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.
The schools here are spending $12,500 per student without any notable success beyond what was being achieved two decades ago at half the price.
So, it hasn't increased that much in terms of constant dollars.
--- Do you often live in a fantasy world, and deny your previous positions?--
I have reiterated several times that I hold my position. Unlike you, who refuses to state his position. Do you approve of the GA bill?
--That easement was almost certainly there when he bought the property and would have shown up in his title work. --
It was on his deed. He had some idea for years that it didn't apply to him and this wasn't the first time he had told them not to come on the easement. Details not available.
--You'll see it served its purpose in smoking out some die hard absolutists; --- who use property rights as an excuse to prohibit guns from parking lots..--
It will also reveal that tpaine is doing his best to hijack this thread, will misrepresent others' positions and will NOT answer a simple question on whether or not he approves of a bill which defines the rights of people to carry their guns to work.
Do you approve of the GA bill?
From 1997-2005 alone, spending went up 30% in constant dollars. I thought I did not have to specifically mention something that should be obvious on the mistaken assumption that I was conversing with someone who did not wish to play semantic games.
I've answered in a far better fashion than you've answered any question posed to you for the past three weeks.
Go back and reread my response, slowly so that you can comprehend it better.
Here is tpaines initial post to hijack the thread. Notice he ends it with "Comments" but will not now answer a simple question.
TPAINE. Do you approve of the GA bill which you refer to as "Bill would let workers have guns in cars (GA)"?
That's no red herring, that's the exact truth.
You want to enter a private piece of property and park your car on it in spite of the fact that the owner doesn't want you there.
You're engaging the force of government to help you do it, and you're subverting the Constitution in the process. Then, you claim that "millions" stand with you, while simultaneously claiming to fight against majority rule.
I have to admit I don't know what the GA bill is.
--I have to admit I don't know what the GA bill is.---
See my 907 where I reposted tpaines original post.
...and backhoe operators.
--...and backhoe operators.--
On this thread you need the "/sarcasm" or people will think you are serious.
From 1997-2005 alone, spending went up 30% in constant dollars
What happened in your community during those years?
The house I sold in in Maryland in 1999 went up 75% in constant dollars from 1999 to 2005.
All in the name of parking?
Hardly.
You're working to advance communism in America.
"Communism is the positive expression of annulled private property." -- Karl MarxYou're working to annul private property.
--Thanks upallnight, for clearly showing your obsession about GA, -- and your frustration at being unable to refute my position.--
Maybe I could if I knew what it is. What is your position on the GA gun bill?
It sounds like a good concept to me. They are talking about commercial parking lots. A legitimate gun owner or concealed carry permit holder shouldn't have to worry about getting in trouble by parking in some mall or store parking lot, maybe not even knowing the owner prohibits guns. It seems to me the same principle applies to statewide legislation so driving from, say Aurora, to Denver won't be a problem.
I have reiterated several times that I hold my position. Unlike you, who refuses to state his position.
You just replied to my position, below. -- I contend that this thread has served its purpose in smoking out some die hard absolutists; --- who use property rights as an excuse to prohibit guns from parking lots..
My position is that these absolutists are breaking one of our Laws of the Land by infringing on our RKBA's.
It will also reveal that tpaine is doing his best to hijack this thread,
I posted this thread to expose property absolutism. -- How can I "hijack" it by doing so?
will misrepresent others' positions and will NOT answer a simple question on whether or not he approves of a bill which defines the rights of people to carry their guns to work.
I do not approve of a bill which "defines the rights" of people to carry their guns to work. -- Our US Constitution does not give the power "to define rights" to legislators alone. 'We the people' have delegated the power to amend the Constitution as per Article V.
-- Even then, self evident individual rights could not be amended or 'defined' away.
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