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Lying Nashua cop falsely cites Tom Alciere for "speeding"

On 26 December 2002, while I was driving westbound about 20 MPH on West Hollis Street in Nashua, New Hampshire, one of the city's cops drove up behind me and turned on the gumball machine. I pulled into the parking lot of Soucy's Market, where the cop approached and demanded my license and registration, then told me I was driving too fast for these road conditions, claiming I was going 40 MPH. I got a ticket for going 10 over, as you can see above. As the ticket states, the road was still snowy and icy from the Christmas Day blizzard, and I don't know too many people who would go 40 MPH on a road like that.

What do you suspect brought this on?

One of two things. Maybe the cop didn't like my bumper sticker calling for the release of Leonard Peltier, who's in jail for gunning down 2 FBI agents. There are a lot of people who feel Peltier was convicted on insufficient evidence.

Is that why you have that bumper sticker?

No. I figure, the FBI agent probably started it anyway. I got the sticker shortly after the FBI visited my home 18 October 2001 to hassle and interrogate me about my website, http://DeportTheBorderPatrol.com. If cops write false tickets to people with these stickers, this should reassure the Free Leonard Peltier people that everybody supports their cause, but most people are afraid to proclaim it. People shouldn't have to fear the cops to express their positions on issues.

What's the other hypothesis?

Maybe the cop wanted to find out if I was en route to Concord to attend a court appearance for Andrew McCrae, the Freedom Fighter who took out a cop 19 November 2002 in the Battle of Red Bluff.

What would point to that?

The cop showed an extra interest in learning my destination. ["Are you in a hurry to get some place?" and "Where are you going?"] Of course, my destination is my business, but I disclosed it: Kmart.

To buy underwear?

No. To buy a new carseat for my baby daughter.

Why didn't you just tell the cop it was none of his damned business where you were going?

Because I had something more important to do that day.

Gee, Tom, what could possibly be more important than mouthing off to a cop?

Getting myself and my family to the funeral of my maternal grandmother, Eva M. Laforest, at the Kalas Funeral Home in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Death notices in The Washington Post, 26 and 27 December 2002. http://www.legacy.com/WashingtonPost/LegacySubPage2.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=677724

Have the cops ever ticketed you in Nashua before?

Yes, I got one for running a stop sign, $72.00 while driving a taxi.

What happened then?

I returned to the scene of the crime a few minutes later, and, sure enough, there was a stop sign there, which I didn't see because I was distracted, the first time. But if it was there a few minutes after the ticket, it must have been there when I went through. I knew I didn't slow down for it; good thing nothing was coming, so I plead nolo contendere and paid the $72.00.

Why should people be concerned?

Well, if the cops keep pulling this shit, eventually they'll "pick the wrong motherfucker to try that on!" as Gordon Perry would say. On 2 September 1994, a Mass. State Trooper pulled a guy over on Highway 3 in Kingston for no apparent reason, the driver fought back, and an undertaker straightened out that cop. So, it's a question of, who you gonna call, when you have a cat stuck in a tree, who you gonna call when pedestrians are jaywalking on your street, and the 9-1-1 dispatcher says there's no cops left because they all got themselves killed pushing certain people too far. Furthermore, some more serious crimes are detected during traffic stops, notably drunk driving, but the cop has to have a valid excuse for the stop, and if juries have no reason to believe the cop, that the driver was speeding, then they have to find the defendant not guilty, which lets a real criminal go free.

Are you going to kill any cops over this speeding ticket?

No, I'm too pusillanimous.

Do you plan to fight this ticket?

Yes, absolutely.

What will you do if you lose?

As Ted Kennedy said to Mary Jo, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

See also http://syc.org/news/nashuapd/index.html

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