Posted on 01/27/2007 1:36:11 PM PST by tpaine
By Vin Suprynowicz
For years, Garry Watson, 49, of little Bunker, Mo., (population 390) had been squabbling with town officials over the sewage line easement which ran across his property to the adjoining, town-operated sewage lagoon.
Residents say officials grew dissatisfied with their existing easement, and announced they were going to excavate a new sewer line across the landowner's property. Capt. Chris Ricks of the Missouri Highway Patrol reports Watson's wife, Linda, was served with "easement right-of-way papers" on Sept. 6. She gave the papers to Watson when he got home at 5 a.m. the next morning from his job at a car battery recycling plant northeast of Bunker. Watson reportedly went to bed for a short time, but arose about 7 a.m. when the city work crew arrived.
"He told them 'If you come on my land, I'll kill you,' " Bunker resident Gregg Tivnan told me last week. "Then the three city workers showed up with a backhoe, plus a police officer. They'd sent along a cop in a cop car to guard the workers, because they were afraid there might be trouble. Watson had gone inside for a little while, but then he came out and pulled his SKS (semi-automatic rifle) out of his truck, steadied it against the truck, and he shot them."
Killed in the September 7 incident, from a range of about 85 yards, were Rocky B. Gordon, 34, a city maintenance man, and David Thompson, 44, an alderman who supervised public works. City maintenance worker Delmar Eugene Dunn, 51, remained in serious but stable condition the following weekend.
Bunker police Officer Steve Stoops, who drove away from the scene after being shot, was treated and released from a hospital for a bullet wound to his arm and a graze to the neck.
Watson thereupon kissed his wife goodbye, took his rifle, and disappeared into the woods, where his body was found two days later -- dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Following such incidents, the local papers are inevitably filled with well-meaning but mawkish doggerel about the townsfolk "pulling together" and attempting to "heal" following the "tragedy." There are endless expressions of frustration, pretending to ask how such an otherwise peaceful member of the community could "just snap like that."
In fact, the supposedly elusive explanation is right before our eyes.
"He was pushed," Clarence Rosemann -- manager of the local Bunker convenience store, who'd done some excavation work for Watson -- told the big-city reporters from St. Louis. Another area resident, who didn't want to be identified, told the visiting newsmen, "Most people are understanding why Garry Watson was upset. They are wishing he didn't do it, but they are understanding why he did it."
You see, to most of the people who work in government and the media these days -- especially in our urban centers -- "private property" is a concept out of some dusty, 18th century history book. Oh, sure, "property owners" are allowed to live on their land, so long as they pay rent to the state in the form of "property taxes."
But an actual "right" to be let alone on our land to do whatever we please -- always providing we don't actually endanger the lives or health of our neighbors?
Heavens! If we allowed that, how would we enforce all our wonderful new "environmental protection" laws, or the "zoning codes," or the laws against growing hemp or tobacco or distilling whisky without a license, or any of the endless parade of other malum prohibitum decrees which have multiplied like swarms of flying ants in this nation over the past 87 years?
What does it mean to say we have any "rights" or "freedoms" at all, if we cannot peacefully enjoy that property which we buy with the fruits of our labors?
In his 1985 book "Takings," University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein wrote that, "Private property gives the right to exclude others without the need for any justification.
Indeed, it is the ability to act at will and without need for justification within some domain which is the essence of freedom, be it of speech or of property."
"Unfortunately," replies James Bovard, author of the book "Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen," "federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors are making private property much less private. ...
Park Forest, Ill. in 1994 enacted an ordinance that authorizes warrantless searches of every single-family rental home by a city inspector or police officer, who are authorized to invade rental units 'at all reasonable times.' ... Federal Judge Joan Gottschall struck down the searches as unconstitutional in 1998, but her decision will have little or no effect on the numerous other localities that authorize similar invasions of privacy."
We are now involved in a war in this nation, a last-ditch struggle in which the other side contends only the king's men are allowed to use force or the threat of force to push their way in wherever they please, and that any peasant finally rendered so desperate as to employ the same kind of force routinely employed by our oppressors must surely be a "lone madman" who "snapped for no reason." No, we should not and do not endorse or approve the individual choices of folks like Garry Watson. But we are still obliged to honor their memories and the personal courage it takes to fight and die for a principle, even as we lament both their desperate, misguided actions ... and the systematic erosion of our liberties which gave them rise.
I tend to agree that it would be best if we formed a large group before storming down to city hall to set the deviants on course.
The question is: How large should the group be?
I keep reading posts here about how badly the government is treating my fellow citizens. The subject of owning firearms comes up quite frequently. People are always posting about what they would do if the government infringed on their rights. Would you agree that the government was just a tad bit aggressive in how they handled the sewer problem?
The tribunal I was alluding to in my post is the Supreme Court of the United States. However, they seem to be part of the problem rather than the solution.
We have another chance to get this boat floating trim and neat in the coming election. Do you have any plans on how you can personally make a difference?
I would like to hear them.
Semper Fi
An Old Man
Me: You say you wish there were more like the subject guy.
You: You're a liar.
I apologize. You didn't say you wished, you said this country needs.
That's plain silly, and you know it.
I'd much prefer the old fashioned pitchforks and shovels brigade hauling them out of their chambers whereupon the auxiliary corps would tar and feather them, whilst the rail jockeys stand ready to haul their fascist carcasses down to the train yard.
Thank you very much for that very frank answer.
You might want to think about your last answer. Did you really mean to include my rights?
I think a lot about what I write. I wrote "us", and I meant ~us~..
Again in an effort to satisfy my curiosity, is this thing about rights just for you to decide. Will you leave me on my own to stand up to tyrants, or is it to be a community affair?
I'm an individualist, and don't much like "community affairs", and 'majority rule'.
Who decides just when the shooting starts?
For me, -- I do.
Looked clear to me that they intended to take MORE land for an additional "easement" and sewer line.
No mention of any offer of compensation, plan review, or time given to pursue any civil remedy.
How big was his lot, how much of his land was being taken?
Were they running the new line across his rose garden, or along the property perimeter?
When I do finally buy land of my own, I intend to only buy in an area that is loosing population!
The point of my rhetoric is that a few scattered incidents like this one might make scumbag politicians a little more nervous about swatting aside individuals like gnats and seizing their property against their will and without just compensation.
Also, I join many others on this thread who would like a lot more details about this story.
--I keep reading posts here about how badly the government is treating my fellow citizens.--
These guys have never been to a country where the government really treats their citizens badly. As my wife says, everyone should live in one for a few years and they will come blessing hour great our country is.
--The subject of owning firearms comes up quite frequently. People are always posting about what they would do if the government infringed on their rights.--
Too easy to punch a few keys under a screen name.
--Would you agree that the government was just a tad bit aggressive in how they handled the sewer problem?--
Sometimes the government gets too aggressive and they may have in this case. I just don't have enough information. This guy has had a long term problem with the city that goes back years.
--The tribunal I was alluding to in my post is the Supreme Court of the United States. However, they seem to be part of the problem rather than the solution.--
I missed that. I was reading that the 'tribunal' would be the group of citizens.
--We have another chance to get this boat floating trim and neat in the coming election. Do you have any plans on how you can personally make a difference?--
My goal for each year is to get at least one front page headline retracted by our local newspaper.
--When I do finally buy land of my own, I intend to only buy in an area that is loosing population!--
Mostly people are leaving those areas that have oppressive governments and high costs of living.
I'm an individualist, and don't much like "community affairs", and 'majority rule'.
Who decides just when the shooting starts?
For me, -- I do.
Thanks
--I'm an individualist, and don't much like "community affairs", and 'majority rule'.--
Then don't live in or near a community.
Sad comment on 'where we are' on carrying arms in a vehicle.
I take it you would approve of the GA. law proposed?
As of now, they don't do random vehicle searches of cars coming onto company property. But if you forget and leave one in your briefcase as you go through the metal detector ....
I think that if the parking lot is open to the general public, then the employer has a harder case to make.
OTOH, he is your boss! If you don't like his policies, work to convince him otherwise or go find another job.
So you approve of his 'right' to prohibit arms in vehicles?
Which is it? Do you have a right to carry in your vehicle, or not?
That is an admirable goal. I hope you succeed
Semper Fi
An Old Man
--I take it you would approve of the GA. law proposed?--
Which law?
I think some civil servant making $18,000 a year working on sewer lines would be classified in this case as 'innocent'
What the "civil servant" earns is irrelevant. Additionally, in the context of political awareness, the so-called "civil servant" would not be "innocent" if he had been directed to enter private property under false pretenses, or without due process being afforded the owner of the private property. Perhaps, the "civil servant" just followed orders and, seeing as how the guv'mint is backing him, went about his business without thinking of the rights of the property owner. As in, 'screw you, Mr. Jones. I can do what I want, 'cuz the law's with me'. It gives the 'underpaid' "civil servant" peon some personal satisfaction that he can do something someone else prefers he not do.
Innocence is relative. The "civil servants" must have had some idea that there was the potential for violence, or an altercation. It is very rare and unnatural for any utility worker to be escorted to any jobsite under police protection. Blissful ignorance does not equate innocence.
--Which is it? Do you have a right to carry in your vehicle, or not?--
I have the right to carry a gun in my vehicle. I do not have the right to tresspass another's premises with my gun in my vehicle.
Don't be so sure of that.
Some people have had moments to live before escaping.
Almost. How can anyone truly "own" property when it is perpetually taxed under threat of government takeover?
--What the "civil servant" earns is irrelevant. --
It is relevant. It goes to the background and knowledge level of the person.
--Almost. How can anyone truly "own" property when it is perpetually taxed under threat of government takeover?--
With the agreement of the property owner. I know of some communities that have managed to eliminate property taxes.
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