Motley Moose – Archive

From the “Lessons Learned” file: don’t accept a news wire story as is …. which we will explore after the jump ….

Two months ago I moved one hour south to the city of Keene, New Hampshire (as the result of a job change). While I wish things had not necessitated such a move, it has gone well.

Keene has a lot of nice attributes; it is a college town and this past Saturday held its annual Pumpkin Festival for which the city regained the world record for lit jack o’lanterns (> 30,000) …. and this display on the Village Green is only a small fraction of the total. A downtown street fest with a Ferris wheel, Keene State glee clubs (one was singing the forty-year-old Doobie Brothers song “Long Train Running”), face-painting, all sorts of Halloween costumes in sight (including small children wearing Red Sox jerseys … with fake beards) ……………… and gorgeous weather to boot.

One thing puzzled me, though, during the six weeks I was commuting to my new job before moving. The Associated Press had this story of a group calling themselves “Robin Hooders” …. placing money in parking meters before parking officials could issue citations, and the city bringing them to court over it. It said little else, and having read about smart parking meters – that wipe-out any unused time when a car leaves its space – I thought this may have been an example of some city fathers looking for every last dime.

Well, as the late Johnny Carson used to say to a fellow Ed, “You are wrong, Bourbon breath!”

Here in New Hampshire, we have been afflicted by the Free State Project – a group of extreme Libertarians seeking to settle in a small state, hoping to gain a foothold in its political system. Independent from them (and only a fraction of their size) is a group that calls itself Free Keene – and it is they who were involved in the parking meter situation. (More on that in a bit).

First, it might do well to see what some of their goals (and methods) involve. Here is the Urban Dictionary description:

Free Keene is the name of a group of free staters (or at least people who describe themselves as libertarians, voluntaryists, and “anarcho”-capitalists) who live in Keene NH and participate in libertarian-oriented activities in the town. These activities include smoking weed in the town common, standing in front of police cars, walking naked in public, illegally parking their cars, refusing to pay taxes, standing outside the local high and middle schools screaming, “School sucks!” in an attempt to persuade students to drop out of school, drinking beer in court, and participating in the black market/”agorism” as attempts to either remove “victimless crime” laws or for the sole purpose to defy the laws.

On the Ron Paul Forum – a reader responded to someone (asking if they should move to the Granite State) with this advice:

What are your goals of moving to NH as part of the FSP? Do you want to get arrested doing civil disobedience or be a major contributor in the pro-liberty media world? If so, I recommend living somewhere near the Keene area. If you want to get elected to office, I recommend somewhere (else) that either leans GOP in elections or is a swing area.

It’s mostly about how you act. If you volunteer in the community, don’t do drugs or get drunk in public, are really polite to people and look square or something similar, people in the community will likely think highly of you given enough time. If you wear offensive shirts, go around constantly filming government workers, tell everyone you are a FSPer, constantly talk about ending government, call yourself an anarchist, curse in public, have lots of visible tattoos, smoke and throw your cigarettes on the ground and frequently do public civil disobedience, some people will be annoyed by you and you may be targeted by some of the local government workers.

Some people in the population don’t like it when people hold a candle light vigil outside of a judge’s house, bring a gun with you when you try to plant a garden in the city square, drink beer inside a city council meeting, hold signs that say “School Sucks” in front of a middle school and then try to talk with the kids, smoke marijuana in the city square, smoke marijuana and yell while at the largest tourist event in the city, curse inside a courtroom, refuse to stand for a judge, refuse to take off your hat in court, yell assault on video when a government worker touches you and so on.

Although I haven’t seen it so far this school year, their School Sucks campaign – aimed at ending the practice of public education – seems especially vapid. They’re not the only ones; one Utah politician recently spoke of making school voluntary.

In fairness, we wouldn’t disagree with all of their viewpoints. One-or-two listed above you might sympathize with. And I especially agree with one of their opposition stands: last year, Keene was one of several towns across the US to accept a federal grant to buy a $286,000 armored vehicle for the Keene Police Department – part of the para-militarization of civilian law enforcement – that they regularly criticize. And so they are like Ron Paul – the man Charlie Pierce calls Crazy Uncle Liberty – insofar as they can speak for five minutes on issues you either agree with (or at least respect) …….. but who always jump-the-tracks at the 5:01 mark of their address.

One of their people is Ian Freeman – a candidate for an at-large seat on the City Council. He recently declared his house in Keene a parsonage … and therefore (smirk) it is now (cackle) .. exempt from taxes.

Back to the parking meter situation: an essayist named Matt Murphy wrote why the city (properly) took action against the faux ‘Robin-Hooders’ in the New Hampshire Labor News – pointing out that they didn’t just stuff the meters (as the AP story mentioned) but also harassed the parking enforcement officers … because they object to parking meters.

It was perhaps best summed-up in this letter to the editor of the Keene Sentinel newspaper by John MacLean – the City Manager of Keene.

To the citizens of Keene,

  By now you are all aware that the city of Keene commenced legal action against six individuals who have been conducting and coordinating a six-month campaign of pursuit and intimidation of the city’s parking enforcement officers with the stated intention of eliminating their employment, and with them a department of city government.

Contrary to these individuals’ stated motives, and apparently accepted without much question by some in the media, this activity is not about placing coins into parking meters. The city has no interest in whether or not these or other individuals wish to pay the parking meters, and no claim about this practice is made in the legal action.

The city does have a legitimate interest in protecting its employees from a coordinated activity involving multiple individuals who use radios to pursue, surround and taunt the officers on a daily basis while they attempt to perform their duties. The city has a legitimate interest in protecting the employment relationship that exists among the city and its employees.

The city took legal action against these individuals after the pursuit and harassment began to extend to the officers even while they were off duty and on their own time enjoying the city as ordinary citizens. Reasonable people would not tolerate such concerted action being taken against them as they go through their workday (or enjoy their private time) and reasonable people would expect their employer to take action to protect them from such abuse. This is not a situation involving an occasional irate citizen objecting to a parking ticket; this is a concerted action occurring over days, weeks and months, intended to coerce the officers into quitting.

Whether or not the city should have parking meters or parking enforcement officers is a legitimate question that the community can debate and act upon through the legislative process. But it is not legitimate, or acceptable, to accomplish the elimination of a function of city government through the intimidation and coercion of individual public employees.

This is definitely not about parking meter money.

On behalf of your mayor, Kendall Lane, your elected city councilors, and your dedicated city employees, we are all honored to work for you and this wonderful community. Thank you for your support and understanding.

Every newspaper has some sort of ‘city columnist’ (in the vein of Mike Royko, Herb Caen et al) and Steve Gilbert seems to be one for the Keene Sentinel, with these excerpts:

The Golden Rule. Ask any 2nd-grader to recite it or one of its variations. It’s a classroom staple. Teachers implore their pupils to abide by The Golden Rule, not only in the classroom but as a foundation in their lives. You can trace the passage back to the Bible and Matthew 22:39 – “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself.” It’s simple yet powerful. It’s a declaration of respect when living in a civilized society, an understanding that you’re not alone on an island.

At one point in court Tuesday, Free Keene member Ian Freeman cited Article 8 of the N.H. Constitution, suggesting that being subject to abuse is included in a parking enforcement officer’s job description and, therefore, validates Free Keene’s actions. That was startling. Causing misery to others under the cover of the Constitution may be legal, but it’s surely not honorable. I umpired many years locally in the adult softball leagues and abuse comes with that territory, but it’s finite. I can throw my tormentors out of the game. Parking enforcement officers can’t.

Fortunately, these seem to be (a) a tiny portion of the local population, and (b) have very little support. Keene is a blue city and as Steve Gilbert (in the essay above) noted, “Free Keene members are likely more informed and active in local government affairs than the average citizen yet they are consistently swamped in local elections, most recently for school board in March”.

Recently a primary election was held for the mayoralty and City Council races (for non-partisan seats) and as the newspaper recap noted, “Free-Keene-aligned candidates fare poorly in primary” was good to see. Turnout was low (and only one candidate was eliminated from the ballot) yet the incumbent mayor won against a Free-Keene candidate 866-52. In my ward, the incumbent beat back a similar challenger 175-16.

In the run-up to the general election nest month, an identical questionnaire was asked of all candidates: and while this is a blue city, some candidates did appear to be right-of-center. All, though, when asked about Free Keene said something to the effect of “Free speech is great, harassment is not” and left it at that. I even got some e-mails from councilor Terry Clark, not from my ward (but an adjacent one, unsure why) asking people to vote in the recent primary (only 6% did, as it was largely meaningless). It ended with “We on the City Council get along and work well together, regardless of our political differences. Some candidates ‘do not play well with others’, though – choose wisely”.

Now that I see the limitations of the original AP story … I will.

Let’s close with a short (and very sweet) instrumental – My Dream – from Fleetwood Mac of 1969: with Danny Kirwan and Peter Green on guitar.