Carla Gericke is a writer, activist, and former lawyer. Born in South Africa, she emigrated to America in 1994 after winning a green card in the Diversity Visa Lottery. She became a U.S. citizen in 2000. Gericke is President Emeritus of the Free State Project. In 2014, she won a landmark First Circuit Court of Appeals case that affirmed the First Amendment right to film police officers. She was named one of New Hampshire Magazine's "2014 Remarkable Women" In 2016, she ran unopposed in the New Hampshire State Senate District 20 Republican primary, and is the Republican candidate for State Senate for Goffstown and Manchester Wards 3, 4, 10, and 11 in the general election.
Early life
Gericke was born in Pretoria, South Africa, to David and Madalein Gericke. Because of her father's work, she traveled extensively as a child, living in the U.S., Sweden, and Brazil. Her political philosophy developed at a young age. Growing up in South Africa during the apartheid regime of the National Party, she opposed the government's authoritarian policies. She studied law at the University of Pretoria from 1989 to 1993, graduating with a Baccalaureus Procurationis degree. After winning a green card in the Diversity Lottery, she moved to California with her husband. After passing the California Bar, she worked as in-house corporate counsel at Fortune 500 companies. In 2008, she received an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the City College of New York.
Activism
In February 2008, Gericke moved from New York City to New Hampshire for the Free State Project, a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to attract 20,000 liberty activists to the Granite State. She organized the FSP's Porcupine Freedom Festival twice in 2009 and 2010. She became the president of the FSP in 2011. In this capacity, she has appeared in the media, and was the driving force behind "triggering the move," which occurred on 3 February 2016, when it was announced at a press conference that 20,000 people had signed the pledge. As president, she was very vocal in the media about promoting the Free State Project, and has appeared in outlets such as CNN, Forbes, The Economist, Wired, GQ, Mother Jones, The Washington Post, Fox News, NBC, and The New York Times.
Arrest and court case
On 24 March 2010, Gericke and others were en route in two cars to a friend's house when they were pulled over by police in the town of Weare, New Hampshire. She was advised she wasn't being pulled over, so she parked at a nearby school, and took out a video camera to film the interaction. Though the camera wasn't properly functioning, and she had announced to the officer that she was recording, a second officer approached her vehicle and demanded to see her camera. When she failed to hand it over, she was arrested. She was initially charged with disobeying a police officer and obstructing a government official. After an argument at the police station when the Weare PD refused to give her a receipt for her confiscated camera, she was also charged with unlawful interception of oral communications, a felony carrying a maximum 7-year sentence. All charges were dropped before going to trial. Gericke filed suit against the town and the officers. She claimed the officers' actions were "retaliatory prosecution in breach of her constitutional rights." The case went to the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals. The defendants, the individual officers involved in the incident, the Town of Weare, and Weare Police Department, filed motions for summary judgment, claiming they had qualified immunity because there was no established right to film a traffic stop. The court denied the motions, ruling instead that the officers had no reasonable expectation to privacy while performing their duties in public. Based on a previous ruling, Glik v. Cunniffe, the court found that Gericke's right to film the officers was established at the time of her arrest. Furthermore, the Appeals Court found that Gericke's First Amendment rights had been violated and that the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity. The case was settled for $57,500. Regarding the outcome, Gericke said:
In 2013, the Concord Police Department referred to Free Staters as domestic terrorists in a federal grant application to the United States Department of Homeland Security for a Lenco BearCat, stating: Gericke responded by saying: When the matter was brought before Concord's City Council, the issue was tabled after many residents came out to voice their opposition to the city's purchase of such a vehicle. Gericke and other activists led a campaign to stop the city from accepting the money based on false claims. In the end, the council voted to accept the grant and buy the BearCat. However, John Duvall, Concord's Chief of Police, did resign after the incident.
Manchester lockdown
On Friday, 13 May 2016, an entire neighborhood on the west side of Manchester, New Hamphire, where Gericke is a homeowner, was placed under lockdown with a shelter-in-place order when two officers suffered non-life-threatening injuries after being shot during a manhunt. The lockdown started and continued for more than five hours after the suspect had been apprehended. According to a Union Leader op-ed, the neighborhood "felt like a city under siege." Several schools were closed for the whole day, and streets were cordoned off until 3pm, with residents unable to access their cars and thus unable to move freely or go to work. Heavily armed law enforcement officials with automatic weapons and police dogs patrolled the streets and searched cars, trash cans, and yards as helicopters circled overhead. On 7 June 2016, Gericke organized a rally at Manchester City Hall, saying in a press release prior to the event: Gericke addressed about 60 people during the rally to highlight what organizers said was a growing militarization of city police. Signs read "More Mayberry, Less Fallujah," "Lock Downs are for Prisons," and "Free People Move Freely." In her speech Gericke said:
Writing
Gericke has written numerous blogs, articles, short stories, poems, and is currently working on her memoir. Her work has appeared in such periodicals as Inkwell, Herstory, Underground Voices, Word Riot, and LewRockwell.com. She used to work at the New Hampshire Writers' Project at Southern New Hampshire University, starting as program manager and resigning as acting executive director.
