Would “Mayor of Manchester” Victoria Sullivan Prove a Threat to Public Safety? Would She Enable Armed Vigilantes to Keep the Peace?
Free State Project Allies Have a History of Hostility to Law Enforcement— OPINION
MANCHESTER, NH — Carla Gericke, the former head of the New Hampshire Free State Project, was at the mayoral vote recount to show her support of Victoria Sullivan. Sullivan has been critical of Mayor Joyce Craig’s public safety record, even stating that she is afraid to go downtown to the heart of the Queen City restaurant and entertainment district due to crime.
Sullivan’s charges are ironic in light of the fact that Manchester has been named the 11th safest city in America in a recent WalletHub survey.
Criticized as “someone who has no functional understanding of city government” by seasoned Republican politico Rich Girard (whom she defeated during the September primary), one would assume that Sullivan would be overly reliant on those who did have ideas on governance.
Who would that be?
Reliance on her close allies Tammy Simmons — a “Friend of the Free State Project who has, in the past, been hostile to public safety funding — and Free Stater Carla Gericke, an immigrant who dreams of New Hampshire seceding from the United States to form its own country, who was arrested by police in Weare, New Hampshire in 2010 after she disobeyed a police officer — likely would spell disaster for public safety in the City of Manchester.
Sources say that Sullivan has signed on to one of the Free State Project’s shibboleths — that police radio communications should not be encrypted, so that everyone can hear police calls in the clear.
Friends of the Free State Project like Tammy Simmons, who was Sullivan’s chief aid during the mayoral vote recount, believe that ordinary citizens who possess police scanners should be allowed to monitor all police calls, so that they can respond to criminal elements in their neighborhoods.
The gist of the Free State Project agenda in Manchester seems to be cutting taxes to a minimum, even if that means layoffs of public safety personnel. The conversations of Free Staters and Free Staters on social media over the past decade would lead a reasonable person to believe that any slack in public safety caused by the layoffs of police (the Free State Project seems to be philosophically hostile to law enforcement due to their libertarian bent that favors a night-watchman approach) would be taken up by armed citizens exercising their stand-your-ground right-to-self-defense privileges.
Victoria Sullivan posed for pictures during a BLM March with armed white militia types, who vowed that they would use violence against the BLM marchers and their supporters should the need arise.
That the imposition of such a radical anarcho-libertarian philosophy by Victoria Sullivan would cross the border into lunacy has not stopped her from drawing support from many mainstream Republicans. The Free State Project now dominates the Manchester City GOP.
Anyone with common sense and a knowledge of law enforcement knows that criminals use police scanners to monitor police activity in an area where they are committing a crime. Other than enabling criminals, what is the sense of ending the encryption of police radio communications?
It begs the question on whether Victoria Sullivan wants to enable paramilitary action by right-wing radicals. Sullivan touts tax-cutting that inevitably would lead to cutbacks in law enforcement personnel, yet claims that she will boost public safety. How is Mayor of Manchester Victoria Sullivan supposed to do that, when enhancing public safety requires boosting the budget of the police?
Does she plan on mobilizing armed vigilantes to keep the peace?
We are left remembering what Rich Girard said about her: That Victoria Sullivan is “someone who has no functional understanding of city government.”
