He said, 'If you come on my land, I'll kill you'

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/1000land.htm ^

[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.

[tpaine]

"-- 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."

Normally, I agree with Vin.
But killing these working men for "the principle" of the ability to act at will and without need for justification" is beyond rationality.
A new sewer line running under his ~property~ was a justifiable cause for killing?

[sittnick]

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.

Sorry, there is nothing "courageous" about killing yourself. I don't agree with his action, but I would understand it if he threw down his weapon and surrendered after fulfilling his promise, or at least required a warrant.

[ClearCase_guy]

In my opinion, the whole reason we have the Second Amendment is that sometimes the King's Men need killing, and the people need to have the ability to do so.

[tpaine]

1 reply · 95+ views

Setting new records for reply - view ratios, bump.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

I work for a water company. We have easements. If we need to repair or upgrade a water main, and it requires working in an easement, we are entirely within our rights to do just that. All our easements are recorded in the landowner's deeds. And any repairs or upgrades are in the public's interest. This guy just lost it!

[Racehorse]

But killing these working men for "the principle" of the ability to act at will and without need for justification" is beyond rationality.

That's what happens when people are reduced to feelings of "powerlessness." You eventually get an irrational, sometimes deadly backlash.

Frankly, I'm surprised there have not been a whole lot more of these killings.

[beltfed308]

Residents say officials grew dissatisfied with their existing easement,

Then get a new one. A very sad story as it ended up with such a waste of life over what? A sewer line with questionable legal rights to tear up another persons land?

[John Jorsett]

Unless the town used condemnation to procure the easement, it was on the land when he bought it, and he shouldn't have bought it if he objected.

[Candor7]

There are just not enough facts in the article to reply to it. And the facts are not very thorough. His wife was served with process papers. Was that the first time Gary Knew they were coming. Certainly a police officer could have interviewed him before hand and then could have perhaps prevented the confrontation. We just don't know enough from the article which was basically touchy feely.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Another tragic case of poor target aquisition.

www.fortunecity.com/victorian/mill/1189

[tpaine]

I don't agree with his action, but I would understand it if he threw down his weapon and surrendered after fulfilling his promise, or at least required a warrant.

Exactly. An honorable man would have fired warning shots, ran them off his land, and then tried to justify his action.

[cgk]

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.

I'd remove the 'especially in our urban centers' portion of the above comment, and agree.

[Yollopoliuhqui]

Another tragic case of poor target aquisition.

www.fortunecity.com/victorian/mill/1189

[jonascord]

The "working men" you value are part of the problem. They made the deliberate decision to throw in with an oppressive government, with the knowledge that ANYTHING they do to "civilians" will be forgiven, including killing them. The only thing that will get them dismissed would be to injure the government. Anything they do to outsiders results in "administrative leave, with pay", until the furor blows over.

[goldstategop]

The city can install new lines through my property after it has paid me for it. People in the Mountain West take their property rights zealously. Its not like the government had no advance warning the guy was going to protect his property. He owned it - not the state.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[vetvetdoug]

My City has annexed me and now are going to "improve" my property (about a half mile) along my frontage with a sewer line. They put in a water line and were supposed to do it with minimal damage and replace and fix my land back to the way it was.. what they did was make a damn mess, destroy my fences, and never repaired the ground that they destroyed with the use of the large equipment. They cut my phone lines, my cable lines, and existing water lines. Only after I raised so much hell did they fix the phones, cables, and water and I still had to deal with the phone company's uncaring employees and finally got my service back. I then had to spend time and money disking and harrowing and reseeding the ground they marked up. I also had to clean my paved driveway from their going across it with tracked vehicles. When they knocked down my fences they never told me they were not going to put them back up and my livestock were fence less for half a day when I discovered the uncaring attitude of the contractors. Now they want to come across my property again with a larger line? I can understand this landowner's probably more so than many others.

Cities/municipal government and workers don't give a tinkers' damn about your property, landscaping, fences and roads and be damned if you have spent many hours improving your property. I dread the return of the incompetent and uncaring government employees tracking again across my farm.

[unixfox]

Ya know what, a lot of people are getting fed up with crap like this. Lines are being drawn and I'm glad to see this guy take a stand.

[tpaine]

In my opinion, the whole reason we have the Second Amendment is that sometimes the King's Men need killing, and the people need to have the ability to do so. ~If~ [BIG if] he had a valid reason for killing, -- he killed the wrong men. The city officials forcing the issue were his enemies, not the workingmen.

[Ole Okie]

A new sewer line running under his ~property~ was a justifiable cause for killing?

Particularly when an easement existed on his property for this purpose.

I guess there are few surveyors who haven't been threatened with or faced a shotgun or rifle. It can be pretty scary, particularly when you're a green member of a surveying party chain gang. Been there. Done that.