Backlash = Zero
The
story a few weeks ago called the Great Mask Debate brought in record
amounts of emails so there was a good possibility that last week's story
on the Tulsa cop shootings were going to be epic. Yet not a single
email was sent, not a single person objected. There is the fact that the
American character has a soft spot for reasonable men doing
unreasonable things once they have been pushed beyond their boundaries.
A
good example is Marvin Heemeyer, the famous kill dozer operator from
Granby Colorado. Marvin had bought some land that had a septic tank but
in purchasing the land at auction from a failed savings and loan, Marvin
earned the ire of fellow bidder that was from the most wealthy families
in the small town. Marvin set up a muffler shop and made the shop a
success despite being an outsider in the small town. But before long
Marvin was being fined hundreds of dollars a day by the city council for
not hooking onto a septic line, which he was willing to do if the cost
was reasonable, but the city wanted $80,000 to run a line about sixty
feet to the main line. You see the man Marvin offended by outbidding him
on the land was a member of the city council. Next the offended city
official built a cement batch plant right next to Marvin, further
antagonizing the situation after the zoning change was rammed through
over the neighbors objections. The new batch plant also blocked access
to his muffler shop. Marvin sued but used a local shyster that did
little but take his money and refuse to appeal after a local judge threw
the lawsuit out of court.
Marvin
didn't quit though. He rallied the neighbors and fought back against
the shady zoning permit. He even applied for a permit to install a sewer
line through eight feet of land owned by the new concrete batch plant,
hooking onto the sewer line they had installed when they built the batch
plant. But the city turned down the sewer line permit; a powerful
family wanted that land and wanted Marvin driven off the property and
unable to use the property so it would sell cheap.
Marvin
was hounded by city officials and eventually he sold the property at a
good profit, leased the building back from the new owner, and turned a
Komatsu D355A dozer into a tank with composite armor made from plate
steel and ready mix cement. It took the better part of a year and a half
before the dozer was ready and once it was Marvin knocked down 13
buildings including much of the batch plant. the local newspaper that
had hounded him, the entire city hall, and the previous mayor's house.
Marvin
got his dozer stuck in the last building, a hardware store owned by one
of the rogue city council members, and ended his life with a pistol.
There was no way in or out of the bull dozer, Marvin had used the remote
controls of a winch to lower the armored shell down upon the dozer,
sealing himself into the dozer as this was a one way mission. Marvin
wasn't crazy, he was out for revenge and I would say he got it after
seven million dollars in damage was caused and his epic reply to being
bullied became known world wide. Marvin was willing to pay a price to
get his revenge and that is the most dangerous man in the world.
Americans
have a soft spot for such men because we hate bullies and corruption by
public officials. We celebrate those that have the gumption to fight
back, those that refuse to let public officials run rampage over decent
people. We need men like this to push back and show those in power that
their power has a limit.
