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

[wimpycat]

You know what? I think Matthews' friends and fellow Constitutionalists are behaving over this incident just like the Muslim clerics in this country are behaving over the terrorist attacks. "We think killing is wrong, but....", or "we condemn the killing, but the Zionist pig dogs are persecuting us anyway and making us all out to be terrorists! They're the "real" bad guys!" From most of his ideological brethren (not all, but most) that's the sort of "condemnation" we've been hearing from Matthews' ideological brethren.

I think that anyone who shares Matthews' ideas about the Constitution should step up to the plate and unequivocally, unequivocally disavow themselves from any of Matthews' actions--including this b.s. about a traffic stop being unconstitutional. That would do their cause a lot more good than mewling and whining about "we don't KNOW what happened" and "two good men are dead",etc., etc.

[Catspaw]

I'm just saying that any traffic stop that involves Mrs. Class is going to be a veritable Cecil B. DeMille production, with Mrs. Class getting the honor of assuming the position.

I'd suggest Mrs. Class get a bicycle or walk from this point forward. A traffic stop involving Mrs. Class will be most unpleasant for her, especially because she openly expresses the thought that a cop should've been murdered because he dared pull someone over for speeding.

[Cultural Jihad]

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.

[Kevin Curry]

These people ought to have to sit down with the dead police officer's children and explain to them just why it was "worth" killing their Daddy over the matter of a speeding ticket.

The really disturbing thing is, many of them would likely be more than willing to do just that. "Son, your dad deserved killing. If we let the government get away with enforcing little tyrannies, such as traffic tickets, pretty soon they'll have us all in chains, including you and your little sister. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"

[Cultural Jihad]

Apparently, Thomas Jefferson forgot to dot the "i" in "inalienable" and therefore no one really has a right to life, ipse dixit.

FreeRepublic should initiate a Claire Wolfe Test. Anyone who thinks that America is in an 'awkward stage' has no good business being here, period.

[Poohbah]

Naw, Claire Wolfe is at that awkward stage.

Specifically, that awkward stage we all go through before we are able to exercise a minimal degree of self-restraint.

[Poohbah]

Matthews, in the Texan vernacular, needed killin'.

Maybe so, cowboy. The problem, for these officers, is that he did some 'killin back' .... And do you think, perchance, that said "killin back" just MIGHT explain why he needed killin'?

Or is that just a wee bit to common-sense for you to understand?

[Catspaw]

Its unlikely that Betty is the only FReeper involved with these freaks. Assuming that they have any integrity (I know - its a mighty leap), I'd like anyone else that has been involved with them to step forward.

Hmmm, it's been almost an hour and so far, all you've gotten is silence.

[Poohbah]

A deafening silence.

[RGSpincich]

Exodus has some thoughts on the subject. Noticed your post on the other thread, ex. More discussion here.

[exodus]

Thanks, RGSpincich.

[Freemeorkillme]

Thank you, Copernicus.

You're statement needs to be reiterated on several other threads, and,IMHO, should be posted in a thread unto itself.

We do not exist in a vacuum. Let's not forget this important fact. There are those who are wittingly and unwittingly bringing the stench of ill-repute on Free Republic and her members which can lead the the effective destruction of all the positive results accomplished through this wonderful website by FReepers.

FReepers: Remain on guard for this behaviour and call it when you see it,

Freemeorkillme

[basil]

Actually you are correct--he did pick the hill on which he was willing to commit a murder--but don't you think he knew it would be a "suicide by police" also. I think he was hoping to become a martyr over this.

[american spirit]

FYI, there are now more than 60 million codes, rules, statutes, etc. now on the books which under closer examination we'd find 99.9% are unconstitutional. You need to do a little research on the nature of municipal gov'ts. which are mostly nothing more than corporations designed to create a flood of revenue from taxes, fees, permits, licenses, etc. and the reason the property rights movement is growing so fast is that mainstream America is waking up to realize that this statutory system of gov't. we now have is contrary to vision of our founding fathers.

[exodus]

To: dighton; one_particular_harbour; Orual; aculeus; Poohbah
"...Traffic stops, fireworks - these guys really know how to pick issues that resonate with the general population..."
# 22 by general_re

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

Little things matter, general_re.

Remember Mayor Guliani's enforcement of "un-important" laws like jaywalking and parking violations? Enforcing those little laws produced an across the board decrease in all crime in New York.

Don Matthews didn't have a lot of money. As you can see from the picture, his friends don't have money either. There is no way that they could influence national policies. Things are different at the local level, and even at the State level.

The problem is that at the local level all you have a chance to influence is "un-important" issues. If you believe that the most important problem in our nation is that our government is abandoning the Constitution, where do you start your activism?

You would start with "little" things like making sure that your city operates according to Constitutional guidelines. Making sure that your "protectors" have actually promised to protect you. Educating other citizens about what's happening in the nation, and what they can do locally to help bring back Constitutional government to the nation as a whole.

You would educate even local government officials as to what their responsibilities entail, and if that doesn't work, bring cases to court to force local authorities to operate according to the law, even if the judge dismisses most of your seriously thought out Constitutional complaints on the grounds that they are "frivolous."

Don Matthews was a hero up until this firefight.

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.

[Catspaw]

FYI, there are now more than 60 million codes, rules, statutes, etc. now on the books which under closer examination we'd find 99.9% are unconstitutional.

In those 60 million codes, rules, statutes, etc. where does it say it's legal to kill a cop because you got stopped for speeding?

And why are 99.9% of these 60 million codes, rules, statutes, etc. unconstitutional? You can post your legal basis here, or just provide a link.