This weekend I learned that a member of my community was arrested. Being naturally curious and a reporter for and about my community, I investigated. Countless people have messaged me asking for more information. Well, Ian beat me to it and published this blogpost detailing what he learned. I called the prosecutor, “Jim” Sawyer (603-524-2330) to ask him to drop the charges for these victimless crimes.
Let this serve as a reminder: Most of us are just one mis-step away from formal incarceration. It can happen as easily as getting pulled over, and BAM! 5 charges that will ruin your life. Is this the world you want to live in, or are you going to do something to change it? Creating a free society requires courage to think, speak, and act for yourself.
Amanda initially posted video of her arrest to her Youtube channel, but it was removed within hours at the advice of her attorney. While it is understandable why she would lawyer up – the court system is an intimidating process – it’s always sad when attorneys advise their clients to not speak to media or post media relating to the case. The attorney’s advice disconnects Amanda from a large pool of potential supporters, as now we have no way of knowing what happened. Many may be willing to support her, but since the video is not being shown, some people will have a hard time getting behind her.
Since her attorney is refusing to release even what the charges are, which should be public info, I decided I’d do my best to track down the info. The court system doesn’t even have a docket number for the case yet, so I called Laconia Police and was treated very rudely and hung up on by “Sgt. Hubbard”. He refused to give me information about her charges and told me to either come down to their station or use the request form on their website, which is broken. I called back, this time recording the call:
For whatever reason, Hubbard changes his attitude after putting me on hold for a few minutes and then gives up the info. According to him, Amanda is facing the following charges: (more…)
Kudos to the Keene Sentinel’s Kaitlin Mulhere for telling some truth about life in the purportedly idyllic New England town of Keene, NH. Guess what? Teenagers use drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, ecstasy, heroin, and others. In fact, drug use is common at Keene High School. The drug war is a failure.
Ok, so I added the last sentence to my summary of the Sentinel’s recent detailed piece on a study done regarding drug use at KHS. Mulhere doesn’t come right out and say the drug war is a failure, but her article is just more proof of what anyone who thinks for a short time about the war on drugs knows is true: you can’t stop human beings from altering their consciousness.
The politicians keep passing laws, increase the penalties, add in mandatory minimum sentences, and what do we get? Harder drugs on the streets and no reduction in the number of users. New dealers step in to replace the ones that are taken down by busts. The insanity of the war on drugs has gone on now for generations and destroyed countless lives of drug users, dealers, and even people who don’t use drugs. (For instance, everyone who has ever been stolen from or robbed by a drug addict is an indirect victim of the drug war, since prohibition drives the price of drugs up dramatically past what its normal market price would be.)
One of the ostensible reasons for the war on drugs is to protect the youth. However, the study cited by the Sentinel is proof the drug war has spectacularly failed in this way. What’s the solution from “the state”? Same as always. Cops, courts, jail cells. Oh, wait – now they have “drug court’. All of a sudden “the state” has gotten compassionate? Sorry, don’t buy it. Coercion is not compassion, not matter how much you dress it up. I’ve sat in on drug court in Cheshire county and watched as a single mother was locked up by the robed man because he didn’t believe her answer as to whether she had spoken with a former dealer recently.
A major failure of the Sentinel’s feature story, as well as almost all mainstream coverage of drug use is the failure to differentiate between users and abusers. The Sentinel story uses “abuse” frequently to describe ALL drug users. However, most drug users are responsible users – that’s why despite rampant substance *use*, society doesn’t fall apart. Alcohol, by far the most dangerous and abused drug, is still responsibly used by millions of Americans. (more…)
If you have been following the blog here at Free Keene for the last 18 months, you may recall the raid on the Keene Activist Center that occurred in the summer of 2012. The Keene-police-backed raid by code enforcement and the fire department ultimately resulted in a court case against me for an alleged smoke alarm violation. (They claimed that all homes must have an interconnected, AC-powered smoke alarm system.)
We went to court and the “City of Keene” ultimately lost because I caught them violating their own rules – fire chiefs aren’t allowed by their own statutes to inspect single and two-family homes. Judge Runyon correctly invalidated all the evidence collected by the fire chief and dismissed the case. “The City” people, desperate to crush the KAC and hating to lose in their own system, then appealed to the NH “supreme” court, spending hundreds of taxpayer dollars on a transcript of the district court hearings.
The supreme court then informed “the City” that their filing was deficient because all criminal cases must have the approval of the attorney general’s office prior to the appeal being filed. They gave “the City” some time to correct the error. Meanwhile, “the City” and the AG’s office filed memorandums of law arguing the case was not criminal, but civil, and therefore they did not need the AG’s permission to move ahead with the appeal.
The fact that “the City” couldn’t even win their smoke alarm case at the supreme court against me may not bode well for their eventual performance in the Robin Hood case appeal, where they are actually against a real, experienced free speech attorney!
Word from DPRK officials speaking through the Keene Sentinel have affirmed their interest in continuing onward with the Robin Hood lawsuit, despite its defeat at the superior court level. It is poised now to go before the New Hampshire supreme court, if the state’s mega-court chooses to hear the case. Though the appeal has yet to be filed, this is a great time to congratulate the CoK leaders for possessing the courage and fortitude necessary to subject themselves to more public courtroom festivities on this matter and thank them for keeping the cause of Robin Hood of Keene ever alive.
Following the coverage in the Keene Sentinel, the Concord Monitor published a truncated copy of their article the following day. Concord’s abbreviated coverage removes all statements made by the city’s hired-gun attorney Charles Bauer following the judge’s ruling. Bauer makes some controversial statements regarding the decision that the legal assistant of the Keene city attorney was unable to lend any support to, choosing instead not to comment on the interpretation made by Charlie. As quoted, he stated, “The Order holds that the individual protesters have no duty to be reasonable in their actions and conduct directed toward public employees while doing their jobs…that the individual protesters are allowed to interfere, harass, and intimidate public employees while doing their jobs…(and) that the individual protesters may engage in inappropriate and unreasonable actions and conduct directed at public employees while doing their jobs.” Free Concord is currently seeking to obtain the full statement to press by the losing side’s attorney and will have more to report as information becomes available. (more…)
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If you have been following the blog here at Free Keene for the last 18 months, you may recall 
