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 am using "war" as a metaphor.
I have an acquaintance that spent over two million dollars building their dream home on some acreage next to a national park. The park decided they wanted it.\
After over seven years in court, the park got it for under $200,000 since there were no comps.
We are most definitely in a war. It just isn't hot - yet.
>>If more people did this, we would lose all our freedoms for a civil society cannot exist if it condones murder.<<
Who is John Galt?
>>I am surprised to here you refer to Bush that way.<<
I was not referring to Bush. I was referring to the "little Hitlers" in the town that actually gave the order.
>>You sound like one of those radial fundamentalists.<<
No, I am not radial, I am biased.
Basically, this guy murdered two people because he was convinced his right to control property was "absolute".
Such men are dangerous.
--I was not referring to Bush. I was referring to the "little Hitlers" in the town that actually gave the order.--
You said "Hitler" not "the little hitlers".
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."
I lived in Chula Vista from 79-82. About a mile or so down from where I lived, some old guy shot and killed a neighbors dog. Why? He had some sort of surgery and needed rest. The dog continuously barked and he asked the neighbor several times to muzzle his pet. The neighbor dissed him and the old guy solved it his way.
Most people wished it did not have to come to violence but most understand why it does. People get pushed and after awhile they push back. The results are the deaths of poor working stiffs.
People are prohibited to protest against abortion clinics. People see animals vandalize the Capitol steps. People cannot have political speech 60 days before a election. People have their property taken from them by an uncaring government solely for higher tax revenue. When will it stop?
I finished reading Steyn's America Alone and he said that what differed United 93 from the other 3 planes, is that the passengers of United 93 decided as a group to disobey Governmnet regulations and do something. What happened on 9/11 and Katrina should have told people that the government cannot protect or take care of you.
--Thanks Lurker, for the opportunity to clear up my position.--
When will you clear up your position on supporting the "gun-grabbing" GA bill?
--We are discussing whether the owner may or may not restrict arms from the vehicles of employees coming onto his property to park & work.--
Which the GA bill which you are on record supporting allows the owner to prohibit weapons from being brought onto his private parking lot.
--I have an acquaintance that spent over two million dollars building their dream home on some acreage next to a national park. The park decided they wanted it. After over seven years in court, the park got it for under $200,000 since there were no comps. --
Which park, which year.
>>You said "Hitler" not "the little hitlers".<<
But Hitler is dead.
--disobey Governmnet regulations --
Which regulations?
--The dog continuously barked and he asked the neighbor several times to muzzle his pet. The neighbor dissed him and the old guy solved it his way.--
Did the old guy call the authorities?
--But Hitler is dead.--
But Bush is not. Please do not make such references.
If you are unsatisfied with customer service on the ground at your local store and argue with the clerk, than it is just that - an argument. You do the same in the air, you can be arrested and charged with a federal crime once you touch down. That is one regulation for starters. Try using logic with some of the security people before you even board the plane. That's another one.
I will offer no more details. It is offered only as one (of many) events experienced by me or someone I know that has formed my opinion of our government at the federal, state and local levels.
I am not attemting to make an argument to compel otheres to believe or do anything. It is merely offered to give one perspective on where I am coming from.
My "final solution" to all this is not to take up arms, but rather simply to ex-patriate - which I have actually been seriously pursuing as my long term goal now for several years.
Who is John Galt?
I am not responsible for your inferences. But I offered to clarify anyway.
If you look at the post to which I was originally responding, it is clear that I was referring to those who sent the men. Bush was not involved, nor mentioned anywhere.
Though this happened over 20 years ago, I believe he did. Cops came and went and nothing happened. But just listen to you. Did he call the authorities? The whole point of my last post was there are many times when the authorities - government - can or will not help the citizen. What then is the recourse of the citizen? And please don't say, work within the system. Again, it is the system which is failing the citizen. And most people do not have the intelligence, time, or patience, to wait. Again, take a look at 9/11. CIA failed. FBI failed. NSA failed. Two presidential administrations failed. Airlines working under fed regs failed. Every entity the citizen took for granted was working to protect them failed that day. And the only reason United 93 did not crash somewhere in the District is because the passengers had time to act. They realized nobody was going to help and it was up to them.
The cops are secretaries with guns. Their job is not to protect us when a crime is being committed. Their job is to "intimidate", by driving by once a week, would be attackers - and fill out useless forms and take notes AFTER we have been violated.
Our personal safety is OUR PERSONAL responsibility.
And calling the authorities? I actually had a neighbor call the authorities on me once on something very minor that I would have happily rectified immediately. I even dropped by his house the next day and asked him please to show me respect by coming to me first. We are not children.
When will you clear up your position on supporting the "gun-grabbing" GA bill?
Thanks upallnight, for clearly showing your obsession about GA, -- and your frustration at being unable to refute my position.
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