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Posted on 06/23/2004 10:13:42 AM PDT by Constitution Day
'Tractor Man' sentenced
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WASHINGTON -- The tobacco farmer dubbed "Tractor Man" was sentenced today to six years in prison in connection with the incident that brought traffic in the nation's capital to a standstill.
Dwight Ware Watson, 51, of Whitakers, N.C., was handed the prison time for his conviction on charges of making a false threat to detonate explosives, and destruction of federal property.
On March 17, 2003, Watson drove his tractor into a shallow pond at Constitution Gardens, just west of the Washington Monument. For the next 47 hours he sat there, claiming to have "organophosphate bombs" in a metal box attached to a flatbed trailer he towed to the scene.
U.S. Park Police closed several blocks of Constitution Avenue as Watson continued the standoff. Over four consecutive rush hours, traffic backed up for miles in the District of Columbia and northern Virginia.
A search of Watson's vehicles turned up a pair of aerosol insecticide cans and a practice grenade incapable of exploding.
Watson stood silently and accepted the sentence from U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson.
Watson has already spent 15 months behind bars, which will be credited toward his sentence.
The incident began on the same day that the Department of Homeland Security elevated the terror threat level to orange -- three days before the start of the U.S.-led assault on Iraq.
During a February hearing, Watson apologized for the incident. He also recounted a jailhouse conversation he had with a federal probation officer after his conviction.
"I told her I was here to start a revolution on behalf of tobacco farming families," said Watson, who contends that changes in U.S. tobacco policy over the past two decades ruined him financially.
For more than a century, Watson's family farmed grew tobacco on as 1,500 acres of North Carolina farmland. By the time of his arrest, Watson was farming just a few dozen acres threatened with foreclosure.
He wanted to "start a revolution" because he mismanaged his family farm into the bankruptcy? What a self-centered jerk.
Desperation does funny things to a man. In the farm crisis of the early 80's, we lost 4 neighbors to suicide in a 6 month stretch.
You're right he should have been executed for not licking enough boots.
His crime was not a failure to "lick boots".
His crime was to fail to do an honest day's work and then get so overwrought believing that the world owed him a living that he damaged public property, threatened thousands of people with harm and preoccupied law enforcement with his stupid antics, thereby placing other people in danger.
He licked far too many boots - his whole rationale for his shenanigans was whining about how US taxpayers wouldn't fork him over enough of those fat subsidies he was used to.
Ridiculous. Some L.A. gang members get less time for killing policemen or children.
Hey, anything beats having to face life's problems like a real man, right?
This guy's making me look bad.
LOL!
In reality, no one is going to support anything regarding the growth of tobacco (excluding perhaps increasing taxes). At this point, he's got a Boston Tea Party with minor federal damage.
But when he announced 'organophosphate bomb', that got the appropriate jackboot attention because this is when he crossed the line from protest to threat. These materials are neurotoxins (post synaptic uptake inhibitors) and are chemical cousins of material such as Zyklon B.
For 2 days, this guy's selfish actions shut down several of the major roads into downtown DC. If you know anything about DC traffic, his actions are almost a hanging offense.
::snicker::
Once I saw the picture of the tractor I knew it wasn’t about me.
I make the red ones.
Yeah, well I figured it would have been quite a drive for you.
:)
LOL fellow cheesehead.
Case-IH
New Holland
WTFIIWNC? :)
Massey & Farmall Cub were the ones that came to mind, since my family has one of each.
The guy's farm isn't far from my house, BTW.
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