Keene State Student, Wrongfully Arrested During Pumpkin Fest, Takes Plea Deal

by | Jul 8, 2015 | 43 comments

Alpha Dogs Attack Student

Pumpkin Fest 2014: Dozens of Staties Attack Three Innocent, Teen Students

Ryan McLellan and his friends never hurt anyone or destroyed any property on the night of Pumpkin Fest 2014. However, that didn’t stop dozens of state police from swarming and attacking the three young men as they attempted to go to the Campus Convenience store on the corner of the block where their dorm was located.  Earlier in the day and night there were riots in the neighborhood, but by the early morning hours when Ryan and his friends were attacked, there was nothing happening.

Well, I shouldn’t say nothing.  Their neighborhood was being occupied by a very large group of armed men who were in a mood to order around and kidnap anyone they darn well wanted.  Here’s the original video I released at the time, which shows the arrests and surrounding scene in full.  Just minutes prior to their attack, but before the huge throng of state police had been brought in, I had been in the exact same place as the young men.  Though the cops who were there at the time prohibited me from crossing into Winchester St., (for no apparent reason other than arbitrary control), they did not tackle and arrest me, like was done to Ryan and his friends.

Sadly, despite his being a clear case of police abuse and having an attorney willing to take the case to trial and beyond, Ryan took the plea deal, having a nonsense “resisting arrest” charge conditionally nolle-prossed in return for his guilty plea to “disorderly conduct”.  These are two of the police’s favorite charges to throw at someone who they don’t like, but has otherwise done nothing wrong.

They were going to the convenience store.  It was past midnight and they were hungry.  When told to “GO HOME!”, they seemed confused – after all, they had committed no crimes, and further, there were other normal people walking down Winchester St, so why were they allowed to walk somewhere but not Ryan and friends?

When they didn’t turn immediately and high-tail it out of there, the thronging mass of state police officers pounced and violently took the young men to the pavement.  A parent of one of Ryan’s friends said:

“My son has had 2 MRIs bad concussion lives with headaches everyday, dislocated his shoulder, sprained ankle and bruised the inside of his mouth from kneeling on his face.”

During sentencing, judge Edward J Burke fined him $1,000 suspended for two years on condition of good behavior, gave him 50 hours of community service, and lectured him as though he were somehow as bad as the people who had committed violence or property destruction, despite him never being accused of doing any such thing!

Here’s the full video of the sentencing hearing, with a brief recap at the beginning:

It was sad to watch.  If you’re ever facing criminal charges, especially in the case of police abuse – please consider not taking the plea deal.  Taking the plea only encourages more bad behavior from the police and “justice” system like this and ensures you’ll never be able to challenge what they did to you.

Finally, before you accuse me of being anti-police, remember it was my video I gave to Keene police that led to the capture and conviction of people who actually committed violent and property crime during the Pumpkin Fest riots. I am fine with the police going after real criminals, but not peaceful people like Ryan and his friends.

Manchester Police Face $1 Million Suit After Arresting Man for Recording

by | Jul 7, 2015 | 13 comments

BEARCAT

Feeling safe yet?

Free State Project early mover and attorney Brandon Ross is once again involved in a “wiretapping” case where Manchester police arrested a man for recording them in his own home.  The man is now suing for more than $1 million in damages, as Photography is Not a Crime’s Andrew Quemere reports:

The city of Manchester, New Hampshire and two of its police officers are facing a lawsuit for more than a million dollars after arresting a man for audio-recording the officers as they searched his home.

 

Alfredo Valentin, 43, was arrested on March 3 after police conducted a no-knock raid on his home in search of drugs that belonged to a tenant and was later fired from his job because of the arrest, according to the lawsuit.

 

Valentin was never charged with any drugs crimes and, according to the lawsuit, was not aware that there were any drugs in his home.

 

Police were investigating Christopher Chapman, whom they suspected of selling heroin, and were able to arrest him outside of Hillsborough County Superior Court.

 

Despite already having the man in custody, the department sent a SWAT team to break into Valentin’s home, “firing incendiary devices through the property’s windows, kicking in the doors, and entering the property SWAT-style with semi-automatic weapons—damaging property, terrifying the two women who were still in the house, and creating an unjustifiable risk of accidental death or injury,” according to the lawsuit (see full article for pictures of the damage). (more…)

VIDEO: What Happens When Govt Thugs Threaten Porcfest

by | Jun 22, 2015 | 136 comments

Near high noon today, the first full day of the Free State Project‘s annual Porcupine Freedom Festival, two agents (Phillip Lawrence and Ray Persinger) from the “Department of Revenue” rolled up to Rogers Campground. The sharply-dressed thugs inquired with campground staff if there were food vendors in Agora Alley, a place renown for delicious food available from some vendors who may not have bothered asking government permission to serve their fellow hungry humans.

Upon exiting the office, I immediately began recording and confronted the men. Here’s the video of that encounter:

A crowd of activists quickly gathered, with multiple alerts going out via two-way radio, facebook, and word-of-mouth. They weren’t able to get any further than the first vendor before being told they were not welcome by multiple people in the crowd. A campground staff member ultimately told the criminals to go speak with the park owner, Crosby.

After thirty minutes of meeting with Crosby, the men immediately exited the property. Crosby refused to be interviewed about the conversation, but claimed he was not threatened by them. I suspect he’s not being forthcoming. Porcfest organizers would also not speak on camera, but the conversation I had and overheard leads me to believe that Crosby has been recruited to pass out government paperwork to food vendors. I plan to investigate further with the vendors and see what’s happening behind-the-scenes. Stay tuned here to FreeKeene.com for the latest on this developing situation. Also, Porcfest is just starting, so come out and join us through this weekend!

UPDATE: One vendor reports that Crosby did not hand him the paperwork from the state when the vendor indicated that he’s got his books in order. We’ll be discussing the incident on Free Talk Live tonight at 7pm Eastern. You can listen live at LRN.FM.

An Open Letter to Senator Sharon Carson – The Compassion of Decriminalization

by | Jun 15, 2015 | 0 comments

Recently, the Concord Monitor agreed to publish yet another liberty-related article. This one was on the subject of marijuana decriminalization. Recently, the Senate decided to “table” a marijuana decriminalization bill that would have helped first time “offenders” avoid getting a criminal record for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The prohibitionists in the senate temporarily killed the bill with typical political chicanery, but the most offensive thing about the whole endeavor was the insinuation this was somehow for the “common people’s” good. That, in spite of very clear signals that the majority of the people in New Hampshire do not want others to go to jail for possessing a plant, people like Senator Sharon Carson would continue to advocate for their imprisonment.

The original piece in the Concord Monitor can be found here, but it lacks the citations that I submitted. You can read it with citations below.
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I Plead Guilty, Judge Says No

by | Jun 8, 2015 | 27 comments

Today is my birthday, and where else would I want to be at 8:30am except in Judge Burke’s courtroom, awaiting another parking ticket arraignment? Last time I tried the “dead fish” strategy: I didn’t speak during arraignment, I barely spoke during trial, and I was predictably railroaded by the prosecution. Judge Burke found me guilty of two parking violations and fined me $10.

The trial and everything leading up to it costs the court (and therefore the taxpayers) far more than the $10 collected in “revenue”. Not only is it costly for the government to prosecute this victimless crime, it’s also time consuming: the prosecutor was kept busy filing paperwork, gathering witnesses, and preparing his arguments. The entire parking enforcement (which only consists of 2 people) was incapacitated for nearly 4 hours while sequestered for trial. How much money can the city government collect in 8 parking enforcement man-hours? Well, that opportunity was lost because I chose to take these tickets to trial.

If you think this is stupid, you might be surprised that I agree with you. What a waste of time and money! But remember — I didn’t set the system up this way — the people calling themselves “the government” did. And they can stop this charade at any time by simply dismissing the parking tickets. What would they have to lose? They’d certainly have a lot to gain.

Anyway, this time, I chose a new strategy: Go to arraignment with a piece of paper already written out, explaining that I want to plead GUILTY, except the paper is *UNSIGNED*. Once Judge Burke accepts this piece of paper, it becomes part of the record. It is now on the record that I want to plead guilty.

You’d think that would be enough, but Judge Burke did something interesting. He entered a plea of NOT GUILTY on my behalf. Why would he do that? The answer can be found in the following short video from court this morning:

In short, my point was: The judge has demonstrated bias against me, the defendant. Judge Burke is presuming (without evidence) that I am subject to the laws of the State of New Hampshire, but that is one of the elements that must be proven by the prosecution! How can I be forced to be at arraignment if the Judge is not presuming jurisdiction?

What do you think about this strategy? My next step is to file a motion to reverse the plea and motion to have Judge Burke recuse himself because of the bias he demonstrated. He is protecting the prosecutor and doing his job for him by assuming one of the essential elements of the crime: jurisdiction. Without jurisdiction, the case must be dismissed, but he’s not going to let that happen, is he?