Letter defends killer [from Captain Emma Shlarp of Constitutional Republic - Massillon, Ohio]

Beacon Journal (Akron, OHIO) ^ | Aug. 14, 2002 | Beacon Journal staff writer Ed Meyer contributed

[ResistorSister]

A letter discovered over the weekend at a makeshift memorial for Eric B. Taylor, the 31-year-old Massillon patrolman killed in a shootout Friday night, defends his killer and predicts that more police officers will die in traffic stops.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE

[rwfromkansas]

Exactly. In small towns catching speeders and people without seatbelts is a way that cops can stay out of the donut shop and out on the beat getting a paycheck.

It has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with $$$$$$.

[rwfromkansas]

He was ticketed for going 2 mph over. That is the epitome of a greedy city and bored cop.

At least here in KS you can go 5 miles over and not get ticketed. And they can't stop you for not wearing a seatbelt unless you commit some other traffic violation.

[tpaine]

You must have missed the one where an investigator reported from the county coroner that the bullet he pulled from the cops body was a 7.62X25.
________________________________

Didn't miss it at all. -- To my knowledge, that info was only written in one story on early saturday.
- Lets see if it holds true at the grand jury.
I can wait, -- before charging that someone is 'lying' about it.

[rwfromkansas]

We need a law mandating affirmative action for reporters.

[rwfromkansas]

Matthews was wrong. I am no Libertarian.

However, let me ask you something....when is the breaking point? When will conservatives say it is time for Civil War 2? Will it be when the government comes after all guns? Will it be when Hillary is elected? When will it be? Or will we just let things slide until we can't do anything about it anymore and we are effectively finished as a nation?

We are not at the breaking point. We aren't close. But by golly, there has to be a breaking point or America can NEVER come out of the pit of socialism if it falls in it.

[Jaidyn]

There are speed traps where I live (in Ohio) all over. I know most of them but what irks me are the cops who hide along Interstate 75 and nab travellers at all hours of the night when there is little to almost no traffic. I can hear the I75 traffic from my home and watch as they get pulled over almost continuously on some nights. And a few around here are big on pulling you over for going five miles over the speed limit. My town is big on St. Paddy's Day and the cops have a hay-day figuring (probably correctly) that everyone has been drinking. I got pulled over a year ago but I hadn't been drinking. I was given a warning for going (the speed limit) but he said he clocked me going a little too fast! I knew the patrolman and when he saw who I was apologized. He would have given me a break even if I had been drinking which isn't right but is done regularly.

[rwfromkansas]

Regardless, the way is to go to a local city council meeting with your concerns that they may not be duly constituted officers. I think this is nitpickity, but whatever floats ones boat I guess.

You write a letter to the editor.

You don't shoot a cop.

[hoosierham]

Actually if the officer never saw the gun or had reason to search for it, then NO, he wouldn't have gone to the clink. Matthews could have immediately pulled over and been polite to the officer, and just paid a fine of $50 to $75. It was really pretty stupid of him to begin a shootout.

[Kevin Curry]

BUt if a cop gets killed by someone believing the cop was doing a felony confinement that required use of deadly force, I am sorry, but the killer had a point, if however reckless and heroic stupid martyr like mean it was.

The only point he had was on his crude and embittered psychotic little noggin.

You post implies that reasonable minds may differ, that you don't necessarily agree with Matthews, but he was reaonable in his error. Matthews' delusion was not reasonable. Not even close.

Or are you suggesting that a killer-madman has a "point" as long as he personally believes the psychotic bilge swirling around the swill bucket he has for a skull?

The rest of your post sounds like it was cribbed from some agitpop tract penned by V.I. Lenin. You know, "Down with the petit bourgeousie, up with the common man!"

Libertarian populism, with its knee-jerk hatred of government, is so similar to Marxism in its pathology that you have to look twice and close to distinguish between them.

[blackbag]

They have more in common with Marx and Lenin and Kropotkin than with Washington and Jefferson and Thoreau.

Agreed, just because someone "claims" to be a constitutionalist that doesn't relieve them of responsibility for a stupid, criminal, violent aand murderous act. FR needs to protect itself from the mindset that rationalizes these types actions.

I am reminded of 911. I don't blame all muslims for this terrorist act of cowardice and evil.

I work with some decent muslims. What I do condem is the lack of clear denouncement of the terrorist acts by the "`peaceful muslims".

[alnick]

I disagree. The perp identified himself as a constitionalist. Apparently the extremist movement that he was affiliated with identified themselves that way.

I hate the liberal media, but I did not pick up any bias in that news report. I know the difference between a nutjob who calls himself a constitionalist and a real patriot who truly respects the constitution.

believe that most Americans understand that just because these nuts try to associate themselves with the constitution by the name that they choose for their groups, that they're really just a bunch of dangerous whackos.

[Cultural Jihad]

I think this guy believed that the police officers, had not been duly authorized to stop or arrest anyone because they are not required to take an oath. Please correct me if I am wrong.

It's worse than that. He claimed that the original 13th Amendment had passed the Virginia legislature in 1812 (only militia nutcases claim that) and that he interprets the non-existent Amendment to mean that lawyers cannot serve in the legislatives, and therefore all laws passed since 1812 are (drum roll, please) illegal, and anyone trying to enforce unlawful laws are committing (get ready) treason, deserving of death.

In truth, the man was an anarchist tax-cheat shirker, whose final evil act was to commit murder. Anyone can mouth the word 'Constitutionalist' but actions speak louder than words.

[alnick]

Me thinks this guy knew he was gonna get busted for the gun he never had taken away but was in his car and decided to try and prevent that.

There are several articles about this case here on FR, and in them are several references to the fact that Matthews has been telling people for years that he will kill any police officer who tries to arrest him or infringe on his "rights." That gun was in his car for the purpose of murdering a police officer and in the process making a name for himself.

[decimon]

Libertarian populism, with its knee-jerk hatred of government, is so similar to Marxism in its pathology that you have to look twice and close to distinguish between them.

Speaking of knee-jerk...

Matthews was not libertarian. No way, no how. And you know it.

Matthews was a right-wing religionist. And you know it.

[wimpycat]

He was so far right that he was knocking on the door of the far left. He was an anarchist, using weird interpretations of the Constitution as an excuse to flout the law.

[alnick]

Aren't we all Constitutionalists here? I thought that was the point of Free Republic. What's wrong with just using "cop-killer" or "criminal?" It seems like someone here has an agenda that is inconsistent with the mission of this web site, by intentionally making a association between Constitutionalists and paranoid homicidal nutcases.

It's relevant because the killer murdered the cop in the name of the constitution. Of course, he was wrong, but the media would be negligent to omit this from their stories. That's why it's important for us to speak out against Matthews and his ilk, just as we expect Muslims to speak out against Al Qaeda.

[decimon]

I don't think that a Constitutionalist could well be called an anarchist.

And I don't actually care what label he adopted. He was what he was as an individual.

[Kevin Curry]

Matthews' best buds here are loonytarians.

Go read the Constitutionalist platform. Loonytarians who undertake the exercise will believe they've died and gone to heaven.

Except that most loonytarians don't believe in heaven, being hard-headed and superior-minded objectivists, and all. But in terms of ideology there isn't a razor's edge of difference between Constitutionalists and over-the-top libertarians.

Hard-headed and dim-witted they may be, but they sure do hate the gubbmint. That wholly redeems them from their thick-headedness--makes them feel downright righteous.

Righteous enough to cause one of their esteemed thinkers to feel justified in gunning down a 29 year-old police officer for daring to enforce routine traffic laws.

[Maelstrom]

...and you're safe because you're an Anti-Constitutionalist?

[Maelstrom]

It really isn't that hard, and believe it or not, they're not out to destroy us.

They are out to destroy conservative, believers of small government in America. The "us" you refer to cannot be conservative, believers of small government in America.

Many media icons guiding television have said as much.