This year’s fifth of November celebration in front of the state house drew a larger and more motivated crowd than last year. After demonstrating in front of the placid capitol building Saturday evening, a group of activists marched to the liquor store, and once inside, began performing Weeda Claus’ Chronic Christmas Carols, which are songs about the harms of the war on drugs set to the tune of popular Christmas jingles.
A great portion of the festivities were captured by numerous still and video journalists from around the Shire. See the initial demonstration in part one, and the liquor store serenade in part two.
I went with Ian Freeman to his traffic court ticket on November 1. He was alleged to have not paid a parking meter, resulting in a $10 fine. He was found guilty despite several convincing motions to dismiss based on lack of competency of the witness, lack of clarity, and others. Despite his being found guilty, it was uplifting to know that by NOT taking the plea deal, he kept a parking enforcement officer off the streets and unable to ticket approximately 30 peaceful people whose crimes involve no victim–they would simply be extorted by agents of the State.
Thanks, Ian, for sacrificing your time and energy to fighting the State in their own home-turf, peacefully using words and reason and argumentation. The fact that they cannot negotiate using reason, but instead resort to force, is an indication of their dying system being replaced by Life 2.0 — a freer, more peaceful world.
Everyone who goes to court to defend himself against being charged with a victimless crime is using his mind and body and energy to change the world. Those who fight the state in court take up valuable time and resources for agents of the State–time and resources they’d rather be using to extort people. You can participate in this kind of activism by Pleading Not Guilty to victimless crimes and by handing out FreeKeene’s “Don’t Take the Plea Deal” flyers in your own town.
With all the controversy in Keene surrounding young people in Central Square, those who have been observing have likely noticed the usual political tactic of lumping individuals into groups. This is a typical and thoughtless approach. It makes it easy to dismiss people and their opinions, because they can be seen as just one of the group. It has (and continues to) happened with liberty-minded people being called “Free Staters” and “Free Keeners” even if they aren’t one, the other, or both. Now it’s happening with some of the teens and young adults hanging out in Central Square. Just call them “Juggalos” and then one can just dismiss them all as troublemakers, when in reality only a few of them might actually be. I mean, the FBI recently called the Juggalos a nationwide gang, so they must all be criminals, right?
This is the mindset of people who haven’t bothered to try to talk to any of the people they don’t understand. I used to be this way myself. I considered all the government people to be evil, but then I realized they are just human beings who for the most part think they are doing good. Many don’t realize that they are supporting a violent monopoly and are blind to the horribly destructive ends of the system in which they work. Having one-on-one conversations with some of them helped me see them as fellow humans instead of heartless bureaucrats.
I get it. It’s easy to categorize people into groups. It’s also lazy. Most of the Juggalos that I have met are good, young folks. Smoking weed is not a crime against other human beings and nor is enjoying the common. Oh, and guess who helped pick up the park as part of Kleen Keene? Some of the Juggalos. Seems the real issue with Central Square is that some teens do things that some adults don’t appreciate, like using profanity. These conflicts have lived on for generations and no law will make them go away. Older folks should remember what it was like when they were younger and then try to connect with the people on the Square rather than just write them all off as a “problem”.
This is a little late, but the video of the Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee meeting, addressing disorderly behavior in Central Square, is available online, courtesy of Cheshire TV and the City of Keene. (The City of Keene has been working, successfully, to make local government more accessible. The video requires Microsoft Silverlight to play, which is frustrating, but a lot better than no video at all. [Update: Steve, a computer whiz, says you can also play it with VLC media player. Download the relevant program at the link.]) See the Video and more
WALL ST – TalleyTV visited occupied Wall Street with three FR33 Agents from the Shire, Michele 7, Derrick J and Ryan Maddox. There they met up with other allies, including Ethan Lee Vita who agreed to be interviewed about his occupation experiences.
During our recording, Ethan and I were approached my a uniformed lieutenant employed by the New York Police Department. He was trying to intimidate Ethan and myself into leaving the spot where we were standing – in front of a piece of art. Neither of us moved and the law enforcer couldn’t cite and reason or law why it was necessary for us to move. So we continued going about our peaceful business.
Occupy New Hampshire survived four complete nights as an intentional community. The first two in Victory and the final two-plus in Veterans Park had such a spurious air about them. The environment created by the occupation was that of a foreign presence upon a national ground. A presence foreign in that it was a horizontally organized competitor to the established order in Manchester. And while the occupiers were claiming no ground but that which they’d camped upon (and demonstrated a willingness to shuffle between parks to accommodate previously scheduled events), it still seemed so apparent, and would be confirmed through arrests, that there was something fundamentally challenging to the status quo by people camping out in a park that they are forced to pay for.
The quiet Elm Street in front of Veterans Park on October 19, approx. 2:00am.
I spent two long periods of time at the occupation (more…)
This year’s fifth of November celebration in front of the state house drew a larger and more motivated crowd than last year. After demonstrating in front of the placid capitol building Saturday evening, a group of activists marched to the liquor store, and once inside, began performing Weeda Claus’ Chronic Christmas Carols, which are songs about the harms of the war on drugs set to the tune of popular Christmas jingles.
With all the controversy in Keene surrounding young people in Central Square, those who have been observing have likely noticed the usual political tactic of lumping individuals into groups. This is a typical and thoughtless approach. It makes it easy to dismiss people and their opinions, because they can be seen as just one of the group. It has (and continues to) happened with liberty-minded people being called “Free Staters” and “Free Keeners” even if they aren’t one, the other, or both. Now it’s happening with some of the teens and young adults hanging out in Central Square. Just call them “Juggalos” and then one can just dismiss them all as troublemakers, when in reality only a few of them might actually be. I mean, the FBI recently called the Juggalos a nationwide gang, so they must all be criminals, right?
