Keene Council Ignores People & Business Owners, Passes Mask Mandate 10-3

[FTL_Ian]

Originally published at: Keene Council Ignores People & Business Owners, Passes Mask Mandate 10-3 | Free Keene

Packed city committee meeting on mask mandate, supermajority unmasked.

Last Wednesday, dozens of people testified in front of the City of Keene gang’s “Planning License and Development Committee”, with the supermajority of people opposing the return of the city-wide indoor mask mandate. Of the handful of people who spoke in favor of the mandate, nearly all of them work for the medical-industrial complex. Ultimately, despite the large outpouring of opposition from the people of Keene, like with the BEARCAT vote, the PLD committee voted in favor of recommending the mandate be sent back to the full council 5-0.

Last night, the full council heard the proposal and made changes, ultimately passing the amended version 10-3 with councilors Michael Remy, Janice Manwaring, and former cop Thomas Powers voting against. In addition to ignoring the majority of the people of Keene who opposed this mandate, the ten councilors voting for the ordinance also ignored the 70% of Keene business owners who registered their opposition in a survey conducted by the Keene Downtown Group.

Prior to the final vote, councilor Michael Remy proposed making the mandate a recommendation, which the council shot down. Councilor Kate Bosely then proposed the ordinance target individuals for penalties instead of the businesses themselves, as the 2020 mandate did. Mayor George Hansel cautioned the council against Bosely’s proposal saying he thinks targeting the individual would make the ordinance unenforceable. Hansel said targeting of businesses is relatively easy and can be done by the goons in code enforcement, whereas to target individuals would mean that the police would be the ones enforcing the ordinance. Hansel may be aware the police are less than interested in enforcing it – at least according to two officers who told me that personally in the last year or so. City mob boss Elizabeth Dragon also recommended against Bosely’s proposal as it would require snitches to call the cops on a mask-free person and the city gang has no system to track the number of warnings given to people for violations, as Bosely requested the ordinance have a verbal and written warning be issued to the person prior to issuing a $100 ticket. However, councilors voted for Bosely’s amendment, 10-3, meaning individuals will be targets for enforcement instead of businesses.

70% of Keene Business Owners Against Mask Mandate

Before you get to thinking that the three people who opposed the ordinance in the final vote were somehow freedom fighters, please note the entire council voted for the following amendment from the cowardly councilor Robert Williams, who noted that the originally proposed ordinance wasn’t strict enough, in that it allowed people to take off masks when seated in any business. So he put forward an amendment to ensure no one can remove masks while seated anywhere except for restaurants and bars, though Williams is so fearful he actually critiqued the people of Keene for going out to eat at all.

The ridiculous Keene city gang even says the mask must be worn by people playing indoor sports.

The new mask mandate does not apply to gyms or other businesses with memberships that are technically not open to the public. It also has a carve-out for medical exemptions and people aren’t required to produce documentation to prove it. The 2021 mask mandate ordinance goes into effect on Monday, December 20th.

As I recommended at the committee hearing, people who don’t want to wear masks need to refuse to obey this ordinance. It’s likely not going to be enforced, and if it is, then people who are ticketed should demand their trial. If convicted, they should refuse to pay the fine. Make these tyrants work for their convictions and don’t ever reward their thuggery by paying them fines. The worst that they can do is jail you for a night, but the judge will nearly always let you do community service instead of go to jail – as long as you’re willing to go to jail. This isn’t legal advice, just my experience.

Here is full video of the testimony in front of the PLD committee last week as well as the full council’s discussion, amendments, and votes from last night. Don’t miss the part where George Hansel actually begs people to wear masks “in their house over Christmas”. LOL – just say NO!