The fourth Occupy New England regional convergence was held this past weekend at the University of New Hampshire’s main campus in Durham. The gathering brought together dedicated activists from around the Northeast to spend time workshopping, networking, and strategizing. In a twist of fate, riot police would descend upon the surrounding area as outdoor presentations on street medic effectiveness and bullhorn mastery occurred on the campus green.
Presidential candidate Vermin Supreme was about midway through a session on de-escalating tense situations when chants of ‘UNH, UNH’ were audible from down the street directly across from the audience. Moments later, riot police appeared to be blocking the road off as students poured out of the area, many bearing cell phones in a manner suggesting that they were video recording. I wandered down for a closer look, and was surprised to see multiple officers carrying paintball guns, and others holding large canisters of pepper spray, most wearing helmets with face shields, gloves, and other protective gear (short of physical riot shields). Students were compliant with requests to stay out of the area, but were clearly agitated by what had previously occurred, several students reporting to have been hit and bruised by rubber bullets (likely pepperballs). From across the road, Vermin’s voice amplified through his bullhorn, reminding everyone to stay calm, that this was only a test, and to ignore the man with the megaphone. The mood lightened lightly as the police froze momentarily and onlookers responded with laughter and applause. (more…)
This is not an uncommon scene – police harassing people who may have been drinking. What is uncommon is Antonio Buehler and the rest of the Peaceful Streets Project who come on the scene and wield cameras and questions.
The whole video has some excellent exchanges, but the embedded video will skip you to a highlight where a cop actually admits he is a thug:
Ultimately, Buehler and friends are able to help the lady that owns the car escape the clutches of the uniformed gang, but not before the gang members jacks her car and arrests her friend.
Peaceful Streets’ activists are doing good work. (more…)
Helena, MT—A Cheshire County, New Hampshire jury convicted local marijuana and liberty activist Rich Paul today on five felony counts of victimless drug charges. Paul had disputed one of the charges on the facts and had openly pursued jury nullification on the other four charges, which involved the sale of small amounts of marijuana. The buyer turned out to be an FBI-paid informant who had entrapped Paul in exchange for leniency for his own heroin offense.
In 2012, New Hampshire passed HB 146, a fully informed jury bill, which guaranteed defendants the ability in court “to inform the jury of its right to judge the facts and the application of the law in relation to the facts in controversy.” The measure took effect on January 1 of this year.
While the defense did make the case for jury nullification, the judge undermined the intent of the law through misinformation in the instructions he issued to the jury. An attendee at the trial reported on the Free Keene Facebook page that, “Judge John C. Kissinger is reading jury instructions, where he is emphasizing the word “I” in his claim that the jury “must follow the law as *I* explain it”.” (more…)
A thirty-second television spot which gives another take on the upcoming series AKPF #1 is now available. Stay tuned for more on the cable access series which premieres Monday, May 13 at 7pm on Cheshire county’s channel 8.
Thanks to Marc Stevens‘ excellent motion to dismiss/strike that I modified and filed in my Antrim speeding ticket case, the regional prosecutor, Michael Beausoleil responded! In his response he actually makes the claim that I am “within the state” and simultaneously claims to be the state. The response I am sending out to Mr. Beausoleil tomorrow makes it clear that while it can be proven that I am within a geographic boundary commonly known as New Hampshire, Beausoleil has not proven that I am within the jurisdiction of the political state. It should be interesting to see if I get a response.
In addition to this series of interaction, I have also filed a request for discovery, motion to bypass the waste-of-time “pre trial conference”, (which is nothing more than a glorified plea deal )and also filed a motion for the court to acknowledge my long-established name change to Ian Freeman. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for updates.
As you may recall, on 2011-06-15, Tom Ball self-immolated out in front of the Cheshire County “Superior” Court – where many lives have been destroyed.
Recently, Dave Ridley had the opportunity to confront one of the bureaucrats involved with the family courts and did a great job: (You only need to watch the first two minutes. The rest is mostly Ridley walking around.)
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