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:
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.
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.
Maybe they were all gussied up.
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?"
FreeRepublic should initiate a Claire Wolfe Test. Anyone who thinks that America is in an 'awkward stage' has no good business being here, period.
Specifically, that awkward stage we all go through before we are able to exercise a minimal degree of self-restraint.
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?
Hmmm, it's been almost an hour and so far, all you've gotten is silence.
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.
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.
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