"Looks like we're taking the steps..."
Channel: adventures in the free state
Date: 2010-04-21

420 at 4:20 on 4/20/2010, State House, Concord, NH. Short answer: victory.

In excess of 100 celebrants, with signs and bullhorns, guitars and drums. Dancing girls, even. And lots of cameras...

 Initially out front, on the Main St. sidewalk, waving to honking traffic. Eventually smoking right on the State House steps (not that that hasn't happened before, of course: http://bikerbillnh.blogspot.com/2009/11/concord-does-420.html ), and chiding the bureaucrats inside for their infidelity to liberty.

NH Public Radio had been reporting the planned celebration all day, and much of NH's most dominant mainstream media were represented on-site. Yet despite recent coordinated crackdowns and subsequent roundups related to similar -- and similarly peaceful -- celebrations, the cops apparently never got word, somehow: three uniforms meticulously avoiding us across the street was as close an encounter as we experienced.

On the drive home, NHPR was reporting that the NH State Police stationed inside (as usual) were watching, but had no intention of doing anything unless the crowd got agitated.(edit: the word they used was "unruly," actually)

Umm, yeah, uh-huh. The pot smokers were gonna get agitated. So basically, the official position was that as long as the cops didn't escalate the situation, the cops wouldn't escalate the situation.

Boringly uneventful as a result, actually. Which is the point, after all, right...?