City wants parking meter ‘Robin Hooders’ to back off

KEENE, N.H. – The self-styled “Robin Hooders” race to the rescue of the parking peasantry, pumping quarters into their expired meters and leaving behind cards informing them they have been saved from “the king’s tariff.”

Nobody in this quaint New Hampshire college town of Keene disputes their right to use pocket change as political capital in what they view as a fight against government oppression.

But city officials say the protesters are a not-so-merry band that leaves behind more than cards bearing a cartoon Robin Hood and a suggestion to pay their good deed forward: stressed-out parking enforcement officers. And now the New Hampshire Supreme Court is deliberating if there is a line to be drawn between protecting free speech rights and protecting government employees from harassment.

The six Robin Hooders won round one last December when a superior court judge dismissed the city’s request for an order restricting how close the protesters can come to the officers, some of whom claim they have been bumped and assailed with profanities. That court ruled the Robin Hooders’ actions amount to protected political expression that can’t be restricted.

Affiliates of the rabble-rousing Free Keene group, which protests government intervention on issues ranging from guns to marijuana, sometimes walk just ahead of the parking enforcement officers who would write a ticket.

Lawyers for Keene argue that a buffer zone of 15 feet around their parking enforcement officers would not infringe on the free speech rights of the Robin Hooders. The justices have not indicated when they will rule.