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

[Cultural Jihad]

I have no idea if Matthews was justified in anything he did, perhaps if the complete transcript of the radio dispatches from that night were made available I could hold an opinion on the matter.

Who are you trying to kid? The widow was quoted as saying that her husband was going to commit murder. Even if the evidence were presented to the moral-liberal anarcho-ideologues in Dolby stereo technicolor, they would claim the evidence was tainted by the Trilateral Commission anyway.

[wimpycat]

So you don't trust the media or the police with basic facts, then.

[Kevin Curry]

This has been the single best thread ever run in terms of separating the dingbat fringe far-right froot loops from sensible conservatives. I am afraid it has proven that there are far more of the former posting at FR than I ever suspected.

Bizarre.

[Cultural Jihad]

It is spooky.

Even so, the impurities have risen to the surface where they can easily be identified and scooped away.

[Copernicus]

Those are facts that no one disputes.

You demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt you do not understand the concept of minimum standards of objective inquiry.

There are few "facts" in this case. The only information anyone has about these events come from a small group of select individuals who generated an even smaller number of reports about an incident they may or may not completely understand.

As of right now I acknowledge about three "facts"

1.Shots were fired.

2. Two men are dead.

3.Of the dead and injured only one who was at the orginal incident is still alive.

Everything else is pretty much speculation. Police logs, radio transmissions, analysis of on scene evidence, meticulous review of diaries,medications,personal histories etc. may possibly result in other indisputable "facts".

I have no access to any of that material. The reporters covering this story may or may not have access to some or all of that material.

One fact IS certain: YOU have no access to that material and have not demonstrated any ability to interpret it if you did.

Those are the facts with which I am familiar and which I will be pleased to debate.

Best regards,

[Maelstrom]

I've dealt with the media first-hand.

The media CANNOT be trusted with basic facts.

The police have a legacy of releasing facts only when it serves their own self-interests.

I'm not sure why you're able to be as trusting as a babe under your substitute father's, your cop's protection.

To me, they're just people. For the past 20 years, I've noted a shift in exactly what type of person a cop typically is...and it doesn't engender trust.

[Cultural Jihad]

As of right now I acknowledge about three "facts"

1.Shots were fired.
2. Two men are dead.
3.Of the dead and injured only one who was at the orginal incident is still alive.

Everything else is pretty much speculation.

Really? I thought more people died that day in Waco than you are claiming here.

[wimpycat]

Read and respond to my post #278 before you start talking about having access to all the raw evidence, or else you're doing nothing but making a bigger hypocritical fool of yourself. You took the word of the Harnett County police and the news media as a good argument against trigger locks, but what the Ohio police and news media presents is mere speculation, according to you. ROFL!

[Kevin Curry]

You might wish to add to your body of facts: 1) Matthew's wife's statement that her husband vowed to kill any police officer who stopped him; 2) Matthew's own raving screed posted on the Internet in which he stated matter-of-factly that any public official who violated his oath (i.e., which would be just about all of them according to Matthews) deserved the death penalty.

You won't consider these facts because that would compromise your desperate hope to discover that the police had marked Matthews for a rubbing out months or years ago and instigated a firefight to make that happen.

[Cultural Jihad]

Read and respond to my post #278 before you start talking about having access to all the raw evidence, or else you're doing nothing but making a bigger hypocritical fool of yourself. You took the word of the Harnett County police and the news media as a good argument against trigger locks, but what the Ohio police and news media presents is mere speculation, according to you. ROFL!

It's one of those 'principle' things, dontcha know.

[Copernicus]

"Moron".

Sir or Madam,

I have not used any derogatory terms addressing you.

I expect you to observe the same etiquette when you address me.

I will not respond to any more comments from you until you demonstrate better manners.

[wimpycat]

If you've ever formed an opinion based on something you heard on the news or otherwise haven't seen for yourself, like say, the moon landing, or the "speculation" that Osama bin Laden's goons are behind the WTC and Pentagon attacks, then you're full of it.

Use a little common sense. If you know anything about law enforcement, you know that they get it right most of the time, so they deserve the presumption of honesty before the presumption of lying.

[justshe]

(From an earlier post on this thread #187)....

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.

"snip" to #262

It's always been my Free Republic. God gave me Jim Robinson and Jim Robinson gave me a place to speak freely. I even bought a piece of it, or at least donated enough to take pride in what is here and what I have helped wrought. Free Republic is as much mine as it is yours, I am just taking a bit more personal pride in it.

I refuse to get into a 'pithing contest' over checkbooks and donations. You have NO idea how much others on this thread have donated. And your earlier post, #187 above, tells me you wanted, from the beginning, to hijack this thread from a discussion about a COP KILLER to something YOU wanted to discuss. Your statement that "you take a bit more personal pride in it" (meaning FR) than others... says it all.

Your arrogance speaks volumes.

[Crowcreek]

" And do you think, perchance, that said "killin back" just MIGHT explain why he needed killin'?

There is NO common sense here, only a circular arguement.

I know how badly you need to identify with the guys who wear the white hats -- and you can.

But you're not their friend if you endorse policy which gets them killed.

[AppyPappy]

they actually wrote it!!

Yes but they didn't write the one these nuts follow. They make up their own constitution, insert missing parts and remove the parts they don't like.

[AppyPappy]

So by your lights, the Founders were terrorists.

No. You think the Founders were terrorists. I don't.

[wimpycat]

Hey, I think our "time-out" is over! You can come out of the corner now!