Handful Of Armed Demonstrators Call For Peace At NH's Statehouse

CONCORD, NH — The threat of rioting and violence may have been legitimately feared by both federal and state law enforcement officials as a potential on Saturday and Sunday. But it did not come to fruition in Concord.

About half a dozen demonstrators from the Boogaloo movement, a couple of libertarian activists, and a few people strolling along North Main Street, held civil conversations and even a few laughs outside of New Hampshire's historic Statehouse (there were no protesters Saturday).

At around 11 a.m., the plaza was empty of anyone but New Hampshire State Police troopers, patrolling the grounds, and Concord police in both marked and unmarked vehicles. Every 15 minutes or so, a tourist might walk around the grounds or take a picture.

At just before noon, Nobody, the pro-marijuana and libertarian activist formerly known as Rich Paul, who garnered about 1 percent of the Republican primary vote in 2020 against Gov. Chris Sununu and Karen Testerman, arrived. So did Ian Freeman, a Free Talk Live talk host and former gubernatorial candidate running as a Democrat in 2014, where he received more than 4 percent of the vote, and in 2016, too, where he earned 1.5 percent. Photographers from both local media outlets and wire services as well as journalists also arrived, including a reporter from the New York Times, cable access, and citizen journalists, too.

But what had not arrived were protesters. There were a few people milling about the Statehouse grounds, some drinking coffee or walking their dogs. But no demonstrators.

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Both Nobody and Freeman held court for about 20 minutes speaking about their past campaigns, marijuana legalization activism, the coronavirus, and the promotion of seccession of the state of New Hampshire from the union.

"Whenever there is a presidential election, whenever there is a time where people are upset, they are ready for some sort of change, they are frustrated and angry at the federal government, that's a good time to start talking about declaring independence," Freeman said. "We did it successfully against the king and now, we have another gang ruling over us."

"Now, instead of one tyrant 3,000 miles away, we have 3,000 tyrants one mile away," Nobody said.

Both were a little surprised at the lack of demonstrators but were happy to talk politics.

Nobody said he was frustrated by the fraud and repression of candidates like Ron Paul in 2008 and 2012, Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020, and Tulsi Gabbard in 2020, who were all anti-war and wanted real, true change.

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Freeman said New Hampshire rallies have always been peaceful — mostly due to so many attendees being armed. He suggested maybe the feds or others trumped up the threat fears about the rallies in the first place and the media fell into line. Free Talk Live, he added, was on more than 180 radio stations across the country, offering libertarian ideas and alternatives to liberal National Public Radio and conservative hosts on AM stations.

Freeman said a website based in Canada, the Tree of Liberty, was promoting the protests but the information was taken down quickly and re-directed to a "Rickroll," Rick Astley's song, "Never Gonna Give You Up," playing endlessly.

"Was the whole thing a troll job from the start?," Freeman wondered. "There's more media here than protesters."

At one point, about 20 minutes into the political conversation, someone said a demonstrator with a long arm had arrived and was holding a flag in the city section of the plaza and everyone congregated there.

The two young men, both displaying AR-15s, cameras, and combat gear, said they were members of the Boogaloo movement. They were carrying a flag with an insignia of an igloo and Hawaiian shirt design. They said the igloo motif was an effort to beat the algorithms of social media and to keep from being blacked out. The name, they said, came from a 1980s break-dancing movie.

When asked where all the protesters and demonstrators were, they said a lot of people decided not to show up because of the narrative being floated by the FBI and the media.

"If people showed up with guns across the country, it was going to do something to the political agenda, and Biden was going to push even harder for gun reform," he said. "So, we're not going to be bullied by people saying that what we do today is going to negatively affect us in the future."

The movement of "Boogaloo Boys" has been charactered as far-right, anti-government, a militia, and loyalists of President Donald Trump — although one member was holding a sign that read, "We Did Not Bow To Trump. We Will Not Bow To Biden." Granite State Progress, a progressive org in New Hampshire, has labeled the movement "a violent uprising" whose members advocate a "second Civil War." The group started a new website, ComplicitChrisSununu.com, accusing the governor of "coddling" white nationalists and extremist movements that embrace violent rhetoric. A request for comment about the website from Sununu's press office was ignored last week.

While they did not identify themselves and described members as ordinary Granite Staters with jobs and families, they said the movement was about supporting freedom and the constitution. They denounced white supremacy, the term "alt-right," and revolution — with one saying the government, actually, had a monopoly on violence.

"I would say probably 95 percent of us do not want a revolution or civil war," one said. "It would destroy the country and allow any other power looking to abuse the United States to come in. We just want to have our constitutional rights and be able to have families and property. That's it … and we're willing to do whatever we have to do to protect that."

Any violence, "will be defensive," another said, with the members protecting themselves against attacks from the state.

They also complained about being censored from social media sites — saying it made it harder to organize and have conversations about what they truly believe. One complained that he was de-platformed from Facebook for showing others how to properly clean a handgun.

Freeman peppered one member with questions about seccession — with the Boogaloo member rejecting support for the idea. Nobody asked about Martin Luther King's definition of rioting as, "the language of the unheard." One member said they support the "non-aggression principle" instead.

They only had one copy of their pamphlet and information — since they were having printer problems. They asked members of the press to take a picture of the materials and return it to them so they could share it with others later — which prompted more than a few puzzling looks and quips about pamphleteers of the past during revolutions, not having the technology of today.

By 1 p.m., three more members joined the first two — but there were still more photographers and journalists as well as more members of law enforcement than there were protesters. One member held a sign saying, "We're Not The Enemy, It Is Not Too Late For Peace." When asked about the statement, he said he hoped for open dialog and that politicians and law enforcement would uphold their oaths.

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