People have the inalienable right to defend their safety and their privacy. Pulsed RF radiation is a documented agent of harm. We’re not advocating violence, but sometimes when the government starts behaving like a bunch of Nazis, there is nothing better than a Lego tank and a kid with a strong sense of justice to turn your day around. Thanks to EMFilms of BC, Canada for this sweet and quirky homemade film.
Courage to Naperville residents and all those threatened by forced smart meter deployment! Stand up to the Doublethink!
NAPERVILLE, IL- The deployment of the “smart grid” took a dark turn on Wednesday in Illinois, as residents in the City of Naperville (CON) woke up to the reality of ‘smart’ meters forced on their homes by police officers and municipal utility installers working together to intimidate- and in two cases arrest- residents who continue to refuse the meters and protect their homes. This follows CON’s FINAL NOTICE to residents days before.
These developments would be unbelievable in and of themselves as flagrant violations of constitutional property rights. The fact that the meters emit a Class 2B carcinogen, have caused at least hundreds of fires, and clearly violate privacy laws including the 4th Amendment, not to mention that these facts are all at issue in an ongoing federal lawsuit brought against the city by its own residents- makes these events all the more troubling.
New details are emerging about the CON’s installation “blitzkrieg” – backed up by armed police- that hit neighborhoods in this Illinois city of 150,000 people starting on Wednesday January 23rd. The forced installations have continued since then.
Residents told Stop Smart Meters! that the deployment happened very suddenly and unpredictably, using “shock and awe” tactics. All of a sudden, the whole street was filled with police and installation vehicles.
These UnAmerican Activities Must Be Stopped! NSMA members rally in Naperville last year
Two mothers- both community leaders working with Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (NSMA)– Kim Bendis and Jennifer Stahl- were arrested simply for standing peacefully by Jennifer’s home in front of advancing officers and installers, telling them they did not have permission to install a smart meter on her property. Kim was arrested for trying to document this abuse of police force, an abuse further evidenced by the Naperville Police Department seizing her camera and SD chip.
Jennifer was charged with interfering with an officer and violating Naperville city ordinance 8-1C-3:7 by blocking the meter. The two were released from police custody a couple of hours later. They both came home to find that smart meters had been installed on their homes.
The “attempted eavesdropping” charge is based on a controversial Illinois law that prohibits filming police officers in some circumstances. Forced smart meter installations are probably precisely the kind of police activity that this kind of law is intended to hide. It is being challenged by the Illinois ACLU and other civil liberty groups with some success. More here. Needless to say, the law is blatantly unconstitutional.
In the US, if you can be there, you can photograph or video. The only exceptions to your right to photograph/video are on the premises of some US military sites, and the use of a high-power lens that intrudes on someone’s privacy. Trespassing is a separate issue, and you may be charged with it, or kicked off private property, but any photographs you took before being kicked off are legally yours. Know your rights. You can download wallet sized “photographer’s rights guides” here: Side 1 and Side 2.
We spoke with Jennifer and Kim yesterday, and they tell SSM! that the fight is not over. Instead of drawing the controversy to a close- as the CON might have hoped, the forced installations have just renewed NSMA’s commitment to secure a no-fee analog opt out. Their team of attorneys is working on this case from a number of angles and the Illinois ACLU is monitoring developments. Widespread condemnation has rained down upon Naperville in the last few days, and the incident has amplified opposition to “smart” meters internationally.
(above is a Coast to Coast interview with Jennifer Stahl and Katherine Albrecht)
Up to this point, for the most part- if a resident says “get off my property” generally installers are instructed to comply (with some exceptions including in TX where people have had to draw their guns when installers refuse to leave). Arrests that have taken place have generally been at installation yards or community blockades- not people defending their own homes. A request to leave the property would usually suffice.
Utilities’ political power derives from the masses remaining obedient to an authority the companies and government institutions simply do not have. As soon as there is resistance, that “authority” begins to crumble. The CON might have achieved near 100% installation in Naperville, but it has come at a steep price. This story is far from over.
Has it really come to this?
Police arresting homeowners who refuse to allow a smart meter on their home is a direct violation of the 4th amendment guaranteeing freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Charging a fee or even disconnecting someone’s service is bad enough, but arresting you if you refuse to submit to a meter? It’s preposterous. Nevertheless, that is exactly what is happening.
One thing is certain. Naperville officials have taken on some serious legal liability with their actions of the last few days.
The truth is that the Naperville City Council and City Manager have grown so fed up with the grassroots group NSMA, the fight has become so personal, the corruption that NSMA has dug up so deeply embarrassing to the city, that the CON is now using the police and installation personnel as proxies to exact revenge, using the weapon of forced microwave radiation and police intimidation. Hundreds in Naperville have been threatened with arrest if they resist the forced installations, while Naperville Police threatened to shoot a man’s dog if he did not comply.
This is beyond criminal. Those involved should be indicted and imprisoned. Federal (and international) policies that have allowed this to happen are as unacceptable as the personal, dangerous obsession that must have infected this council to get them to believe that a reasonable course of action included arresting people for refusing to accept a new device on their home that they were never even consulted about.
The CON justifies its insistence on 100% resident compliance on Dept. of Energy contract obligations. However, any contract that presupposes property owner consent for such an installation- without expressly obtaining that- is in itself, illegal, presumptuous, and faulty.
The smart grid’s deeply authoritarian roots have been laid bare for all to see in Naperville. Forced smart meter installations- backed by the threat of official violence must not be tolerated anywhere. To the extent that President Obama (who is from Chicago, only 30 miles away), State or Federal elected officials choose to turn a blind eye- or even quietly support- what is happening in Naperville, then they are as guilty as the perpetrators of these crimes. Would Barack or Michelle want their kids forcibly exposed to carcinogenic radiation, the privacy of their home lives and routines revealed? Would they want their home to be at greater risk of fire You might want to ask Mr. Obama.
Even if you’re one of the people who don’t really think that smart meters are such a big deal (and that number is steadily decreasing as problems with the technology continue to surface) the question raised by events in Illinois is: where does it stop? How far will police and corporate interests go in violating your property- not to mention human- rights? What happens when your city decides to install wireless water meters, often located inside the home? Will Police knock down your door and enter (without a warrant) to force installation of a meter? What else might they decide to force into our homes?
A comment on a smart meter bulletin board this week in response to the Naperville events:
“Especially in North America, corporate rule has now replaced what we thought of as ‘government’… the police, the city, everything. No such thing as government any longer – literally. It is, quite simply, all just commerce to these merchants.”
On Monday, we might have thought they were going a bit far. At the end of this week, we’re not so sure any more.
Stop Smart Meters! stands in solidarity with Jennifer and Kim and all who are resisting Naperville’s illegal actions at this traumatic time. You are the Rosa Parks’ of the 21st Century. Please donate to NSMA’s mounting legal expenses. If we don’t stick together and stop this in Naperville, where will it stop? Now is the time to organize locally, wherever you live.
(ILLINOIS) Naperville Smart Meter Awareness (NSMA): Two Naperville mothers were arrested today in conjunction with the forced installation of smart meters. NSMA President Kim Bendis and Board Member Jen Stahl were arrested today during a forced installation at Jen’s home.
Details are still pending but Kim was witnessing the event from Jen’s property and was video taping. Three officers shoved her against a tree, pried her camera from her hands, and cuffed her. Both Jen and Kim were taken into police custody sometime in the 2:00 hour CST.
Kim is a mother of 3 school aged children. Jen has 2 school aged children and a toddler at home. All children are safe and are being taken care of by family or friends.
This is an extraordinary tragedy as there is still a pending federal lawsuit and the issue of smart meters has not been decided in Naperville. This demonstrates the lengths to which the city officials have been willing to go to force residents into compliance.
Sources close to the group say that during a closed door council session there was discussion of the strategy the city would use this week to obtain 100% compliance on installations. Residents have been told the city is willing to use whatever means necessary.
Lisa Rooney of NSMA says:
“Two of my cherished girlfriends were arrested today for something that we all believe in so passionately. I respect them intensely for going this distance to protect our rights.
I am also saddened and feel this sense of protection for both of them. The events of today can not be undone and they will settle in with each of them for a long time.
It has been an emotional day.
Here is the latest as of 6pm CST:
Jen has been released and will be charged with 2 misdemeanors for ordinance violations.
Kim has also been released. She is likely to be charged with attempting to video tape a police officer (?) and resisting arrest. Kim was released on a $200 bond. The resisting arrest charge is sketchy and as we find out more, I’ll let you know.”
Naperville Police Threaten to Shoot Dog Unless Given Permission to Install:
The city stated: “The city has always had and maintains the right to access our equipment and today we were simply exercising that right.”
Would a jury agree?…Private property is private property. “Access to equipment” does not include forcing of a new carcinogenic device against the will of the property owner.
The City of Naperville just crossed that line. Hopefully it will come back to bite them.
Call Governor Quinn – Phone: 312-814-2121 and tell him that the world is watching.
Call President Obama and ask him whether forcing hazardous radiation-emitting meters on sick children’s homes is an appropriate use of stimulus funds (in his home state). 1-202-456-1111
Call Naperville Congressman Bill Foster 202-225-3515
You might also wish to visit the City of Naperville’s Facebook Page and let them know that they are breaking the law and that it will not be tolerated.
Council of Criminals
Email the Naperville City council: mayor@naperville.il.us, chiricos@naperville.il.us,
brodheadj@naperville.il.us, hinterlongp@naperville.il.us,
fieselerr@naperville.il.us, mcelroyj@naperville.il.us,
millerk@naperville.il.us
Naperville City Manager, call (630) 420-6044 e-mail kriegerd@naperville.il.us. His personal FB page
An embarrassing blow to Silver Spring Networks and the utilities (like PG&E) that have bought in to their wireless-mesh-networked-AMI debacle: The New York Times reports that a hacker known as “Atlas” went on stage at a computer security conference in Florida on Thursday and demonstrated how easy it is to hack in (and presumably disrupt) new smart grid mesh networks, and the utility services that depend on them. Stating, “I see these placed everywhere I want to be as a hacker,”:
Atlas said he was able to intercept Silver Spring’s radio frequency communications, in part, by examining publicly available patents and user manuals.
Silver Spring Networks did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although Atlas did not think an attack on the smart grid was imminent, he expressed concern that unless the systems were tested now, “10 years down the road they will be a real problem.”
“We are at a time in great need of vigilance,” he added.
Indeed. Not only are Silver Spring’s wireless signals making people sick, they also contain (your private) data- data that is at risk of falling into the wrong hands. The Florida demonstration follows last October’s announcement by USC researchers that they had hacked into the wireless signals from smart meters on an apartment complex, revealing detailed portraits of life in each unit:
The detailed electricity data gave information about activities within the household — when the inhabitants got up, went to work and got home, for example. The team was able to deduce that 27 of the apartments within the complex were unoccupied.
Silver Spring’s smart meter mesh networks are a microscope into your home life- an unwanted intrusion and privacy invasion that most people never approved- or even knew about in advance of installation. Those same data and access vulnerabilities are writing a new chapter of uncertainty when you consider that wireless, remote “off” switches are a function of most smart meters.
What if someone gains access and decides to- flip the switch?
Stop Smart Meters! has received multiple reports that PG&E is now attempting to bury the ‘opt out’ fees in its distribution fee section, making it easier to miss the fact that you may be getting gouged with extortionate (and wildly unjust) fees on your bill. To make matters worse, local government taxes (the Utility Users Tax or UUT) are being added to the $75 initial fee and $10/ month that some people are paying simply to keep an analog meter on their home.
PG&E is ‘fudging’ the bill by making it look like we used extra electricity in order to ‘BURY’ this extremely unpopular extortionist-style fee for equipment we don’t have installed on our house, don’t want installed, and never asked for.
You may wish to contact your local government (city manager’s office) and ask them why a tax intended to be levied on your energy use is now being applied to equipment that you have had all along (your analog meter). You may also wish to file for a refund from your local government for these taxes, so they have a record of complaints.
More than 200,000 Californians in PG&E territory are refusing to pay any fee whatsoever, while still hanging on to their analog meters, since the utility cannot legally force a smart meter on private property nor forcibly enroll people in an “opt out” fee. Under California law, utilities also cannot disconnect service for partial payment of a bill- that’s why people like Tom DeMarchi still have their electricity on despite threats by PG&E.
Keep resisting, California. You are in good company! And keep an eye on those utility bills. These crime bosses run a clever racket!
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An embarrassing blow to 
Stop Smart Meters! has received multiple reports that PG&E is now attempting to bury the ‘opt out’ fees in its distribution fee section, making it easier to miss the fact that you may be getting gouged with extortionate (and wildly unjust) fees on your bill. To make matters worse, local government taxes (the Utility Users Tax or UUT) are being added to the $75 initial fee and $10/ month that some people are paying simply to keep an analog meter on their home.
