Dave Ridley and Bow Police

[Kat Kanning]

This came to me on the wiki a couple weeks ago, but I didn't notice the message until today:

Dear NHfree.com,
Hi, I am a teenager from the small town of Bow, New Hampshire. It is a town next to Concord and just north of Manchester. There is a major problem in this town. It is the police department and the harassment on the teenagers in this town. I am not a huge fan of police but I am certainly not anti-police in anyway and there are good cops but not in this town. There is not much in our town to do and with a lot of teenagers we are always bored on weekends. To make matters worse we have an over staffed police department with around twenty police officers and at any time having 3 cruisers on patrol at once. With a population of around 9,000 and nothing ever going on the police need to find something to do with their time so they try to catch teenagers doing illegal activity and screw them over by intimidation and harassment. They will follow us around and kick us out of are few hangout spots, specifically the basketball courts at Bow High School. They also do all they can to bust underage parties and when they do they splatter it in the papers to show of and be proud that they caught some teenagers for what they have done. The problem I have with this is that the Bow Police constantly violate the laws to just to make an arresst to make themselves look good. They make many arressts and teenagers have had countless encounters and have faced harassment and the police handle themselves in illegal ways and they always get away with it and no one ever questions them. I don't think it will ever change and I don't expect it to but recently I watched the encounter Dave Ridely had in Manchester with his open carry and I would love to have him come to our town and see what happens. The Police would try and be all over him but I know he can stand up to their abuse and put them in their place. Ask for officer Ryan Cochrane he is the head bozo.

Thanks

Sounds like a good candidate for a protest or something.  The person didn't leave any contact info though.

[srqrebel]

I'm down with that!  Sounds like those immoral self-important bozos need a heavy dose of cowbell and pitchfork -- not to mention cameras on them 24-7.  This is exactly the kind of bully mentality that gets my blood boiling.

If Dave (or anyone else!) needs any help with this, I'll be there as long as it doesn't interfere with my work schedule.

[dalebert]

Since we don't have contact info, I think the first step would be to interview some teens in the area and get stories. Then see if we can verify those stories on film and expose the perpetrators.

[Kat Kanning]

Was thinking the same thing.  I had hoped the person would contact us when I posted this.

[srqrebel]

Maybe we can arrange an "investigative excursion" to Bow some evening.

If Dave wants to do this, he may want to go by himself, or perhaps the more the merrier.  Either way, I'm available to help with this as long as it doesn't interfere with my weekday second shift job.

[dEadERest]

How about sponsoring a "Teen Town Meeting"?

[srqrebel]

Hmm... how would that work?

My concern is blowing our cover to the adults, including the police, in that town.  I'm a big fan of the "sneak attack", especially when the enemy is bigger than us.

Seems to me that a teen town meeting would be well attended by authoritarian parents and police, furious at any proposal to undermine their "authority" -- while the teens would be forcibly restrained from attending.

[Kat Kanning]

How about sponsoring a "Teen Town Meeting"?

Sounds like a cool idea

[srqrebel]

How about sponsoring a "Teen Town Meeting"?

Sounds like a cool idea

You sponsor it, I'll be there (as long as it doesn't interfere with my work schedule).

We can then see exactly how well that works, rather than speculating

The alternative would be to make an unannounced visit to Bow, and try to find random teenagers to interview.  If the teenagers confirm that there is a serious problem with police abuse, we can organize a low key copwatch operation in that town to get videotape of the abuse.  That would accomplish an end run around any authoritarian adults in that town, and make it difficult for them to defend the cops' abusive behavior once it has been exposed for the world to see.

The downside of that, is that it could create the perception of us "sticking our noses where they don't belong", since none of us are residents of Bow.  But the fact is, one of their victims has appealed to us for help -- and that gives us the green light to proceed, regardless of anyone's opinion.

If we take action in response to this teenager's plea, why not plan an approach most likely to effect positive change?  The above is just my opinion on what would be the most effective approach.  Anyone have any other insights or ideas?

[dEadERest]

Here's my thought on this.
My son's band has put together concerts with other local bands at the town commons in Londonderry and other places.
I could work with him to put together a bill, find a venue and produce an event. At the event there could be an informal forum on teen "issues" and suggestions.
This could be reported by interested parties or submitted to the local papers as an editorial.

[srqrebel]

Would this be held in Bow?

Hosting an informal, unannounced forum at a teen-targeted event would probably accomplish more than an actual publicized town meeting.  Again, you organize it, I'll be there if my job permits.  Hopefully we won't drop the ball on this -- it just seems like such a rare opportunity to strike at the heart of tyranny when the tyrants least expect it.

I'm still waiting to see Dave Ridley's response to this, as the teenager directed his appeal mainly at Dave, and he probably has the most experience with videotaping police abuse.

[Pat McCotter]

And remember that Freestater and lawyer Evan Nappen lives in Bow.

[srqrebel]

And remember that Freestater and lawyer Evan Nappen lives in Bow.

Oh, I wasn't aware of that.  It's a good thing, at least we have actual representation there.

[John]

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[srqrebel]

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???