I just wanted to say that I forgive you for assaulting me and stealing my cell phone. I would also like to apologize for my immediate angry outburst. I really should have been thanking you for providing me with such wonderful footage. People as usual are saying I should “press charges”. Justice and revenge are not my intent, so you needn’t be concerned about that. I can’t say for sure there will be no fallout for you from within your organization, however.
There is a possibility the state agents in charge of your organization will be embarrassed into doing something about your unprofessional behaviour. From my perspective as one who is forced to pay your salary, it doesn’t seem like you were doing a very good job yesterday. As a captain in Keene fire/EMS you should be focusing on taking care of your patient instead of harassing members of the media. I don’t think you were acting in a manner that is appropriate for a leadership role in any organization. That said, you shouldn’t really be too concerned about fallout from within, as usually the government does a pretty good job of protecting their own from any sort of serious punishment (even with video footage of obvious criminal acts), so you’ll probably be alright.
I just wanted to share my reflections and let you know that I forgive you for your anger and what you did to me. Presuming you keep your job, I’d suggest you ignore the media from now on, or better yet actually try being friendly to them.
Keene liberty activist Kurt Hoffman was in Keene district court yesterday due to a charge of “disorderly conduct” for caring about Sam when he was arrested and tortured by police. Kurt was charged in April when he remained in the public court lobby to monitor Sam’s screams from the other room. Additionally, he was being tried for refusing to provide his “papers” to an armed man who pulled him over after rolling through a stop sign in the middle of nowhere (Roxbury, NH).
Here’s the audio of the court proceedings. Picking up where the audio leaves off is this video of his arrest. You can hear an apparently rattled Edward Burke, (the robed man calling himself “the court”) as he attempts to justify placing his fellow man, who has not harmed another human being, into a cage for SIX MONTHS.
Put another way, Edward Burke has decided to spend about $15,000 taxpayer dollars (over $80 per day to jail someone in NH) to show everyone that he’s in charge.
To write to Kurt in jail, please use this address:
Kurt Hoffman
c/o Cheshire County Department of Corrections
160 River Road
Westmoreland, NH 03467
To call the jail and inquire about Kurt – 603-399-7794
To call the Keene Police about their prosecutor Eli Rivera’s attack on Kurt, dial 603-357-9815
To call Keene district court about their jailing a man 180 days for speaking, call 603-352-2559
The smokers are protesting marijuana laws and say they’ll smoke in Central Square daily until the law changes. Police say they won’t tolerate wanton law-breaking, but have no plans for a crackdown.
Marijuana may or may not spark creativity, but it has long inspired music. Bessie Smith and Willie Nelson have sung its praises, as has pretty much any reggae and hip hop artist you’d care to name. But none of them were in Keene Wednesday.
“Well in my life I’ve learned that serving’s not the point
Give me a toke off that joint, oh yeah
There’s a 420 fest every day in Keene
People being peaceful and free….”
Is anyone really surprised? A majority of the people calling themselves the Keene city council could have shown a little compassion and voted in favor of a resolution that would have encouraged cannabis decriminalization at the state level. This would have been a symbolic gesture, nothing more. Rather than choose to do that, they opted to do nothing as they similarly chose two weeks ago to do nothing for medical patients who could use cannabis to get relief from debilitating disease.
To their credit, some city councilors including Pam Slack, did take a compassionate position. Others claimed they favored the issue personally, but didn’t think it their jobs as city councilors to weigh in on decriminalization. Still others seemed confused and claimed they’d originally voted the wrong way.
Welcome to politics. People who know next to zero about an issue get to make decisions that will rule the lives of other human beings who did not consent to being ruled. Elected bureaucrats across the country are regularly doing nothing about the millions of Americans who have been arrested for possessing a plant, seed, or chemical. Yet, people still attempt to appease these political rulers by supplicating to them and obeying their every arbitrary demand, not to mention paying their capricious fines.
The Ridley Report was there to record history in the making as a heroic Manchester liberty activist named Travis sells cannabis openly in a public park, all the while in possession of an “open container”! Have the Keeniacs been out-disobedienced?
Thanks to the Concord Monitor’s Ray Duckler for this report:
Rich Paul smokes pot. So do dozens of his new friends. Each day lately, in Central Square, right in the middle of Keene.
They huff and they puff and they blow the smoke out, daring the police to arrest them while they make their point. Smoking pot, they believe, should be legal, because smoking pot is their constitutional right. The war on drugs creates violence and unnecessarily jams our prisons, they say.
And Paul alluded to these points yesterday, telling about 100 people through a bullhorn. His voice was measured yet confident. The rally started in the afternoon, at 4:20, the insider’s term for pot smoking. No one seems to know why. Nobody seems to care, either. (more…)
Ronald,
Keene liberty activist Kurt Hoffman was in Keene district court yesterday due to a charge of “disorderly conduct” for caring about Sam when he was arrested and tortured by police. Kurt was charged in April when he remained in the public court lobby to monitor Sam’s screams from the other room. Additionally, he was being tried for refusing to provide his “papers” to an armed man who pulled him over after rolling through a stop sign in the middle of nowhere (Roxbury, NH). 
Thanks to NHPR’s Josh Rogers for 
