FreeTalkLive host jailed 90 days for not obeying fast enough

In one of the best demonstrations of the nature of government, a very vocal liberty activist, a host of a US wide syndicated and worldwide listened libertarian talk show FreeTalkLive was arrested and sentenced to 90 days in prison for literally not sitting fast enough as the judge ordered him, like he would order a dog, to sit down. They managed to pin him 3 counts of contempt of court each worth 30 days in prison, amounting to 3 months. For not removing the couch he got only 3 days.

He is Ian Freeman, a voluntaryist, living in New Hampshire, working full time every day on the cause of liberty.

You can see exactly what happened here:

There’s more to the story, but you will hardly find anything that incriminates Ian any further than these contempt charges. The whole thing begins with something as trivial as a couch being put on his tenants lawn and someone filing a complaint that had the court order him to make the tenants remove the couch. He refused to do so until he was faced with the one who filed the complaint in the first place, as is his right. Instead he got trapped like this and was told the name of the complainer, Mikaela L. Engert, only after the first contempt charge made in the closed room where he was tried.

Many liberty activists believe it to be a planned move, that this was not about a couch at all, but about silencing an avid and effective liberty activist and making a scapegoat for the entire liberty movement in Keen New Hampshire, and I agree.

However, the arrest is having an opposite effect. More people are pledging to move to New Hampshire or accelerating their actual move. More people are getting involved and the New Hampshire liberty movement appears to be strengthening rather than weakening as a result of this display of tyranny. Here are some related links.

• Thank You Mr. Burke (Mr. Burke is the judge in question above)
• John Wayne Done Proud
• 93Days.com - Is 93 Days in Jail Just Punishment for an Old Couch and Sitting down too Slowly?
• JailedActivist.info

Also check out the Voluntaryist Planet (planet.doubleplushuman.com) for latest voluntaryist stories.

I’ll likely update the post with more links as I encounter them.

Tags: liberty