Pushed Too Far…

What happens when an endless train of abuses and infringements are perpetrated by those who fancy themselves as our betters? Endless laws and regulations designed to eat out our sustenance, elected dictators and dishonest public servants make life unbearable and unlivable. They keep pushing and pushing and act surprised when someone puts their foot down and says “No more!” and fights back. They never learn. It would appear that they have forgotten the lessons of the Revolution. Much to their detriment. Perhaps they are aware of this, and yet don’t care? Who knows.

Here are two tales of people who finally had enough. I’m not advocating anyone emulate their actions, but the history is very edifying.

First up is a man called Carl Drega. Vin Suprynowicz has a good run down of this case. I urge everyone to go over and read the whole thing.

The back story:

In 1981, 80 feet of the riverbank along Drega’s property collapsed during a rainstorm. Drega decided to dump and pack enough dirt to repair the erosion damage, restoring his lot along the Connecticut River to its original size.

A state conservation officer, Sergeant Eric Stohl, claimed to have spotted the project from the river while passing the Drega property on a fish-stocking operation. (The river’s natural ecology harbored huge runs of shad and Atlantic salmon, as well as native pike, pickerel, and brook trout. So most New England states — these devoted acolytes of environmental purity — now routinely stock bass, and brown and rainbow trout, none of which is native and few of which survive long enough to reproduce.)

The state hauled Drega into court, attempting to block his tiny “project.”

This was piled atop earlier actions by the town of Columbia, some dating back more than 20 years, and starting when the town hauled Drega into court and threatened him with liens, judgments and (ultimately) property seizure over a “zoning violation” which was comprised of his failure to finish a house covered with tarpaper within a time-frame which the town considered reasonable, former selectman Kenneth Parkhurst told the Boston Globe.

Drega tried for years to fight the authorities on their own terms, in court. Needless to say, as a quasi-literate product of the government schools, and no lawyer, his filings became a laughing stock both in the courts and in the newspapers to which he sent copies, begging for help.

The last straw:

But they didn’t come for Carl Drega at home. On Tuesday Aug. 19, at about 2:30 on a warm summer afternoon, New Hampshire State Troopers Leslie Lord, 45 (a former police chief of nearby Pittsburg) and Scott Phillips, 32, arrested Drega in the parking lot of LaPerle’s IGA supermarket in neighboring Colebrook, N.H.

(“Arrest” comes from the French word for “stop.” Whenever agents of the state brace a citizen, stop him, and demand to see his papers, he has been “arrested,” no matter whether he has been “read his rights,” no matter what niceties the court may apply to the various steps of the process.)

Why was Carl Drega arrested that day? New Hampshire Attorney General Phillip McLaughlin pulls out his best weasel words, reporting the troopers had stopped Drega’s pickup because of a “perception of defects.” Earlier wire accounts reported they were preparing to ticket him for having “rust holes in the bed of his pickup truck.”

The end result:

But Carl Drega had had enough. He walked back to Trooper Lord’s cruiser and shot the uniformed government agent seven times. Then he shot Trooper Philips, as the brave officer attempted to run away. Both died.

Drega then commandeered Lord’s cruiser and drove to the office of former selectman — now lawyer and part-time Judge — Vickie Bunnell. Bunnell reportedly carried a handgun in her purse out of fear of Drega. But if so, she evidently had no well-thought-out plan to use it. Bunnell ran out the back door. Drega calmly walked to the rear of the building and shot her in the back from a range of about 30 feet. Bunnell died.

Dennis Joos, 50, editor of the local Colebrook News and Sentinel, worked in the office next door. Unarmed, he ran out and tackled Drega. Drega walked about 15 feet with Joos still clutching him around the legs, advising the editor to “Mind your own (expletive) business,” according to reporter Claire Knapper of the local weekly. Joos did not let go. Drega shot Joos in the spine. He died.

Drega then drove across the state line to Bloomfield, Vt., where he fired at New Hampshire Fish and Game Warden Wayne Saunders, sending his car off the road. Saunders was struck on the badge and in the arm, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening.

Police from various agencies soon spotted the abandoned police cruiser Drega had been driving … still in Vermont. As they approached the vehicle, they began taking fire from a nearby hilltop where Drega had positioned himself, apparently still armed with the AR-15 and about 150 rounds of ammunition. Although he managed to wound two more New Hampshire state troopers and a U.S. Border Patrol agent before he himself was killed by police gunfire, none of those injuries were life-threatening, either.

The next case comes from the state of Colorado, and concerns a man called Marvin Heemeyer.

Here’s the back story:

In 1992, Heemeyer bought 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land from the Resolution Trust Corporation, the federal agency organized to handle the assets of failed savings and loan institutions. He bought the land for $42,000 subsequently agreeing to sell it to the Docheff family, which wanted the property for a concrete batch plant. The agreed price was $250,000 but according to Susan Docheff, Heemeyer changed his mind and increased the price to $375,000 and later demanded a deal worth approximately $1 million. This negotiation happened well before the rezoning proposal was heard by the town council.

In 2001, the zoning commission and the town’s trustees approved the construction of a cement manufacturing plant. Heemeyer appealed the decisions unsuccessfully. For many years, Heemeyer had used the adjacent property as a way to get to his muffler shop. The plan for the cement plant blocked that access. In addition to the frustration engendered by this dispute over access, Heemeyer was fined $2,500 by the Granby government for various violations, including “junk cars on the property and not being hooked up to the sewer line”. Heemeyer sought to cross 8 feet (2.4 m) of the concrete plant’s property to hook up with the sewer line.

As a last measure, Heemeyer petitioned the city with his neighbors and friends, but to no avail. He could not function without the sewer line and the cooperation of the town.

What happened:

On June 4, 2004, Heemeyer drove his armored bulldozer through the wall of his former business, the concrete plant, the Town Hall, the office of the local newspaper that editorialized against him, the home of a former judge’s widow, and a hardware store owned by another man Heemeyer named in a lawsuit, as well as others. Owners of all the buildings that were damaged had some connection to Heemeyer’s disputes.

Heemeyer’s rampage resulted in 13 buildings destroyed, resulting in total damages estimated at more than $7 million. The bulldozer also knocked out natural gas service to City Hall and the cement plant, and damaged a truck and part of a utility service center. Despite the great damage to property, no one besides Heemeyer was killed.

This is just a taste, and incomplete at that, of the events surrounding these cases. I encourage my readers to do research of their own about these two stories, and more. These are not isolated cases.

Our country was formed after a long train of abuses, laid out in the Declaration of Independence, made life unlivable.  No one should be surprised that some people will fight back when pushed too far, but they always are.

Here’s helicopter video of the second event. More such videos are available on Youtube, but this one is one of the best. It includes a call from a friend of  his and helps explain his motivations.

Dangerous Books »« John Lott on Recent OC Coverage

John Lott on Recent OC Coverage

Link here.

Here’s a short excerpt. Go read the whole thing, it’s very good.

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire recently, a man carried a handgun a few blocks away from the site where President Obama was scheduled to hold a town hall a couple of hours later. Was it a danger or not? The man carrying the gun, William Kostric, even had permission to have the gun on private church property while he was protesting Obama’s appearance. Everybody from the New York Times to USA Today to CBS News expressed their outrage, interpreting it as a hot head threatening the president and linking it to militias and conservative talk radio. A prominent liberal radio talk show host came out saying that conservatives “want Obama to get shot.” New legislation related to this incident is even being proposed in Congress.

Obviously no one wants to see a president even remotely threatened and people need to be sensitive to such things. But worrying over a law-abiding citizen legally carrying a gun several blocks and a couple of hours away from an indoor event that the president will attend is overdoing it.

Pushed Too Far… »« PSH Alert!

PSH Alert!

Sounds like someone’s pants need changing.

So he’s going to boycott Arizona because the states gun laws are in line with the Second Amendment? I’d suggest people boycott him until he pulls his head out of his ass and posts an apology.

DO NOT BUY THIS MAN’S PRODUCTS!

Travel Icon Says He’ll Avoid Arizona Because of Gun Laws

PHOENIX —  Travel icon Arthur Frommer says he won’t be spending his tourism dollars at the Grand Canyon, or anywhere else in Arizona, because the state’s laws allow people he described as “thugs” and “extremists” to openly carry firearms.

The author of budget-travel guides said on his blog Wednesday that he was “shocked beyond measure” by reports that protesters openly carried guns and rifles outside a Phoenix building where President Barack Obama spoke on Monday.

Frommer says he won’t personally travel in a state where civilians carry loaded weapons as a means of political protest.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon says he spoke with Frommer Thursday and invited him to visit the city to clear up any possible misconceptions about safety.

John Lott on Recent OC Coverage »« Vicious Circle 15