Big Turd Lands in Free State Project Punchbowl

Poor Carla Gericke, president of the Free State Project. She's desperately trying to keep up the pretense that the FSP is a benign, peace loving bunch of folk, moving to NH to enjoy Freedumb and Libertea. 

That's a hard enough sell, given that the FSP is a bunch of armed miscreants moving to NH to take over the state, dismantle the government, and threaten to secede. 

But for Carla it's been a tough month or so, with all the negative media attention generated by the recent spree of cop killings and the the link to Cop Block  (all of the killers were fans of Cop Block) which was founded by members of the Free State Project. In fact, Free Stater Chris Cantwell was cheering on Justin Bourque, the Canadian who killed 3 RCMPs and wounded a few others:

 Not exactly the kind of publicity that Carla is trying to attract before their big annual festive gathering in Lancaster. After all, she's trying to court the national media to cover the sanitized story she wants to tell - about plucky libertarians and Bitcoin. She wants the national media to ignore the story of violent rhetoric from Free Staters who are vocal about their desire to kill police and use violence to take over.  She's been lucky so far. This story isn't being covered nationally. Hell, it's not even being covered by the NH media, who often function as sycophants for the FSP.


The boys at Cop Block were persuaded to take Cantwell off their page as a commenter/moderator, because it didn't look good.  Cop Block co-founder Adam Mueller acknowledged that this was being done for PR reasons.

Slaves? That refers to all of you misguided folk who post Cop Block memes on your FB pages, and so on. If you aren't one of the FSP cult, they have nothing but contempt for you. 

The dust was settling after all the cop killing, no one picked up on Ian Freeload's opposition to an age of consent for children and adults having sex, and she had survived the contempt of Larken Rose and his friend Josie, the self-styled outlaw:

it looked as if Carla's fantasy of a DIY themed (snort) PorcFest was about to come true. Of course this wasn't exactly DIY home improvement tips. No, this involves workshops on lock picking and building an AR-15, because of course people who come in peace come with AR-15s. One of the boys even put together this attempt at diverting attention from the recent talk of violence. Sad that it needed to be done. But, still, all was fairly quiet on the freedom front. 

Then a big, big turd landed in the Free State Project punchbowl. 

Chris Cantwell  has moved to Keene. Last week he was filmed there by folks from the Colbert Show. In a week or two this is going national! Let's All Welcome Chris Cantwell to NH! 

He's living right near the cult headquarters at the Church of the FreeLoad - and looking for roommates and financial contributions. Ian Bernard and Rich (no longer a Free Man) Paul have been trying to get Cantwell to move to Keene for some time, even though they kicked him out of the "activist center" and were happy to see him leave town just 2 years ago. Ian FreeLoad claimed in 2012 that Cantwell's pro violent rhetoric went against Ian's belief system. 

What happened, Ian? Have you embraced violence as a solution? Was all that talk of peace and nonviolence just a convenient charade? 

Poor Carla. This isn't apt to go well. An unstable, violent, self-admitted drunk, out there in Keene playing to the media? 

This Martha Stewart version of PorcFest she's trying to pull off might not go the way she planned. 

Build an AR 15 at Porcfest

Learn to pick locks at Porcfest

Cantwell kicked out of the FSP because he started talking about using violence when the FSP was wailing at being called potential domestic terrorists. The last thing they wanted was for anyone to find out that the Concord PD might well have been right. 

Cantwell's response to the FSP. 

Cantwell on his problems with Free Keene last time.

Making Friends and Keenely Influencing Politics

It's that time of year in New Hampshire - the time when we move toward town meeting, and the cities and towns that adopted SB 2 have their deliberative sessions. 

One such session took place in Keene yesterday - the deliberative session for the school budget. 

From the Keene Sentinel 

A majority of Keene voters had a clear message Saturday for a small group that sought to slash the budget and reduce some of the school board’s powers:

No, thank you.

Most voters showed their disdain for the ideas, amending each of seven warrant articles and describing most of them as a waste of time or irresponsible. 

Who was this small group?  It was future POTUS  Darryl W. Perry  Conan Salada, and Ian Freeman of the Keene branch of the Free State Project. 

Freeman tried to reduce the budget by $5 million, saying that rising taxes are driving people from Keene. His motion failed 75-15.

And

Some wondered aloud why, if taxes in Keene are so high, they haven’t driven out Freeman or Perry. Others groaned at their proposals or laughed at some defeated amendments.

When the Free Staters started moving to NH, they waxed on  about how much they loved town meeting as a form of government. It's listed as one of their 101 reasons to move to NH. I'm sure that from a theoretical standpoint, it seemed like the bestest thing ever. 

Town meeting is the bestest thing ever. Most of the time ridiculousness gets a sound thrashing, as Messrs. Perry, Salada, and Freeman experienced on Saturday.

My Active Opposition to the Concord BearCat is Over

I am deeply concerned about the militarization of the police around this country. I was strongly opposed to the city of Keene purchasing a BearCat. It seemed to me that Keene had no need for it, and the justifications provided didn’t hold water. It seems I was correct. Keene has never used the BearCat.

I was horrified to read that the Boston Police Dept. brought a sound cannon with them when they busted up the Occupy Boston encampment. Occupy was a non-violent movement. The people in that camp had no weapons. The idea of a sound cannon being brought along to use on peaceful protestors is shocking. Equally shocking is the fact that the now-defunct Boston Phoenix was the only media outlet to report on it.

These are some of the reasons why I was opposed to the City of Concord getting a grant for a BearCat. The sweetheart contractor deal that LENCO gets – because they know what congresscritters to bribe makes me ill. It’s Pentagon pork – filtered through the Dept. of Homeland Security. The grant application naming certain groups as potential domestic terrorist threats was also upsetting, but not as much as militarization and pork.

So, with all that in mind, I went to the Concord City Council hearing on the purchase of the Bearcat. I did not expect to be swayed by Chief Duval’s presentation, but I was.

The BearCat is intended to replace the 1970’s vintage armored Peacekeeper that the Concord PD has. This can’t be called  increased militarization - it’s replacing old equipment. The current armored vehicle goes out on calls where there are hostages, where armed individuals are shooting, and other equally dangerous situations. It is not an “attack” vehicle. It is a tool employed to protect the lives of police officers and emergency responders.

But wait – this is Concord – a small peaceful city, right? That’s true. But Concord has something that no other city in the state has. The NH State House. Concord is our capitol city. Visiting dignitaries visit our capitol. Nearly every presidential candidate visits our state capitol. And this year, nearly every month (so far) there has been a big demonstration in front of the State House by gun nuts.

January 19, 2013

January 31, 2013

February 23, 2013

April 13, 2013

And then there was June 19, 2013, when gun nuts violently disrupted a peaceful vigil in front of the NH State House.

 minister heckled by gun nuts

Father who lost daughter to gun violence heckled by gun nut

heckler arrested and tased

Names on a List

And then there was my eyewitness account of this event: 

gun crowd goes beserk

It was a scary scene. I’m still amazed that no one was injured or killed there. The gun crowd was out of control – illustrating why some of us support expanded background checks. It’s likely that many of the participants in that melee couldn’t pass a background check on the best day they ever had.

Then there’s the fact that the State House has no metal detectors. Many legislators and visitors are armed.

I understand why Chief Duval wants this armored vehicle.

I do not support the contractor/Pentagon/DSH pork. I do not support the increased militarization of police. After listening to the chief and thinking about our capitol city, I no longer view this particular instance as increased militarization. It absolutely was increased militarization in Keene.

I left the City Council hearing feeling really uncomfortable. I was disgusted with the histrionics of the Free Staters and their allies. I was disgusted with State Representatives George Lambert and JR Hoell for inserting themselves into an issue of local control – and they aren’t local. Lambert (who wants to put the goober in goobernatorial) wanted to show the video of the drunken heckler being tased in front of the State House thinking it would stop the Concord City Council from approving the BearCat. I tend to think that if they saw that video they’d order a few extra BearCats as backup.

Tanks for the Memories

Last year it was Keene. This year it’s Concord, trying to get a grant for over $250,000 from the Dept. of Homeland Security to buy a LENCO BearCat G3, an armored police vehicle (often called a “tank”). The BearCat could be used in the case of terrorist activity, including chemical weapons and gases, as well as weapons.

LENCO is, thanks to the Dept. of Homeland Security, the leading purveyor of armored vehicles in the US. The huge grants given out by the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) to buy these vehicles have put LENCO firmly on the world map as a contractor.  Defense contractors that have been scoring big taxpayer dollars from the Pentagon are now trying to move into the lucrative market of arming police forces. We’ve seen an increase in the militarization of the police since 9/11. Vast sums of “homeland security” money have gone to  potential terrorist targets like Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Keene received a grant for $285,933 to purchase the BearCat. Keene has a population of about 23,000. It’s not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity. There have been about 2 murders in the last decade. Why did the police need a $300,000 armored vehicle? They didn’t. But they could have one, and that’s the difference. The money is there, and police love shiny new toys more than just about anything. That’s why the war on drugs is still being funded, not because it’s a success, but because police departments rely on the funds they get to perpetuate it.

The increasing militarization of police should be of concern to us all. When the Boston PD broke up the Boston Occupy encampment, they had a sound cannon with them. The LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device) can produce sounds that induce pain, and can result in permanent auditory damage. The LRAD is commonly known as a sound cannon. They’ve been used by the US military against Somali pirates. US police departments have used them to attack non-violent protestors. The sound cannon brought to the Boston Occupy encampment wasn’t used on the unarmed, nonviolent protestors. Not that day, anyhow. In 2011, an LRAD was used when the Oakland police busted up the Oakland Occupy encampment. One was used against Occupy Wall St. protestors. An LRAD was used during a NATO march in Chicago in 2012. A portable LRAD was used on nonviolent protestors this year in the capitol building in Madison, WI. Police across the country are responding with increasing violence to non-violent protests.

The widespread use of the oxymoronically named Free Speech Zones during the Bush administration was the first sign that our Constitutional rights to peaceably assemble were under attack. Anti-war protestors were put in these zones, to keep them from getting media attention. Political protestors were kept out of the view of the media and visiting dignitaries. The Bushistas were desperate to sanitize the media viewpoint for their protection.

The ginning up of fear around terrorism has been steady and constant since 9/11. That manipulation translates into the bulk of our tax dollars being spent on defense and homeland security. It’s also worth pointing out that the Dept. of Defense and the Dept. of Homeland Security are the only cabinet level agencies that cannot pass an audit. We the people have no way of knowing where our money is going, or what it’s being used to do in our name.

Meanwhile, we’re being told that we have to cut food stamps and Social Security because “we’re broke.” Yet we aren’t too broke to buy tanks for small town police departments. Funny how we never hear the conservatives who cry about food stamps saying a word about shoveling money at defense contractors. We can afford weapons. We just can’t afford poor people. A mindset that only serves to increase the population of impoverished US citizens.

Does the Concord PD need a BearCat? About as much as Keene did. The grant will cover the price of the vehicle, but the Concord taxpayers will be the ones paying for the care and feeding of the tank. A friend in Keene tells me that the Keene Bearcat has never been out. Various suggestions have been made at City Council meetings about what to do with it, including using it as a planter in Central Square. Given the trouble that the meter readers in Keene are having with harassment by the Free Keene branch of the Free State Project, perhaps the meter readers could use while they work.

That leads us to the second part of the story. Chief Duval of the Concord PD cited groups like Sovereign Citizens, NH Occupy, and the Free State Project as potential agents of domestic terrorism. The Sovereign Citizens movement does have a history of racism and violence. Occupy does not. Occupy was/is a very intentionally non-violent movement. Occupy NH fell apart because it was co-opted by members of the Free State Project, people who insisted on wearing guns to meetings and events. There were peaceful Occupiers who were uncomfortable with this, but the FSP’ers weren’t willing to leave their strap-ons at home, because FREEDUMB. They have the “right” and that’s all that matters. Their rights always trump those of others. The group splintered into the guns and gun nots and that was the end of that. Citing Occupy as a group with domestic terrorist potential is completely wrongheaded. If Chief Duval can come up with an act of violence perpetuated by a NH Occupy group, I’d be interested to hear about it.

Of course the same is true of the Free State Project. They haven’t engaged in any acts of domestic terrorism, either. They are an armed group of insurgents moving in with the intention of taking over our state – but so far they haven’t hurt anyone. They openly disdain our laws and our courts, and they harass the police whenever possible, but again, so far they haven’t hurt anyone.  By naming them on the grant application, Chief Duval has given them the greatest gift possible - the opportunity to do what they love best: crying victim.  The story of the tank is now all about the Free Staters. The wasteful use of our tax dollars, the outrageous amounts of money DHS appears to have to give away, the skewed priorities that this spending reveals are all going to be obscured by the ceaseless whining of the FSP.

BearCat fever hasn’t spread to the North Country yet. Who will be the first? Chatham? Albany? I’m pinning my hopes on Hart’s Location.



© sbruce 2013  Published as a regular biweekly column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper.