Lauren Canario Press Release

For Immediate Release

Eminent Domain Protester Held Under Inhumane Conditions?

October 9, 2006

Contacts:
Kat Kanning, 603-357-2049
Caleb Johnson 603-xxx-xxxxx

Lauren Canario was arrested while sitting reading a book on the porch of one of the homes seized under eminent domain in the Kelo vs. New London case. Canario moved to New London from NV to help protect homeowners from losing their property to be given over for private development. Canario has stated that she will not leave New London for good until the last home is razed. Canario is being charged with Criminal Trespass and Refusal to be Fingerprinted. To further protest the outrages of the city and state governments, Canario refused to cooperate in her arrest, and refuses to speak to any of her captors. Judge Kevin McMahon?, after giving a speech on prisoners having the right to remain silent, ordered her held for a month in York Women's Prison psychiatric ward for her refusal to speak, while a psychiatric exam is administered.

Mrs. Canario was arrested almost a year to the day earlier for trying to attend a public City Council meeting debating the eminent domain issue. Judge Kevin McMahon? did the same to her last year for her refusal to speak. When Canario was released after 17days, she reported that she was held in ankle shackles the whole time, under bright lights 24 hours a day and that most days she was kept extremely cold. Mrs. Canario has scars on her ankles from this treatment, according to her husband, Jim Johnson.

York Prison officials refuse to answer whether Canario is again being held under these inhumane conditions, saying, "That is not public information. If Ms. Canario will just cooperate with our rules, she could receive all the benefits of our community." Her husband has been refused entry to visit her. Officials will not even let members of the clergy see her and check on her condition.

Canario is a member of the Free State Project (freestateproject.org), a group formed to move 20,000 freedom minded individuals to New Hampshire in order to reduce the size of government. Some fellow Free State Project members will travel down to CT to York Prison to protest Lauren's unjust imprisonment and to demand information on her treatment during her incarceration. This protest will take place on Sunday October 15th, 11 am, in front of York Women's Prison in Niantic, CT.

Video of Canario's Arrest:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-446617073620220458

More information on Canario's Arrests:
http://tinyurl.com/zqd9l

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Contacts:
Michael Fisher, clipped
Kat Dillon, 603-357-2049

From NHFree.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NO RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF CONTENT


Protests After Eminent-Domain? Resister Jailed, Officer 'Victimized'

NEW LONDON, CT, Sep. 24, 2006 - Anti-eminent-domain protestors held "Free Lauren Canario" signs at the city jail Saturday after she was arrested for sitting down in an attempt to prevent the boarding up of Fort Trumbull homes that were recently seized by the City of New London.

Eminent domain protestor Lauren Canario was arrested Friday, "because she was sitting outside a building near her old place in New London and refused to leave when they were boarding the place up," according to Kat Dillon, one of the protestors and a liberty activist with the New Hampshire Underground (NHFree.com).

The arrest was videotaped by Canario's husband of 28 years, Jim Johnson. The video allegedly shows two police officers dragging her away, then leaving her on her knees in the street at one point. In a Friday phone call, New London City Police Lt. Ackley said that Canario "victimized" him by refusing to cooperate. "I hurt my back when I had to drag her off the floor," he asserted.

Canario was also arrested during a town meeting last September and charged with criminal trespass, refusal to be fingerprinted, and interfering with police. For several weeks, she left the court, judge, and police in disarray over her refusal to speak or walk when commanded to do so. "I don't know what to do with this," Judge Hillary Strackbein said during Canario's second silent court appearance last year. Canario was eventually released and sentenced to time served.

Her strategies of "nonviolent noncooperation" seem unchanged from last year, when Johnson announced, "I support nonviolent noncooperation one hundred percent, and I support Lauren's actions one thousand percent."

"Lauren is a hero in the eyes of many of us. The only thing the government can do is let her go, and one day they will realize this. As before, her actions are negligible relative to the punishment the state has prepared for her," remarked Michael Fisher, a New Hampshire Underground activist.

Several members of the New Hampshire Underground (NHFree.com) who made the trip to the city jail Saturday said that visitors were not allowed to see Canario, and Johnson has been unable to call her. Rumors that the New London Development Corporation requested the arrest are unverified.

Fort Trumbull residents were forced to leave their homes after the New London Development Corporation legally seized the properties, with the subsequent approval of the U.S. Supreme Court. The remaining families moved out of their homes in August, and the city has apparently left the neighborhood in place for the foreseeable future.

In a WFSB interview this Friday, Johnson explained, "for the city to just take their house and not do anything with it, and now, as an empty shell, just to have homeless people move into it, it must be completely frustrating, angering."

Anyone seeking more up-to-date information about the arrest may visit www.NHFree.com.

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Contacts: Michael Fisher, clipped; Kat Dillon, 603-357-2049
E-mail: clipped or
Web: www.NHFree.com
Discussion: http://newhampshireunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=5380.0
Blog: http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/09/23/one-arrested-in-new-london-eminent-domain-protest/

From NHFree.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - NO RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF CONTENT

Contacts:
Michael Fisher, clipped
Kat Dillon, 603-357-2049

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