No mention of this in the Sentinel, but at last night’s city council meeting it was revealed that councilor Terry Clark has brought up the Bearcat for public hearing at an upcoming meeting. Terry Clark, as you may recall, is the lone councilor who heroically voted against accepting federal money to buy a Bearcat armored attack machine in the first place. According to John McLean, city boss, the city council can re-hear an issue once a year, and when a councilor brings an issue forward, there has to be a public hearing. Unlike when someone recently presented 144 petition signatures asking for a public hearing on the matter, which were gathered over one weekend, and the council blew it off as “informational”.
Harvard student blogger Matt Bieber has written yesterday that he was baselessly arrested by Hudson police while at a Mitt Romney event on January 9. Police said that he was identified by campaign staff as someone who was present at a previous protest which Bieber claims to have not attended. His experience is published at his blog here.
The previous protest that he was alleged to have been at could have possibly been one which I had attended in a journalistic capacity. Occupy New Hampshire participants had gathered outside of Romney’s campaign headquarters on Elm Street in Manchester. Some protesters waived signs over the windows while the presidential candidate talked to supporters inside. This occurred during the initial occupation of Veterans Park back in October.
The facts in Bieber’s case are vaguely similar to the circumstances that resulted in the arrest of Dave Ridley at the Radisson in Nashua on May 25.
At Sunday morning’s presidential debate held at the Capitol Center for the Arts, one arrest was made during a foiled “mic check” attempt by Occupy New Hampshire activists. Matthew Richards of Manchester was arrested for trespassing after attempting to hold open a door at the theater to allow protesters into the debate. He was tackled by security and placed under arrest by Concord police. Dave Ridley captured the scene following the arrest, as Matthew is brought out of the building. This is his second protest related trespassing arrest, as he was also taken into custody for a short period following the eviction of the Occupy NH encampment in Veterans Park.
Yesterday while attending Occupy the Primary being held at Veterans Park in Manchester, I met MPD captain Robert Cunha. He had come to the park to discuss altering aspects of the occupation with participants in the protest. I had noticed when mailed my verdict following the trial held stemming from my Chalking 8 arrest that Capt. Cunha was CC’d a copy of the ruling. This indicates that he is likely the supervising officer in dealing with the cases that have stemmed from the chalking 8 incident. Following the arrests, it was the lower ranked sergeant Todd Boucher who spoke with press and was cited as the officer in charge during the incident. Sergeant John Patti was the officer who made or ordered six of the arrests. Joseph Mucci, also a sergeant, made 2 arrests and issued one citation that was later upgraded to a criminal charge.
Not surprisingly, Robert Cunha was not interested in discussing aspects of the case. That the potential still exists for legal action to be taken against Manchester PD for false arrest is likely what drives the silence. See my interaction with Cpt. Cunha embedded below:
On Monday, January 9, Ademo Freeman and Wesley Gilwreath will be sentenced following their convictions on chalking-related criminal mischief charges which were ruled upon December 27. Activists have planned to chalk in solidarity outside of the court prior to the sentencing hearing.
More footage from the Santorum event we crashed today. Beau Davis captures KPD pushing out the peaceful singers from the hallway in the library basement. More footage is coming, so stay tuned:
Yesterday Fr33manTV went to Hookset, NH with liberty activists Ian Freeman, TalleyTV, and Kelly Voluntaryist to investigate and participate in the first Occupy New Hampshire General Assembly. After 3 hours of polite deliberation, the only thing the GA decided was the time and date of their next meeting. (more…)
No mention of this in the Sentinel, but at last night’s city council meeting it was revealed that councilor Terry Clark has brought up the Bearcat for public hearing at an upcoming meeting. Terry Clark, as you may recall, is the lone councilor who heroically voted against accepting federal money to buy a Bearcat armored attack machine in the first place. According to John McLean, city boss, the city council can re-hear an issue once a year, and when a councilor brings an issue forward, there has to be a public hearing. Unlike when someone recently presented 144 petition signatures asking for a public hearing on the matter, which were gathered over one weekend, and the council blew it off as “informational”.
