State v Garret Bicycle Trial – Full Video

Originally published at freeconcord.org:

2012_12_16_lightOne may have noticed that a good amount of the content featured here in the past week has followed a bicycle headlamp trial endeavor of this blog’s editor, Garret Ean. The full trial video with very minimal editing has finished uploading and is now available via youtube.com/freeconcordtv. About 2/3 of the video’s fifty-four minute run time consists of the cross examination of detaining officer Michael Pearl. The raw videos from which the complete piece was crafted have been available since shortly after the event at Fr33manTVraw. There has been an entry featuring new media from the trial almost every day since, including coverage of the camera fiasco prior to the trial, a raw podcast segment overviewing the trial, and a visually illustrated discussion of court issues from Tuesday evening’s episode of Free Talk Live.

Dec 20 2012: And the verdict is

Instantly Safer Schools: Teacher Concealed Carry

UPDATE:

A Texas School District has a policy allowing teachers to carry firearms.  Don’t mess with schools in Texas!

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In the wake of 9/11 the United States Congress passed the Federal Flight Deck Officer program.  It was a great idea: allow professional pilots already entrusted with enormous responsibility to carry firearms while at work so that in the event of absolute catastrophe they can be the last line of defense.

The brave volunteer pilots who participate in the program are trained and managed by the TSA.  Even though the program has been intentionally stalled by both the Bush and Obama Administrations, and burdened with ridiculous regulations (such as not allowing pilots to carry holstered firearms on their person), the program remains an excellent and free deterrent to air piracy/hijacking.

Ignoring for a minute the fact that municipal school boards in New Hampshire are political subdivisions that cannot tell their licensed employees that they cannot carry firearms, why not establish a voluntary FFDO-similar program available to all publicly employed teachers in our state?

The New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council would be an ideal government agency for the General Court to task with assisting municipal school boards oversee training, compliance, and standards for public school teachers that wanted to participate.  This isn’t a suggestion to make teachers police officers.  This is a suggestion to make teachers able to protect themselves and others in the event of absolute catastrophe, just like in the air with the FFDO program.

It seems like common sense to me.

Keene Police Scanner Audio is Fixed!

If you have been trying to access the Keene Police Scanner stream over the past few days, it has sounded very distorted. That problem has been solved and the audio is again clear and understandable.

As always, you can tune in via your favorite media player via your computer or smartphone to KPD.FreeKeene.com (just use “open URL” in your favorite media player and put that in). If that link doesn’t work, you can enter: http://98.143.36.105:6060/live

The easiest way to listen on your smartphone is probably the Tunein app. It’s available for all phone operating systems. Just install the app and search for “Keene police”.

Why Are Feds Giving Off-the-record Speeches?

Dave Ridley yesterday uploaded one of his most intriguing camera-ban videos. Aaron Snipe, spokesman for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, on October 9 delivered a speech at the UNH Manchester campus. Snipe is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston and it appears has been going on speaking tours for the federal government for the past few years. Early in the video, we see a poster advertising the event entitled, “US Policy in the Middle East”. At the bottom is printed, “Free and Open to the Public”. Despite this, Ridley is told by an event organizer that he would not be allowed to audio or video record the event, but that he was free to attend and take notes.

The video ends with an ambush interview of Snipe as he walks from the hallway into the venue. Snipe enters with another man in a suit and carrying a satchel, allowing him to keep his hands free. When Ridley asks why recording is banned from the evening’s engagement, Snipe appears confused, and his presumed assistant replies, “Why is he off-the-record? It’s just because that’s the ground rules we set, thank you.” (more…)