MPD protest 3/15

[Dave Ridley]

whoever wants to coordinate with me regarding tomorrow can reach me at 721 1490 on my cell

Mpd location:

The Manchester Police Department
351 Chestnut Street
Manchester, NH 03101

if you dont see me that probably means I'm inside and will be back out shortly.  not sure which side I'll be on while outside but you'll see me sooner or later.

[John]

I got a call from work and must go in Thursday.  Also must work Monday.
Shucks!

[Dave Ridley]

Well I had an active liberty-related day yesterday March 15 related to the state house and the MPD protest and thought I should post an after action report!

I went up to the state house meaning to testify against 3 bills but two of them I missed just by stepping out of the hearing room for 15 minutes!  Reminder to self...senate committees can move fast!  The third one which I did NOT miss was a hearing to set up an automatic death benefit of $100,000 for any Guardsman killed as a result of activation by the Governor.   

I got to hit 3 birds with one stone here because a NH National Guard general was there to testify.  That gave me a chance to talk to him before hand and request that he never follow or issue an unconstitutional order like the one that resulted in the Katrina gun confiscations.   He denied that his men had been involved in that.

I testified against the bill basically just by quoting Davy Crockett who said this against a Congressional bill that would have awarded money to the widow of a prominent vet:

"Mr. Speaker --- I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this house, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living...

We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money...

Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and, if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

I told the folks in the room that like Crockett I wanted to help voluntarily and told them of my desire to hirie an NH veteran, afterwords a Lt. Colonel got my contact info so hopefully that will lead to something.

In the hearing one of the senators told me he felt he has a duty to vets.    I said then do your duty.  But don't force your neighbor to.   

They seemed to appreciate my testimony but voted unanimously to pass the bill

Ii was the only one of about 5 speakers that testified against it.  It's probably unstoppable.   Oh also i told them i was with NHfree.com

After that I left a copy of the Keene Free Press on a cofee table in the legislative office building where reps gather, wish i'd had more.

Then I went to MPD with my little (well, 2' x 3' sign):

Dear MPD:
All NH is
a Free
Speech Zone
nhfree.com

and as planned i just went into the lobby and stood there holding the sign without saying anything.   I could see people talking about me through glass and about 15 minutes after I got there a cop finally came out and started talking to me.  He asked what i was protesting, wondered why I would protest free speech without speaking, said "you have the guts to come in here but not the guts to speak?"  I shook his hand.  then he said "it doesn't give you much credibility if you don't speak"  I smiled at him but....did not speak.   And he left.  And then I went outside and held the sign for traffic for about an hour.   

whenever i saw a cop i just faced them and tracked them with the sign instead of the traffic.


so kat if you want to do another one like this just put it on the calendar

[Kat Kanning]

Oh, I agreed to give GrannyD a ride to Manchester with us, so guess we wont be protesting....unless she wants to join in.

[Dave Ridley]

Oh, I agreed to give GrannyD a ride to Manchester with us, so guess we wont be protesting....unless she wants to join in.

I hope you'll ask her!  that would make it a better protest if she were there, no doubt about.   I have to check my work schedule before I can tell you whether I'm able to be there, but if memory serves, i have a 70% chance i could be there.

[Kat Kanning]

When the guy today asked me to give her a ride, I said 'Yes' right away...I think it'll be really interesting to meet her! 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny_D

[Lloyd Danforth]

She sounds interesting.

[Kat Kanning]

She might be single, Lloyd.

[Dreepa]

She sounds like the type who might like to protest.

Dave... you rock!

[Lloyd Danforth]

Not that kind of interesting

[Fluff and Stuff]

Not that kind of interesting

Too young for you, eh ???