by Ian | Apr 28, 2010 |
Thanks to the Keene Sentinel’s Phil Bantz for this story about how the KPD sent all their officers to the jail to arrest peaceful activists, all the while incidents were happening in Keene that they weren’t able to respond to. As expected, the comments are excoriating us for supporting NH Free Press publisher Russell Kanning. Kanning has been jailed for non-payment of child support, however according to a Ridley Report interview with Kat Kanning, Russell was sending what money he could to his ex-wife and she was apparently ok with that and was allowing him to interact with his kids. Unfortunately, the government people don’t care, since he wasn’t paying enough to satisfy THEM, they have locked him away indefinitely. Now how much will his kids receive?
Anyway, here’s the story from the Sentinel:
When a car collided with a college student walking in downtown Keene on Sunday evening, a Marlborough police detective had to investigate the incident while N.H. State Police troopers interviewed the victim.
On most evenings, Keene police officers would have handled the accident, which resulted in minor injuries. But they were busy processing a dozen people who were accused of trespassing at the new Cheshire County jail in Keene.
The arrestees – all were charged with trespassing and one was charged additionally with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia – have ties to the Free State Project and one of its offshoot groups, Free Keene. (more…)
by Ian | Apr 27, 2010 |
Motorhome Diaries‘ Adam Mueller just posted on the Free Keene Forum looking for a place to stay in the Keene area. Adam and Pete are superactivists and they would be real assets to Keene-area activism. Can you help them find a place to live? Here’s what they are looking for: (more…)
by Ian | Apr 26, 2010 |
Pictures of yesterday’s jail demonstration and “trespass” are now online, thanks to Puke.
You’ll find lots of great pictures, including one of liberty activists out front of the area of the jail where Russell Kanning was found. Next time we need twice as many people!
by Ian | Apr 26, 2010 |
Manchester Super Activist Big Mike writes from jail, on “disorderly conduct” charges.
by Ian | Apr 26, 2010 |
Wow! What an amazing day. First, the most successful Free Keene Fest yet! Hundreds of Keeniacs of all ages came out to Railroad Sq. for the over five-hour event! It was a whole lot of fun with lots of booths, great bands, and it was a civil disobedience extravaganza! There was drinking in public, open cannabis smoking, gambling, unlicensed food sales and vendors, and best of all, no police and arrests! Of course there was the event itself for which no one pulled a permit. People were acting like free people, and all was well! Following that was the daily 420 in Central Square and then activists headed out to he brand-new Cheshire Jail to demonstrate for our friend and publisher of the NH Free Press, Russell Kanning. Not only did we circle the outside of the jail building twice (the first time with about five activists, the second time with about fifteen), but we also found Russell!
Upon completion of our second walk around the building (which the prisoners nearly universally loved, except one anonymous guy in the basketball court who told us to fuck off), the entire on-duty contingent of Keene police as well as Swanzey and Marlborough police were on-scene. They approached and we stood our ground, resulting in a dozen arrests. Twelve is the largest number of simultaneous arrests in the history of the NH liberty movement (during Pumpkin Fest, we had three arrests followed by three more a half hour later), and some were wondering in the history of New Hampshire when the last time mass arrests of this amount or larger were made. If anyone knows if this is an all-time record, please post a comment with details.
All were charged with “criminal trespass”, though Rich Paul also received marijuana and paraphernalia charges. There are signs up everywhere about it and they say that it’s only a misdemeanor if you have been ordered to leave. Most of us were never ordered to leave – just arrested. Everyone was given June 1st as an arraignment date at 8am. The only one of us who was not released was the heroic Lauren Canario who was wanted on a “disorderly conduct” warrant out of Nashua. More detail to come on her as we learn it. I’ll post below all the videos I qikked today – sorry I didn’t do one during the arrests – was too distracted to start one up, but Dale did manage to call Porc411 twice from inside the jail (Call #1, Call #2).
When are you going to move to NH, and specifically Keene? Don’t let us have all the fun without you! Today they managed to outnumber us during the arrests, but what if 30 or 50 people had circled the jail?
UPDATE 4/26: Here are some pics of the event from NH Freedom Activism Image Repository.
Here are the Qik videos, which were streamed live at the time, starting with the Free Keene Fest: (more…)
