Bad Local Government/Whitfield County, Georgia Style

I have been following comments on the Kelo decision and how the takings clause of the Constitution was never meant to apply to the states. Stephan Kinsella has written a longish article on a "libertarian" defense of Kelo (http://www.lewrockwell.com/kinsella/kinsella17.html). As I understand the argument, it is "libertarian" to insist that the federal government recognize and respect limits to its power. For some reason, it is preferable to have the states exercise power instead of the feds. I have begun to question whether there is any point in a libertarian's getting behind the whole Constitution in Exile movement, since there is nothing particularly liberating about having powerful and oppressive state and local governments. Statism is the problem, not the way the state is structured.

I know from experience how corrupt and oppressive local government can be, because I grew up in Whitfield County, Georgia. Whitfield County is a lovely place, and relatively prosperous, but it is blighted with an evil and corrupt Sheriff's Department, currently headed by Scott Chitwood. The WCSD has almost always been staffed by men whose laziness and cowardice are matched only by their stupidity and maliciousness. The Drug War has led the WCSD to become involved at times in the drug trade and to provide protection for drug dealers. And even when it is not itself engaged in drug commerce, the Drug War provides the WCSD with a convenient excuse to brutalize, murder and harass the denizens of Whitfield County with impunity.

Not long ago, Deputies Clay Pangle and James Cooley broke into the home of a crippled 85 year old man and shot him to death in the night. They had no warrant, and they claimed to have been responding to an anonymous tip that drugs were in the house. The elderly victim was in his bed and could walk only with the aid of a walker, yet these cowardly deputies felt so threatened by him that they killed him. This is Georgia, and you have to expect that if you invade someone's home they will try to defend themselves. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation recently cleared the deputies of wrongdoing!! The story is referenced here:

http://www.brownwatch.com/police-brutality-watch/2004/10/20/officers-cleared-in-shooting-death-of-85-year-white-old-man.html

Here is a story where the WCSD tasered a woman to death, and Chitwood says none of his thugs will be disciplined: http://revampscripts.com/cgi-chartcom/nheadlines.pl?board_number=20041123354&message=2005027165&returnpage=1

Moreover, my own family has been harassed and tormented and threatened by WCSD thugs. Not long ago, two WCSD thugs entered my sister's yard and took several shots at her dog which was trying to flee into the woods. They claimed that someone had reported a suspicious prowler, but this was a lie. It was the middle of the day in a rural area where everyone knows one another, and no neighbor owns up to calling the thugs (nobody in their right mind would call them for anything). My sister was called home from work by her neighbor to rescue her dog and get rid of the thugs who acted as if they had every right to enter her property and kill her livestock. I personally think the visit was related to the harassment of my sister's son-in-law.

My nephew-in-law owns a stereo store and makes good living through hard work and business acumen. Deputies Pangle and Cooley, the same cowardly thugs who murdered the old man, broke into the store one night and searched it without a warrant and without any reason to believe that my nephew-in-law had committed any crime. They claimed that they had found the door of the store open and were investigating a possible break in, but they stupidly failed to realize that my nephew-in-law had installed a security camera system and had caught them on tape breaking in and yammering about how they were going to nail him for drugs. So far, Chitwood has taken no action against these bast***s, but the family has retained a vicious trial lawyer. The WCSD has offered $5K to settle the matter so far, but I don't think the family should rest until Pangle and Cooley are off the streets.

Why does Chitwood tolerate Pangle and Cooley when they are clearly a liability and out of control? They must have some leverage over him.

This is local government in action. It is not a libertarian paradise. The good people of Whitfield County tolerate this nonsense and even support the Drug War that gives the WCSD so much cover and so much arbitrary power. Your own neighbors will tax you and regulate you and spy on you and kill you just as readily through local and state government as they will at the federal level. Aside from stealing from me every payday, the feds pretty much leave me alone. It's the Town of East Fishkill, the Carmel School District and the State of New York that hit me where I live and who are most likely to kill me or drive me from my home. It's the City of New London that is crapping all over the Kelo family, not the feds.

I always liked the mantra of "that governs best that governs least", but I don't interpret it as meaning that local is better. It means less scope of government, at any level, is better. Or so say I.

It's the state, stupid! Reorganizing the state won't solve the problem. If you are infected with a parasite, you don't cure yourself by spreading the parasites around your body; you have to destroy the parasites.