As you know if you’ve been reading here for a while, I’ve been facing “disorderly conduct” charges in Palmer, MA for recording video in a town hall. Back in December, they dropped the misdemeanor charge and offered a deal on the remaining town ordinance violation. The ACLU of MA has come on board to assist and now they are changing the charge from a criminal to civil. That means the potential penalty drops from several hundred dollars to something like $25.
ACLU attorney Shawn Allyn will be filing a motion to dismiss on 1st amendment grounds and a hearing will happen regarding the motion on 5/22 at 2pm at Palmer district court. You are welcome to come watch!
Three heroic activists from Occupy NH stood up for your right to peaceably assemble and speak out and were arrested for it, then convicted by a jury of their “peers”. This is an over five hour trial RAW footage – there are some real gems in here. I hope someone will take the time to make a highlight reel. Don’t miss the exclusive interview with one of the jurors at the end.
At just about noon today, a Hillsborough County superior court jury returned from approximately an hour of deliberation with a guilty finding against three Occupy New Hampshire activists who did not voluntarily retrieve a citation and were removed via arrest from the temporary intentional community established in Veterans’ Park in Manchester’s downtown. The three were sentenced to ten days of incarceration at the infamous Valley Street jail, which is deferred on the condition that each completes 90 hours of community service and observes one year of good behavior. One occupier who was cited for curfew violation, but did not receive misdemeanor trespassing charges during the eviction responded,
Dislike, but unshocked. We were essentially asking the jury to find you not guilty on constitutional grounds. They are not constitutional law experts, this is an issue for the supreme court, and hopefully we get to challenge it there… (more…)
The supporters of the status quo have won for now in Grafton where liberty activists put a 10% reduction in the town budget on the ballot. However, it only failed by 15 votes.
Grafton — Attempts by Free Staters and their allies to cut spending in Grafton failed yesterday, as voters rejected a budget that had been drastically slashed at last month’s deliberative session and approved other spending articles. (more…)
It has been over three years since the face-fracturing beating of Christopher Micklovich by four off duty Manchester police officers, and today it was announced that there was ultimately an admission of culpability from the city. For $200,000, a federal civil rights lawsuit was withdrawn by the plaintiff, with city risk manager Harry Ntapalis revealing that the case was settled privately and was paid off in May of last year. The Union Leader has the story.
The Attorney General’s distasteful exoneration of the four officers, as well as the killing of James Breton in front of his daughter in May of 2011 was what inspired a police accountability rally at the former MPD station house on June 4 of that year. The demonstration against police violence became a demonstration of petty police violence, as around a dozen cameras were confiscated and eight people were kidnapped for offenses such as chalking, standing near chalk, and not following illegal orders fast enough. The Chalking 8 incident only proved the protesters’ point.
How Micklovich’s search for justice in his case snaked through the law enforcement bureaucracy before being resolved by the city further illustrates how detached from responsibility individuals in law enforcement are. Taxpayers are the source of both police salaries and plaintiff payoffs, yet legal immunity shields those tax recipients who are directly culpable from any restitution obligation.
