As previously blogged here, attorney Jon Meyer recently proved in court that the people calling themselves the “City of Keene” have been illegally issuing “no trespass” orders to people they don’t want in Central Square. Now Meyer has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal trespass case against Robin Hooder Graham Colson. In the well-written motion, supportive memo, and supplemental memo, Meyer lays out his case about why the city’s no trespass orders are unconstitutional. In essence, they have no statutory or ordinance-based authority to issue a no-trespass order in response to a skateboarding violation, because receiving such an order is not listed as the punishments for skateboarding in city ordinance – this act is basically KPD making their own law! In addition, the order that was issued by KPD and “the city” violates Graham’s right to due process:
the act of prohibiting Colson from Keene Central Square violates the Due Process Clause because Colson did not have any notice that skateboarding in the Keene Central Square would result in a police order prohibiting him from entering the square.
Meyer also argues the order is an unconstitutional violation of Graham’s free speech rights as it bans him from a public common, historically used to express ideas.
Finally, in the supplemental memo Meyer points out that the no trespass order was issued without any conviction of Graham for his alleged skateboarding violation. In fact, it was issued instead of charging Graham with violating the skateboarding ordinance. This the executive branch, via the orders of Keene boss John Maclean, acting as the judicial and legislative branches. The city council never authorized such a penalty for skateboarding and a charge was never brought before a court, meaning Graham’s due process rights were clearly violated. Legally, Keene police officer Jason Short is only allowed to allege a violation – those charges need to be proven in court. Instead, Short found him guilty on the spot and imposed punishment in the form of the illegal “no trespass” order.
The amount of government malfeasance in this case is astounding. Thank you Jon Meyer.
Late into the evening of August 31, the New Hampshire state police established a suspicionless checkpoint on Route 12 in Walpole. The location seemed a strange choice, as the area is notably rural and does not see any heavy traffic. Presumably, this was also the first suspicionless checkpoint established in Cheshire county this year. A detail of about ten state police units and just under that amount of cruisers situated themselves in front of a large Citgo station and waited for drivers to ambush. For most, the checkpoint meant shuffling through one’s wallet to find their papers, drowning in a sea of backlighting for about two minutes, occasionally field-testing for sobriety, then being released upon their way.
While it is the position of the state that these sorts of rights-infringing checkpoints promote safety by increasing detection of impaired and possibly reckless drivers, individuals are detained at these checkpoints indiscriminately and during my time at the checkpoint itself, I observed only one car that was permitted to roll through with no detention. Since detentions were not based on suspicion of a driving offense, they essentially violate the fourth amendment of the US constitution as well as liberties enumerated in the New Hampshire constitution, but the framework of a supposedly free people is permitted to be violated so long as a person in a black robe authorizes the indiscriminate stops. Per NH law, the suspicionless checkpoint was announced in advance with a release published in the Keene Sentinel. Knowing that drivers needed additional notice of the checkpoint, activists set up signs warning of the checkpoint ahead and indicating where the final turnoff was to avoid the detention from either approach. (more…)
The Keene Sentinel reported, the Keene School District ended the 2012-13 school year with a surplus of just over $2.6 million.
Board member Kris E. Roberts reportedly “said he was frustrated by the discrepancy between the June figures and end-of-year numbers. For one, it’s hard for the district to maintain credibility when asking residents to support budget increases if there’s such a large surplus at the end of the year, he said.
Roberts also thinks the roughly $900,000 difference in surplus numbers between June and now cost the district in lost educational opportunities.”
So, he’s not so much worried about the board’s “credibility when asking residents to support budget increases”; he wanted to be able to spend the money! That’s not my opinion of what he said, he actually said he wanted to spend the money. “Roberts said if he’d known how much surplus money the district would have, he would have supported expanding the iPad program to all the elementary schools.”
The district started using iPads at Fuller School last year and officials want to expand the program to other schools. In March the board voted to spend $17,000 “for 50 iPads and training for teachers at Symonds School.” Based on my calculations, at $340 a piece; the $2.6 million surplus would purchase 7647 iPads, or 2 iPads per student with about $230,880 left over.
I wonder if anyone will remember these details in 6 months when the next budget is proposed?
Darryl and I delivered the following notice today to the people calling themselves the “City of Keene”. The notice is to inform the city people that 73 and 75 Leverett St. are ministers’ parsonages and that we will no longer participate in their system of coercive taxes. However, we may elect to give them a voluntary contribution to support the city programs (like road repair) that we support:
Notice From the Ministers of the Shire Free Church: Keene
2013-09-02
To our neighbors calling themselves the “City of Keene”:
Greetings!
You are now on notice that as of June 27th, 2013 the property commonly known as 73 and 75 Leverett Street has become ministers’ parsonages for the Shire Free Church.
One of the central tenets of our interfaith ministry is peace. Historically, people calling themselves “The City” or “The State” have engaged in systematic threatening of peaceful people. You have jargon for this, like “taxes,” “statutes,” and “ordinances.” (more…)
This week’s episode of AKPF #1 is again interrupted by global conspiracy. Presented this week is Aqua Kommunity Protest Forum, an elegant glance into the differing perspectives and tactics of the community in advancing peace, liberty, truth, and justice. No DPRK officials arrived in capacity nor royal intervention occurred, and although the program formatted for television is limited in its time to 29 minutes, the entire duration of the event from multiple angles is available from Fr33manTVraw.
The BEARCAT issue in Concord festers further as the city council prepares for another hearing on the matter next Monday at 7:00pm. Today the Ridley Report published excerpts from a school board hearing which resulted in a decision by the ultimate propagators of all things ‘for the children’ — the Concord school board — to neither recommend nor block the acquisition of the federal government’s Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Truck. Ridley’s update includes B-roll footage from recent uploads to Fr33manTVraw as well as James Cleaveland’s LightSpeedLiberty channel. An update in last Thursday’s Keene Sentinel republished a Monitor article covering the board meeting and decision.
What do childhood near death experiences, Game of Thrones, fork fetishes and toe sucking all have in common? They’re exactly what we discussed on this week’s captivating episode.
As previously blogged here, attorney Jon Meyer recently proved in court that the people calling themselves the “City of Keene” have been illegally issuing “no trespass” orders to people they don’t want in Central Square. Now Meyer has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal trespass case against Robin Hooder Graham Colson. In the well-written motion, supportive memo, and supplemental memo, Meyer lays out his case about why the city’s no trespass orders are unconstitutional. In essence, they have no statutory or ordinance-based authority to issue a no-trespass order in response to a skateboarding violation, because receiving such an order is not listed as the punishments for skateboarding in city ordinance – this act is basically KPD making their own law! In addition, the order that was issued by KPD and “the city” violates Graham’s right to due process:
