Less than a week after Great Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, a group of New Hampshire residents has decided it, too, wants out – of the United States.
“NHexit,” named after the Brexit, or “Britain Exit” campaign, is a new movement that now exists to represent those hoping New Hampshire will someday part ways with the Union and create its own republic.
At their first-ever event on Sunday night, 13 demonstrators gathered with signs displaying phrases like, “Get DC out of NH” and “New Hampshire Independence Now” in front of Manchester’s Norris Cotton Federal Building, a structure that NHexit founder and organizer Dave Ridley said he “would like to see turned into a shopping mall.” (more…)
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” -Sun Tzu, The Art of War
In the war against the State, we can not ignore its process. In the common battles we must, unfortunately, play by their rules. They hold a monopoly on justice and claim that anyone who does not take part in or accept the system, is still accountable to it. In Evenwel v. Abbott, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Breyer said (in reference to district apportionment),
“And those words say if you look to other parts of the Constitution, such as those, or Republican Form of Government, that what we actually want is the kind of democracy where people, whether they choose to vote or whether they don’t choose to vote, are going to receive a proportionate representation in Congress. And if you take that as a constitutional principle, that shows an objective of some of the clauses of the Constitution.”
Fighting that battle isn’t easy. I fought a case in which a superior officer called the ticket his officer wrote erroneous. He opened an investigation on the officer who issued it. The court recognized that the statute did not cover the accusation put against me. I lost. The state, it seems, favors itself. That doesn’t mean all battles are losses, and that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth fighting. All wars are fought on multiple fronts. We have hearts and minds to win, politics to penetrate and influence, legal battles to challenge and overturn. Any meaningless infighting aside, we know what the goal is and we know who our enemy is. Fighting the enemy starts with knowing them and how they operate.
The following is the summary of two very recent Supreme Court cases. Birchfield v. North Dakota heard in April 2016 and Utah v. Strieff heard in February 2016. The first sets an important limit on fourth amendment searches. The second gives police a dangerous amount of power to harass and “legally” conduct illegal searches in high crime areas. The purpose of going over them here is to understand the context of their decisions, the dangers they present to freedom, and hopefully expose avenues to fight or help others fight the precedent they set.
Birchfield v. North Dakota Oral Arguments
In Birchfield v. North Dakota, three men in three different cases refused to submit to a blood test for blood alcohol level. The state charged all three with a criminal offense for asserting their fourth amendment right. The question here is whether it is a criminal offense, not whether it is a violation. The truth of the matter is that the federal government has no jurisdiction to protect your right to free travel, it’s not in the constitution. At best, it can stop states from taxing you for, or preventing you from leaving a state to go to another. But there is no constitutional right to travel within a state or on its roads. For this reason, both the court and the Petitioner (Birchfield) recognized that the state can take away a person’s driver’s license for a refusal to submit to a blood test. That admission alone brings up a lot of issues. Primarily, is getting a drivers license a voluntary agreement to the rules of the road, and a consent to any search given reasonable suspicion?
“You know, that especially in North Dakota and sparsely populated States, you have to drive in order to — so we know that consent is — is fictional in that sense. But suppose that it was voluntary and that it was explained and so forth and the — and the — and the drivers sign it. It still seems to me you’d — you’d have an argument that it’s — it’s coerced.” -Justice Kennedy
If the state has a monopoly on licensing for the use of roads, and if they can refuse to license someone, or take a license away without reason (which they can do), then why do they need consent to search someone driving on the roads they have full control over? The lack of a right to travel on a federal level has left a large and dangerous power gap between the state and the people.
“Assume a State can condition the — the ability to drive on a State’s roads on consenting to a blood-alcohol test, perhaps under certain circumstances. Let’s say this is done in writing at the time when the person applies for the license, so it’s not — it’s not just implied. Why does that — what is different about that situation from a number of other situations that I can think of? For example, conditioning a — a license to operate an interstate passenger train on submitting to a blood-alcohol test in the event of reasonable suspicion. The person is operating the — the train under the influence of — of alcohol, or the same thing with someone who is operating aircraft. Or suppose there were a law that said that if you want to enter certain government buildings, such as this building, the — the condition of entering is consenting to a search, and you have to sign something, you have to go through the magnetometer. And then if a person got through that, and there was reasonable suspicion that the person had smuggled in some kind of a weapon, the person would be subjected to a search. What would be the difference between that situation and this situation?” -Justice Alito
It’s hard to deny the logic. The state has already secured the power to submit people to searches in many areas. In the case of blood alcohol tests, evidence dissipates over time. A refusal could mean time for a suspect to sober up. The Chimel Rule allows for warrantless searches of an arrested person for safety, escape prevention, and destruction of evidence. While this may only apply to arrested persons, an officer may conduct a field sobriety test based on reasonable suspicion in order to obtain probable cause for an arrest. And then conduct a warrantless search for BAC (Blood Alcohol Content). In any case, the state holds the power.
“Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court: The North Dakota statute strikes a bargain with individuals who wish to use the State’s public roads. Conditioning their use thereon, on consent to a blood-alcohol test, if arrested for drunk driving, the Court has held that this is a valid bargain, and that States may enforce it with the imposition of significant consequences, including license revocation and the use of test refusal as evidence in criminal proceedings.” -Thomas R. McCarthy, North Dakota
“What about another bargain, if people find that texting while driving is becoming an increasing problem, and so when you get a license, you’re — you give implied consent for the officer to look at the texts or whatever they can look at on your cell phone to make sure, you know, a minute ago you were texting somebody while driving? Is — would that be acceptable under your rationale?” -Justice Roberts
As North Dakota asks for more power by a decision of the Supreme Court, the potential for a slippery slope becomes clear. If getting a license is implied consent to a search, isn’t it implied in all cases, not just DUI suspicions? When the Respondent (North Dakota) claimed that getting a warrant makes their job more difficult. Justice Sotomayor snapped back by telling them to get a warrant anyway. On the argument that magistrates aren’t always available at odd hours, she responded:
“So that excuses you from a constitutional requirement? We’re now going to bend the Fourth Amendment, which I always thought started on the presumption that we favor warrants, we don’t disfavor them. But since many jurisdictions seem to manage it, we give a pass to North Dakota because it doesn’t want to?” -Justice Sotomayor
The point is reinforced, if the state already has the power to suspend someone’s license based only on or less than suspicion, why then do they need to conduct any further search? Justice Sotomayor suggested that there is another, underlying goal here for the state. And that the argument doesn’t make sense. Indeed, it is likely that North Dakota’s representatives believe they should be able to search anyone at any time without jumping through any hoops to make sure there is no misconduct.
In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court decided that in order to do a blood test for BAC, a warrant is required. However, because of the perceived difference in privacy violations, they reaffirmed that a warrant is not required to do a breathalyzer test, only reasonable suspicion.
Thanks to the liberal interpretations of the interstate commerce clause and the lack of a right to free travel, the government holds an uneven amount of power over the people on the roads. It is through transportation that they have their entry into people’s lives. It is their ticket to harass and collect revenue on victimless crimes. While the government has managed to regulate our personal lives, what we do in our own homes, and how we trade with others, nowhere are the violations of natural human rights more visible. But by understanding the state’s limits on what they can and can’t do, according to their own monopolized justice system, we can better understand where to take the fight.
Utah v. Strieff Oral Arguments
In Utah v. Strieff, a police officer doing a sting on a suspected drug house stopped Strieff who was coming out of the house and discovered an outstanding warrant during questioning. After the arrest for that warrant, the officer found meth on Strieff. The defense argues that the detainment was illegal to begin with. While the arrest may be legal, the evidence recovered during the search is not admissible because the officer obtained it under illegal means. If he found evidence by illegal means, it falls under the exclusionary rule and it is not admissible in court. The issue is, if an illegal detainment, by pure chance, turns up a warrant, does that cancel out the exclusionary rule?
In the case of Ferguson, Utah, the city was openly issuing arrest warrants for minor violations to the point that 80% of the population had outstanding warrants. (Really, 80%.) The city was then using those warrants as an excuse to investigate anyone with a minor suspicion. Just to justify searches. The state legal representative fully recognized this and did not argue against it.
Joan Watt, the representative for Strieff, argued that allowing officers to stop people, solely to check for warrants when they have no suspicion, would destroy the fourth amendment. Both sides agree on the legality of a Terry Stop, which says police may stop people and frisk them based on a reasonable and articulable suspicion. What’s at issue is if they can stop people without that suspicion, just so they can check for a warrant.
Justice Roberts brought up a comparison to traffic stops. Officers usually run people’s plates before approaching the vehicle as a matter of safety. He asks, how is that, on a legal basis, any different? Is there a difference between checking warrants for safety and checking warrants for investigation? However, it’s made clear that police can not pull people over without reasonable suspicion to begin with. This is why in New Hampshire at a traffic stop, passengers are not considered detained, but the driver is.
Justice Alito showed resistance to the case by clarifying that the arrest was lawful because of an outstanding warrant. And that the search was lawful due to the arrest. But the evidence found during that search was the fruit of an unlawful detainment. Even if the officer has reason to believe Strieff was just exiting a drug house, proximity to a suspicious place does not justify a lawful Terry Stop according to Ybarra v. Illinois.
A 5-3 decision ruled that if an unlawful detainment results in a lawful arrest based on a warrant unrelated to the situation, any evidence found is admissible in court. Justice Sotomayor dissented by writing that this case allows police officers to take advantage of their own unconstitutional conduct. In areas that have high rates of outstanding warrants (such as 80%), this ruling incentivizes officers to conduct unlawful searches (for which they will most likely not be challenged) in the hopes of finding a warrant. A direct contradiction of the purpose of the fourth amendment. She wrote that the ruling creates a “second-class” of citizens who are now subject to police misconduct based on whims and guesses. People in cities like Ferguson, Utah, who we know the city subjected to unjustified warrants, are now vulnerable to harassment and searches at any time without any suspicion that they’ve committed a crime.
In this second case, Justice Sotomayor is rightfully recognizing that government power is rarely challenged by those most subject to it. If officers have the power to stop people without suspicion, based on the gamble that there is an outstanding warrant, they will use it. It is important to resist power on the street by asserting your rights and within the courts by defending your own peaceful actions. Some people have found the idea of clogging the courts with victimless cases to be reprehensible. But if people challenge tickets more often, they’ll be less likely to receive them for transient reasons, and officers will more likely use their own discretion and judgment to seek the safety of the community rather than revenue collection.
No matter your political beliefs, blindly giving into every accusation the state throws at you gives them power you don’t want to give them. If you stop fighting, the government will keep grabbing power. Something simple you can do to help yourself, the people who have been arrested for selling products, feeding those in need, singing and dancing. For the people who have serious victim based cases that do not get speedy trials because of a broken system with backward priorities. One simple thing you can do to help shift this balance of power back in favor of the people is to always defend yourself when you were not in any moral wrong in any peaceful manner possible. Show the courts you won’t stand for a lack of officer discretion and obvious revenue collection tactics. Keep yourself educated, and don’t take the plea.
Now that the voters of Britain have voted to leave the European Union, the world is abuzz with talk of secession. Other countries in the EU may now also hold similar referendums and here in the US, the Texas secessionists (long the most noteworthy independence movement in North America) have been garnering press coverage for a “Texit”. New Hampshire activists have been promoting secession for a few years via the Foundation for NH Independence and the NH Liberty Party. We’re ready to move ahead with #NHexit if some politicians can show enough backbone to get behind the idea and put forward a serious proposal to the people of the Shire.
However, in both Texas and NH we have a long way to go. I think we need a little friendly competition between Texas and New Hampshire to help move things along. While the Texas secessionists have been at it a while, they are not advocates of freedom. Many of them want a theocracy and are xenophobic, so if they were to get their way, it would likely lead Texas to being even more of a police state.
NH, on the other hand, continues to have liberty-minded activists move in, many of whom are very interested in NH leaving the United States. We have the most principled, pro-liberty secession movement out there and it will only get stronger.
Secession NOW!
Here’s a message from Dave Ridley, the founder of the new NHexit group here in the Shire:
If UK can do it to EU, why can’t NH can do it to DC?
In 1788 New Hampshire tried to become part of a dream…a Federal system which made to her many of the same kinds of promises which the EU made to Britain. But many New Hampshirites, like Britons, have experienced growing disillusion with the ever-bloating central government they joined. It has become a bloodthirsty empire to which they now find themselves tightly bound.
Faced with a more humane government at Brussels than the Washington regimes have ruled us, British voters nevertheless chose to walk away. How much more justified New Hampshire’s departure would be…from the murderous wannabe globe-rulers in DC. (more…)
Last year, our first-ever fundraiser raised enough to keep our African satellite on-the-air. This year, the Indiegogo-based fundraiser is going to be promoted via a “headtalker” – a website that allows you to sign up to join in a social media blast to promote something. Sign up here via your preferred social media and then on Independence Day, July 4th the headtalker will post to your social media about our fundraiser. We’ve set a goal of 200 people – can you be one of them?
Dave Ridley of the Ridley Report has put out a press release announcing a secessionist “DC-out-of-NH” protest scheduled for Sunday evening, June 26th at 6pm at the Norris Cotton federal building at 275 Chestnut St. in Manchester. A litter pickup will be happening in the immediate area from 5-6p with the protest starting at 6pm. He says supporters of the Foundation for NH Independence or NH autonomy in general are welcome to attend. He’s made an event for it on facebook here. Here’s Ridley’s explanation as to the motivations of the event:
During the last seven decades, New Hampshire has suffered over a dozen wasteful, sadistic DC administrations. Each have misruled and weakened us from their distant swamp, providing taxation in return for little more than a pretense of representation. Not one of these has left office with a smaller government than it inherited. Accountable in name only, Washington has used our money to undertake abuses ranging from medievalist torture chambers in Afghanistan to the confiscation of lawfully borne firearms in New Orleans. They have turned our rivers orange and seas black. More recently and locally, they have arrested or helped prosecute various edgy-but-harmless New Hampshirites…from the colorful pot guru Rich Paul to Rochester Bundy supporter Jerry DeLemus.
Now, we face the specter of domination by one of two tyrants, either full of ominous promise, both positioned to be uniquely authoritarian figures in our history. It’s time to discuss an “outside the box” alternative, one that does not hope to fix or operate upon the rotted Federal system…one which, rather, harnesses that rot as a source of fuel for escape. Independence from the U.S. is a contentious concept, but its chances of eventual success seem better than those of the hapless third parties and liberty PACs. Reuters reports that 24% of Americans already want their states to leave the union. (more…)
Laconia, New Hampshire’s Bike Week is a motorcycle rally that has successfully pulled in large crowds since 1923. Attendance has ranged from 188,000 to 375,000 people. Despite the track record of fatal motorcycle accidents in the area during the event, it has always been relatively peaceful. Until the summer of ’65.
Riots involving around 10,000 people between motorcycle gangs and local police caused the City of Laconia to crack down on the event. Laconia officials no longer saw bike week as a source of tax income, but an inconvenience.
Laconia restricted the event to three days rather than the full week and attendance started to drop. When the city started feeling the loss of money in their pockets in the 90’s, they invited the organization to bring back the week-long festivities.
Here we are today. Bike week at Weir’s Beach in Laconia ran from 1923 to 1965 on its own in peace. A riot, which the state alleges the Hell’s Angels started, brought bureaucratic control to the event.
I was able to attend one day for CopBlock’s week long event at Laconia. Every police department in the area shows up in force. Five departments including state troopers, county sheriffs and even the department at the University of New Hampshire show up for patrol. Small towns who only have a few officers to spare send one or two on a few days out of the week. And the national guard sent around fifteen soldiers in a “non-law enforcement capacity.” According to the UNH officer in the video below.
Credit: Matthew Perreault
Aside from a few crashes on the highways (one fatal), the event was peaceful. Happy, even. Everyone was in a good, talkative mood. Even the groups of officers found on every corner were having fun. But this police presence came at a price.
LaconiaFest, the music festival headlining Ted Nugent, shut down on Saturday early after Nugent’s performance. The festival manager said the city overestimated how many people would show and charged more than expected for first responders.
The police who were in groups on every corner, having a fun time, were costing the festival too much. It raises the question, were they necessary, and how willing was the city to send officers home to keep costs down?
The state lacks the ability to respond to the market in a timely manner. If the City of Laconia had a disagreement with festival managers on this issue, I think the city should have listened. The festival I saw did not require four cops on every corner and it did not deserve to have it’s funding drained by a forced monopoly.
Welcome to Free Keene‘s newest blogger Melanie Johnson! Melanie graduated law school and is already getting involved in courtroom activism here in New Hampshire. She’s one of the newest movers to the Keene area. Here’s her bio from the Bloggers page:
Melanie is an anarchist who moved to Keene on November 5, 2015. She believes in the Non-Aggression Principle (NAP), free markets, and holding philosophically consistent positions. In addition to the excruciating task of attempting to reconcile either minarchy or anarchy with the NAP, she spent part of her six years as a minarchist pursuing a law degree in the world’s Prison Capital in a misguided attempt to make it a freer place. She has participated in jury outreach, police checkpoint blocking, appeared on Free Talk Live, and advised other activists on the legal issues relevant to activism.
