Constitutionalist blames police for fatal shootout (shooting in Massillon, Ohio)

The Canton Repository (Ohio) ^ | August 13, 2002 | ED BALINT

[ResistorSister]

CANTON — Dwight Class said it didn’t have to end this way for Donald Matthews and the Massillon police officer whom he shot and killed.

Class said Patrol Officer Eric Taylor and the other officers and state trooper who were part of a fatal police chase Friday night did not have the authority to pull Matthews over on a traffic stop.

Or to pursue and attempt to arrest him.

Class attends the meetings on constitutionality that Matthews used to lead before he died in the shootout with police that started with a traffic stop on Route 21 in Doylestown and ended at First Street NW and Cherry Road in Massillon.

Matthews was president of the National Constitutionalist Academy and studied the U.S. Constitution. He held weekly meetings at the Denny’s Restaurant on Tuscarawas Street W in Perry Township. About 15 to 22 people usually attend, Class said. He said Matthews also held weekly meetings in Cleveland.

STRONG BELIEFS. Dwight Class and his wife, Sárra,
stand outside Reed Funeral Home after attending
calling hours for Donald Matthews of Jackson
Township on Monday afternoon. Police shot and
killed Matthews after he led police on a chase and shot and
killed Massillon Police Officer Eric Taylor on Friday
night. Class said the shootout wouldn’t have occurred
if the state trooper who pulled Matthews over on a
traffic stop had shown proof that he had an oath of
office and a bond. Repository / Michael S. Balash

Class attended calling hours for Matthews at Reed Funeral Home on Monday. Visitation was held from 3 to 5 and 6 to 9 p.m.

The first session appeared to be sparsely attended. Roughly 12 to 20 vehicles were parked in the funeral home lot. Visitors trickled in during the two hours. Family members and friends occasionally gathered in the parking lot or near the entrance of the funeral home.

Class spoke strongly about the events that unfolded Friday when a state trooper pulled Matthews over for driving 12 mph over the speed limit.

If the trooper could have produced proof that he had taken an oath of office and had a bond, “it would have been a nice, simple conversation (and Matthews would have said,) ‘I recognize you as an officer now.’ ”

That would have prevented the gunshots, Class said.

“I don’t think it had to have happened at all,” the Canton resident said, citing constitutional issues.

However, his wife, Sárra Class, said Taylor “should have been shot.”

Dwight Class disagreed and told his wife to stop making the comment.

“I thought he was a good man,” he said of Matthews. “He tried to get things done; he tried to get them done peacefully. That’s what he taught in class.”

Matthews taught other constitutionalists “to get the ‘paper trail started’ ” by filing cases in court, Class said.

Class said he has filed lawsuits over traffic violations involving himself and Rodney Class. One of the cases involves New Philadelphia police, he said.

Dwight Class also said he’s filed a lawsuit in federal court in Akron over alleged civil rights violations.

He said he’s planning to take legal action this week against Massillon Municipal Judge Edward J. Elum in the Ohio Supreme Court. That complaint involves a warrant issued against Class — he said he doesn’t know what for.

Dwight Class, 51, said he retired after working 30 years at the Timken Co.

He gave a reporter a “notice” of “civil rights violations by Ohio police and (the Ohio Highway Patrol).”

“Ohio is a home-rule state,” it says. “Chances are that if the brothers and sisters are stopped by any local police, they do not have an oath of office or bond to hold a position as a civil servant.”

Without the oath or bond, an officer doesn’t have the power to arrest a citizen, Class says.

Standing outside the funeral home, he said, “We don’t have a police force in the state of Ohio; we have private, at-will employees.”

A bumper sticker on a pickup truck at the calling hours carried the slogan: “I love my country but I fear my elected officials.”

Class said he expects Friday’s incident to boost attendance at the National Constitutionalist Academy meetings.

But not everyone who attended the calling hours shared Class’s point of view.

John Newlund, 49, of East Liverpool, said Matthews was his wife’s brother-in-law.

“He gave me a card one time,” Newlund said of the academy, “and I just blew it off. I believe you should pay your taxes.”

Newlund said he would “absolutely” pull over for a traffic stop.

“He should have stopped,” he said of Matthews. “It was only a speeding ticket — it happens thousands of times a day.

“You go by the law, the law of the land.”

You can reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:

ed.balint@cantonrep.com

[american spirit]

The best slaves are the one's who think they're so free yet can't quite figure out why they're taxed into oblivion and are forced to work inordinate amounts of stressful hours in order to survive. May your chains rest lightly upon you.

[carenot]

My problem is trying to sort out what happened.

At first it was reported that the shooting started when he pulled into a constrution site, jumped and rolled from his moving car and started shooting at the police. I thought it odd that his car would be shot up, if it happened that way.

When it was reported that he was driveing around and around while shooting at the police, then the car being shot up made more sense.

[wimpycat]

They're dancing on their graves and using it as a springboard to go after people who believe the US was supposed to have been a government of strictly limited and enumerated powers.

CORRECTION: We're only dancing on ONE grave, that of Matthews, to use as a springboard for illustrating what one intellectually weak man's twisted and wrong view of the Constitution can accomplish. In his case, it ended in death.

[Cultural Jihad]

Look at #106 again and cite the provisions of the Constitution that prohibit statutory and administrative law...

Of course, american bolshevik spirit will never speed in front of the "unconstitutional" police. He doesn't have the courage of his convictions, although he might have convictions.

[Catspaw]

Sorry to hurt your tender feelings. I see you don't have the stones to refute anything I've posted with any facts. My posts have centered on the unconstitutional nature of city gov't. and it's ever expanding control over our lives and if you can't see that I feel sorry for you. It's sickening to see a policeman or private citizen lose their lives over this situation but what we all need to consider is what are we going to do about gov't at all levels encroaching into our private lives and constitutional rights.

What facts? All I've seen is rhetoric and blow. Where are your supporting documents, court decisions and case law to back up your assertions?

[wimpycat]

YOO-HOOOOO! Over here, buddy! Are you going to continue to dodge my posts? For your convenience, I'll remind you that it's post #90. Are you still combing the Constitution looking for the provisions in it that specifically prohibit administrative and statutory law? Are you combing through the 10th amendment looking for loopholes? Are you looking for a way to refute the fact that what isn't prohibited is allowed? Do you need some more time for your brain to process the information?

[Maelstrom]

CORRECTION: We're only dancing on ONE grave, that of Matthews, to use as a springboard for illustrating what one intellectually weak man's twisted and wrong view of the Constitution can accomplish. In his case, it ended in death.

I wonder if we're reading the same posts.

OPH is on both graves, and he's using it as a springboard, with his cohorts, to attack *EVERY* view of the Constitution that would limit government to it's strictly enumerated powers as a...

..."poison ideology"

[wimpycat]

NO, we're not reading the same posts. You are off in la-la land somewhere. I'm reading his OPH's posts.

[Cultural Jihad]

Bolshevik spirit will not answer. He knows he is wrong and harbors an evil spirit, and that there is no rational defense for a murderous mindset. He is a slave to his foreign ideology, and if he doesn't change his head soon it will not end well for him.

[f.Christian]

It ain't a white/black world...mostly grays---shades!

Witch hunters/vetters today are the liberals...

"living/morphing constitutionalists---

EVO science/RELIGION!!

Look at Ashcroft/Bork/Thomas---TEST(gauntlet) for office!

The constitution is the dnc/wwf playbook and the Republicans are playing flag football---dwarf wrestling!

[sinkspur]

The best slaves are the one's who think they're so free yet can't quite figure out why they're taxed into oblivion and are forced to work inordinate amounts of stressful hours in order to survive. May your chains rest lightly upon you.

Right out of the TURNER DIARIES.

If you can post here, you're not working "inordinate amounts of stressful hours."

I doubt you know what a stressful job really is.

[exodus]

To: american spirit
Nuh-uh, you've got it ass backwards. The burden of proof is on you. Cite which provisions of the U.S. Constitution are violated by these administrative laws.

The 10th Amendment gives to the States any power that is not prohibited under the Constitution.

If it's not prohibited, then it's allowed.
# 106 by wimpycat

*************************

Wrong, wimpycat. No State government can claim a power without specific authorization from the People. If a power isn't allowed to the State by the People, it is prohibited.

The 10th Amendment doesn't grant anything, wimpycat. It is not a "you get this" kind of Amendment. It is a "you can't have that" kind of Amendment.

The 10th Amendment says that the Federal government can not have any power not specifically given to it in the Constitution. Those powers are reserved either to the States or to the People.

In the U.S. Constitution government is prohibited from usurping powers without authorization from the People and the States. That is the basis of a Representitive Republic, of a nation ruled by the laws the very People of that nation created.

The U.S. Constitution requires of every State a Republican form of government, thus the limitations on the many States are set just as on the National level; the powers of the several States must be given to each State by the People.

The same applies to the Local level of government. Since each State is required to be a Republic, each local government that forms that State must be a Republican form of government as well. No Local government may claim a power without a specific mandate from the People.

All power comes ultimately from the People. No State is allowed to usurp any power. And no government, Local, State, or National, is allowed to interfere with any of the rights that will forever be retained by the People.

[american spirit]

Hey Einstein if you knew some history the Constitution created the "common law" the foundation of which comes from Deuteronomy. THERE IS NO PROVISION FOR THE CREATION OF ARTIFICIAL ENTITIES WHICH IS WHAT CORPORATIONS ARE! Administrative law did not come into existence until after the Depression and it was created to give jurisdiction over the people by faceless bureaucrats who govern us by licenses, fees, permits, codes, ordinances, etc. All of which are designed to give these entites a continual flow of revenue most of which far exceeds the normal needs of city gov't. My only advice to you is: GET A CLUE!

[Maelstrom]

Your post exemplifies the ad hominem attack. In this case it's against people who believe that government should be strictly limited to it's enumerated powers.

I will admit, you're fairly consistent, as are many of your cohorts with thier known broken ideology that a government can maintain a free people without strict constraints.

Now, if you guys had actually been intellectually honest, there is no disagreement that killing a cop is wrong. Many times it is even murder. However, you guys have taken one man's slaying and used it as an attack against all limitations on government.

If that isn't what you *intended*, I'm very sorry, but that is what you've done. Go ahead and clarify if I'm wrong because you desperately need clarification if you did not intend to do what you have done and are doing.

[amused]

The best slaves are the one's who think they're so free yet can't quite figure out why they're taxed into oblivion and are forced to work inordinate amounts of stressful hours in order to survive. May your chains rest lightly upon you.

How does being taxed too heavily have to do with ignoring a local ordinance and getting in a firefight with the local authorities?

I love it. When pressed to detail how this in any way justified(yes, I know you said the police officer's death was wrong) the refusal of the ticket and being proven wrong on the Consitution you so adamantly claim to defend, you resort to calling people tax slaves???

[Catspaw]

Nice ID, Sinky. I had forgotten that was in Pierce's Turner Diaries. Perhaps that's why so many of his followers are unemployed.

[amused]

Consitution = Constitution

[Catspaw]

Hey Einstein if you knew some history the Constitution created the "common law" the foundation of which comes from Deuteronomy. THERE IS NO PROVISION FOR THE CREATION OF ARTIFICIAL ENTITIES WHICH IS WHAT CORPORATIONS ARE! Administrative law did not come into existence until after the Depression and it was created to give jurisdiction over the people by faceless bureaucrats who govern us by licenses, fees, permits, codes, ordinances, etc. All of which are designed to give these entites a continual flow of revenue most of which far exceeds the normal needs of city gov't. My only advice to you is: GET A CLUE!

Could you please direct us to the source of your information? Screeching at someone is not a specific source from which you derive your theory of governance.