I’m a big fan of Dave Ridley‘s work, but he’s got this one wrong. While it’s true that churches aren’t supposed to pay taxes, the Shire Free Church will be making voluntary contributions to the people calling themselves the City of Keene based on which city services the Church ministers find valuable. Nonetheless, Ridley mischaracterizes the Shire Free Church parsonages in Keene as a “tax revolt” in this series of editorial videos from Ridleyreport.com.
Anyone who bothers to read the Shire Free Church page will discover the purpose of the church is to give religious liberty lovers a home, when so many churches today worship “the state” as a god.
Here’s Ridley’s first video critique of the Shire Free Church. In it he initially expresses confusion as to what the house in question is – is it a church or a parsonage? A quick call to me or another minister would have helped clear up his questions. (It’s a parsonage.) Instead, he just editorializes without much in the way of facts or any input from Shire Free Church ministers. He claims that we don’t have the support of neighbors, but he’s never bothered to talk to any of them. I know for a fact that some of the neighbors support liberty activism and others do not.
As usual, many of the politicians are rude and walk by the independent journalist. Why anyone would voluntarily pay for “service” like this is beyond me.
In my last speeding trial update, I posted that I’d filed motions to place on file, vacate the sentence, and conduct sentencing by mail. All three motions were denied. I reported, under duress, to the Hillsborough district court again on October 17th, and again conducted more successful “Don’t Take A Plea” outreach to the court’s victims.
I was surprisingly not called last, and was able to deliver a speech in front of many in the audience. I later received a compliment on my views from one of the other court victims. The robed man ultimately sentenced me to 11 hours community service. My next hearing is December 19th at 9:30a for a “Community Service Review”.
The Police Accountability Tour had the opportunity to meet with the creative individuals behind CopWatch of East Atlanta. Having been active in their area since the late aughts, the project established itself as a resource for the community, providing a phone number for people in need of a few individuals armed with cameras to reach out through. Following an experience-based set of collectively understood policies, CopWatch participants are also involved in other actions in the area, including Food Not Bombs.
A pixelated still image from footage damaged in police custody
Stemming from an incident in 2010, and complimented by a similar situation which occurred later, the Atlanta police department has now been specifically trained to permit videography and photography of themselves and their suspects and detainees from a reasonable distance. During the 2010 camera seizure, which helped shape CopWatch of East Atlanta’s policies as well as the police’s, a camera phone was taken from an activist by the police after multiple unlawful requests to terminate the recording. Eventually, the camera was wrestled away, and a revealing phone conversation with the property-seizing officer was documented and disseminated. The officer revealed that the person potentially videotaped being arrested may act as a confidential informant on an investigation. The camera phone would be returned on the condition that the police employee could be granted access to the footage and ensure its deletion. An audio recording of the telephone conversation would secure a $40,000 settlement for the group. Upon retrieving the footage, it was posted publicly in very damaged condition, possibly as a result of its poor handling in police custody, or through intentional sabotage. Since that time, CopWatch of East Atlanta has adopted policies to prevent the loss of objective documentation of a scene by working in groups, wearing uniforms, keeping distances between videographers, and observing numerous other safety precautions. Recently at the DeKalb County public library, the group offered to the public a know-your-rights training session. (more…)
