DOVER James Verschueren woke up the morning of April 26 to find his Hate Has No Home Here yard sign knocked over. The sky blue sign sticks out in the yard, with the American flag in the shape of a heart and bold letters in English and other languages beneath it.
‘Maybe it was the wind,’ he thought, until tire tracks caught his eye – swerving from the road into his flower bed of daylilies, directly to the downed sign.
The sign was one of 100 purchased by the Dover Democratic Committee (Verschueren is a committee co-chair). The incident led a disheartened Verschueren to pen a letter to the editor asking the question: Does hate have a home here?
CONCORD Nearly a year after George Floyd s killing, efforts to enact police and racial justice reforms in New Hampshire are moving forward, with some exceptions.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu created a law enforcement accountability commission last summer, and many of its recommendations have been implemented via executive order, including overhauling the state s police training standards, requiring state troopers to wear body cameras and establishing a public integrity unit within the state s Department of Justice.
Earlier this month, the state Senate approved a bill implementing other recommendations, such as creating a matching fund to pay for police body cameras and requiring agreements between school districts and school resource officers to be made public. But the Senate, which is led by Republicans, removed requirements in the bill to include racial identification information on driver s licenses and to collect data on the race and ethnicity of those who interact with law
CONCORD The Republican-led New Hampshire House debated two bills Thursday inspired by last summer s massive demonstrations against racial injustice, rejecting one that would have banned police from using rubber bullets or tear gas and approving another that would expand the state s stand your ground law to include motor vehicles.
Under current law, someone can use deadly force to protect themselves and their family during the commission of a felony inside their homes. The bill sent to the Senate would expand that law to cases in which a felony was committed against a person in a vehicle.
As originally proposed, it also would have said or in the commission of a riot against someone in a car, and supporters made references to video footage of protests around the country last summer.