Outlaw puppeteer

[d_goddard]

can anyone look into the law a little more closely to absolutely ensure that a puppet show for pay, in front of the the AG's office would in fact be illegal?

It's purely a licensing issue.
It must be done "for pay" without a license to be illegal.
You could even just do ventriloquism or "tumbling" to get the same violation.
The statute is very simple:
http://gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XXIV/286/286-1.htm

286:1 Showmen. – No showman, tumbler, rope dancer, ventriloquist or other person shall, for pay, exhibit any feats of agility, horsemanship, sleight of hand, rope dancing or feats with cards, or any animals, wax figures, puppets or other show, or promote any public competition, without a license from the selectmen of the town.

The penalty is a "misdemeanor". Doesn't say what kind, but given the severity of the crime, I assume it would be prosecuted as "misdemeanor 'A'": same as 1 marijuana seed, ie, up to $1,000 and 1 year in jail.
http://gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XXIV/286/286-5.htm

286:5 Penalty. – Whoever violates the provisions of RSA 286:1-4 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor if a natural person, or guilty of a felony if any other person. It shall be the duty of the selectmen to prosecute for every violation of this chapter.

That last sentence probably meant to indicate who should prosecute (ie, who brings the charges forward), but taking it literally (which is always appropriate when dealing with laws) would well mean the selectmen are breaking the law if they fail to do so.

I would therefore suggest giving the selectmen plenty of advance notice. Along with the media, of course.

do you think it would be beneficial to bill this as a bunch of ron paul supporters gathering to do the civil disobedience he has vaguely called for?

No. This is really nothing to do with RP, Ghandi, or any other politician.

[Caleb]

I continue to find it funny that civil disobedience is being explored as an avenue for advancing Republican politics.    Law and Order guys tend to be Republican. It's just sort of funny to me. You're trying to advance the political career of the people who are frowning at your shenanigans.   

[d_goddard]

I continue to find it funny that civil disobedience is being explored as an avenue for advancing Republican politics.    Law and Order guys tend to be Republican. It's just sort of funny to me. You're trying to advance the political career of the people who are frowning at your shenanigans.   

Republicans are the ones talking about the necessity of CivDis.
Well, if you can call Vaillancourt or Paul "Republicans"... they're really libertarians not-so-secretly joining the (R) party to get elected & get visibility.

[bill_mcgonigle]

If I were trying to weasel out of prosecuting this I'd focus on the meaning of 'for pay'.  In one sense, "I paid you one cent to see the puppet show" is in violation of the law.  In another sense, "that puppet show cost $250 to put on, but we only made $1.25 on it so it didn't really pay to do it" might get the Selectmen off the hook and a judge who wanted to be rid of this thing might agree.

So, if you're serious about getting in trouble, be sure to make a profit on it, at least covering materials, travel at IRS rates, and minimum-wages.  Granted, this makes the effort more difficult and you may succeed in getting in trouble with the first meaning.

Also, the association of puppetry with children could work either way.  On one hand, "these guys were just putting on shows for children and had an open guitar case" causes sympathy, but "these guys were using children to advance their political agenda" doesn't.  Same coin, two sides; be prepared to spin or be spun.

If the risk of the latter is real you could simply exploit the 'rope dancing' aspect of the legislation.  Set up a boombox, and jump rope with the guitar case open.  Bonus points for concurrent occurrences all over the state.  Double bonus points for having Guy Fawkes masks, though early November can be pretty cold for jumping rope outside.

[JosephSHaas]

....

....

Thanks "Rasputin".   

And in reference to the 286:1 Showman "for pay" over at http://gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/NHTOC/NHTOC-XXIV-286.htm I see now how "they" take R.S.A. Ch. 286:2 out of context, that reads that: "No...drama...shall be performed...upon any PUBLIC* street or way, and no open-air PUBLIC* meeting upon any [_____*] ground abutting thereon, shall be permitted, unless a special license thereof shall be obtained from the selectmen of the town or from the issuing committee from cities herein provided for." ....

* Emphasis ADDed for the two PUBLIC words above, and that word implied for "any" meaning any PUBLIC or PRIVATE "ground" that abuts said PUBLIC street or way.

I can understand of that word "any" meaning possibly applicable to a PRIVATE piece of land, as per a traffic jam getting to and from there at said special event, thus needing a C.O.P. to direct traffic, BUT when under #___ people like in a demonstration, I don't think so on PRIVATE land NOT affecting the PUBLIC other than to draw attention from some drivers-by, but that's what the political sign holders were doing at the corner of Centre Street where it turns into Loudon Road on North Main Street in Concord by the Holiday Inn and the Prescription Center diagonally across from the traffic lights, during the Primary back in January. Did any of them have a puppet dangling from their sign? like a noose around the effigy of Bush's neck?  The signs were moving within arm's length of their stance, and so don't puppet masters have the same equal rights to the same amount of space?

To check out the property card over at City Hall, just a hop, skip and a jump away from the A.G.'s Office that I think is in rented space from their landlord: The Laconia Savings Bank, and so on PRIVATE property, and with a street light there, so needing no hiring of a private C.O.P.

Go fer it! Maybe the State House Trooper who parks his cruiser there will let you use the roof of his car as a base from which to hang fishing poles from.  I kind of doubt it, but maybe that vehicle is on the scrap list heading over to the State Auction Barn on Clinton Street. 

[Dave Ridley]

so....would it be inappropriate to hold this in front of the ag's office?  because of her not being the one who would prosecute it?

[d_goddard]

so....would it be inappropriate to hold this in front of the ag's office?  because of her not being the one who would prosecute it?

It'd be more poignant to do it in front of a Selectmen's meeting.

[Dave Ridley]

again can someone tell me more about this failed bill aimed at eliminating arcane laws?  would it have addressed, or potentially addressed, the pupeteering restrictions?   

were democrats clearly more culpable in killing it than republicans?

[d_goddard]

again can someone tell me more about this failed bill aimed at eliminating arcane laws?

http://www.generalcourt.org/bills/2008/HB1347.html
AN ACT establishing a committee to review the Revised Statutes Annotated and recommend revision or removal of obsolete laws or references.
Status: HOUSE - INEXPEDIENT TO LEGISLATE (DEAD)

[Dave Ridley]

Which jail would a person end up in if they got arrested outside concord city hall?  on state house grounds?   outside manchester city hall?

i tend to think it would be better to make this a state issue rather than showing up in front of some hapless bunch of selectmen....those guys have no culpability for these laws being on the books and aren't really law enforcement either.   the state house *is* culpable since it's been blocking attempts to remove the laws.   

also we'd be perhaps allied with selectmen on this issue since they aren't going to like any law that requires them to do something.  This one requires them to enforce it correct?

it Does look like this law would have been a candidate for repeal if this bill had passed and the repeal commission formed.

What are your thoughts with regard to doing this on state house property?  they could make the arrest on trespass charges instead of pupeteering, but then that's another issue that needs bringing up anyay.  how big is the right of way in front of the state house?   if we puppetted there that would at least ensure we are only breaking the pupeteering law and not some state-property anti-protest regulation.  the latter may need breaking but it would be better to do separately to get more bang for the buck.

[Dave Ridley]

can someone name a case or two in new hampshire where an obsolete, supposedly unenforced, law has been used to prosecute someone, say, in the last 10 years?

[mackler]

can anyone look into the law a little more closely to absolutely ensure that a puppet show for pay, in front of the the AG's office would in fact be illegal?  would it be illegal if held on private property with the consent of the owner?

Write a letter to the A.G and ask her.

[JosephSHaas]

...how big is the right of way in front of the state house?  ....

The R.O.W. is #___ feet wide and is those five paths leading up to the front steps; three paths starting from the North Main Street sidewalk by the arch and to the right and left, or north and south of the arch; plus those paths from both Park Street to the north, and Capitol Street from the south.

JSH

[JosephSHaas]

can someone name a case or two in new hampshire where an obsolete, supposedly unenforced, law has been used to prosecute someone, say, in the last 10 years?

Yes, I've been prosecuted against (1) in the Fall of 1992 by the case-law of "Champerty" that was taken off the books by the Supremes by the Adken case of the Spring of 1992* [see the State v. Haas case #_____ from the Grafton Co. Sup. Ct. to the Supremes; and (2) that statute of "Improper Influence" RSA Ch. ____  that was declared unconstitutional ten years prior to the prosecution against me in Fall 2004 of State v. Haas, #04-S-____** at Merrimack County Superior Court but still kept on the books.

JSH

-* thanks to Rep. Rbt. Rowe of the House Judiciary, Probate Judge retired who told Rep. Dick Marple of Hooksett (my friend and retired State Trooper) on his Champerty bill to look into the history of this by the case-law printout of such from over at the State Library.

** thanks to an astute attorney by the name of: Ted Barnes of #___ Court Street, Concord by the Merrimack County Superior Court who was keenly sensitive to sniffing out the county case(*) of State v. ________ of the man whose case determined it to be unconstitutional, and so they/ the Legislators had to either get rid of the statute or beef it up by putting in exact titles, like now if you "threaten"* certain Constitutional officers of the government, it's now not merely a misdemeanor but a felony!

* a threat is a coercion of to put somebody into an involuntary situation, so when you give them a choice of to like do your job "or" you will be impeached, then by the use of the "or" word, it is NOT a threat since there is no RSA 21:2 technical definition of the word, see: http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/I/21/21-2.htm

(*) These county cases never make it to the N.H. Supreme Court for entry into the N.H. REPORTS, and so you've got to do the digging for such at each and every lower level of the ten county courts, that might keep an index, but privileged to those chosen few of the N.H. Bar, a practice that Theodore Kamisinski tried to fix a few years ago but they ran him out of town.

[Dave Ridley]

joe can you send me links to the laws you were prosecuted for allegedly breaking

and summarize in one sentence or less what you did to break them?