Keene and Manchester have long been hotspots for copblocking and especially so in 2014. Manchester has had regular DUI checkpoints that have been blocked by 30-40 activists throughout the Summer. Keene Cop Block has generated huge positive name recognition with their regular know-your-rights outreach & copblocking in the college neighborhood on weekend nights. Learn about what’s happening in the Shire from some of the key activists involved in Keenevention‘s first-ever Cop Block panel. Presented by Cop Block’s Eric Freerock. Panelists included Joël Valenzuela, Centurion, and Christopher Cantwell.
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. (more…)
Rather than only arresting people who were causing violence and destruction, the police were targeting people crossing arbitrary lines and partying on private property. In this excellent ten-minute video, Alex is right there when cops create all kinds of unnecessary mayhem: (click links below to jump to that part if you are short on time)
They shoot pepperballs at party houses on Winchester St – completely unnecessary – those people were on private property and not in the road. It’s arguable that pepperballs are useful to clear a crowd who won’t leave a street and indeed, blocking streets is one of the reasons the “disorderly conduct” statute exists, but the people at these houses were just enjoying themselves. The use of pepperballs in this situation is just aggressive.
Guy walking down sidewalk is violently arrested by a throng of cops – This guy is literally just walking down the sidewalk. He’s hasn’t threatened anyone and is not blocking the street. The reason he can’t walk down the sidewalk is, well, because the men with guns say so. The reason the cops decide to jump him like he’s strapped with a bomb is, because they can.
It’s behavior like this from police that alienates them from average people. This is why Cop Block is so popular on campus. Here are the students’ sensible responses to the violence that was visited upon them by the police:
“We’re not terrorists. We love America. We just like to drink! Don’t shoot us!”
There’s a reason why the young ladies in the video think that the police are “pieces of shit” because they hurt their peaceful friends – every weekend, not just Pumpkin Fest. If all the police did was arrest people who hurt others or destroy property, it wouldn’t be as big a deal if they cleared some streets with pepperballs, but the adrenaline-hyped cops seem to have a penchant for escalating a situation. There’s more footage showing police attacking people for walking peacefully long after the riots had subsided – I’ll upload that soon enough. Stay tuned here to Free Keene for the latest on the Pumpkin Fest Riots of 2014.
A few tweaks have been made to the know-your-rights flyer we’ve been handing out on the streets of Keene for years. They contain simple, solid info about your rights when encountering police. Even if you think you already know your rights, it doesn’t hurt to review. Please share! Click the graphics for the full-size versions or click: (front, back):
Welcome (back) to Keene, KSC students! Many of you returning are already aware of Keene Cop Block. For those who are new, we’ve been and will continue to be out in the streets near the college, generally on Friday and Saturday nights. As usual, we’ll be recording police harassment of peaceful people and will be handing out plenty of know-your-rights cards.
Plus, we may have a K9 unit, Jazzy Girl with us, so please stop and pet her – she loves people.
