July 31, 2006: Russell arrested

[Kat Kanning]

Thank you for the calls, letters, and $, Brian.  Here is the flyer:

http://www.republicofnh.org/brochure.pdf

The judge read through it during the trial.  He didn't appear to like it.

[FTL_Ian]

Free Russell Kanning Thread:
http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=4648.0

[KBCraig]

Typo correction:

National version of news release

Last Thursday, after announcing his intensions intentions publicly,

[Kat Kanning]

Roger, with a little alteration, this would make an excellent letter for the paper.  Interested?

Went over to Concord to show support for Russell and the ones he leaves at home, Kat and Kira. Love and help to you two... just let me know anything you need. William would like to help deliver KFP newspapers.

Major Therrien was out front and greeted me by name... I said 'so you read the forum'.

Seems to be a decent man who has experience with the State Department overseas dealing with terrorist bombings etc. He is just another cog in the big machine... the government has thousands of pages of laws that create such a tangled web... we are at the mercy of our government and it agents. None of the individuals have to feel guilty for their part... "Just doing our job."

I told him that we on the forum were peaceful and were working for change. He seemed most interested in the mission of protecting federal facilities.

I told him that I was afraid that Homeland Security and ICE were the foundations of a police state. I know that the fear of being on some watch list and spooks tracking me has stifled the exercising of my political beliefs. Most people I know are afraid of our government... 'I can't go to that event... they might be watching.' Public dissent is corralled and intimidated. Things that were lawful when I was young, now will get you hard time. It is illegal to live as my father and his father lived.

The people given the task of protecting us now have the power to control us... the young ones are the ones that worry me the most. They don't even remember being free. When I was a boy, if they came to arrest you they didn't drop you and dominate you. They told you you were under arrest and they calmly took you away. But thanks to the war on drugs everyone is treated this way.

Anyway, tired and sick of being afraid. Thanks Russell for trying to show folks things they didn't understand about our system... it is a blunt instrument best used against thieves and violent people.

--End of rambling rant--

Tried to get a shot of them transporting Russell out of the courthouse, but I think they just waited me out. I think I saw a vehicle leave as I rounded the corner... wanted Russell to see a supporter as he left, no luck.

Just going to hang my head and weep now.

[tracysaboe]

Wow,

Regardless of what anyone thinks of the particulars of Russell's defiance, it's clear the state has overreacted.  This is a great opportunity to put public pressure on the confiners/judges/prisonmasters/powerelite.  Definitely write to Russell every day at:

Russell Kanning
c/o Strafford County House of Corrections
266 COUNTY FARM ROAD
DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03820

And call every day at:

603.742.3310

to make sure they know we're keeping track.  Be polite, but be persistent.  Try to establish a personal rellationship with whoever answers the phone or the mail.  They are people, too, by necessity.

This is the latest info I've seen of his whereabouts, contact info.  If I'm wrong, someone please correct.  I'll be calling early tomorrow, well today, 8/1, to check it out.

Russell, I may not be on the same page with you regarding tactics or even strategy, but I'm in the book.  We'll use this incarceration to maxium advantage for the cause.  I would like to ask someone to post here a link to the brochure Russell and other tried to present to the government officials.  It is PERFECT!  Please, someone find and post on the forum for distrbution in the planet's forums.

Thanks,

Brian

Why is he in Dover? Isn't that one of the most Corupt parts of NH as far as the Police go?

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

Press release below is for distribution to local media, national version to follow.  Plz distribute as best you can.

----

Homeland Security nabs Keene resident from home
  Leafleting campaign triggers forced court appearance

From NHfree.com
Keene, New Hampshire
July 31, 6:45 P.M.

For the third time in the last four days, Keene resident Russell Kanning finds himself in Federal custody.  The 36-year-old libertarian activist isn't in trouble for selling drugs, threatening officials or endangering anyone.  Instead, he's the target of Federal wrath because he attempted to enter the Keene IRS office with?a piece of paper.

Last Thursday, after announcing his intensions publicly, Kanning appeared in front of Keene's IRS branch wearing overalls and a straw hat, clutching a pitchfork in one hand and a leaflet in the other.   His intent was to enter the IRS office - sans pitchfork - and hand the leaflet to any government employees working there.   

"I want them to quit their jobs," he said, referring to the one or two IRS agents who staff this part-time office on Keene's Main Street. His flyers contain a form which he is asking IRS agents to sign, pledging they will stop working for the agency because of what he considers the evil things it funds.  Kanning listed the Iraq occupation and arrest of Plainfield tax resister Ed Brown as events that drove him to action.

But Homeland Security agents, as well as some from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stood ready to defend this tiny office from the dangerous flyer.  They told Kanning if he attempted to enter the office (situated above Keene's main postal facility) they would arrest him.  Kanning chatted with them briefly, then informed them he would not be able to comply with their orders and slowly moved forward toward the IRS section of the building.  Agents then gently cuffed him, transported him to Keene Police Department and released him.   

Kanning then immediately went back to the IRS office, got arrested again, released again, and vowed to return for a third visit at noon on August 3.  He also declined to appear in court.

So on Monday, July 31 around 10:30 a.m., Federal agent seized him again, this time inside his home, this time not so gently.

"They just came in and threw Russell to the ground and took him," says Kanning?s wife Kat Dillon in a hastily composed web forum message on NHfree.com.   

Dillon says Kanning was transported to the Federal Building in Concord and forced to appear in court at around 2 p.m.  But she says other than the initial roughhousing on the living room floor, agents have been fairly polite so far

"The guy who was in charge on Thursday came by...apparently just to chat with me," she writes from a friend's computer near the courthouse.  "He wanted to convince me that they weren't the bad guys."

However Dillon says she is angry that her husband could be arrested simply for trying to hand a leaflet to a public official on public property.

"In case it isn't clear," she writes, "the issue is that the federal government has gone bad...It's imperitive that good people refuse to cooperate with it."

Details, currently sketchy, are still coming in, and you can read them at
http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=4640.0

Copies of the Dangerous Leaflet are at
http://www.republicofnh.org/brochure.pdf

Photographs of today's arrest (7/31):
http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=4640.0

Photographs of the July 27 arrest are at
http://www.soulawakenings.com/underground/tikiwiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=74

Permission is granted to publish them at will.

Contacts:  Dave Ridley 603.721.1490,  Kat Dillon/Russell Kanning (better sources of info than me if freed and available)  603.357.2049

Is this on the Wiki so I can submit it as a story to Digg?

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

National version of news release

Homeland Security nabs Free Stater from home
  Leafleting campaign triggers forced court appearance

From NHfree.com
Keene, New Hampshire
July 31, 7:00 p.m.

For the third time in the last four days, Keene resident Russell Kanning finds himself in Federal custody.  The 36-year-old libertarian activist isn't in trouble for selling drugs, threatening officials or endangering anyone.  Instead, he's the target of Federal wrath because he attempted to enter the Keene IRS office with?a piece of paper. 

Last Thursday, after announcing his intensions publicly, Kanning appeared in front of Keene's IRS branch wearing overalls and a straw hat, clutching a pitchfork in one hand and a leaflet in the other.   His intent was to enter the IRS office - sans pitchfork - and hand the leaflet to any government employees working there.   

"I want them to quit their jobs," he said, referring to the one or two IRS agents who staff this part-time office on Keene's Main Street. His flyers contain a form which he is asking IRS agents to sign, pledging they will stop working for the agency because of what he considers the evil things it funds.

But Homeland Security agents, as well as some from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, stood ready to defend this tiny office from the dangerous flyer.  They told Kanning if he attempted to enter the office (situated above Keene's main postal facility) they would arrest him.  Kanning chatted with them briefly, then informed them he would not be able to comply with their orders and slowly moved forward toward the IRS section of the building.  Agents then gently cuffed him, transported him to Keene Police Department and released him.   

Kanning then immediately went back to the IRS office, got arrested again, released again, and vowed to return for a third visit at noon on August 3.  He also declined to appear in court.

So on Monday, July 31 around 10:30 a.m., Federal agent seized him again, this time inside his home, this time not so gently.

"They just came in and threw Russell to the ground and took him," says Kanning?s wife Kat Dillon in a hastily composed web forum message on NHfree.com.   

Dillon says Kanning was transported to the Federal Building in Concord and forced to appear in court at around 2 p.m.  But she says other than the initial roughhousing on the living room floor, agents have been fairly polite so far

"The guy who was in charge on Thursday came by...apparently just to chat with me," she writes from a friend's computer near the courthouse.  "He wanted to convince me that they weren't the bad guys."

However Dillon says she is angry that her husband could be arrested simply for trying to hand a leaflet to a public official on public property.

"In case it isn't clear," she writes, "the issue is that the federal government has gone bad...It's imperitive that good people refuse to cooperate with it."

Kanning is a member of the Free State Project (www.FreeStateProject.org), a nationwide movement aimed at recruiting libertarians to move to New Hampshire.

Events have moved forward very fast since this news release was composed. You can read the latest details on the NHfree.com forum at

http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=4640.0

Copies of the Dangerous Leaflet are at

http://www.republicofnh.org/brochure.pdf

Photographs of today's arrest:
http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=4640.0

Photographs of the July 27 arrest:
http://www.soulawakenings.com/underground/tikiwiki/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=74

Permission is granted to publish them at will.

Contact info:  Dave Ridley  603.721.1490,  Kat Dillon/Russell Kanning (if freed and available)  603.357.2049

What about this one. Is this posted anywhere besides the forum?

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

I'm also kind of wondering if we should take more precautions with NHFree, such as moving the CD board somewhere else where only members that we know in person can view, that way the police don't figure out our action plan at every step of the way.

This will not prevent inflitration.  This was discussed in another thread.. we'll continue to plan openly.

Ditto.
Besides -- then I wouldn't be able to cheer 

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

Went over to Concord to show support for Russell and the ones he leaves at home, Kat and Kira. Love and help to you two... just let me know anything you need. William would like to help deliver KFP newspapers.

Major Therrien was out front and greeted me by name... I said 'so you read the forum'.

Seems to be a decent man who has experience with the State Department overseas dealing with terrorist bombings etc. He is just another cog in the big machine... the government has thousands of pages of laws that create such a tangled web... we are at the mercy of our government and it agents. None of the individuals have to feel guilty for their part... "Just doing our job."

I told him that we on the forum were peaceful and were working for change. He seemed most interested in the mission of protecting federal facilities.

I told him that I was afraid that Homeland Security and ICE were the foundations of a police state. I know that the fear of being on some watch list and spooks tracking me has stifled the exercising of my political beliefs. Most people I know are afraid of our government... 'I can't go to that event... they might be watching.' Public dissent is corralled and intimidated. Things that were lawful when I was young, now will get you hard time. It is illegal to live as my father and his father lived.

The people given the task of protecting us now have the power to control us... the young ones are the ones that worry me the most. They don't even remember being free. When I was a boy, if they came to arrest you they didn't drop you and dominate you. They told you you were under arrest and they calmly took you away. But thanks to the war on drugs everyone is treated this way.

Anyway, tired and sick of being afraid. Thanks Russell for trying to show folks things they didn't understand about our system... it is a blunt instrument best used against thieves and violent people.

--End of rambling rant--

Tried to get a shot of them transporting Russell out of the courthouse, but I think they just waited me out. I think I saw a vehicle leave as I rounded the corner... wanted Russell to see a supporter as he left, no luck.

Just going to hang my head and weep now.

You should work that up and submit it.

It's good.
Reminds me of the journey in V for Vendeta when she wasn't afraid anymore.

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

A Couple thoughts.

Couldn't the ACLU pic this up as a Freedom of Speach incident? That was a comment that one of the diggers had.

Or I suppose they're just as much part of "the system."

This is really screwed up. I was shocked when I saw this thread topic, but now that I've had a chance to read the whole thing. . . .

I'm pretty much speachless.

Tracy

[KBCraig]

Russell Kanning
c/o Strafford County House of Corrections
266 COUNTY FARM ROAD
DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03820

Why is he in Dover? Isn't that one of the most Corupt parts of NH as far as the Police go?

I don't know about corruption in Dover, but as to the "why", I can offer this: federal agencies don't have their own jails, so they contract with local or county jails for federal prisoners. If you are arrested by a federal LEO, you will go to whichever jail they have contracted.

Kevin

[KBCraig]

I'm also kind of wondering if we should take more precautions with NHFree, such as moving the CD board somewhere else where only members that we know in person can view, that way the police don't figure out our action plan at every step of the way.

You make quite a leap of faith by assuming that meeting someone face to face means they are trustworthy.

My workplace union forum requires ID confirmation before joining. And yet, managers still seem to have printouts from the forum in hand when confronting members.

There is no such thing as an anonymous forum. At least not where I'm concerned: I've been online using my real name since 1995.

Kevin

[tracysaboe]

Russell Kanning
c/o Strafford County House of Corrections
266 COUNTY FARM ROAD
DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03820

Why is he in Dover? Isn't that one of the most Corupt parts of NH as far as the Police go?

I don't know about corruption in Dover, but as to the "why", I can offer this: federal agencies don't have their own jails, so they contract with local or county jails for federal prisoners. If you are arrested by a federal LEO, you will go to whichever jail they have contracted.

Kevin

Maybe we can ask the Dover jailers to quit their jobs.

Tracy

[Kat Kanning]

I put it up on Keene Free Press for you, Tracy.

http://www.keenefreepress.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=216&Itemid=36

[Kat Kanning]

There's a little article in the Union leader today about Russell.  It seemed pretty neutral to me.