose to exercise his constitutionally-protected right to record the police,” said Gilles Bissonnette, Legal Director for the ACLU-NH. “We need to encourage more citizens to do what Mr. Valentin did. Here, the officers’ decision to arrest and prosecute him is indicative of a broader, troubling trend in which police continue in a variety of ways to hinder people’s right to record their work in public.”
On July 15th members of the Manchester PD and New Hampshire State gangs set up a roadblock on S Willow St near the TD bank and detained drivers and passangers at random. As is usual, several people showed up with signs to warn drivers of the aggressions ahead while there was still an opportunity to turn onto another street. That night however, we were not at site when the checkpoint started. For a while the gang members had always detained people on Bridge street, and that is where we anticipated that they would be, though it was not the only location that we checked. We were beginning to think that the checkpoint had been called off when we heard a call on the scanner (more…)
