Back in October 2012, I was arrested for recording video in the town hall of Palmer, MA. The arrest was clearly illegal, but that didn’t stop Palmer Police officer Raymond Tenczar from putting handcuffs on me, then putting me in a cage. After all, the legal council for the town had told them they could and they’d even posted hastily-printed signs on the building that morning that prohibited recording. They didn’t want a repeat of 2011, where CopBlock‘s Pete Eyre and I walked all around the building, recording and asking the bureaucrats tough questions. (We were there to view a tax sale and support our friend Jay Noone who was having his home stolen by the people calling themselves the “Town of Palmer”.)
Their plan would have worked if it weren’t for those pesky liberty activists and the ACLU of Massachusetts!
Not only did Palmer district court eventually dismiss the “disorderly conduct” charges “with prejudice” (meaning they can’t bring them back against me), but the town bureaucrats paid out $5,000 as a settlement.
Takeaways from the experience:
1. Just because bureaucrats print a sign saying you can’t do something, doesn’t mean you can’t do that thing. They are liars.
2. Don’t stop recording. Be polite about it, but stand your ground. (more…)
The series of videos from Dave Ridley that show the ridiculous and rude behavior of some pro-welfare protest organizers continues. This time the police are called in, but the cop does the right thing and leaves the counter protesters alone:
Rich Paul has become a martyr for the legal marijuana movement, risking a life in prison rather than accept that something he loves should be a crime.
As Harry Cheadle of Vice reported earlier, the New Hampshire libertarian was arrested on four charges of selling marijuana and one of selling LSD last year. Paul refused to bargain with the FBI or accept a plea bargain — even when offered a deal with no jail time — and when his trial came Paul tried in vain to convince the jury not to convict him.
At his sentencing on Friday, Paul faces a maximum of 100 years in prison, even if he is likely to get far less.
While his story has been held up as a paragon of ludicrous drug laws, the 40-year-old claims that he’s really being targeted because of his membership in a libertarian political group.
More radio coverage for Robin Hooding! This time it’s the Armstrong and Getty show on a bunch of stations in California including San Francisco, San Diego, and Sacramento:
Matt Simon has the story at the Concord Patch about how the supposedly medical cannabis-friendly governor Maggie Hassan demanded the medical bill be gutted. He discusses the awful provisions in the bill and then what happens next as it goes back to the house:
As the “therapeutic use of cannabis” bill (a.k.a. the medical marijuana bill) heads back to the House of Representatives after being gutted by the Senate, many state representatives, patients, and medical professionals have been contacting me, all asking the same question: “What the heck happened?!?!” (more…)
