Sparked by last year’s “Free the Nipple” protests, some prudish state representatives filed legislation that would make it a misdemeanor for women to be topless anywhere in New Hampshire. (They did make an exception for breast-feeding.) A topless lady would be facing up to a year in jail, were this terrible legislation to pass. Men would still be allowed to be topless under the discriminatory bill, HB 1525.
Thankfully, the bill is nearly dead thanks to a unanimous vote to kill it by the NH house criminal justice committee. The committee voted today 18-0 to “ITL” (Inexpedient to Legislate) the legislation. The bill is not yet off the table – that will happen later when the full house votes on it.
Liberty rep John A. Burt put forth the motion to ITL the bill and also wrote the majority “blurb” for the house calendar along with Free State Project early mover and state representative Amanda Bouldin. (Amanda previously had made headlines for defending topless freedom from attack by the prudish reps who proposed the topless ban.) Here’s the text of Burt and Bouldin’s blurb:
This bill expands the indecent exposure law to include the anus (regardless of gender) as well as the nipple and areola (only if female). The committee heard testimony from many who warned that, due to likely acts of civil disobedience, the state would face expensive court fees should this become law. The NHCLU testified that violation of such a law could be considered protected political speech, indicating that the state would be unsuccessful in litigation. The committee sees no sense in passing a law that cannot be enforced.
The committee also believes that this bill violates Art. 2 of the State Constitution, which states that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of race, creed, color, sex or national origin.” This bill attempts to apply a law to women only. This bill would also place police officers in the uncomfortable position of having to determine the gender of a potential offender. Lastly, an offender (if convicted) would be listed in the state’s sex offender registry after a second conviction, which many considered to be an excessive punishment.
In a state with a nippy average temperature of only 46 degrees, the risk of rampant nudity seems rather low. The committee considers this legislation inexpedient to legislate for these reasons.
Today is a decisive loss for the prudes. To them I say leave topless women alone – your kids will be fine. If you don’t like seeing female areola, then advocate all public property be abolished and turned private. Then you can have a private beach just for people who want to keep their clothes on.
Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on Free the Nipple NH.
In November of 2015 the Secret Service gang came to Concord and took over the state house property, stripping all entrants (except law enforcement) of their weapons. They even took Vermin Supreme’s pony.
It seems that wherever the Secret Service goes, the supposed rights guaranteed by the constitutions, both NH and US, disappear. In December they visited Keene State College where Keene police officers were used to supplement the Secret Service agents. Ben Carson, one of the Republican presidential candidates, was scheduled to speak.
After subjecting my camera bag to a dog sniff as well as a metal detector just to get in the building, I decided to go outside and see if I could ambush interview Carson as he arrived. However, multiple KPD officers and secret service had set up a “secure zone” behind the building. Here’s the video of what happened:
Just three days prior to the Carson event, James Cleaveland had won in court after being illegally arrested by state police at the scene of a suicide in 2014. This fact did not stop Keene police officer Jason Short from threatening me with arrest for not moving back fast enough from the alleged “secure zone” outside the college’s student center.
I mentioned the state police’s loss in James’ case and Short told me that he, “won’t lose this one” as he told me to move back to the dumpsters. I began moving back, but not fast enough for his liking. He then tells me I have three seconds or else I get kidnapped. (more…)
However, for reasons yet unknown, it’s being claimed by new FSP president Matt Philips that keynote speaker Edward Snowden requested there be no recording by audience members. Free Keene blogger and NH native Garret Ean recorded anyway and released it here yesterday.
Why would Snowden try to restrict recording when hundreds of people would be attending with recording devices, including, likely some undercover federal agents? I tweeted at Snowden today in an attempt to get a comment and received no reply thus far. According to the organizer of the Liberty Forum in an unofficial facebook post, there was some agreement to allow the FSP to record the event and have Reason.com (whose editor Nick Gillespie conducted the interview with Snowden) release it via their YouTube.
Many in the liberty community are on an all-out attack against Garret for making the recording, and me for refusing to pull it down. One even called for “Free Keene” to be banned from all FSP events. Hilariously, that ban would include FK blogger JJ Schlessinger, who is the video professional the FSP hired to record the event. He called Free Talk Live Tuesday night to inform our audience that he is currently editing a high-quality five-camera HD shoot of the Snowden talk.
NH mainstream newspapers are now picking up the story of this latest FSP schism. Here’s the first two headlines, posted online and appearing in print today:
The 2016 New Hampshire Liberty Forum, held this past weekend at the Radisson Hotel in Manchester, was the usual gathering of hundreds of libertarians and anarchists for the annual conference. Different this year was the headlining event, drawing the largest crowd of the forum, and featuring a speaker who was occupying the opposite side of the globe. Broadcasting into the parlor via a live video feed was Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower famed for revealing the details of government surveillance operations targeting humans situated both within and without the borders of the United States.
In the approximately fifty minutes that Snowden was linked into the room, he was interviewed by Reason’s Nick Gillespie on a variety of topics from Snowden’s perspective on current events, the United States presidential race, ideological inspirations, and potential paths for the future.
Strangely, an announcement was made before the event requesting that all unofficial filming be suspended. In the interests of objective journalism, I ensured that an audio device was running for the duration of the event, which resulted in poor audio quality compared to what could have been captured without the restriction. Illustrated with images captured by multiple sources from the event, enjoy this presentation of Edward Snowden’s appearance before the audience of the 2016 NH Liberty Forum.
HB 1546, if it passes, will make the much-needed change to turn New Hampshire into a one-party consent state for recording conversations. It also would expressly protect the act of recording police and other government workers, so naturally, multiple government bureaucrats came to testify against it yesterday at the state house committee hearing.
What do they have to hide? One lady from the Attorney General’s office testified that bureaucrats should know they are being recorded. If someone is honest and on the up-and-up, then whether they are recorded or not should not change how they handle a conversation. It’s so obvious these sleazy bureaucrats don’t want to be held accountable for their actions. Don’t miss 29:27 in the video where Cop Block’s JP Freeman, Free Concord’s Garret Ean, and I all corner one of the lying bureaucrats in the hallway after his testimony!
Oh, by the way, only government bureaucrats testified against this bill. Everyone else testified in favor. Here’s the full video of the hearing:
