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 n Robert Bolt's wonderful
play A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is subjected
to a show trial because, for reasons of conscience, he will not
take an oath acknowledging King Henry's supremacy over the English
church. Found guilty by a rigged jury, and knowing he will be executed
for his "crime," Sir Thomas says the following:
I do none
harm, I say none harm, I think none harm. And if this be not enough
to keep a man alive, in good faith I long not to live.
We all know,
from the example of Waco, that doing none harm, saying none harm
and thinking none harm were not enough to keep a man — nor
a woman, nor a child, either — alive in the America of Bill
and Hillary Clinton. I forget whether Janet Reno was Hillary's third
or fourth choice for the affirmative-action slot of Female Attorney
General; but along with everyone else who cares about liberty, I
shall not soon forget the cold-eyed cruelty with which that sinister
creature ("very big and very scary," testified one
of her victims, 17-year-old Ileana Fuster) dispatched those
who were so foolish, or so stubborn, as to cross her and her battalions
of armed thugs.
But all that
is behind us now, isn't it? We now have a Republican administration,
right? And an attorney general, John Ashcroft, who is not keen on
torturing 17-year-old girls, burning cultists alive, protecting
FBI snipers who had used the wives of eccentric mountain men for
target practice, or kissing Fidel Castro's backside. Don't we?
Well, you might
have asked Tom Crosslin or Rolland Rohm. Up to a few days ago you
might, that is. This week they were both shot dead: Crosslin, aged
47, on Monday by an FBI agent; Rohm, aged 28, on Tuesday by a Michigan
state trooper. Crosslin was the founder and owner of Rainbow Farm
in Vandalia, Michigan, where Rohm also lived. As of the time of
writing, Rainbow Farm's website
is still available, and I suggest you take a look at it to see the
background to this story. I particularly direct your attention to
the farm's "mission statement," which you can get to by
clicking the "Purpose" link on the website's first page.
Crosslin was
a libertarian and a keen proponent of marijuana legalization. When
he bought the 34-acre farm 15 years ago, it seems to have been with
the express purpose of making it a haven for, as he says in that
mission statement, "the medical, spiritual, and responsible
recreational uses of marijuana." Rock concerts were held on
the property. At one, in May 1998, an expensive car that was about
to be forfeited to the U.S. government as part of a drug investigation
was set in front of the concert stage where concert-goers, egged
on by the vehicle's owner, smashed it to pieces with hammers. Another
concert, last June, featured Merle Haggard, an old favorite of mine.
(Sample quote, for those who don't know the
man: "Look at the past 25 years — we went downhill,
and if people don't realize it, they don't have their [expletive]
eyes on ... In 1960, when I came out of prison as an ex-convict,
I had more freedom under parolee supervision than there's available
to an average citizen in America right now... God almighty, what
have we done to each other?")
Such blatant
disrespect for the government's authority over our lives and property
did not, of course, go unnoticed. To further compound the offense,
Crosslin kept guns to protect his property. Marijuana! Guns! Pretty
soon the state police had a court affidavit filed to stop the rock
concerts. In testimony supporting the affidavit, witnesses reported
seeing children as young as 13 smoking pot in front of adults. If
that doesn't shock you rigid, another witness saw even younger children,
aged 7 and 8, subjected to the sight of adults walking around naked
and embracing. When, last Friday, Crosslin skipped a court date
related to drugs and weapons charges, the mighty engine of law enforcement
rumbled into action. Not only local police, but also the Feds were
involved, because Crosslin was suspected of shooting at a TV news
helicopter — a federal offense under Title 18 (I.2, Sec. 32)
of the U.S. code.
Tom Crosslin
was not the type to yield meekly. There quickly developed one of
those "standoffs" we are so familiar with now, in which
heavily-armed and trained agents of the nation and the state surround
a citizen who has declined to bend over and squeal like a pig for
their amusement. You might suppose that the obvious tactic for the
authorities in such a case would be to cut off the suspect's electricity
and water, hunker down, and wait him out. This never seems to happen.
Spotting Crosslin walking across his property with a long gun in
his hand, an FBI man shot him dead. Rohm met a similar fate at the
hands of a state trooper the next day. In both cases we are told,
by the authorities, that the man "pointed his gun at the officers."
There is much
more to the case than this, and you can read the details for yourself
if you feel inclined, on the news wires (available via Drudge)
or the pages of local newspapers like the Detroit Free Press
(which, however, does not seem much inclined to question the government
line). Crosslin seems to have been on the point of losing his property,
in some measure because of government harassment. Rohm was involved
in a child custody case. Bonds had been revoked, the legality of
firearms questioned. It's not a simple case. I must say, though,
that in my own readings I have come across nothing to prove that
either man was a danger to anyone, certainly not before the government
began to threaten and intimidate them. To the best of my knowledge
they did none harm, said none harm, and thought none harm. The general
temper of the Crosslin project can be gauged from the closing paragraph
of that mission statement:
Rainbow Farm
DOES NOT promote the use of illicit drugs by anyone, nor do we
condone or encourage the use of tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana
by minors. We do not encourage breaking laws. We work hard to
change attitudes and bad laws from within the system of government
currently in place. We support that system of government and we
feel privileged to live in America.
The man who
wrote that no longer lives in America, or anywhere else. He was
shot in the head late Monday afternoon by an FBI agent. That agent's
boss, new FBI head Robert Mueller, has made no comment on the case
that I can locate. Neither has his boss, Attorney General
Janet Ashcroft. Oh, sorry: that should be John Ashcroft,
of course.
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