Other stories on March 3rd were heavily overshadowed by Dave Ridley’s videography arrest. However, the stories of Andrew Carroll and Mike Barskey took another step forward on Tuesday. Both activists pled not guilty to their respective charges, and have trial dates set for May 1, 2009.
Andrew Carroll was arrested for holding marijuana in protest, and Mike Barskey is accused of breaking city ordinances by organizing the Keene Freedom Fest without a license.
A month and a half after THIS GRIEVANCE was filed to the NH Judicial Conduct Committee, the committee found that Judge Burke was not in violation of the NH Judicial Code of Conduct when he famously arrested Ian Freeman for not sitting in the courtroom.
Burke allowed prejudice due to prior events dictate his action in the courtroom that day. He had a meeting, and a plan, with the sheriffs in the courtroom to arrest anyone not standing. He made it clear that what he was doing to Ian was because of the cameras. That is letting the press and public attention affect his actions, and is against the rules of a supposedly impartial judge. Who thinks that judges are an impartial mediator between police and citizens? Next time you think that, check the courtroom for who is allowed to have the guns.
In a well publicized and attended protest, Andrew Carroll held a small piece of marijuana near downtown Keene. His purpose was to illustrate in person how just holding a plant can draw unprovoked violence and kidnapping from government, an organization claiming to “serve and protect” the common man. Approximately 20 minutes after his protest began, Keene police officers showed up, and took Andrew away in handcuffs for “unlawful possession of marijuana.” After being held by police for about an hour, he was released with a court date to enter a plea on a class B misdemeanor.
That court date is on March 3rd, at 8:30am in the Keene District Court. There is less than 2 weeks until then, and Andrew agreed to an interview to answer some questions about the upcoming day. While he will be attending his hearing, and possible trial, Andrew says he will not be preparing any legal defense, and says “Any statement I make in my defense will be a moral one; I won’t argue legally because I’m clearly guilty of a crime.”
For more information, see Andrew’s interview below.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker and NH police officer Brad Jardis has contacted me about Sgt. Rivera suggesting that he has some special knowledge that may show Sgt. Rivera to be more of an ally than we may realize. Brad seems to think Rivera deserves a fair amount of respect, so we are looking into whether or not Rivera initiated this aggression on his own or whether he was following orders from a higher-ranking KPD officer.
As you know if you’ve been reading this website for a while, the men and women calling themselves the “City of Keene” attacked me and my family because my tenants had a couch in their yard. I offered to move the couch if the complaining party (who was later revealed to be a city bureaucrat) would just come and talk to me like an adult, she refused, the government people continued to prosecute, and I continued to refuse to obey to see how far they would push it. It all culminated in their courtroom with me being thrown in jail on a sentence of 93 days – three days for the couch and 90 days on three charges of “contempt of court”. After a weekend in jail, I asked “Justice” Burke for mercy and was released with the stipulation that even though I had spent three days in jail I still somehow owe the $120 fine, or alternatively 10 hours of “community service”. Neither option was particularly attractive to me in that I’m certainly not interested in giving my money to the “STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE” and also do not have time for volunteering at the moment, so I made them a final offer. This was my opportunity to test how greedy the government people truly are. (more…)
UPDATE: There will be a welcoming party to meet The Walk For Liberty at the New Hampshire border. This is now scheduled to occur December 14th at 11:00am on Route 9, at the border between Brattleboro, VT and NH. Volunteers from the crowd will then walk with Will Buchanan to Keene, and later, to the seacoast.
Rumor has is the Buchanans will be visiting Social Sundays at Vendetta in Keene at 4pm.
A month and a half after 
