After arresting Janelle Westfall, 18, for underage possession of alcohol, Seastrand allegedly told her she could avoid charges if she went into the police station basement with him and did a nude photo shoot.
Of course, none of the money being given to Ms. Westfall is coming from Seastrand – it’s the taxpayers who are on the hook for his actions. He is protected from responsibility by the system. Prosecutors will not prosecute him. You can bet that if any gun-toting non-cop threatened a young lady and demanded nude photos that person would be fully prosecuted. It’s good to be in the government gang!
The big question is – how many times has Seastrand pulled this move and gotten away with it prior to this incident? I doubt it was his first time using his power to intimidate girls into taking off their clothes.
Make no mistake, these three criminal charges against me were not ‘dropped’ by Gilford Police Chief Bean-Burpee and his prosecutor Sergeant Eric Bredbury, they were dismissed by a New Hampshire Circuit Court Judge after a full hearing. In spite of having months to review the law and the facts, the Prosecutor refused to drop the charges or even propose a plea, but rather continued to seek a conviction to justify the State’s violation of my First Amendment right of free speech, and my unlawful arrest.
I was fortunate enough to be experienced in the legal system, and also had the determined, talented, and effective counsel of Mark Sisti and Jared Bedrick of Sisti Law Offices. But what about those who have none of these advantages? One of the most troubling aspects of this experience is having to face the fact that, out of the millions of people arrested every year in the United States, many are unlawfully arrested, maliciously prosecuted, wrongfully convicted, or pressured to plead guilty just to get it over with. Having a jury of one’s peers is supposed to be a check on this system, but NH law precludes a jury trial for a defendant if he is not facing possible incarceration.
Last weekend, he struck again. This time against a peaceful homeless-awareness chalking event on Central Square. Members of the Unitarian Universalist church had come out and traced outlines of their bodies to bring awareness to the 42 deaths of homeless people in New Hampshire in 2014. According to a report by the Keene Sentinel’s Martha Shanahan and Alyssa Dandrea, shortly after the event an unidentified man came out of a local business and attacked the chalkings with a brush and water. Despite being confronted by witnesses who asked him to stop, he continued his destruction.
Homeless Awareness Chalking: Pre-Attack Photo by Susan MacNeil
I reached out to witnesses in the case and showed them a picture and video of local chalk hater Matthew Schmidt in action and they confirmed that yes, it was him. I wasn’t surprised, of course, but I wanted to wait until I’d confirmed it with the witnesses rather than post an article speculating it was him. So, consider it confirmed.
Does Schmidt hate homeless people? Does he hate artwork? Does he hate children? He sure seems to have plenty of hate, for whatever reason. I hope someday he finds peace.
Perhaps for the first time ever, 2014’s primary election featured a third party candidate running as a democrat: the New Hampshire Liberty Party‘s Ian Freeman. Despite the entire campaign budget being about three dollars for postage and doing virtually no campaigning besides media appearances and a debate-turned-speech, Freeman received more than 4% of the vote!
It would be comparing apples-to-oranges, but it’s interesting to note that 4% is more than 50% higher than the 2.6% score by the Libertarian Party’s candidate for governor in the 2012 general election. The libertarians spent a lot of time and money promoting their candidate, including thousands of dollars on his ballot qualification alone. Freeman, on the other hand since he is registered as a democrat, became ballot qualified by simply paying $100 to the Secretary of State. Part of the campaign was to bring attention to the unfair ballot access rules for third parties in New Hampshire.
Local government bureaucrats in Keene are infringing on my right to bear arms.
In July I applied for a concealed carry license. One man, Ken Meola, denied it. I appealed, and this week the news came back: Judge Burke denied my appeal.
Judge Burke’s decision means that while it is perfectly legal for me to carry a firearm openly, it is a crime for me to conceal that firearm, for example by putting on a winter jacket.
The next step is to move on to the State Supreme Court. I haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to do that, but I’ll give another update when I speak with my attorney.
I’m disappointed about this decision, but I’m not surprised. The State is a many-tentacled beast, and the different facets of it protect each other. First the legislators did their part by camouflaging a restriction as a right: they call NH “shall issue” but ultimately leave the power of permission to one man working for the police. Then the police did their part to deny my rights, essentially arguing that they are restricting my freedoms because I don’t respect them. Finally, appeals are made to lawyers who also work for the State.
Here’s another reality check for all the trash-talking haters out there:
No, not everybody loves what you are doing. People are different. As delusional and crazy as you think liberty activists in Keene are, I’m pretty sure most of us are aware that people are individuals. They don’t have the same beliefs. That includes both libertarians and members of STOP FREE KEENE!!! – not all of them agree on things, either.
Recently, one local hater, alleged to be Steven Graves (UPDATE: Graves claims it’s not him), a Peterborough-based artist (originally from Boston!) recently said this about Boston Strong on the comments section of Free Keene, “He’s right, he’s awesome, and he’s kind of my hero right now. The town, the state, good people everywhere hate you people.”
Sorry, Steven, but good people don’t hate. The people calling themselves the town, city, or state are doing wrong, but I don’t hate them for it. They’re fallible humans just like the rest of us.
Oh wait, he claimed on video the other day that he is just making sure there’s no deer in the road. No wonder everybody loves him – no one would want to see a deer get hit, especially by a man safely and gently accelerating down a neighborhood street. What a guy!
