Christopher David was arrested by Dover Police on November 6th, 2015 for “wiretapping” charges for posting a video of his interactions while driving for Uber in Portsmouth NH. The people calling themselves the city of Portsmouth recently banned Uber from operating in the city. Christopher David and others continue to break the ban by driving for Uber. We live in a world where you can be kidnapped legally for using an app to drive drunk drivers home safe. The video above shows protesters and cop block presence outside of the Daniel Street Tavern. The wiretapping charges originated from the bouncer at this bar.
Ademo and Brian shortly before turning themselves in.
Ten days ago, Free Keene blogger and Cop Block founder Ademo Freeman was arrested in Kansas on a warrant for chalking in front of the Noblesville, Indiana police department. In the latest salvo in the War on Chalk, Noblesville PD had issued warrants for both Ademo and Brian Sumner, who have been on the Cop Block MAC Tour (Mobile Accountability for Cops) for weeks. Now, Ademo and Brian are pausing the MAC tour and last night turned themselves in at Noblesville PD to clear up the warrants. Here’s their full explanation as to why they turned themselves in and do not wish to be bailed out.
Last night, accompanied by Cop Blockers from Ohio and Indiana, they arrived at Noblesville PD and began chalking police accountability messages with the same liquid chalk product they’d used several weeks ago that resulted in misdemeanor “criminal mischeif” charges for them both.
After twenty minutes of chalking, finally the police came out. Here’s the video of the arrests, recorded by Indiana Cop Blocker Miah Dalek Akston:
They intend to sit in the clink until they are released. How long will Noblesville hold them for this dastardly crime before they face trial? Will the charges be dropped before then? Only time will tell. Stay tuned to Free Keene and Cop Block for the latest.
Meanwhile, Ademo suggests you contact James Baldwin, the prosecutor in their case or (if you really want to let them know you disapprove) visit the Noblesville Police Department and exercise your first amendment right with some chalk. You never know, you might even be lucky enough to join the guys in jail.
James Baldwin (Ademo’s Prosecutor) & Brian Patrick Johnson (Brian’s Prosecutor): (317) 776-8595
Hamilton County Jail: (317) 776-9800
In a six page decision issued this week, NH Hillsborough superior court judge Gillian L. Abramson dismissed the misdemeanor wiretapping charge against Alfredo Valentin – affirming the right to record police in public includes secret recordings. The judge cites both the Glik and Gericke cases which were important federal cases affirming the right to record police in public. The state argued in this case, that since the recording was secret, the right to record doesn’t apply in NH, where the wiretapping statute is ridiculously oppressive. The judge smacked that claim down:
the Court finds that the First Amendment protects secretly filming police in public, for the same reasons that the First Amendment generally protects filming police. The public has the right to gather and disseminate information about the police.
Free State Project early mover and attorney Brandon Ross is Valentin’s lawyer (Ross has previously beaten wiretapping charges at the NH supreme court.) and had this to say, in an exclusive interview for Free Keene, about the judge’s decision: “By charging him with a felony, the state destroyed my client’s career–and made things much worse with this wild goose chase prosecution. I’m glad the court wasn’t fooled by the state’s manifestly incorrect representations about the law. I look forward to him getting his day in federal court.”
Attorney Brandon Ross
Ross also excoriated the NH legislature for their inaction on fixing the horrible wiretapping statutes, saying, “This never needed to happen. Numerous bills have been brought to the legislature to fix this. Each time, the legislature has failed to act to bring simple, necessary clarity to a law which police are continually abusing. But the NH chiefs of police scare them each time, and nothing happens. The resulting litigation from that spineless failure to act, does nothing but inconvenience citizens and cost taxpayers.”
You can read the full six-page order here. Will the state attorney general’s office appeal to the NH supreme court and risk making this decision apply to the entire state? Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest.
It has been one year since the 2014 Keene Pumpkin Festival and subsequent riot which spilled into the streets through the following morning. While snipers perched above the festivities for the second year in a row, no one was aware at the time that the riots would spell the end of PumpkinFest as a downtown Keene tradition. This saturday, the Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey as well as the city of Laconia will be hosting their own independent Pumpkinfests. With few places to position snipers at the fairgrounds, unless special towers are brought in, there will likely not be such a militarized presence there. The situation in Laconia is more likely to host police with rifles, as also the organizer of previous Keene Pumpkinfests, ‘Let It Shine’ is also coordinating this year’s Laconia event.
In the time since last year’s chaos, I had since discovered two different articles hosted by the Blaze and Vocativ which feature content from facebook posts I had made that day. While I was unsure whether or not I had in fact captured an image of someone pointing a firearm in my direction, upon seeing the image as presented in the Vocativ piece, it appears to very clearly be a rifle aimed at the are where I was filming from (which was a heavily populated area at the time).
Laconia police are likely stocked up on riot gear as part of their preparation for the motorcycle weekend sponsored there each year. With luck, the relocated festival won’t deteriorate into a glass bottle war, and riot squads will not make an appearance.
Sadly, Ademo did not realize this as he’d not seen any official paperwork the entire time he was in custody in Kansas. Considering he was expecting to be held until extradition to Indiana and further held in Indiana’s jail pre-trial, he decided to have his friends and supporters bail him out. Only while he was getting bailed did he discover that he was not actually facing any felonies. So, his friends unknowingly paid $800 to a bail bondsman (non-refundable) to likely have him released a day early. (His hearing in front of a judge was to be Monday, where he’d likely have been released, as Noblesville will not extradite for that misdemeanor charge.) Ademo commented in an extended interview on tonight’s Free Talk Live that had he been fully informed, he’d have chosen to sit in jail and not be bailed out. We had him on-air to discuss his situation for most of our second hour (click here to jump straight to the interview).
Cop Block’s Mobile Accountability for Cops tour will hit the road again soon, though the previously planned stops will have to be rescheduled as they still have to clear up the warrants in Indiana (there’s one for Ademo’s tourmate, Brian Sumner as well). Stay tuned to Cop Block’s MAC Tour page for the latest.
The War on Chalk continues nationwide with tonight’s arrest of Cop Block founder and Free Keene blogger Ademo Freeman. Ademo has been arrested in Shawnee, KS on a felony warrant purportedly for “criminal mischief” charges over chalking the Noblesville, IN police department a couple of weeks ago. Ademo is expected to be arraigned on Monday and whether he’ll be extradited to Indiana remains to be seen.
The Noblesville PD chalking incident happened the day before Ademo and Brian Sumner kicked off the Cop Block Mobile Accountability for Cops (MAC) tour. According to their post about the incident, Cop Blockers visited Noblesville police department and used liquid chalk to write various messages directed toward and about the police. Later on, they are threatened by multiple Noblesville cops in a parking lot – see the video here. The gang members detain Ademo and Brian for a quarter-hour and claim that one of “their group” used real paint during the chalking outside the PD.
Now Ademo is in Johnson county jail in Kansas on a felony warrant. As a result, requests for calls to the jail and PD rang out on Facebook. Initially, the jail denied having him and police on the phone played games like one claiming his first name was “deputy” (I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard that one.):
Should you wish to call the jail and/or police and express yourself, here are the numbers: Shawnee PD: 913-631-2150. Johnson County Jail: 913-715-5100. Here’s the agency that issued the warrant, Noblesville PD: 317-776-1588
If you think the massive call flood that these arrests trigger is awesome, then imagine what it would be like if those people willing to call a jail in favor of setting someone peaceful free from captivity were instead willing to move to the same geographic area. Imagine the cop blocking that could be possible. Rather than call the jail, you could go there with others. You could even go to the homes of the people who kidnapped Ademo. Ademo moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project. Here are 101 reasons why you should consider doing the same thing.
