For more Pumpkin Fest Riot news, visit FreeKeene.com.
After I got off-the-air from my live Saturday radio program (on which we discussed the initial Pumpkin Fest 2014 riots), I headed back down to the college. At the time, there was a helicopter broadcasting a message to disperse or be arrested. I arrived at the gateway to Keene State College – Winchester St. to witness a huge throng of police marching down the street. I quickly pulled out my camera and began to record:
After walking around the nearest building on campus, in full view of the line of police, activists walked onto campus and right back over to Winchester St. We continued walking west on Winchester and no cops said anything to us there. However, we again went on campus and came back out on Madison St., on the west end of the college. Here there were several police standing around the intersection and one of them told me we couldn’t pass, despite college students walking down Winchester St. immediately behind them.
The solution, (visible on the graphic to the right) was simply to walk 30 feet south and cut through the parking lot, back to Winchester St., wherein we were easily able to walk right past the same officers moments later.
What the hell was the point of these chokepoints anyway? The riots had been over for a while by now. It seemed the police were just enforcing arbitrary lines, and not very effectively or consistently. After checking out the police staging area, which the BEARCAT never actually left (thankfully), we came back to Winchester and Madison, where a very large group of armored and other police had gathered despite nothing at all happening there. It appeared they were preparing for transport elsewhere, however, before they could take off, three guys walked up from the dorms in search of late-night eats at the Campus Convenience store on the southeast corner.
Despite them being in the exact same place I was just minutes earlier, these young men were told to “GO HOME!” over and over with the demand being shouted by multiple officers. Within moments, the officers swarmed and attacked the guys (jump right to that part of the video), who had stated they were hungry. Did the officers behave differently toward them than they did me because there were more of the police present when the guys walked up?
“Alpha Dogs” John MacLean and Ken Meola
This action by the police, like the arrest of the guy walking down the sidewalk earlier in the day, was completely unnecessary and outrageous. These guys wanted some munchies, not to eat pavement. They had not hurt anyone and had not threatened anyone. This is pure escalation. Not long after, city boss John MacLean and police chief Ken Meola are seen laughing it up across the street, ironically in front of “Alpha Dogs” eatery.
Stay tuned to Free Keene for the latest on the Pumpkin Fest 2014 Riots.
Wait a minute. After a riot, two guys, one of whom obviously has no respect for the officers we pay to protect us has the munchies and decides to walk through the police borders. The video starts with the confrontation and doesn’t show the guys asking the cops if they could pass. Maybe they didn’t ask because they felt they didn’t have to, though I would have, because the situation was not normal. It was fraught. And it looks like they chose to challenge police who had been on the streets all day dealing with drunken assholes. Yeah it looks like a takedown of a couple of defiant (tho you choose “hungry”) guys, but they both looked fine by the end. I didn’t see any blood or bruises, and I don’t know, but if one of those cops had hit that mouthy guy in the face — even once — he wouldn’t have looked so healthy.
I noticed that one of the goals stated again and again at Keenevention is “media production” by which speakers mean attracting media and buzzing social media. While an effective tool, for sure, I think it might be easy to have that goal sometime supersede the simple, admirable goal of “keeping small town law enforcement peaceful an accountable.” Hyperbole creeps in and credibility falls apart. I’ve had a similar rational though dissenting observation removed by the administrators of Keenevention, and I truly hope you keep this one posted, in the spirit freedom and liberty.