Minor Thoughts from me to you

Sam Dodson

On June 9th, a remarkable event occurred at Cheshire County Jail in New Hampshire: one of its inmates - a Mr. Sam Dodson, arrested two months past and held on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, possession of property without a serial number, common law contempt of court, and refusing to be processed - was not so much released from his cell as ejected from it, and so fast that the officers who escorted him out the building doors did not bother to repossess the orange prison uniform Dodson was then wearing.

What makes this abrupt end to Dodson's extended stay at the facility a watershed moment in modern libertarian (small "l", so as not to be confused with the Libertarian Party organization - and even then, Sam Dodson and his Free State Project friends might bristle at the term) activism is that it marks the end of a battle of wills between Dodson and Keene District Court's Judge Burke with an unambiguous victory for a principled, noncompliant activist against government rule of law.

From his arrest through the entirety of his 60-day incarceration, Dodson refused to recognize the Keene District Court's legitimacy; he denied their "duty" to lock him up for the "crime" of video-recording in the courthouse lobby, forced his arresting officers to carry him to the institution, refused on arrival to give so much as his legal name for their documentation (which Judge Burke answered by illegally refusing him a trial), forswore all solid foods for a month-long hunger strike, and worked with fellow activists to both promote his case in the public eye and pelt the court with stinging motions that Judge Burke ignored at his peril.

Judge Burke

In short, Sam Dodson put into practice exactly the strategy so long now argued for by Free Staters and other anarchists/libertarians/voluntaryists in resisting government encroachment on our personal freedoms: he just did not consent to his own victimization. All demands on the part of his kidnappers - for that is what they were, he says - to comply with their rules were met with long, careful replies that ultimately amounted to a simple: "No."

The apparent success of this approach seemingly taken straight out of an Ayn Rand novel is giving food for thought to the many self-described minarchists, voluntaryists, and anarchists who empathize with Dodson's politics but have remained unconvinced tactical disobedience can make a real difference. As LewRockwell.com's blog has noted, the "common critique of activism and civil disobedience is that those participating in it accomplish nothing other than being jailed or fined, putting their property and lives at stake... [That the most it really does is help in] spreading the word about the beast that is the state." The events of June 9th may shift some of those fence-sitters' views.

As for those libertarians already in league with him and to Dodson himself, the release is as intoxicating as blood in the water to a pack of predators; they'll be following up the win with further pressure on both judge and court. Quite likely they'll be including among their next moves a set of their own civil and criminal complaints. After all, even anarchists and statists can agree it should be illegal to kidnap and hold a man for two months against his will without trial.

LINKS:

"Free Minds TV", a primary YouTube channel of the Keene activisit network, has an interview with Sam here.

The Free State Project-associated FreeKeene.com website has been reporting on Dodson's story from the beginning. The latest is always here, as well as two months' worth of articles that give a fuller picture of the ordeal's twists and turns.

Sam Dodson's own personal project in the service of our liberty - his Obscured Truth Network - will likely soon be updating again as a result of his return.

The height of Sam Dodson's fame (or infamy) during his protest was this article in the Boston Globe and this featured interview on FOX News' Freedom Watch.