S03E04: Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

May 14, 2018

This week on The Freecast, we discuss the NH ACLU wins case against the US Customs & Border Protection, SWAT team activity, no more wine in the mail, and more.

Featuring Host: Nick Boyle

Engineered by: Matt Carano

Produced by: Tom Hudson, Matt Carano, and Nick Boyle

 

News

• NH ACLU wins case against U.S. customs and border protection
• • We’ve covered the checkpoints issue a couple times now; Season 2 episode 11 Season 2 Episode 16 http://freecoastfreecast.libsyn.com/size/25/?search=checkpoint
  • A state court found that CBP broke the law by setting up “checkpoints” far from the border to ensnare marijuana users and that local law enforcement violated the state constitution by colluding with CBP officers to search vehicles for drugs. As a result, the court suppressed all evidence of drug possession gathered by police at the checkpoints.
  • CBP decided to set up a checkpoint in Woodstock, 90 miles from the border.
  • The ostensible purpose of the checkpoint was to enforce immigration law, and officers demanded proof of citizenship from drivers who passed through. But they also brought drug-sniffing dogs, allegedly to help them “detect concealed humans.”
  • As the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire later exposed in court, the real purpose of these drug-sniffing dogs was, naturally, to find drugs. But the U.S. attorney for the state does not bring federal charges against those carrying small amounts of cannabis. So CBP asked the Woodstock Police Department to participate in its checkpoint. The two agencies decided to work together. CBP would stop drivers and have a dog sniff their cars. If the dog “signaled,” a CBP officer would search the car. If the officer found drugs, he would hand them off to WPD, which would press charges for drug possession.
  • This cooperation was a gift to the Woodstock police for two reasons. First, New Hampshire’s marijuana decriminalization law would take effect within just weeks; by working with CBP, local law enforcement could maximize its marijuana prosecutions before it lost the power to arrest cannabis users. Second, and more importantly, the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits canine searches of vehicles without a reasonable suspicion of criminal activity—unlike the federal Fourth Amendment, which permits them. Thus, by teaming up with CBP, the Woodstock police hoped to reap the rewards of searches it could not legally conduct on its own.
  • In an astonishing passage, Rappa found that CBP had attempted to deceive the court and that the agency’s real intention was to search cars for drugs with no reasonable suspicion. “While the stated purpose of the checkpoints in this matter was screening for immigration violations,” the judge wrote, “the primary purpose of the action was detection and seizure of drugs.” CBP agents were “aware of that prior to setting up the checkpoints which is precisely why they felt the need to reach out to the state and local agencies for assistance.” Rappa pointed to emails exchanged between CBP and WPD that make it “patently clear that the primary purpose” of WPD’s presence was to seize their drugs for state prosecution. “As such,” he concluded, “the checkpoints were unconstitutional under both state and federal law.”
  • https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/05/new-hampshire-aclu-wins-case-against-customs-and-border-protection-dragnet.html
• Somersworth apartment raided by SWAT on warrant for drugs, namely heroin
• • Green st in Somersworth
  • 19 hour “standoff”
  • 5 people arrested, one person on the run
  • An AR-15, a shotgun and a revolver were seized. A replica Sig-Sauer AR-15, three airsoft pistols and two crossbows were also seized.
  • In addition to the guns, crack cocaine, loaded heroin needles and drug paraphernalia were also taken.
  • Starting late Thursday night, periodic loud pops could be heard coming from the residence. The pops were reportedly heard as far away as downtown Rollinsford.
  • The standoff included the use of a New Hampshire State Police battering ram attached to a Bearcat, and several heavily armed and armored law enforcement officers wearing gas masks. A small bomb-disposal robot was also on the scene.
  • Throughout the standoff, police could be heard intermittently using loudspeakers or bull horns to attempt communication with someone inside the dwelling, trying to talk to a person named “Robert.”
  • “Robert, this is the State Police. We have a warrant for your arrest. Please come out now and there will be no harm done to you,” said police over an amplification device.
  • A police sharpshooter in camouflage could be seen on the ground near the scene and looking through the scope of a rifle.
  • https://www.facebook.com/SomersworthPoliceDepartment/photos/a.400044993668252.1073741829.310496969289722/638143629858386/?type=3
  • “How are toys (airsoft guns) relevant? "Also seized were a My Little Pony play set, an Easybake oven and a cache of Nerf guns".”
  • http://www.seacoastonline.com/news/20180504/five-arrested-after-somersworth-standoff
• Liquor commission bars mail-order wine shipments to NH customers
• • Citing a statutory ability to “protect its revenue,” the New Hampshire Liquor Commission has denied permits for brick-and-mortar retailers shipping wine to customers in New Hampshire, a move the National Association of Wine Retailers calls “gangster tactics.”
  • The situation has been fermenting for months, after the state Senate voted in February to table SB 353 — sponsored by Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, and endorsed by the Liquor Commission and N.H. Grocers Association — to ban shipment of wine into New Hampshire from certain mail-order retailers the bill’s proponents argue cost the state millions in lost sales each year.
  • New Hampshire Liquor Commission (NHLC) spokesman E.J. Powers said since the bill was tabled, commissioners have denied permits for roughly 80 brick-and-mortar retailers shipping wine to customers in the state — “cases upon cases of brand-name products that we currently carry in our 79 NH Liquor & Wine Outlet locations,” said Powers.
  • http://www.unionleader.com/business/liquor-commission--decried-by-group-for-gangster-tactics--over-barring-mail-order-wine-shipments-to-nh-customers-20180508
• CACR 15 passes the house and senate
• • relating to legal actions. Providing that taxpayers have standing to bring actions against the government.
  • [Art.] 8.  [Accountability of Magistrates and Officers; Public’s Right to Know.] All power residing originally in, and being derived from, the people, all the magistrates and officers of government are their substitutes and agents, and at all times accountable to them.  Government, therefore, should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. To that end, the public’s right of access to governmental proceedings and records shall not be unreasonably restricted. The public also has a right to an orderly, lawful, and accountable government  Therefore, any individual taxpayer eligible to vote in the State shall have standing to petition the Superior Court to declare whether the State or political subdivision in which the taxpayer resides has spent, or has approved spending, public funds in violation of a law, ordinance, or constitutional provision.  In such a case, the taxpayer shall not have to demonstrate that his or her personal rights were impaired or prejudiced beyond his or her status as a taxpayer. However, this right shall not apply when the challenged governmental action is the subject of a judicial or administrative decision from which there is a right of appeal by statute or otherwise by the parties to that proceeding.
  • https://www.gencourtmobile.com/2018/CACR15
• Governor candidate Steve Marchand proposes campaign financing plan
• • @CaseyMcDermott on Twitter “TL;DR version of @marchandsteve's plan:
    
    If a #NHgov candidate agrees to raise $250,000 in low-dollar ($5-100) contributions with 90% of that $ coming from N.H., they get $500,000 in public funding. #NHpolitics”
  • https://www.stevemarchand.com/campaignfinance/

Events

• Freecoast Liberty Outreach Meetup
• • Dover - 1st Thursday
  • Exeter - 2nd Thursday
  • Hampton - 3rd Thursday
  • Rochester - 4th Thursday
  • Brentwood! - 5th Thursday
• Freecoast Festival (festival.freecoast.org)
• • Sept 7th through the 9th in Portsmouth, NH
  • Tickets on sale now!

 

Special Segment - Autocrat of the Week

• Molly Kelly
• • Former State senator from Keene
  • Huge advocate of Hillary Clinton in 2016
  • “We’ve got to invest in education, get more funding to local schools to reduce the burden of property taxes. I’ll veto any plan that takes money from public schools to pay for vouchers for private schools”
  • “It’s also time to enact common sense gun safety laws.”
  • Already endorsed by autocrats Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen even though she only announced last month and has barely done any campaigning, and her primary challenger Steve Marchand has already done 200 campaign events.

 

NH History

• Sarah Jospeha Hale

• • Background and Early Writing

  • Sarah Josepha Buell was born on October 24, 1788 in Newport, New Hampshire. She received private tutoring from her brothers growing up and later became a teacher herself at a school in her hometown. She married lawyer David Hale in 1813, and the couple went to have five children. David died of a stroke in 1822, and, after working in the millinery trade for a short time, Sarah embarked on a career as a writer and editor to support her family. She went on to anonymously pen the 1823 book The Genius of Oblivion and Other Original Poems, and a few years later released the novel Northwood: A Tale of New England (1827).

  • Famed Publishing Career and Poetry

  • Towards the end of the decade, Hale took on a position as editor of Ladies’ Magazine, later called American Ladies’ Magazine. She did a bulk of the writing for the publication while also relying on other contributors for original content, though in 1837 the magazine was acquired by Louis Godey. It eventually became known as Godey’s Lady’s Book, and Hale continued to work for the magazine for 40 years, relocating to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and focusing on what was seen as feminine etiquette of the day. The publication would eventually have a circulation of 150,000 and published the work of prominent scribes like Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
  • Hale had also worked with childhood educators and penned Poems for Our Children (1830), which included the poem “Mary’s Lamb,” later becoming widely known as “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Over the forthcoming decades, Hale continued to release works from a variety of genres, including Three Hours; or, The Vigil of Love: and Other Poems (1848) and Women’s Record; or, Sketches of All Distinguished Women, from “The Beginning” till A.D. 1850, which had multiple editions and is credited as the first work to honor female writers.

  • Girls' Education and Thanksgiving

  • Hale was a staunch proponent of education for girls and women, pushing for entrance into professions like teaching and eventually medicine. She helped establish the Troy Female Seminary and finance Vassar College and campaigned for women to join the institution’s faculty. But Hale did not support suffrage and the feminist call for equal access to a wide range of work and did not take up abolitionist causes with other women reformers, though she took an anti-slavery stance in Northwood.
  • Hale has also been called by some the Mother or Godmother of Thanksgiving as she ardently pushed for some time to have the day recognized as a national holiday. Thanksgiving was regularly celebrated by different parts of the country, but not in a particularly unified way. During the Civil War, Hale wrote a letter to President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward in 1863 calling upon the leaders to declare Thanksgiving a national holiday. The president followed suit, ultimately leading to a fixed time of annual celebration over the years.
  • Sarah J. Hale retired at the age of 89 from the editorial and writing work that came to define and enrich her life. She died on April 30, 1879 in Philadelphia.
  • https://www.biography.com/people/sarah-josepha-hale

Suggestions/Feedback

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