The following is Rich Paul’s letter to the Keene City Council, as recorded and transcribed by Derrick J Freeman:
When two groups of bullies attacked artists on consecutive days on The Common this month, the Keene City Government sent them a firm message: “Keep it up! We have your back.” How else can we interpret the facts?
In the first attack, four men, all of whom are employed by the Pour House or Pedraza’s, attacked my friend Andy from behind. I dropped my camera and phone, picked up the camera monopod, and drove three of them off. One Pour House employee was able to steal my camera and phone but serious violence was averted.
The City’s response was swift and sure: they arrested me two days later for being a felon in possession of a stick. They have not taken any action against the rioters and thieves. The video of this incident can be found on YouTube, and the thief, first name Terry, bragged of his theft (of the camera) on Twitter.
In the second incident, nobody was fast enough to protect the artist from serious harm, and therefore no arrests have been made. However, City Councilor Filiault is still willing to take the bold step of protecting violent thugs against offensive smiley faces and peace signs by outlawing sidewalk art. His message to bullies: “Hurt people, and we’ll give people what they want.” Perhaps a better solution would be to hold Dorrie O’Meara, who employs all 5 of the attackers, accountable for what her employees do while on the clock.
ALP, PNN and other podcast stuff • Derrick jumps through fiery hoops • Old DMV grannies conspiracy • Young libertarians. Why we do what we do and why the opposition is wrong • City nanny proposes chalking ordinances • Who owns the commons? • NJ boardwalk mandatory dress code • Ellen and Derrick join • Show notes at: BlackSheepRising.org
Wednesday, June 18th 2014 – 10am – Activists convened at the NH Supreme Court to hear Rich Paul’s attorney argue for an appeal. That means even though Rich Paul lost his original trial, he can ask a higher court to hear arguments to decide if the original ruling was wrongly decided. If they decide to go forward with the appeal, Rich will have a whole new trial. The Supreme Court’s ruling is where laws are challenged and clarified. Whatever they decide has the potential to set future precedent.
This week, liberty activist Graham Colson was tried for a “contempt of court” charge that he received while out on bail after being arrested on a later-determined-unconstitutional no trespass notice from the “city of Keene”. In legal land there is a concept known as the doctrine of the “fruit of the poisoned tree”. My understanding of this is that if, for instance, the police raid your home on a bad warrant (say they lied to the judge to get the warrant), that any evidence collected based on that warrant cannot be used against you. It’s the “fruit of the poisoned tree”, and so charges must be dropped.
However, this doctrine appears to not apply to the “orders” of the judge. In Graham’s case, he was arrested for violating the no trespass notice from the city that banned him from Central Square. He was let out on bail conditions that included no contact with a couple of parking enforcers. He was later arrested for walking through Central Square and talking to a parking enforcer. For this act he was charged with “contempt of court”. Then, last summer, the district court’s judge Edward Burke threw out the no trespass letter as unconstitutional and illegal. Since the no trespass letter was illegal, shouldn’t the contempt case be thrown out too, since the bail conditions were originally issued on a case based on an illegal no trespass notice? Maybe in a system actually oriented towards justice – not this one.
So, the contempt charge went to court this week and Graham was found guilty, despite a valiant attempt to defend the charge by Garret Ean. Graham will be turning himself into the Keene Spiritual Retreat, aka the county jail to serve 60 days. He will have five months suspended over his head for two years. All because the city police were handing out illegal no trespass orders. Yeah, justice! Here’s the full video of the trial:
UPDATE: You never know who’s watching. Vigilant videographer Garret Ean captured the moment with his video camera. The video is so funny, I made it a GIF:
