Jailed Activist Info » New Hampshire

Free State Project activist Mike Barskey arrested

bile — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:20:29 +0000

At approximately 12:50am, on Sunday the 1st of February 2009, Free State Project member Mike Barskey was pulled over by Amherst, New Hampshire police after apparently catching the eye of the arresting officer when passing or being passed by another car. The officer followed Mike for a few minutes and ran his California plates finding that he had bench warrant for his arrest due to not showing up to a court hearing. The officer allowed Mike to drive his car to a nearby business parking lot so it wouldn’t have to be towed and then took Mike to the police station. After looking into the matter more the officers realized Mike has a cash bail of $2000 and that his registration is expired therefore tacking on some amount for that.

Mike refused to have his fingerprints taken and was told that that when he is brought to Valley Street jail in Manchester that they would “take them.” He mentions in his Porc411 messages that he is refusing or planned to refuse to answer some or all of the questions they were asking of him and he wasn’t planning on paying the cash bail.

The last message from Mike came in at 2:42am indicating his car was being towed to his home rather than being impounded.

According to Kat Kanning from on the NHUnderground forum:

Valley St. Jail has the worst reputation in NH. Mike’ll need your calls to the jail to help keep him safe. The website detailing all the abuses there seems to have been taken down. Here’s my article about it:

http://newhampshirefreepress.com/?q=node/242

Here are all the relevant Porc411 calls:

NHUnderground forum from Libertine:

Mike’s being held at the Valley Street Jail. The bail is $2040, and if it’s not posted, he’ll be held there until Monday morning when he’ll be taken to Milford District Court for arraignment.

The phone number for the Valley Street Jail is: (603) 627-5620
The address for Milford District Court is: 180 Elm Street, Milford, NH 03055

More on the possible revoking of Ian Bernard’s suspended sentence

bile — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:18:21 +0000

Free Speech a Criminal Act in New Hampshire?

As announced on last night’s Free Talk Live, the Keene city prosecutor, Sgt. Eliezer Rivera has sent me threatening paperwork where he is requesting that Keene District Court force me into a hearing which could result in the suspended sentence I was given being revoked, thereby landing me back in jail for 90 days. Why? Apparently because I sent out Andrew Carroll’s press release in regards to this past Saturday’s marijuana protest, blogged about it, atttended, videotaped it, and because I had Andrew on Saturday night’s Free Talk Live.

Here is the threatening “Motion to Show Cause” from Mr. Rivera in PDF form.

So, because I engaged in freedom of speech, I’m now a criminal? How many others will they target over this? Free Minds TV, the NH Free Press, and NH Capitol Access were also “promoting” the event. What about the other attendees? Are they at risk as well? Does Rivera realize that in his attempts to intimidate NH’s liberty activist community, he will only create more peaceful disobedience and outrage?

Is he scaring you, or is he making you more determined to get active and if you’re not yet here in NH, to get here sooner?

Sam from the Obscured Truth Network is helping me work up a “Motion to Quash” this nonsense. Will post more later.

Rivera “Just Following Orders”?

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker and NH police officer Brad Jardis has contacted me about Sgt. Rivera suggesting that he has some special knowledge that may show Sgt. Rivera to be more of an ally than we may realize. Brad seems to think Rivera deserves a fair amount of respect, so we are looking into whether or not Rivera initiated this aggression on his own or whether he was following orders from a higher-ranking KPD officer.

Ian Bernard (Freeman) may be going back to jail

bile — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:48:44 +0000

Tonight on Free Talk Live Ian Bernard (Freeman) announced that today he received a notice from the City of Keene indicating he had violated the agreement of his suspended sentence. What did he supposedly do? He supported Andrew Carroll in his marijuana disobedience by publishing a press release, having Andrew on Free Talk Live, and attending the protest. Their claim is effectively that he was aiding and abetting.

This means that he will possibly be sent back to jail to finish his 93 day sentence.

He said that he’s currently working with Sam Dodson to figure out what to do. I’ll post more information as it comes available.

Ian Bernard’s alternate payment for couch fine accepted

bile — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 20:51:27 +0000

http://freekeene.com/…

As you know if you’ve been reading this website for a while, the men and women calling themselves the “City of Keene” attacked me and my family because my tenants had a couch in their yard. I offered to move the couch if the complaining party (who was later revealed to be a city bureaucrat) would just come and talk to me like an adult, she refused, the government people continued to prosecute, and I continued to refuse to obey to see how far they would push it. It all culminated in their courtroom with me being thrown in jail on a sentence of 93 days – three days for the couch and 90 days on three charges of “contempt of court”. After a weekend in jail, I asked “Justice” Burke for mercy and was released with the stipulation that even though I had spent three days in jail I still somehow owe the $120 fine, or alternatively 10 hours of “community service”. Neither option was particularly attractive to me in that I’m certainly not interested in giving my money to the “STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE” and also do not have time for volunteering at the moment, so I made them a final offer. This was my opportunity to test how greedy the government people truly are.

I offered to give a $240 contribution to the Community Kitchen, a local food bank organization, in lieu of their demands of a $120 fine or 10 volunteer hours. If they were to turn down my offer they would not be able to effectively position themselves as being community oriented, and would instead reveal themselves as just another greedy government bureaucracy.

I’m pleased to announce that my offer was accepted (it took them the full ten day limit they have to decide) and I have made my contribution as promised. The actions of the government people in this case goes to show that their most important goal is obedience. Extracting money from the local population is also an important goal, however it can only effectively be done when the local population is ignorant and no attention is being paid to the forced extraction activities of the government people.

The more light we can shine on the violent monopoly of government, the less likely they are to continue their abuse. Please come to New Hampshire and join the peaceful evolution.

Lauren Canario set free

admin — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 03:23:26 +0000

Lauren was released of the morning of December 6th, 2008. Afterwards she was driven to Keene, NH and a get together was had at Olive Garden where approximately 20 people showed up to celebrate her release.

Ian Freeman forgives Mikaela Engert

bile — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:23 +0000

http://freekeene.com/…

Dear Mikaela,

I forgive you. You probably never realized, perhaps until now, that government hurts people. I do not know you, but from listening to what you’ve said on the radio and reading about you on the Internet, I imagine that like many people, you believe that government is a handy tool you can use to make life better for people. While your intentions may be pure, the method is not. Government is force. Were you oblivious to that fact? After all, you are one of the people calling themselves part of the “City of Keene”, so whether you knew or not, that’s the tool you advocate. I’m guessing you didn’t know, as you did say on 08/09/08’s “Talkback”:

“I wouldn’t advise aggressing against anybody.”

I really appreciated when you said that! I think people working together voluntarily is a great thing. However, threatening people with violence is not a nice way to build a community with mutual respect. Based on your statement on Talkback, I thought you understood that. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was you who snitched me out to the “code enforcers” over my tenants’ couch. You said you wouldn’t advise aggressing against your neighbor, then the very same week you initiated aggression against me!

I don’t know whether you realized that what you did was aggression (It is, in the same way that hiring a hitman makes you responsible for the hit, even though you didn’t actually pull the trigger.), but either way I forgive you. Additionally, you needn’t be afraid of me snitching you out for something about your property that I don’t like, as I don’t believe your property is any of my business. Perhaps fear of retaliation was why you were afraid to come and meet me like a good neighbor would have instead of running to the “code enforcers” and having them threaten me into complying with your “city” ordinances.

Did you realize at any point that men with guns would actually throw me into a prison cell over this? That’s exactly what happened, because force is the only tool government has at its disposal. Of course the irony of the entire situation is that it would only cost a few bucks to take the couch out to the dump, but instead your friends in the “City of Keene” were willing to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars to lock me in a cage for several months over this issue! How does that make any sense?

To answer my own question, the reason they were willing to hurt me and my family (my wonderful companion Julia was made quite ill by my absence, and couldn’t work) is because it’s not about the couch, but about being obedient to the arbitrary dictates of the people calling themselves the government.

So, you were either ignorant about the coercive nature of the agency that employs you, or you’re completely aware of government’s coercive nature and you embrace it. I will presume the former, because I like to believe that people are generally good, and I believe that you are probably a very good person, just misled. I can relate as I was also ignorant to the violence of the system at one time. Then I discovered the ideas of liberty and allowing others to be free.

I forgive you for hurting me and my loved ones, Mikaela. You have no obligation to do so, but an apology from you would sure go a long way to healing the wounds and proving to the world (I imagine you’ve gotten a few emails and phone calls from those watching this situation.) that you understand that what you did was wrong.

I also hope to hear that you have embraced the idea of honoring your neighbors’ choices, even if you disagree with them. Don’t hesitate to get in touch. I don’t bite!

Your peaceful, down-the-street neighbor,
Ian Freeman

Ian Freeman (Bernard) freed, sentence suspended

bile — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:24:23 +0000

According to Coconut on the NHUnderground forum:

I just talked to Larry. Ian’s charges of contempt stand, but his time is being suspended. Which means he “has to be good” for a year or so. But he’s either free, or scheduled to be free soon.

Ian Freeman (Bernard) reported to have had surprise court hearing this morning

bile — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:36:31 +0000

Just in over Porcupine 411: msg0085.wav

Dave Ridley claims to have talked with a news reporter who said Ian was given a surprise hearing this morning. No details available at this time.