Isaac Bickerstaff
09-04-2008, 11:21 AM
First of all, I need to thank everyone who showed up for Ronstock 08. My wife and I will send out a formal, blubbering, emotional, last-episode-of-M*A*S*H-melodramatic goodbye and thank you later.
As many of you may already know, a sloppy bit of reporting by a local newspaper led to the county officials thinking that they would be embarrassed if they allowed our little family reunion of freedom to occur without their intervention.
Thankfully, Ken from Arkansas was around when the county people showed up. He won them over to our side with charisma I have never witnessed before. After they said their peace, I asked the deputy to leave. He refused and later verbally assaulted me when I did not fall for his word games and allow myself to be put under his jurisdiction.
The advice I need now is whether to push the issue by:
A) Get a restraining order against the deputy. He trespassed. He brought weapons onto the property and assaulted me by legal definition. The county officials would need to bear some responsibility as well, because they were the ones that summoned the loose cannon. If the deputy was acting as an official representative of the Sheriff, I should be able to get a restraining order against him and all of his other deputies as well.
B) Write the county a letter formally acknowledging their intrusion to put them on notice, possibly sending a copy to the local newspaper to make it public and official.
C) Privately talk with the parties involved, letting them know that I do have rights, but I do forgive them for their intrusion. Basically attempt to persuade them to respect property rights by being nice. After all, it was our smiles that woke people up all weekend. Besides, by the time Ken was done with them, even the cop seemed excited to help us out.
D) Do nothing. They are embarrassed enough already. They went off half-cocked and ended up looking like Barney Fife. They know that any further action will result in getting a bigger black eye. It is a small community with a "healthy" rumor mill, and you guys really impressed a lot of people.
I would like to close with a big "congratulations" to everyone. We discovered through all of this that the media looks to us, specifically this website, to find out what is going on. Ted Turner is a dinosaur and the future of the news is us.
P.
As many of you may already know, a sloppy bit of reporting by a local newspaper led to the county officials thinking that they would be embarrassed if they allowed our little family reunion of freedom to occur without their intervention.
Thankfully, Ken from Arkansas was around when the county people showed up. He won them over to our side with charisma I have never witnessed before. After they said their peace, I asked the deputy to leave. He refused and later verbally assaulted me when I did not fall for his word games and allow myself to be put under his jurisdiction.
The advice I need now is whether to push the issue by:
A) Get a restraining order against the deputy. He trespassed. He brought weapons onto the property and assaulted me by legal definition. The county officials would need to bear some responsibility as well, because they were the ones that summoned the loose cannon. If the deputy was acting as an official representative of the Sheriff, I should be able to get a restraining order against him and all of his other deputies as well.
B) Write the county a letter formally acknowledging their intrusion to put them on notice, possibly sending a copy to the local newspaper to make it public and official.
C) Privately talk with the parties involved, letting them know that I do have rights, but I do forgive them for their intrusion. Basically attempt to persuade them to respect property rights by being nice. After all, it was our smiles that woke people up all weekend. Besides, by the time Ken was done with them, even the cop seemed excited to help us out.
D) Do nothing. They are embarrassed enough already. They went off half-cocked and ended up looking like Barney Fife. They know that any further action will result in getting a bigger black eye. It is a small community with a "healthy" rumor mill, and you guys really impressed a lot of people.
I would like to close with a big "congratulations" to everyone. We discovered through all of this that the media looks to us, specifically this website, to find out what is going on. Ted Turner is a dinosaur and the future of the news is us.
P.