NH: Vid of my latest open carry incident

NHfree.com ^

[Dada Orwell]

Below is a video of my August 5 open carry incident in New Hampshire. It starts audio-only then the video picks up a minute or two later when our pro photographer runs to the scene.

Basically I'm a liberty activist here; I wear a holstered pistol in public roughly once a week. It's legal in New Hampshire but not that common south of the notches. Cops sometimes ignore, sometimes harass you for doing it. When that happens to me, I don't get angry but use the chance to educate police about the open carry rights of NH citizens.

I was walking 50 yards from my car to the monthly Free Stater meeting at Murphy's Taproom in downtown Manchester. I usually open carry to that meeting.

I was noticed by a state trooper, but I noticed him too and called the Free Staters' emergency hotline before he got to me. In the video you hear my call realtime, as I report my situation and try to explain to our listeners what's happening.

Folks inside the bar also came running out to support me. Police thought it was pre-planned it happened so fast, like they'd been set up or something. But this is just how our guys react when they're nearby. I appreciate the fact that the police were able to maintain calm and respectful demeanor despite some of the anger directed against them by the crowd. But of course look I forward to the day when they don't make such stops in the first place.

Note that I am able to lawfully refuse them when they ask for my "papers" and personal information. If you think this is a better outcome than you'd get where you are now.....move your ass up here and share our freedoms!

Visit www.FreeStateProject.org

Thanks to all who showed support during and after this incident.

Hopefully this video will remind people New Hampshire does allow open carry, that officers here do handle themselves better than in most states, and that the Free Staters are continuing to improve level of support which is available to freedom lovers when police take exception to their responsible exercise of rights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FWXnK5UyRI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnewhampshireunderground%2Ecom%2Fforum%2Findex%2Ephp%3Ftopic%3D10019%2E45

[tiger-one]

Was Mr SS a friend of yours?

[mvpel]

I also suspect the guy carrying walks around outside the meeting location, on the days of their meetings until he is spotted by LE, then makes the call.

I can tell you from personal knowledge that this is the first time this sort of thing has happened outside the meeting. I would have been there myself, carrying openly, with my wife and son, if it hadn't been for the electrical wiring I had to get done on Saturday.

[epow]

I was walking 50 yards from my car to the monthly Free Stater meeting at Murphy's Taproom

Here in GA open carry is legal if you have a CC permit, but taking a gun concealed or open into a taproom where alcohol is served would get you arrested and your CCW invalidated. Carrying openly would probably get you arrested anyway in the Atlanta metro area, and it would probably require hiring a lawyer to get you off the hook.

We badly need a overhaul of our CCW law here, but so far we haven't been able to make much headway of that front even though we now have a Republican majority State Assembly and governor that was supposed to be on our side of the issue.

[Sloth]

The camcorder, in NH use of recording devices of an individual or individuals, in an area where one would expect not to be recorded, is illegal unless permission is given by the subjects being recorded. Walking down the street with 3 of your friends, and someone comes up to you with a CC 5 feet away and begins recording you is a crime

I strongly doubt that this is true -- but if it is, it is one of the most abominably evil laws I've ever heard.

[mvpel]

I’ve known him for a number of years - I’d say we’re more acquaintances, we don’t see each other much as he lives in Keene. He and I are in polar disagreement on certain core principles, like the use of defensive deadly force, so we each think the other’s a bit off our nut. He’s a really kind and friendly fellow most of the time - apparently except when faced with cops abusing their authority.

I don’t understand why some folks here would like to see a cop even further abuse that authority by attacking him and doing him grave bodily harm just because he’s not groveling at the sight of their shiny badges.

[mvpel]

Here in GA open carry is legal if you have a CC permit, but taking a gun concealed or open into a taproom where alcohol is served would get you arrested and your CCW invalidated. Carrying openly would probably get you arrested anyway in the Atlanta metro area, and it would probably require hiring a lawyer to get you off the hook.

Friends of ours are planning to move to New Hampshire from Atlanta for just that reason, among others.

In New Hampshire, it's never been illegal to carry in a bar, and our decades of experience on that point puts the lie to the notion that seems to prevail everywhere else in the country that such violation of rights is "common sense."

[mvpel]

I strongly doubt that this is true -- but if it is, it is one of the most abominably evil laws I've ever heard.

We tried to fix it last session with a law that would clarify that a police officer in the performance of his duties has no expectation of privacy anywhere or at any time, except in the head or some such. The Democrats killed it, though.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I don’t understand why some folks here would like to see a cop even further abuse that authority by attacking him and doing him grave bodily harm just because he’s not groveling at the sight of their shiny badges.

By him, do you mean the guy in the striped shirt? Based on what I saw in that video, it's difficult to have any sympathy for him because it seemed as though he was doing everything he possibly could to escalate the situation into something that it wasn't.

[mvpel]

By him, do you mean the guy in the striped shirt? Based on what I saw in that video, it's difficult to have any sympathy for him because it seemed as though he was doing everything he possibly could to escalate the situation into something that it wasn't.

It was the cops who started the situation, and the cops who could have ended the situation at any time by tipping their hats and going about their business, seeing as how no crime had been, was being, or was about to be committed, except by them under 18 USC 242.

[narby]

People DIE when they do not defend their liberties.

In a democracy, people lose their liberties when they irritate people or scare them. Open carry does both.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

It was the cops who started the situation, and the cops who could have ended the situation at any time by tipping their hats and going about their business, seeing as how no crime had been, was being, or was about to be committed, except by them under 18 USC 242.

Actually, that's exactly what the cops did---Striped Shirt Guy was the one who desperately wanted to escalate this minor thing into a "situation." The cops handled this situation well. Generally, I don't often side with the cops, but I have to give them credit here. Once they understood what was going down, they backed off accordingly. Manchester's not exactly the safest place in the world, so I can understand why they might look twice at a person packing heat.

[narby]

So "real world politics" in your state might be a bit different than the "real world politics" here in New Hampshire.

People are people all over. If you irritate or scare enough of them they will do whatever it takes to end their fears.

Besides that fact, the political climate in NH is changing with the liberals moving up from Boston. They're looking for a nice quiet, safe, happy place live in and retire to. Poking them with a stick by carrying in the open might be an entertaining thing to do. But like poking a rattle snake here in AZ, it does no positive good and will eventually get you bit.

[TalonDJ]

Thanks for your efforts! It is only small ‘events’ like that that can educate and get the word out. I am saddened that so many even here on FR think it is better to not exercises your rights for fear that the cop might have an ‘accident’ (what are they puppies?). I agree that the stripped shirt guy was pushing it too far but not that much. He did not raise is voice much at all and was not aggressive. I got the feeling if the cops had warned him he would have backed off. Still talking maybe but given them space. I think it was a benefit to have someone there expressing righteous outrage but in a reasonably calm way and NOT focused or aggressive. He did not touch the cops or even get in what you could call their 'personal space'. His actions were pushing the line but the entire stop was over the line by the cops. His expressing shock and disbelief at the cops actions put things in a pretty clear context. He did not strike me as irrational of drugged (as some expressed). Dang it, we should not have to treat cops like they are bombs that might go off if we look at them funny!!! What happened to protect and serve?

It is important for us to assert our rights, not just in court for fear of jail but on the street despite fear of aggressive authority.

[opus86]

with regard to russell, the angry supporter....there is a reason why he gets testy with manchester PD. they locked him up and dragged his wife into a paddy wagon once for peaceably demonstrating outside a “free speech zone.”

Well that would explain why he got a bit testy...For that very reason, then, Russell's friends need to keep him out of those scenarios, or one day they will escalate. That anger he's carrying around will eventually get him or someone else in trouble.

OTOH you maintained your cool and handled the situation properly. Well done.

[epow]

This is the fellow that, according to the T-shirt of the protestor/demonstrator in the video, should be "freed" in New Hampshire.

If I was a gambling man I would bet money that the guy in the photo is a former MA resident who moved to NH and brought his left wing MA mindset with him.

I have a good friend and former neighbor from NH. He's a tough old WWII combat vet who would probably chase that guy in the hat all the way back to Boston if he still lived up there.

[tiger-one]

Read these NH statutes.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/LVIII/570-A/570-A-1.htm

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/RSA/html/LVIII/570-A/570-A-2.htm

[tiger-one]

Where I saw Mr. SS become dangerous to the situation was when he jumped in front of the MPD Off. A little more than groveling. He does not help your message.

Have you ever heard of ATTY Penny Dean?

[tiger-one]

Yep, Mr. SS is ready for a repeat tour in the slammer

[Sloth]

"Oral communication'' means any oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception under circumstances justifying such expectation.

Obviously, no justifiable expectation that the communication would go unrecorded could exist when someone is openly employing a camcorder, so the statute forbidding the interception of oral communication is inapplicable to this situation.

[mvpel]

Poking them with a stick by carrying in the open might be an entertaining thing to do. But like poking a rattle snake here in AZ, it does no positive good and will eventually get you bit.

But pretending that there are no rattlesnakes gets you bit too, as was the case in Ohio where the right to armed self-defense in the Constitution languished unused for decades. And when you finally do wind up stepping too close to the rattlesnake, without even a stick in your hand, and then complain about getting bit, people line up behind the rattlesnakes and say they should have snapped your elbow too, for good measure.

Only a mentally-ill person would be put into a state of mortal dread seeing someone walking down the street, minding his or her own business, with a holstered sidearm. And the accepted way to deal with the illness of phobia or anxiety disorders in the psychological community is through acclimation.

It's not about "entertainment," it's about a vital struggle for the preservation of the fundamental human right to armed self-defense, which as you know is under siege from every direction around the nation, including from police officers who swear an oath to uphold the Constitution.