Earlier this week, Pete and Garret took a trip just north of the Police Accountability Tour stop in Chicago to followup on an incident in Skokie, Illinois that occurred this past Spring, but did not receive attention until earlier in October. On March 10, Cassandra Feuerstein of Chicago was arrested on a DUI charge in Skokie and was in the custody of the village’s police force when she sustained a serious injury to her face. Requiring reconstructive surgery, the installation of a titanium plate, and resulting in persistent numbness and vision problems, Cassandra sustained the injury as a result of being shoved face-first into a concrete bench by Skokie officer Michael Hart. Why was it that such a serious injury required seven months for there to be action taken?
Only after a civil suit was filed and the video of the incident released publicly was Michael Hart’s status with the department changed, as he was placed on desk duty. Following the video’s publication, there was public outcry for criminal charges to be filed, which they finally were approximately two weeks later. At that time, Hart was suspended, with pay, as the trial is pending.
The person responsible for prosecuting Hart is state’s attorney Anita Alvarez, who is infamous for both advocating the criminalization of video recording the police, as well as suggesting that three youths who had confessions coerced out of them and were exonerated for the rape and murder of a woman may have still been culpable despite DNA evidence tying the crime to a known serial murderer. One cannot expect a monopolistic service such as police and courts to police themselves, but it is clear from the rhetoric Alvarez and others involved employ that they cannot simply sweep the incident under the rug. (more…)
Friday morning’s Legislative Panel at Keenevention 2013 focused on the tools of activism at the NH State House. Starting with learning how a idea can become a law, discussion included the mechanics of working with political parties, understanding NH demographics, how to win and lose elections, the technique of measuring legislators in a variety of ways, as well as how to successfully lobby (and how not to!) to stop new proposed bad laws and help remove existing bad laws (and [rarely] passing good ones.) Led by former State Representative and Free Keene blogger Seth Cohn, panelists included current State Rep. Tim O’Flaherty (D), former State Rep. Spec Bowers (R), and NH Liberty Alliance Chair Eileen Landies.
This week we reflect upon the first ever, Keenevention 2013. Hopefully the first of many more to come. Also, we break down the Ridley/James ambush interview on Don Maclean. Derrick J, Rapsher, and James join. Show notes and Audio at: BlackSheepRising.org.
I must say, the first-ever Keenevention worked out splendidly, thanks to over 100 great attendees, speakers, volunteers, and VIPs! As promised, the conference focused on activism and our speakers consisted of Free State Project early movers and of course liberty-loving NH natives. As FSP early mover and superactivist Carla Mora expressed on the Keenevention 2013 facebook event,
“This was one hell of an inspirational liberty event. It was very different from ones I have attended in the past…we are doing something right if we are surrounded by these people.”
One attendee told me that he’d never seen such in-depth panels. Our activist speakers and panelists were outstanding, interesting, and informative. Jay Freeville said Keenevention was the,
“First liberty convention I’ve ever been to where I’ve actually wanted to go to more speakers/panels because they were consistently interesting enough to hold my attention!”
In addition, Keenevention was intimate, but yet still large enough to be diverse with people attending from as far away as Wisconsin, Canada, Ohio, and Virgina. The over 100 Keeneventioneers not only watched great speeches and panels, but also conversed, dined together on-the-town, and participated in various activism and social activities. You can the rest of this post via the full article at Keenevention.info!
According to the Sentinel’s election rundown, turnout among the city’s 16,598 registered voters was 12 percent. Put another way, that’s 88% of people who are registered to vote that decided that the election wasn’t important enough to bother. Despite the claims of those who advocate for controlling their neighbors, the Keene election is hardly a mandate against liberty. It’s the same as always: a superminority of people are the ones who decide the winners and those people are usually those who support “the state”. Everyone else is too busy with important things like their lives.
Clearly, despite the excellent slate of liberty-oriented candidates, the average people of Keene did not fear freedom so much that they decided to come vote against us. Turnout this year was nothing unusual. Alternately, they did not desire freedom so much that they decided to come out and vote for us. Most people are in-the-dark as to what is happening here. Only the politically aware are likely to vote in municipal elections, and politically aware people tend to be those who wish to control others, hence, the easy wins for aggression-supporting candidates.
Surely the political class is resting easy with their victories, however, they should keep in mind that should the “sleeping giant” of average folks awaken, it would only take 2-3% of the population of Keene to come out and vote for liberty to completely flip the tables. For instance, I got 10th place out of 10 in the at-large race. However, I’d have needed only 700 votes to have made 5th place and won a seat on the council. 700 is about 3% of Keene’s 23,000 population. What could motivate those people to actually vote? Your guess is as good as mine.
P.S. Thanks to all those who voted for liberty-oriented candidates!
Keene held municipal elections on November 5, 2013. There were 10 candidates for At-Large City Council, with 4 of the 5 winners being current or former Councilors. Emily Hague is the only At-Large Councilor who is new to the Council. Kris Roberts received the most votes for At-Large City Council, and David Curran finished just 4 votes behind David Meader for the fifth At-Large spot. (more…)
Outside of the jurisdiction of the AKPF, Garret ventures about Chicago to meet the agents of the ACPF – Aqua Chicago Parking Force. In town as part of the 2013 Police Accountability Tour, Pete and Garret spent hours on the streets in search of authorities to film before stumbling upon a parking enforcer issuing citations just North of downtown. During the conversation about modern parking enforcement in the United State’s third largest metro, the concept of Robin Hooding is introduced. The reason for the city of Keene’s lawsuit against Robin Hooders did not have to be explained to Agent #734. “This city depends upon that revenue…That’s the reason why you’re getting sued, because this is revenue.” In fact, the recently retired uniform of Chicago’s parking enforcers included a reflective safety vest with large text reading REVENUE embroidered on the rear. It is refreshing to hear honesty up-front from the individuals tasked with revenue collection in the ACPF. Chi-Town officials were on the ball at preventing the Merry People from being able to perform saves in their streets, as they removed all coin-operated meters in favor of kiosks roughly two years ago. Despite the difficult one would face trying to comp the parking of others in the Windy City, Agent #734 parted Garret with, “Keep doing what you do, man!” Check out the special Aqua Chicago Parking Force feature embedded below to get a sampling of parking enforcement under the dominion of Rahm Emanuel.
she sustained a serious injury to her face. Requiring reconstructive surgery, the installation of a titanium plate, and resulting in persistent numbness and vision problems, Cassandra sustained the injury as a result of being shoved face-first into a concrete bench by Skokie officer Michael Hart. Why was it that such a serious injury required seven months for there to be action taken?
The person responsible for prosecuting Hart is state’s attorney Anita Alvarez, who is infamous for both advocating the criminalization of video recording the police, as well as suggesting that three youths who had confessions coerced out of them and were exonerated for the rape and murder of a woman may have still been culpable despite DNA evidence tying the crime to a known serial murderer. One cannot expect a monopolistic service such as police and courts to police themselves, but it is clear from the rhetoric Alvarez and others involved employ that they cannot simply sweep the incident under the rug. (more…)![1380660_245553415599436_919297990_n[1]](https://i0.wp.com/keenevention.info/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1380660_245553415599436_919297990_n1.jpg)
