* By Bruce Sterling

You gotta hand it to those Free Staters: when they want some cheesy media coverage, they know how to get it.

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo

http://sentinelsource.com/articles/2009/09/09/news/local/free/id_370823.txt

Charge dropped against teenager
Free Stater went topless in city
By PHILLIP BANTZ
Sentinel Staff
Wednesday, September 09, 2009

The armed teenager who was arrested while topless in downtown Keene did not break the law, according to police prosecutors.

Cassidy Nicosia, 18, of Manchester no longer faces a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure and lewdness.

Nicosia was arrested Aug. 23 after police received complaint calls about a topless teenager standing near the Main-Marlboro-Winchester streets roundabout with a handgun holstered on her hip.

State law does not require residents to have permits to openly carry guns, and she was not charged with any firearm-related crimes.

Last week, police prosecutors D. Chris McLaughlin and Eliezer Rivera decided to drop the charge of indecent exposure and lewdness against Nicosia. The charge was dropped because walking down the street topless
does not qualify as a crime under state law, Keene police Lt. Jay U. Duguay said.

The law states that a person commits indecent exposure and lewdness if he or she fornicates, exposes genitals or performs any other “act of
gross lewdness … likely to cause affront or alarm” in public.

“She wasn’t fornicating or exposing genitals — breasts aren’t genitals,” Duguay said. “No one who complained about it said that it was gross
lewdness.”

While towns and cities may enact ordinances that prohibit women from going topless in public, Keene has no such ordinance, Duguay said.

“The officer (who arrested Nicosia) did what he thought was right at the time,” he said, “but sometimes you take a second look at these things and realize the law is not really worded the way you thought it was.”

Two other factors played a role in the police prosecutors’ decision to drop the charge against Nicosia, according to Duguay.

They wanted to keep the N.H. Supreme Court from having a chance to weigh in on the law, which could have happened if Nicosia was convicted and appealed, Duguay said. If asked to examine the state law dealing with indecent exposure and lewdness, the court might find that the language in the statute is too broad and then drop the entire statute, he said.

Also, Nicosia went topless to make a statement about equality, which could be viewed as a form of expression or free speech that is protected
under the First Amendment, Duguay said.

“I chose to do it because … one of the most important issues to me is equality,” Nicosia said while being videotaped before her arrest. “Men
can walk down the street … and, you know, not get harassed at all but yet somehow this is dirty.”

Nicosia is a member of the Free State Project, an effort to convince 20,000 people to move to the Life Free or Die state and participate in
various forms of activism and run for local and state office.

Attempts to reach Nicosia before press time were unsuccessful.

Ian “Freeman” Bernard, a talk radio host and outspoken member of the project, said other women were planning to go topless outside Keene District Court during Nicosia’s arraignment, which was scheduled for
Wednesday. He wasn’t sure if the topless demonstration would still occur.

While Nicosia no longer faces a criminal charge, the dismissal prevents her from challenging the law and paving the way for other women to go
topless in public without risking arrest, Bernard said.

“By dropping the charge they’ve really headed off any way to challenge what they’ve done and set a precedent,” he said. “Hopefully, if this
happens again, if someone like Cassidy decides she’s hot and wants to act like her male counterparts, they can be left alone.”

http://freekeene.com/2009/01/10/andrew-carrolls-arrest-for-marijuana-possession-video-2/

I gather the video on the above captioned link was taken by Lauren Canario, so, good news, she’s free. I thought she was still rotting in some jail for some mala prohibitum nonsense. So, yay.

Why stop there? How about a pair of pliers and a blowtorch?

He can just go waterboard himself for all I care.

Are we done being bloodthirsty yet?

Why stop there? How about a pair of pliers and a blowtorch?

Arnold H. Bailey
Councilor Ward 1 – 2006 to 2009
Member: Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee
Address: 654 Main Street
Phone: 358-3126
Email abailey@ci.keene.nh.us

Pamela Russell Slack
Councilor Ward 2 – 2008 to 2011
Vice-Chair: Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee
Address: 260 Beaver Street
Phone: 358-5132
Email prussellslack@ci.keene.nh.us

Paula-Ayn Phillips
Councilor Ward 2 – 2006 to 2009
Vice-Chair: Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
Address: 171 Roxbury Street
Phone: 357-4315
Email pphillips@ci.keene.nh.us

David C. Richards
Councilor Ward 3 – 2008 to 2011
Member: Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
Address: 201 Court St.
Phone: 352-1084
Email dcrichards@ci.keene.nh.us

Nathaniel M. Stout
Councilor Ward 3 – 2006 to 2009
Vice-Chair: Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee
Address: 173 North Street
Phone: 357-5615
Email nstout@ci.keene.nh.us

Kendall W. Lane
Councilor Ward 4 – 2008 to 2011
Member: Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee
Address: 98 Wyman Road
Phone: 355-3505
Email klane@ci.keene.nh.us

Philip M. Jones
Councilor Ward 4 – 2006 to 2009
Chair: Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
Address: 249 Pako Avenue
Phone: 358-5016
Email pjones@ci.keene.nh.us

Cynthia Georgina
Councilor Ward Five – 2008 to 2011
Chair: Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee
Address: 41 Bent Court
Phone: 357-1273
Email cgeorgina@ci.keene.nh.us

Joseph W. Bendzinski
Councilor Ward Five – 2006 to 2009
Member: Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee
Address: 153 Island Street
Phone: 352-0063
Email jbendzinski@ci.keene.nh.us

Ruth R. Venezia
Councilor At Large – 2008 to 2009
Member: Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee
Address: 138 School Street
Phone: 352-4822
Email rvenezia@ci.keene.nh.us

James Duffy
Councilor At Large – 2008 to 2009
Member: Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
Address: 16 Russell Street
Phone: 357-8761
Email jduffy@ci.keene.nh.us

Margaret A. Lynch
Councilor At Large – 2008 to 2009
Member: Planning, Licenses and Development Committee
Address: 50 Castle Street
Phone: 352-8794
Email mlynch@ci.keene.nh.us

Mitchell H. Greenwald
Councilor At Large – 2008 to 2009
Member: Municipal Services, Facilities and Infrastructure Committee
Address: 98 Peg Shop Road
Phone: 352-5483
Email mgreenwald@ci.keene.nh.us

Kris E. Roberts
Councilor At Large – 2008 to 2009
Member: Finance, Organization and Personnel Committee
Address: 58 Grove Street
Phone: 352-1105
Email kroberts@ci.keene.nh.us

All phone numbers area code 603

All electronic communications and associated attachments exchanged with the Keene City Council shall be recorded by the City as a governmental record and may be subject to release to the public

Philip Dale Pregent
Address: 142 Marlboro Street
Phone: 352-6736

City Hall address:
3 Washington Street
Keene NH 03431
(603) 357-9805

Yes. But I was thinking of a regular metal bit when I wrote that. And nothing has changed since then.

LOL

You DO know such attachments for power drills exist, right???

I would like to state my extreme displeasure with Eliezer Rivera and his attempt at harassing and imprisoning a free man for expressing his right to speech and political dissent. Eliezer Rivera should not only be ashamed at his un-American, naked hostility toward our freedoms, he should step down from his position and get some mental help. Clearly he has issues with control.

http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/police/

Do what you wish with these URLs.

I would have been stronger in my language, but had only been awake perhaps ten minutes when I read that, so my grogginess got the best of me.

Thing is: I love the philosophical aspect of libertarianism (as my rather large library will attest) and so do many other libertarians. But expressing outrage and shutting the bastards down is a trait the modern libertarian movements seems to be lacking. Those people like Eliezer Rivera don’t deserve to be called “honorable”: the deserves to sent out of town with a crowd of pitchfork and torch wielding citizens hot on his trail. Initiation of force? hardly. It’s self defense against those who would harass, fine, jail and murder you so THEIR power can remain undisturbed. He should be beneath our contempt.

Eliezer Rivera is a powermad, control freak asshole. Everyone like that should be called as such and made to feel stigmatized and ashamed.

So, Libertarians, when do you want to put the “fight” back into “freedom fighter”?