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.
Well, no, not if they're using the rim around the bed of a truck, especially a smaller truck. A good portion of the upper body would be exposed. At any rate, the cop sure was a loser. He was supposed to be watching Watson. Watson went back into the house for a few minutes. Did it not occur to Barney that Watson might have a gun inside the house and fire from inside? After Watson made the threat, Barney could have arrested him right then and there, just for the threat alone, then there'd be no worries. Duh.
The funny part is that ol' Barney Fife probably would have arrested him for the threats.
I've provided more than one of them quite a while back in the thread. Another poster pinged you with that post. But to be nice to you, I'll provide them again for you:
http://www.hannibal.net/stories/090800/com_0908000007.html http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/09/07/officer.shot.03.ap/index.html http://www.amarillo.com/stories/090800/usn_mankills.shtml http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/09/08/officer.shot.ap/index.html http://www.morningsun.net/stories/091000/kan_0910000006.shtml
As you can see, the portion I quoted is verbatim from the very same original news sources that Vin had to use in his OPINION piece. He clearly was being deceptive.
The city had an easement for the existing sewer line. They were trenching a new sewer line not covered by the existing easement. If you'd ever read an easement, they are described by footage, location and directions in relation to the property lines and landmarks. They are quite specific. The constitution does allow for eminent domain, but this was not an eminent domain case. It's about easements and ingress/egress. Now, if you can show me where the constitution says the government can take whatever portion of somebody's land it wants with less than 24 hours notice and no due process, I'll stand down my argument.
The problem is, you are relying upon Vin's lies about the incident. The original news sources spell out quite clearly that the city needed access to the sewer lagoon behind Watson's residence. There is nothing in them about digging a new sewer line.
The easement that was there, had been there long before Watson bought the property. And Watson had been feuding with the city over access to the lagoon for 10 years.
I get it. You can't win the argument so you're going ad hominem on the messenger. Brilliant. Well, actually not brilliant. Ad hominem is the last bastion of the cowardly.
Let's see the news articles.
Make that, "Let's see ALL the news articles."
Vin is also a believer in "natural" medicines rather than our developed medicines. Of course this leads to the legalization of cocaine, in his reasoning. It appears from his writings, no amount of exaggeration and misleading statements is unjustified in his quest for legalized drugs.
Earlier, I went to some trouble to recover those posts you wanted. Now you refuse to return the favor when I ask for your links. And you expect me to cater to your request without reciprocation? Forget it.
--I get it. You can't win the argument so you're going ad hominem on the messenger. Brilliant. Well, actually not brilliant. Ad hominem is the last bastion of the cowardly.--
Merely pointing out that Vin has been show to not be direct in the truth with this article and that it is nothing new to him.
Have you now retreated to lying like Vin does?
You are obviously playing games now. They have been provided here more than once.
http://www.hannibal.net/stories/090800/com_0908000007.html http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/09/07/officer.shot.03.ap/index.html http://www.amarillo.com/stories/090800/usn_mankills.shtml http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/09/08/officer.shot.ap/index.html http://www.morningsun.net/stories/091000/kan_0910000006.shtml
Apparently you are also ignoring this one.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1774791/posts?page=682#682
--Have you now retreated to lying like Vin does?--
No longer a question. I have it well documented.
He may be right, I don't know. Nine million over 500 years doesn't seem impossible to me. Hitler managed four million in a couple years.
Please, if you don't mind, introduce me to your personal research that proves differently. I'm a Catholic Christian, but I recognize that Christianity had a bloody history for many centuries, starting with Jesus's blood.
What this has to do with Garry Watson is completely irrelevant, however. Maybe you should start a new thread to bash Vin for his religious beliefs, or lack thereof, although I don't know how you or anybody else can fully know what's in a man's heart as it relates to faith.
No, I haven't been given links to any posts refuting that. I've read every post replied to mine, and have seen no such information refuting what I said. I was given one link, and it went to a dialogue reply box.
No, I didn't. Click it. It goes to a dialogue reply box.
I gave you the updated link.
Click my name, go back through my posts on this thread, and look at the ones that are not to you or UpAllNight, starting maybe in the 300's or 400's. If I could remember the name of the poster, I'd look it up for you, but I can't, so it's just as easy for you to find it as it is for me.
--Nine million over 500 years doesn't seem impossible to me. Hitler managed four million in a couple years.--
Should we not condemn everything Catholic, also?
--If I could remember the name of the poster, I'd look it up for you, but I can't, so it's just as easy for you to find it as it is for me.--
I should have written that to you instead of taking my time to go back and find the post you requested me to find for you. Thanks, anyway.
That's a post from you to me asking for a link to something I mentioned earlier.
Keep trying. Maybe you'll find the golden link to all these stories or information you claim to have seen that prove Vin wrong about the easement.
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