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

[Dead Corpse]

Crackpots? Would you say the same about FR's FMCDH's crowd in relation to continued government abuses of our Second Amendment? How about the Klamath Falls farmers when the Feds tried to shut off their water supply?

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.

[Catspaw]

An interesting point is that licenses to drive are commercial in nature such as for a taxi driver. Why are private individuals driving a private conveyance required to have a commercial license?

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?

[american spirit]

How are you able to come to the conclusion that within my posts I somehow believe the shooting was justified? That's just crazy because I've pursued a different aspect of this unfortunate situtation all along. Don't put words in my mouth and by the way didn't they used to be called "peace officers"?

[stands2reason]

I like how they showed such respect for the dead by dressing appropriately to go calling at a funeral home.

Maybe they were all gussied up.

Dammit, they had shirts on and everything!

[american spirit]

Sorry, just trying to make you think a little...it won't happen again.

[exodus]

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
No, but when you assert that his friends didn't have a lot of money, and I post evidence that his friends had enough money for $200K worth of fireworks, it sort of belies the notion that they were living hand to mouth. I never claimed that Matthews himself had those fireworks - I posted that to point out that "his friends" certainly did.
# 158 by general_re
*************************

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?

[Maelstrom]

Don't be hoodwinked into defending this guy's ideology, nor be divided from those with whom you agree over such defenses.

These series of threads aren't about Matthews, Taylor, speeding tickets, or even Matthews' personal vision of the Constitution.

These threads are about using one man's death and another man's slaughter to initiate ad hominem attacks against ALL THOSE who believe the US Constitution is one creating a limited government of enumerated powers.

one_particular_harbor is THE most noteable personage here among others with nothing more in their desire to promulgate these threads than to divide us one from another, over the same argument that led to the War Between the States, the same argument between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists.

These people have danced in the blood of the fallen, neither Man has been placed in his grave yet. For all we know Matthews could have held the view that he has the right to murder because it's prosecution isn't an enumerated power in the Constitution...OR...For all we know the officer that stopped him could have told Matthews that it was open season on anti-government freaks and today was Matthews' lucky day.

Don't Do It.

Recognize these series of threads for what they primarily are: Ad Hominem attacks on ALL who believe in a limited government of enumerated powers.

Don't allow yourself to be manipulated into making seditious statements nor allow yourself to be divided from your friends seeking a less powerful government.

=Maelstrom=

[AppyPappy]

Please choose your wording a little more carefully then

Yes dear

[AppyPappy]

They must prove the ability to drive

[Catspaw]

Sorry, just trying to make you think a little...it won't happen again.

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.

[AppyPappy]

Would you say the same about FR's FMCDH's crowd in relation to continued government abuses of our Second Amendment?

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.

[christine]

thank you, maelstrom. great post! ;)

[Maelstrom]

Correction: If it's not prohibited to the People it's allowed by the People

If it's not *enumerated* to the government, it's prohibited.

[wimpycat]

AMENDMENT X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

[stands2reason]

There you go, asking those questions again! Boy are you a pain in the a$$! ;-)

[american spirit]

Obviously, but the key point is that it places private individuals into commercial jurisdictions which is the impetus for registrations and licenses, all of of which are revenue producers for the state/municipal corporate entites.

[Catspaw]

For all we know Matthews could have held the view that he has the right to murder because it's prosecution isn't an enumerated power in the Constitution...OR...For all we know the officer that stopped him could have told Matthews that it was open season on anti-government freaks and today was Matthews' lucky day.

Matthews did--and told people about his desire to kill a cop if he was ever pulled over, starting in 1998. But oh my, such sympathy for a cop killer.  If I work real hard, I might be able to squeeze out a tear.

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?

Services Friday for Ptl. Taylor

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.

[wimpycat]

I'm only attacking those who would in ANY WAY justify Matthews' actions by citing the Constitution.

[general_re]

"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.

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.

[christine]

I don't know what happened between Matthews and the police. I don't know if Matthews snapped or the police provoked him so badly that he felt that he had to defend himself. I do know that police can lie, I do know that every city has some corrupt officials, I know that police have been known to find excuses to kill "troublemakers," and I know that once police have killed, city officials and judges have been known to help cover up the abuses of their friends. I will not accept the word of these police without question.

i couldn't agree more, exodus.