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Over 100 attend Nashua 420, three arrested

Sun, 2010-03-21 08:50 -0400 — jraxis

At the Nashua 420 at 4:20 rally on Saturday, three people were arrested: Catherine Bleish, an activist who was in New Hampshire to attend the Free State Project’s Liberty Forum conference, David K. of Keene, and Lewis L., a local teenager from Nashua who had attended the rally and just happened to be the guy who the police decided to grab for smoking. David and Catherine were arrested for “disorderly” conduct: David for refusing to move out of the way of the police car taking Louis away, and Catherine for trying to video the arrest.

More than a dozen police cars had shown up on the scene—most likely a significant chunk of Nashua’s on-duty police force. At the height of the police reaction, there were about a dozen marked Ford Crown Victorias, two SUVs including one K-9 unit, and five or six unmarked blue Chevy Impalas.

Over 100 people attended the rally, and after the arrests about half of us went to the police station to both protest and continue the rally. After the usual bureaucratic delays and similar nonsense, everyone was released within a few hours.

Associated Press coverage

Two arrested at NH rally to protest marijuana laws

By Associated Press
Sunday, March 21, 2010

NASHUA, N.H. – Charges are pending against two people who were arrested at a rally in Nashua, N.H., to protest marijuana laws.

According to WMUR-TV, police stepped in at the Saturday afternoon rally and arrested a person for marijuana possession.

A witness at the event said some people in the crowd turned unruly after police called for backups, with one person placing himself in front of a police car before being arrested for disorderly conduct.

WMUR coverage

Two arrested in Nashua marijuana protest
Protesters in Nashua march to police station

POSTED: 12:14 am EDT March 21, 2010
UPDATED: 12:19 am EDT March 21, 2010

NASHUA, N.H. – A marijuana protest in Nashua on Saturday resulted in two arrests. A group of about 50 people gathered on Main Street at 4:20 p.m. for a public demonstration in support of marijuana use.

The crowd turned on police after undercover officers arrested one of the participants for possesion.

Before police could take the suspect to the station, another protestor placed himself in front of the car so they couldn’t leave.

He was also arrested for disorderly conduct.

“It was pretty calm at first when the two undercover agents arrested this man, it wasn’t until they got out of the car and called for backup that everyone came in,” said protester, Sam Dodson.

More officers were called to the scene and upset protestors didn’t stop there. Nearly 30 marched down to the police station.

Ultimately, police said they made only two arrests.

Nashua Telegraph coverage

Rally on Library Hill broken up by police, arrests made

By Dean Shalhoup

Sunday, March 21, 2010

NASHUA – Police stormed a downtown Nashua rally Saturday afternoon, arresting at least one person for marijuana possession as many participants smoked the drug openly in protest of current laws.

Nashua police didn’t return calls requesting information Saturday night, but the mother of a teenager who was arrested said he was taken into custody after someone next to him handed him a roach.

Lewis Labitue, 17, was arrested at the Library Hill incident and later released on bail, his mother, Denise, said Saturday night.

“They were putting him in the [police] car by the time I got there,” she said, adding that her daughter, who was also at the rally, called her when police approached her son.

Two other people were said by witnesses to have been arrested, including Catherine Bleish, the executive director of The Liberty Restoration Project, a national pro-liberty organization that is represented at this weekend’s New Hampshire Liberty Forum at Crowne Plaza Hotel. According to WMUR-TV police reported two arrests including Labitue.

The rally, which took place on Library Hill, is believed to have been organized as part of the three-day forum. Called “Nashua 420” by a contributor to the www.freekeene.com Web site blog, the rally began at 4:20 p.m. and began, the blogger wrote, “as peaceful, and drawing a lot of local support, for around 30 minutes.”

After that, the blogger and other witnesses said, police stepped in, and soon a reported dozen or more police cars, motorcycles and police dogs had arrived on the scene.

Lewis Labitue’s mother said his bail money was raised by his fellow protesters, who assembled at Nashua Police headquarters following the Library Hill demonstration and “took up a collection for his bail,” she said.

She said police, who she described as “acting very aggressively” at the scene, know who her son is and may have targeted him for arrest for that reason.

“They know him from the neighborhood,” she said. “He’s had some trouble in school, but he’s not a criminal or anything like that. I don’t know why he was picked out. It was pretty crazy down there,” she said.

Manchester resident Joe Skinner, a protestor who watched the incident unfurl, wondered about the necessity of arresting people. “If you don’t comply with the man with the gun, he’ll put you in a cage,” Skinner said.

Other media coverage