Civil Disobedience

[Kat Kanning]

http://www.soulawakenings.com/underground/tikiwiki/tiki-index.php?page=Activists+to+Defy+State+Licensing+Laws

I've tried to list all the media coverage.  There's been a lot.

[Kat Kanning]

About cosmetology in NH:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/04242005/business/38859.htm

Senior citizen Arlene Kaufman of Portsmouth has her hair cut and an occasional manicure at both clinics.

"On (a) fixed income, $35 or more plus tips at a commercial salon is a budget buster," she said. "At either establishment, haircuts cost around $6 for seniors. The students are capable and there is always an instructor nearby to check on the progress of the cut. It sometimes takes a bit longer, but I?ve got the time."

Imagine!  People might want an unlicensed haircut because it's cheaper!

For students looking to enter the field, training at either facility involves 1,500 hours of study and hands-on practice over a period of about a year, with tuition on or about $9,200. There is an additional expense for an equipment kit that includes tools of the trade and five wig mannequins.

That's a lot of money!  But luckily, it sounds like you can get financial aid from the government (to comply with gov't regulations)   

[FTL_Ian]

What ever you're going to do next, should be done while the iron is still hot....   so what's next?

[Russell Kanning]

Should we do more things for the cosmotology board and push them over the edge.....or do something else in the licensing world?
The way that department and AG overreacted....maybe we should just keep pushing them.

[Amethyste]

Hello,

This is Amethyste - Mike's wife.
I am writing this quick message for you so you can maybe think about what has been going on for me while this whole thing happenend.

I work as a manicurist - so for my husband to get arrested for doing what I do to make money at the moment ( on top of that I am supporting the both of us while he's starting his own business DOING MANICURES AND PEDICURES ) has added lots of stress on me and my employment with my my employer at the moment. Yes, you have all reached what you wanted: attention to the matter. But for me, it is more of negative attention than positive. I remember going through the whole problem of getting my license transfered from VT to NH, I do understand what you guys are doing and trying to UN-do, but in this case, the choice of manicures to demonstrate that the law is wrong, was not a wise choice in my opinion, is has spomewhat jeopardized my core mean of living .

Second, I *need* my husband home, working hard on his business and making money. THat's where I THINK he should be concentrating his effort. For him to be in jail or not home to answer the calls when people need him to fix computesr is a let down in my eyes. I have given up a lot for him to start his business ( moved, invested money in his franchise, stopped playing music etc... ), that being said, being in jail is NOT helping the situation. I do want to start my business as well one day and right now I need a strong husband and I need him here with me, caring for our home and our imminent future. You cannot build strong relationships, loving and caring lives if you are constantly worried about what your husband is doing and mostly, where he is at and if he'll come home at night. My home is with him here with me... Not away from me. I am not THAT strong, I cannot hold the fort by myself. Aside of my little gripes and complaints, I am a worrier by nature, so this whole thing has taken a lot away from me. Mostly, Michael is married: this implies that priorities have changed and while I am supporting him in what he does, I am finding myself in a web of conflicting interests and feelings. I am sure you all understand what I am trying to say...

I think Michael was a very heroic person that day for going strongly for what he believes in. I think for the next event, he should be pasing down the flag to someone else that want to help. If you were in my shoes, you would understand where I am coming from.
I love my husand with all my heart. So you all know that I am still here and even if I dont post at all, I do read about what is going on...

-=Amethyste


MODIFIED TO SAY: Mike rocks! He's my hero.... I love you sweetie. Please take this with a grain of salt. I trust you to make the best decision when it comes to our family. remember? " MAKE GOOD DECISIONS!"

[Dave Ridley]

Civil disobedience is good for freedom but sometimes bad for the disobeyer.   I urge everyone who can to help Mike and Amethyste by making him the guy who fixes your computers - he's done a great job for me in this regard. 

I will probably try to post a letter to the editor in one of the seacoast papers urging all readers to do the same, if there are no objections.

[Kat Kanning]

Thank you, Amythyste, for putting up with all of this!

[Dave Ridley]

http://portsmouthherald.com/news/05112005/news/41652.htm

5/11
Guilty for no license

By Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com

Just sprung from jail for filing fingernails, Mike Fisher agreed his new arrest record falls into the category of lame.

As he returned to his Newmarket home Tuesday, following an overnighter in the Merrimack County Jail, Fisher, 23, reflected on his Monday arrest for giving a manicure without a license.

The public filing of his friend?s fingernails using a disposable emery board was planned as a protest against state licensing laws. After posting advance notice of his demonstration on various Web sites, including that of New Hampshire Underground, Fisher began filing the nails of his friend, "Cat," at about 2:20 p.m. on Monday, he said.

His act of civil disobedience, disguised as a manicure, occurred in front of the Concord office of the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics, the board that governs nail salons.

A member of the Free State Project, Fisher said police showed up immediately, as they and the state attorney general?s office also had advance warning of the public protest.

PHOTO
Concord Police Officer Michael Pearl arrests Mike Fisher for giving a manicure without a license in front of the office of the state cosmetology board on Monday.
AP photo

"I?ve been practicing and looking at sanitary procedures," said Fisher. "So I wasn?t clipping cuticles, because that takes a little skill."

He said police then warned him to stop and suggested there were better ways for him to make his point that government regulations are too numerous and prohibitive to small-businesspeople like himself.

"I said, ?My views are too extreme for the Legislature to consider,?" Fisher said, continuing to ignore the police?s warnings to stop filing Cat?s nails.

It was then that police placed him against a car, patted him down, cuffed him at the wrists and hauled him off to jail for the night - all according to Fisher?s plan.

So, too, was refusing to post the $30 bail, in favor of spending the night in a 10-foot by 15-foot cell with "five to 10" other inmates, then to sleep on a floor using his blanket as a pillow and going without a blanket for the night.

According to the overnight prisoner, he was arraigned by video at 11 a.m. on Tuesday before a judge at a remote location. After pleading guilty, Fisher was sentenced to 32 days in jail, with 30 of them suspended and one served.

"They were full, so they let me out," he said of the jail, having served one day short of his full sentence.

Fisher said he wasn?t hungry his first day there, so he refused the offer of a meal. On Tuesday, he dined on a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread, with Jell-O for dessert.

And he made some friends.

"Everyone was nice," he said. "One corrections officer said he heard about me on the radio on the way to work. Even the people in jail with me were nice. I gave out my number to a couple of them."

Fisher moved to New Hampshire after learning of the Free State Project?s efforts to move members en masse to the Granite State as part of a group effort to reform and relax governmental laws.

Fisher, a computer programmer, said he hasn?t yet been contacted by the Tonight Show.

[Russell Kanning]

So can Kat file a complaint or something for the cops ripping her off? She paid for a manicure and they stopped it.

Didn't Mike choose civil disobedience...didn't he also choose to do manicures?

Maybe our next act of civil disobedience will be done by a single guy or maybe somebodies wife will volunteer him.

I am very proud of the way Mike pulled this off.

[Kat Kanning]

If Russell gets too obnoxious, we can just have him be the next jailbird

[ethanpooley]

Amethyste, I just wanted to say that I do understand what you are saying. Thank you for being supportive of Mike, even though it has caused trouble for you. I agree that it is time for others to step up. I don't think that Mike needs to push the state to greater wrongs against him in order to keep up the momentum; in fact I think that getting into too much of a pissing contest with the state will often be counterproductive.

It seems to me that what is needed now is a strong effort 'within the system' to remove the protested licensing laws, perhaps accompanied by a lot of other people going to the same extent that Mike did. Maybe an official 'unlicensed manicure' day where hundreds of people gather to give unlicensed manicures. An effort to work within the system to get rid of licensing only needs to establish a couple of things:

1. It isn't okay for the state to limit what kinds of services I provide to another free, consenting adult.

2. It isn't okay to keep an unjust law simply because it creates jobs or has become a tradition.

3. There are perfectly effective, private, non-coercive ways to help 'protect' people from incorrect or unsanitary beauty services.

Those three points obviously lead into a lot of other libertarian issues as well, and this is a great campaign to start getting them into the minds of the people of NH. I am not in NH yet, but I want to promise right now that I will help however I can in any effort to repeal the protested licensing laws. Now that we have some attention and a great opening line (Did you know that someone was arrested last week for giving a manicure?) let's get rid of this law by working within the system!

Finally Amethyste, it really is too bad that this particular cause would be financially bad for you if it were to succeed. My wife used to work for the city government where I live in WA, and I often ran into similar conflicts. However, I have almost always started out more scared of the effects of freedom than I needed to be. There are always new opportunities that come along with new freedom, and I doubt that this is an exception.

[Kat Kanning]

Phil Denisch sent a little poem:

From:   "Philip Denisch (CBIZ MTDonahoe)"
To:   "Kat Dillon (E-mail)" <Bookish_Lass@yahoo.com>
Subject:   
Date:   Tue, 10 May 2005 16:20:03 -0400

From manus-hand and cura-care,
A stout dorsatii braved the air,
Air that smelt of nanny breath,
Is clipping same as cooking meth?

[Kat Kanning]

Keene Sentinel printed this today:

Manicurist gets two days in jail

CONCORD ? A computer repairman from Newmarket will spend two days in jail ? including his 24th birthday ? after pleading guilty Tuesday to giving a manicure without a license, a criminal misdemeanor.

Michael Fisher says he planned to get arrested Monday for manicuring without a license outside the headquarters of the state Board of Barbering, Cosmetology and Esthetics.

Fisher is a member of the libertarian Free State Project, which has chosen New Hampshire as its staging ground for a political movement promoting minimum government and maximum personal freedom. He and his wife moved from Burlington, Vt., to New Hampshire last year.

Fisher says his act of unlicensed manicuring was intended to draw attention to what he considers needless government-imposed obstacles facing small-time entrepreneurs. State law demands that all professional manicurists be licensed.

Judge Thomas Grappa and Prosecutor Scott Murray said Fisher would make better use of his time lobbying the Legislature to change the law, rather than continuing his protest manicures.

[Russell Kanning]

I wonder if they think it is right to have licensing laws for manicures?
If they do...then why would we follow their advice.
If they don't ...then why do they keep prosecuting people for it and jailing them.

....the judge and prosecuter

[Kat Kanning]

Who are you talkng about?