Pixiq

Thanks for the coverage.

Carlos,

Tutu Lee is a free stater also. Watching this makes me want to move to New Hampshire.

To paraphrase Sam, you have no rights with these government people until you give up your rights by incriminating yourself with your name and other information. How long are they going to keep him in there?

This is one of the clearest, fair analysis of what’s gone on so far. Thanks for this great article!

– Patrick (one of the five activists arrested for not leaving the lobby)

To those of you who are tempted to make the move, let me tell you that it’s an amazing place for Liberty lovers.

Thanks Carlos for writing up this article on Sam. It’s terrible what they are doing to him. Hopefully the more liberty lovers that move to New Hampshire the better.

Thanks so much for covering this. Sam is a peaceful person standing up for his individual rights. He is being held as a political prisoner, to make an example out of him.

I’m a FSP member and the actions of the Keene authorities only inspire me to move sooner.

Carlos,

What the so called authorities have done to you and others who would report on their actions is terrible.

As an amatuer photographer and someone who has become aware of the threat to our individual and collective liberties an unchecked government poses, I want to thank you for bringing this issue and John Sam Doe’s plight to a broader public eye.

Awesome article Carlos!! I’ve been following it closely and you’ve done a great job! Thanks.

my girlfriend just asked me “what’s it say” in regards to this story.

My answer? “uh, someone got arrested for taking pictures, as always”

The FSP… ah, how it seemed like a good idea at the time… and then only a small percentage of “pledges” moved when they were supposed to.

Something about “fight for what you believe in” has been beaten, prosecuted, and fined out of american lives.

Truly sad.

Genewitch, you must have gotten the wrong word about the FSP. We have new people moving to NH every week. The project has only just begun, and we are in the early mover stage at this time.

Please take another look:
http://freestateproject.org

genewitch, the Free State Project is just getting started. It can take a while for people to convince their spouses, find new employment, and move their families across the country. I’ve been a member for several years but may not move until later this year, or even next year.

Law is declared by fiat by many of these local judges/officers used to getting their way.

Why doesn’t he just comply? He’s just making things worse for all of us. If he keeps this up, we’ll be forced to get bar codes tattooed on us or RFIDs implanted. I don’t want that. They cause cancer. I don’t want cancer. Sam, you are killing us all!

genewitch, nobody is supposed to move until the number reaches 20K, and then only within a 5 year window. So with 9200 pledgers and 700 movers, we’re way ahead of the game! I’m moving in a few weeks and hope to see you there.

Moe, I thought we had the right to remain silent, didn’t you? Sam is standing up for that right.

He’s going to have an extremely tough time saying that giving his name is a violation of his rights. Generally, the Supreme Court has held that providing your name is not a violation of the 4th or 5th amendments. There was a Supreme Court Case on this issue for a person who refused to provide his name, resulting in his arrest. The Court held that stop-and-identify laws are permitted under limited circumstances.

This case is different because here, the person was arrested and then was subsequently asked for identification. However, if the Court held that identification requests are permitted for innocent people who have done no illegality, it’s unlikely that they would carve out an exception for people who have been arrested.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiibel_v._Sixth_Judicial_District_Court_of_...

Uh, i could have sworn the “pledge” date for FSP was like 2005-2007ish.

I Distinctly remember all the fuss about the porcupine FSP website in 2004 when badnarick was your guys’ candidate.

It’s neither “new” nor “sucessful” in that there was something like 5000 signatures (or more) when i was browsing the site, and well under 1000 actually moved on the “move date” (which appears to be lost to the annals of time…? i can’t find a reference anywhere)

The whole point was not to have a slow filtering of libertarians to NH; the point was to overflow the state with libertarians and take over the local and state governments, to show that libertarianism was a valid form of governing a large entity like a state.

What year did you folks pick NH? 2003. That was 6 years ago.

More power to you all for trying to get political change in this country, but as i said, americans are freaking lazy.

There may have been some goal at some early point that proved too unrealistic, but I don’t recall anything resembling a “move date”. I signed up to move to NH and did so labor day weekend of 2006. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than here surrounded by like-minded activists, with more coming all the time:

111+ Reasons to Move to Keene
http://move.freekeene.com

NH was choosen at the end of 2003. More like 5.5 years. There is no original pledge date that i’m aware of. There was an early mover drive. And now a next 1000 pledge.

Badnarick was the Libertarian Party presidential candidate in 2004. The LP and FSP are in no way related except in intent.

The point is not to overwelm anything. It is to move 20k people to NH within 5 years of 20k pledging to do so. Just go to http://freestateproject.org

As for Americans being lazy… where has government not grown due to the the people actively resisting it? Seems all governments everywhere grow and the subjects go along with it until it gets too bad to stand.

Note to “moe”: You said, “Why doesn’t he just comply? He’s just making things worse for all of us. If he keeps this up, we’ll be forced to get bar codes tattooed on us or RFIDs implanted.”

I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish jokes from serious remarks, both in RL and on the Internet. That’s true here. Are you serious? If so, I’m surprised that nobody else has pointed out the obvious to you. Things have already gone too far, “moe”. If people “just comply”, it’s all over. The “1984″ scenario that you’ve described is going to happen. This isn’t a partisan debate or a “tin-foil hat” issue.

In fact, taking RFID into account, the “tin-foil hat” metaphor is outdated. I’ve already purchased a wallet that is, in fact, designed to frustrate RFID scanners. It’s not lined with “tin foil”, but the principle is the same. I’d advise you to purchase a wallet of a similar type. “1984″ is coming, people.

I strongly support activists who put themselves on the line like this, whether or not individual cases are likely to make a difference.

I feel this way about the current case even though Sydney Carton is correct. Mr. Carton said, “He’s going to have an extremely tough time saying that giving his name is a violation of his rights”. It’s hard to argue with that, but the man without a name should be praised for making the attempt.

BTW Mr. Carton, is your handle intended to remind people of the Dickens character with a similar name, the one who made the “far, far better thing” speech?

Here is a link to Eli Rivera’s story without having to go directly to Barack Oabama’s website. http://www.webcitation.org/5gQYtGtAV

I don’t mean to remind people of him. I chose the handle because the character is surprisingly similar to me.

Police and judges do not rule the country. They are civil servants and work for and on behalf of the people. Most of them unfortunately have forgotten that. It’s time to remind them!

A clear case of tyranny from the bench…so what are we gonna do about it, huh?

Colorblind,

I moved to NH in 2006 as part of the Free State Project, a group of people committed to doing something about achieving liberty in our lifetime.

Sam moved up to NH this year. We’ve been protesting, making phone calls, doing media interviews, creating media, and later today may bring more camera disobedience.

Get the latest at http://freekeene.com

What are you going to do about it? That is the question.

Do you love liberty? If so, when can you get to NH? This is where it’s happening.

The first thing to do is lodge a complaint with the judicial council ( the organization of judges that oversees the conduct of members of the bench). Each state should have such an organization.

Sorry, Archie. It’s been tried. Your solution presumes the system can fix the system. Here’s what happened when a local activist did exactly as you suggest:

http://freekeene.com/2009/02/19/committee-burke-broke-no-rules/

Note to Archie1954: You said, “Police and judges do not rule the country. They are civil servants and work for and on behalf of the people. Most of them unfortunately have forgotten that.”

Your post reminds me of a favorite quote. I’d like to share it. H.G. Wells said:

“The law giver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own.”

Thank you Ian. That episode was unfortunate and the judicial council response was also not proper in my eyes but do not discount the value of commencing the complaint. The very fact that it was launched has a sobering effect on wrong doers in the judiciary.

Thank you for your quote Voice of Reason. I hadn’t read that before. I will remember it.

thanks for posting this Carlos. Sam is a true liberty hero and has gone far beyond what many of us would in order to protect the few freedoms we have left.

When you hang a ribbon around your tree this coming memorial day, make it a different color, and make it for those who do what you won’t in defense of liberty. . . the people who have been jailed for acting like free people.

Sam is acting heroically. He has genuine courage. His cause is just.

But this could be the wrong battle.

Are his efforts helping the greater cause of liberty? What do ordinary people who learn about the case think of him? Many who aren’t already libertarians will dismiss him as a self-promoting crank or wing-nut who harps on trivialities and irrelevant legal minutiae. Libertarians can see the bigger picture, but we are used to examining the the implications of these kinds of issues.

There are many other cases of police/government abuse–such as the pastor who was recently (allegedly) beaten and detained at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint–that have a better chance of nudging people towards libertarianism. In comparison, Sam’s case is pedantic and therefore unlikely to change minds.

I could be wrong. Is there reason to believe that ordinary people, especially those in NH, are sympathetic to Sam? One of his jail messages mentioned that his fellow prisoners have become supporters; libertarianism is capable of influencing honest, open minds.

Are you aware that Sam Dodson’s “attorney” has been arrested in the past 24 hours on a fugitive warrant issued out of Rhode Island?