Posted on 11/25/2007 6:31:07 PM PST by joanie-f
How many times have we heard about government abuses of the right to own property going on in neighborhoods across America, in the form of the invoking of the right of ‘eminent domain’, and the corruption of other legal concepts? Kelo vs. New London is probably the most publicized of such unconstitutional atrocities, but similar atrocities occur daily across this country.
How many of us have attempted to help the victims of such abuses of power? I myself have done so no more than once or twice.
I ask any FReeper who happens upon this thread to take ten minutes of his or her day to read about one such abuse of power. In terms of land area, it is a small abuse, and it affects only two ordinary American citizens who wield no more power than you or I. But its ramifications are enormous. If we’re not going to decide to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the two relatively anonymous Americans I’d like to introduce to you, exactly when will we decide that it’s time to unite in revolt against the growing ‘privileged elite’ in this country, and the menace they represent to us all? The so-called legal/justice system is using all manner of wicked precedent to commit major, obscene private land grabs ... all such crimes tracing back to a desire for more wealth and power on the part of those who already wield more than you or I.
Before inserting the precious words ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ into the Declaration, our Founders seriously considered using the wording ‘life, liberty and property’ (as originated by John Locke). I believe the latter to be a more powerful representation of our inalienable rights, but apparently the modern American government/judicial system vehemently disagrees with either expression.
Don and Susie Kirlin own a vacant lot, worth roughly a million dollars in today’s market, on the outskirts of Boulder, Colorado. They purchased it about twenty years ago with the idea of eventually building a home there. It is located just down the road from their current home, they walk by the land regularly, and they have been paying taxes on it faithfully for the past two decades.
Unfortunately for the Kirlins the couple that owns a home adjacent to their lot consists of a county judge, Richard McLean, and his wife, Edith Stevens, who is also an attorney. McLean and Stevens have been active, and powerful, in Boulder County politics for decades. It seems that this ambitious couple has been using a portion of the Kirlins’ land to occasionally hold their own private parties, and, in doing so, they have also created worn pathways through portions of that land.
It also would appear that these two believe that, if the Kirlins build a home on the land they purchased for just that reason, the view of the surrounding landscape from their own home would be diminished.
When the Kirlins attempted to build a fence on a portion of their vacant land before beginning construction on it, McLean and Stevens had a restraining order issued against them, stating that, since they had been using the land themselves for some time, they had become ‘attached’ to it and they are claiming it as their own. The restraining order was issued within a few hours of their request for it. Apparently the wheels of justice move at lighting speed, if the person requesting the moving has the right connections.
As a result, McLean and Stevens have invoked the doctrine of ‘adverse possession’, which allows a citizen to claim another’s property simply by virtue of using it for a specified period of time, in order to declare one third of the Kirlins’ land as their own. A Boulder judge has ordered the Kirlins to hand over to McLean and Stevens one-third of their land, which will result in their no longer owning sufficient land on which to construct not only their dream home but any home at all.
As if the preceding weren’t evidence in itself of unmitigated chutzpah, McLean and Stevens are not only claiming to ‘own’ a large portion of the land in question (without ever having paid a penny for it, or any of the taxes incumbent in its ownership), but they are also asking the court to rule that the Kirlins must pay any legal fees that they incur in order to achieve this particular theft.
Thus, as is becoming increasingly common in Amerika 2007, two people in power have decided to use a corrupt system to steal from someone else of lesser political stature -- in this case, out in the open, and without conscience or remorse.
Needless to say, the Kirlins are appealing the ruling (and amassing large, and no doubt growing, legal fees in the process). But I wouldn’t be taking any bets on their success. ‘Fighting city hall’ is fast becoming an empty phrase anymore, because the concepts of government of, by and for the people -- originally made possible by public servants who value individual rights more than government power -- is fast heading for extinction, as corruption, greed, and lust for power achieve a momentum that has become virtually relentless and unstoppable. Not to mention the fact that both the eighth (re: coveting) and tenth (re: stealing) of the Ten Commandments have essentially been declared null and void.
This case vividly portrays the battle between the average American citizen and our modern American 'ruling elite'. Yet too many Americans are more interested in the comfort of our couches, and the proximity of our remote controls, than we are in the plight of the likes of the Kirlins -- victims of a system gone awry.
Unless we Americans start giving a damn about the abuses that our neighbors suffer under tyrannical government dictates, those abuses will someday affect us, and there will be nobody left who can turn the tragedy around.
The only difference between appeasement and surrender is the passage of time.
Contact Information for Boulder, Colorado officials (and thanks, in advance, to all who avail themselves of this source of redress):
Cindy Domenico, Boulder County Commissioner
Ben Pearlman, Boulder County Commissioner
Will Toor, Boulder County Commissioner
Joan Fitzgerald, Colorado State Senator, District 16
Brandon Shaffer, Colorado State Senator, District 17
Ron Tupa, Colorado State Senator, District 18
Alice Madden, Colorado State Representative, District 10
Jack Pommer, Colorado State Representative, District 11
Paul Weissmann, Colorado State Representative, District 12
Claire Levy, Colorado State Representative, District 13
Dianne Primavera, Colorado State Representative, District 33
Resources:
Legal Landgrab Should Be Overturned on Appeal
Boulder Couple Accuses Former Judge, Mayor of Land Grab
Hard Feelings on Hardscrabble Drive
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Your involvement solicited.
When a nation loses their reverence for their Creator, and all respect for the right to lives of those who are made in His image, they should not be surprised to see the liberties that are His gift melt away like butter in the July noon-day sun.
This is an outrage. I’ll be sending an email to all the links as soon as I settle down enough to do so.
The judge should be disbarred, if not sitting in a jail cell.
No honest judge should have ever entertained such a motion. This is, as you say, blatant, out in the open, THEFT, and felony theft at that, under the guise and color of law.
I will be writing each of those envolved and listed in your email and urge all on this ping list to do the same.
I know these theives are pointing to a "law" that would allow them to accomplish this...but it is a law that is being wrested and corrupted to these people's gain, and for that reason, alone, and an honest judge should not even have considered it IMHO.
boulder:
“10 square miles surrounded by reality.”
ping
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Thanks, Jeff. I agree entirely with your take on this and am so glad that you will be writing to the appropriate officials. If enough of us do that, it can make them realize that they have to hold the judge (and the thieves) accountable.
~ joanie
(Bravo!)
Thank you.
Agreed. But not holding my breath.
“The only difference between appeasement and surrender is the passage of time.”
No, the difference is in disillusionment about disenfranchisement via a better understanding of the ‘devices of the wicked’ as mentioned in Proverbs—and the hope and WILL and resources to defend one’s turf.
Meanwhile, to paraphrase another, “Tyrants wage (economic) war when the price of aggression is cheap.”
And it sounds like these lawyer-trespassers are indeed tyrants—their neighbor apparently let them use the property an inch and now they want to take a mile. There is a Biblical curse on those who return evil for good. May they not rest well until their consciences force them to make things right.
This calls for a FReeping, if this is true.
Interesting.
The corruption of politicians and judges is something that people have to learn to live with. Obviously these two scumbags, Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, have absolutely no fear of the Kirlins. And if the Kirlins are unable or unwilling to “think outside the box”, then they will continue to tilt at windmills and they will ultimately lose their land.
I guarantee you, there are plenty of people in this country who McLean and Stevens wouldn’t dream of trying to rob through the legal system. And the courts and judges and lawyers and cops have nothing to do with it.
Que sera sera.
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McLean retired from the bench in 1996.
He was elected in 1998 to serve as Boulder’s representative on the Regional Transportation District’s board of directors and lobbied for the passage of the FasTracks transit expansion in 2004...
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