“Outlaw Journalist” defies order to stop recording

July 9, 2009

It is said that silence is often louder than speech, that a voice quashed is more powerful than one left free.

So, as I undertake the third night of a six-day civil disobedience imprisonment, there is no urgent crush to communicate. But it is fitting to outline the events which led here and the cause which fires so many others to suffer a similar path.

It is Christendom’s two thousand and tenth year. But within the nation where that faith once held greatest sway, a cruel epidemic waxes. It is not a pestilence of truly natural origin, not a pestilence at all by the traditional meaning of the noun. It is a millstone fervently worn – literally celebrated – by the plurality of those who endure its crushing weight. Through its privations hapless families are flung apart, innocent souls ripped from feeble bodies and innocence itself shorn from the hearts of its unaccountable enforcers. All unfolds on the dime of the hapless worker and plundered businessman, above the graves of twenty-five thousands who died fighting a three percent document tax.

It is the grand, hungry march of exploding government authority, parading around the prison gulag which grows with every step of its progress. As these words take form its advance unfolds exponential. No truce or parley checks its dark course. Beside the New England forts which stood or fell in the first revolution, all ’round the siege lines which still mark the British surrender, lights are going out…the lights of homes stolen by State forfeiture or eminent domain, of businesses ruined by growing tax and mandate.

But the most golden beams to dim have been those of personal liberty and peaceable rebellion. Like night-blind children compelled toward the isolated candles of a primitive village, we who live for such light have found ourselves drawn toward the places where it still feebly shines. And of those places, one has stood above the others, cast a truer shadow, made possible a greater hope. It is the land English invaders lamented, a jungle of prodigious hilltops and ruthless ice.

In this unborn country, a calm revolt – or rather a series of revolts – is undertaken. Its politicians rebel (selectively) against Washington control, its people against its politicians and its media pipelines against any of the above which would muzzle them. It is a place of constructive defiance. It has never been anything less.

Toward this partially wild East, America’s most deliberate migration project since the Homestead Act enters its sixth year. Five hundred over-active refugees from the authoritarian states of “Republikrat” America link arms with New Hampshire’s native liberty community and cobble a loose but increasingly potent defense against the seemingly unstoppable march of Authority. With a calculated desperation not seen since the days of Parks and King, some clumsily follow the path of the same. To the unjust they say: Ignore us and admit the wrongness of your victimless crime edicts, or seize us and amplify our message.

There are, it is believed, several lines of defense which must be held in this manner against the encroaching cancer. Perhaps the most valuable of these is the newly decentralized exercise of press freedom. The practice of camcording official activity and placing it upon the waves of the electronic web for all to support or decry, that practice has fallen into the desperate hands of the “little people.” As a check against government abuse it is indispensable. It is, in this land of so many hills, a good one upon which to die.

Across New Hampshire, the freedom to record exists, but only in a tenuous, ambiguous form. An elderly “wiretapping” law is often cited by officials wishing to frighten from their presence the troubling light of independent recording. In courtrooms, judges are encouraged by law to permit independent taping but granted a hazardous leeway to limit the same. Some choose to expand their mandate and exert censorship over the lobbies outside their force-funded chambers. Others permit relatively unfettered access, ban cameras altogether or moodily swing from one extreme to the next.

In the twilight of 2008, videographer Tom Caruso gently presses Keene District Court for leave to film the controversial trial of a victimless defendant. The defendant approves, but Caruso’s lens captures the judge in a fit of anger. The New York documentarian has driven four hours to record this proceeding, but four minutes into it the flustered jurist’s enforcers compel him to stop. Meanwhile the defendant is hustled away and tried in relative secrecy. In protest, I report to the court with a promised course of action. I pledge that come the next such proceeding, weeks hence, I will follow Caruso’s path and endeavor to film. But I will peaceably disobey any unjust order to turn my camera off.

In the event, upon arrival, press recording is forbidden completely…both in the court itself and in the lobby outside. Lawful or not, the unsigned order has the weight of a smalltown army behind it. I am seized in the lobby, camera in hand, perhaps the first journalist to video-broadcast his own arrest live. Much of what ensues is well-known to our liberty community: The five arrests surrounding my arraignment, the more heroic and robust stand of videographer Sam Dodson, the eventual re-admission of our cameras to Keene District Court.

But it is our purpose which gives meaning to these deeds:

The purpose of accountability, holding “our” officials before the cleansing glare of a camcorder’s sunlight and saying to all who would interfere: “On the job means on the record.”

The purpose of liberty…the right of each soul to do all she pleases that harms or threatens none against their will…

And, as unprecedented government growth brushes a nation toward the cliff of collapse, the purpose of ensuring it may never be said we did nothing.

Decades after the largely peaceable struggles which brought partial liberation to the bonded peoples of India and the American South, children still asked “What did you do in the Struggle, grandpa?”

From this concrete box it is appropriate only to ask: Please do what you are able, while there is still time, to ensure that when you stand before this question, you may proudly provide a convincing answer.

Dave Ridley
RidleyReport.com
Grafton

A “WHITE flight” to Facebook has turned MySpace into a black ghetto, according to a social analyst in the US.

Danah Boyd said Facebook’s arrival sparked a migration from MySpace of white users, the educated and the wealthy, while non-whites had stuck together on MySpace.

MySpace is owned by News Corp, the parent company of the publisher of NEWS.com.au.

“It wasn’t just anyone who left MySpace to go to Facebook,” Ms Boyd, who works with Microsoft Research New England, told a crowd at New York’s Democracy Forum.

“We might as well face an uncomfortable reality … what happened was modern day ‘white flight’.”

Ms Boyd said MySpace had become a digital “ghetto”.

“The people there are more likely to be brown or black and to have a set of values that terrifies white society,” she said.

Her interviews with American teenagers since 2006 showed that online migration mimicked the patterns of class groups’ movements across cities. She found teens who preferred Facebook were far more likely to talk down to those who use MySpace than vice versa.

Ms Boyd said her research showed high school students found Facebook “more cultured” and “less cheesy” than MySpace.

“Any high school student who has a Facebook page will tell you MySpace users are more likely to be barely educated and obnoxious,” she said.

Ms Boyd also warned that the class divisions on social sites will harden over time.

“Their decision to (move to Facebook) was wrapped up in their connections to others, in their belief that a more peaceful, quiet, less-public space would be more idyllic.”

Perez Hilton is suing the man who allegedly punched him in the face last weekend.
Hilton’s target is Polo Molina, the road manager for the Black Eyed Peas. Hilton alleges battery and an intentional infliction of emotional distress. Hilton’s suit claims Molina attacked him outside of a Toronto club on Sunday night because the blogger wouldn’t stop writing about the Black Eyed Peas on his Web site. The suit wants payback in excess of $25,000.

Molina turned himself in to Toronto cops on Monday and was charged with assault. He’s due in court Aug. 5.

Hilton’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement, “Perez Hilton files this lawsuit to protect his freedom of speech and seeks legal redress against those who have physically assaulted him because they do not like his review of their album. Whether you love Perez or hate him, he is entitled to his freedom of speech without fear of physical violence. This lawsuit will make the statement that violence is never the answer.”

Speaking for journalists all over the globe, thank you, Paris Hilton, for standing up for all of us.

After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” President Sid Ganis announced Wednesday at a press conference in Beverly Hills. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same — one Best Picture winner — but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.

We were thinking the final outcome would be: an even longer show.

The move is an obvious response to discussion concerning recent omissions “The Dark Knight,” more art house style films such as “The Reader” and animated movies like Pixar favorites “Ratatouille” and “WALL-E.”

“Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” said Ganis. “I can’t wait to see what that list of 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”

Actress Daryl Hannah has been arrested in West Virginia for stopping traffic.

Hannah, 48, was among activists protesting mountain mining who refused to move on when police arrived at a coal processing plant in Raleigh County to disperse the crowd. She was booked on misdemeanor charges of obstruction and impeding traffic. And, since she was there, they threw in an old charge of appearing in “The Clan of the Cave Bear.”

Climate control expert and NASA scientist James Hansen was also among the 32 people arrested on Tuesday. According to a news release from the protesters, the group admitted to crossing onto the property of Massey Energy and also admitted to “purposely trespassing to protest the destruction of mountains immediately above the Coal River Valley community.”

The state newpaper has released excerpts of a series of emails exchanged by gov.Mark Sanford a woman in Buenos Aires, Argentina. obtained last December. The State has not released details of the women involved, the authenticity of the emails have yet to be disputed by Sandfords office.
Angeles Mase the corespondent visited the womens apartment in Buenos Aires Wednesday, and identified the women according to the emails, which included her address. After Mase Identified herself as a reporter, the women refused to indulge in Mase’s questioning any further. Below are the email excerpts.

From Gov. Sanford,
Date: Thursday, July 10, 2008, 12:24 a.m.

“One, tomorrow leave at 5 a.m. for New York and meetings. Will think about you on its streets and wish I was going to be there later in the month when you are there. Tomorrow night back to Philadelphia for the start of the National Governor’s Conference through the weekend. Back to Columbia for Tuesday and then on Wednesday, as I think I had told you, taking the family to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand and then back through Hong Kong on world wind tour. Few days home then to Bahamas for 5 days on a friend’s boat for the last break of the summer. The following weekend have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with McCain – which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home …

Two, mutual feelings …. You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light – but hey, that would be going into sexual details …

Three and finally, while all the things above are all too true – at the same time we are in a hopelessly – or as you put it impossible – or how about combine and simply say hopelessly impossible situation of love. How in the world this lightening strike snuck up on us I am still not quite sure. As I have said to you before I certainly had a special feeling about you from the first time we met, but these feelings were contained and I genuinely enjoyed our special friendship and the comparing of all too many personal notes …

Lastly I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before – so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know… In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.”

From Maria,
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 8:14 p.m.

“As I told you I shouldn’t have done this trip but I would have felt worst if I wouldn’t have come because it was too over the date, he is a very nice guy, great heart … but unfortunately I am not in love with him … You are my love … something hard to believe even for myself as it’s also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation. Sometimes you don’t choose things, they just happen… I can’t redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you.”

From Gov. Sanford,
Tuesday, July 8, 1:42 a.m.

“Got back an hour ago to civilization and am now in Columbia after what was for me a glorious break from reality down at the farm. No phones ringing and tangible evidence of a day’s labors. Though I have started every day by 6 this morning woke at 4:30, I guess since my body knew it was the last day, and I went out and ran the excavator with lights until the sun came up. To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the back ground, the tranquillity that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds – and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt.”

THE NSW police force says it will investigate a Sydney officer’s possible improper use of a stun gun after new video footage of the incident came to light.

The investigation was revealed on Sunday as the NSW government announced all frontline police would be issued with Tasers.

Police have “standard operating procedures” for the use of a Taser, which Assistant Commissioner Catherine Burn said focused on protecting human life but extended to controlling violent people.

Fresh CCTV footage of a Taser being used on Sydney’s Oxford Street on March 29 sparked the investigation, Ms Burn said.

The stun gun was used on a 38-year-old man who has launched civil legal action against NSW Police, alleging the misuse of the Taser on him.

”It is clear that the use of the Taser in this instance was unwarranted as three other officers from the public riot squad were close at hand to detain my client who only appears to be intoxicated and not posing a threat to any other persons,” solicitor Nick Boyden told Fairfax newspapers.

Some three months after the incident, the man continues to suffer from the effects of being stunned twice with a Taser, the newspaper report says.

”A report was put in at the time of the incident, on March 29,” Ms Burn said.

”That report, using the material available… it was agreed that that incident was okay. Now, as of yesterday (Saturday), independent material has been reviewed.

”That material is enough for us to say let’s have it investigated.”

The new footage allegedly shows the man walking away from officers, seemingly in compliance with police requests, Fairfax reports.

Ms Burn said she had not seen the CCTV footage, or the images captured by a camera built into the Taser. However, she said in the latter case, vision was obscured.

”Because of that (new) independent material, an investigation has commenced into the use of the Taser on that particular occasion,” she said.

The victim of the March 29 incident was reportedly treated at St Vincent’s Hospital and had a Taser dart embedded in his back.

Premier Nathan Rees announced on Sunday that $10 million will be spent in Tuesday’s budget on issuing Tasers to 1,962 frontline police officers across the state.

”You do need to look at every part of the use of the Taser,” Ms Burn said.

”A footage on its own tells one part of a story. It does not tell what was happening, it does not convey the potential threat, the potential aggression of the situation. So you do need to look at all other material.”

AMSTERDAM (Reuters Life!) – Although famous for a love of bicycles as the city’s preferred transport, Amsterdam officials are starting to draw the line at a popular “beer bike.”

The bike, which can seat at least 10 people around a central “bar” as they pedal through the city center, is a frequent sight in the Dutch capital and is said to be popular with stag and hen (bachelor and bachelorette) parties. A non-drinker steers the bike.

But two accidents involving the bikes since the start of April has prompted the city councilor responsible for transport, Hans Gerson, to investigate how many bikes there are and whether they pose a problem.

“This beer bike is completely legal, but he (Gerson) is not very enthusiastic about this idea of people drinking while being amongst traffic,” a spokeswoman said.

But she downplayed the possibility of a ban, stressing the alderman is looking into various options.

Ard Karsten, owner of beerbike.co.uk which rents bikes to tourists, said he was open to talks with the council, adding his company only rents a beer bike out with a driver and has never been involved in an accident.

A compromise could involve the council obligating all firms to supply a driver with the bike, he said.

“We’re not out on the street en masse and it’s simply controllable. It is about fun and teambuilding,” Karsten said. “We have a very beautiful route and people simply enjoy it, but some people ruin it for others.”

A spokesman for the Amsterdam city center district, Ton Boon, said the bike was already banned in the red light district and welcomed Gerson’s inquiry. “It causes a lot of nuisance.”

Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool had reported earlier this week an accident last weekend resulted in various injures, while three women were injured two weeks ago.