Posted on 08/13/2002 3:48:08 AM PDT by ResistorSister
CANTON Dwight Class said it didnt 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 Dennys 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.
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 dont 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. Thats 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 hes filed a lawsuit in federal court in Akron over alleged civil rights violations.
He said hes 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 doesnt 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 doesnt have the power to arrest a citizen, Class says.
Standing outside the funeral home, he said, We dont 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 Fridays incident to boost attendance at the National Constitutionalist Academy meetings.
But not everyone who attended the calling hours shared Classs point of view.
John Newlund, 49, of East Liverpool, said Matthews was his wifes 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:
Granted, the current situation is a far cry from these other abuses of local and federal power... but if you want to generalize, we could literally be here all day.
Ah, yes--no one needs to have a driver's license to drive; no one needs a license to kill a cop. It's just their right, huh?
Maybe they were all gussied up.
Dammit, they had shirts on and everything!
Just as seing a story here on FreeRepublic doesn't mean that Jim Robinson was personally involved in the story, so Don Matthews reporting a story about $200,000 worth of fireworks doesn't mean that he paid for the fireworks himself.To: exodus
Goodness.
"His friends" did not have money, unless you've got a link showing that all licensed Pyrotechnicians in New York State are members of Matthews' organization.
They weren't his friends, general_re. It was just a story Matthews used to point out governmental abuse of power.
How about you, general_re? You must be a member of Matthews' organization. I have proof. You provided a link to their website, so you must be a member in good standing.
How do you feal about the death of your leader?
Yes dear
You still haven't provided me with any sources. Apparently, this is your inept way of trying to avoid providing me with your legal citations. If you had the legal citations, you've had ample opportunity to provide them to me. Because you have failed to provide these legal citations, it means you don't have any supporting documentation for your screeds. You lose.
If they demand the right to shoot their machine gun down the street, yes. There are things called "limits" that are inferred in the Constitution. For instance, your right to free speech does not include threatening people's lives.
But here's the information about the funeral for the man he murdered. Have any feelings for him, his widow and his two young children, now orphaned by a murderer?
Funeral services have been announced for Massillon Police Ptl. Eric Taylor, who was killed Friday night during a shootout near the construction site of The Arena, on the corner of Cherry Road and First Street Northwest.
Calling hours for Ptl. Taylor are 3-9 p.m. Thursday at Stewart & Calhoun Funeral Home, 529 W. Thornton St., Akron.
The Massillon Police Department will post officers at his side during the public viewing. The family will be seated from 7-9 p.m.
More calling hours are planned 9-11 a.m. Friday at the House of the Lord Church, 1650 Diagonal Road, Akron. The funeral service will begin at 11 a.m. and the casket will be closed for the final time. There will be a designated area for Massillon Police Department officers.
Following the service, Ptl. Taylor will be buried in Mount Peace Cemetery in Akron.
A Cleveland-based bagpipe band will play during the processional and also at the grave site. Taps will be played and an honor guard will render a gun salute.
A police escort will be given to the Taylor family from Massillon to Akron.
Taylor is survived by his wife, JuWanna; a son, Tyree, 3; and a daughter, Lauren, 1.
You're kidding, right? "All licensed Pyrotechnicians in New York State" haven't been filing these ridiculous claims against the state of NY, this fellow Van Burnett is. The same Van Burnett who refers to "OUR pyrotechnics" being "stolen" and who claims that "WE were kidnapped" by the NY authorities, and the same Van Burnett who thanks his "good friend Don Matthews" for introducing him to the NCA.
Van Burnett (and others) had $200K worth of fireworks. Van Burnett is, by his own admission, a friend of Matthews. Your assertion that they just picked out a story to "point out governmental abuse of power" doesn't even pass the laugh test. Burnett was involved, Burnett is a friend of Matthews. Period. Matthews' friends aren't so poor that they can't drop 200 large on fireworks, so spare me the food-stamp sob stories.
i couldn't agree more, exodus.
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