News from the liberterrain…
Adam Mueller, known in the New Hampshire libertarian movement as Ademo Voluntaryist Freeman or simply "Ademo," launched a counteroffensive against Manchester, New Hampshire, officials yesterday by circulating an email asking for support in his defense against the "frivolous charges" of wiretapping.
Ademo writes, "I've recently been charged with 3 counts of wiretapping - felonies - in Manchester, NH, for filming public officials while questioning them about an event at a high school, involving the police and school staff."
Conviction could result in 21 years in jail.
Ademo has launched a fundraiser and is asking for feedback on the pros and cons of how to proceed. A defensive strategy will involve hiring legal representation at $4,000 to $6,000. Taking the offensive would mean Ademo defending himself in the courtroom while some $3,000 is simultaneously spent on publicizing the charges and the trial with flyers, DVDs, posters, Video production and staging public events in "the court of public opinion."
The indictment was the result of a somewhat convoluted series of events that began at Manchester West High School in October.
Mike Proulx, a student, recognized police officer Darren Murphy when he entered the school's lunchroom as the same officer who was prominently featured in a video of activists being arrested during an event that came to be known as "The Manch Chalking 8."
Suspicious, he began recording with his cell phone and captured the officer slamming another student's head on a lunchroom table before arresting him.
The video was posted on CopBlock, a website founded by Ademo, and it quickly went viral.
Ademo then video-interviewed both students and posted it on CopBlock. That video also included a short outtake of the officer's violent manhandling of the student.
Before posting the video, however, Ademo did what journalists have done since the invention of the telephone and called the Manchester school and police department so he could include their comments in the story.
As a video journalist, Ademo had his call video- and sound-recorded to guarantee accuracy.
"The Manchester police and the dist. Attorney say I committed a crime," Ademo says on his "Defense or Offense" video, "and that Officer Murphy's force was justified."
"If you're able to partake in Call Floods or have promotional ideas for this," Ademo concluded, "please let me know as well."
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References:
CopBlock: www.copblock.org
Ademo: ademo@copblock.org
Never take a plea: www.nevertakeaplea.org
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