For the past few months, citizens in South Florida have pulled guns on, and in one case, shot at, government bureaucrats, says Jeremy Sapienza.
Canker Rage
by Jeremy Sapienza
For the past few months, there have been incidents of citizens in South Florida
pulling guns on, and in one case, shooting at, government bureaucrats. What could
have outraged these people so much, that they were compelled to threaten others’
lives? Ridiculous code compliance demands? High taxes? No, something akin to
taking the first born of a South Floridian: threatening the destruction of their precious
fruit trees.
This might seem a bit nutty to a Northerner, but if you had planted a grapefruit or
orange tree as a seed and waited ten years for it to bear fruit, you would be quite
belligerent if some jerk in a jumpsuit came on to your property to cut it down. Many
people have trees that are upwards of 40 years old in their yards. Growing up, in
the two different houses my dad had in the city of Margate, in western Broward
County, we had grapefruit, banana, and Japanese apricot trees. Banana trees only
take a few months to grow, but the apricot tree was about 50 feet high. We pulled
down buckets of them all year round. Cut our trees down? Just go ahead and try.
The official reason for this citrus tree holocaust is the dreaded citrus canker. In
1913, it destroyed nearly all of the citrus crops in the Miami area. In an effort to
stop its spread, the state government had thousands of acres of private groves cut
down and burned. The canker eventually subsided, with most of the citrus industry
destroyed. The reason that residential property owners weren’t affected is because
of the incredibly sparse population of Miami in 1913, estimated to be about 12,000.
The population of the same area, including Broward County, is now is about 4
million.
The new outbreak of citrus canker has killed an estimated 270,000 trees in the
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, threatening to decimate Florida’s $8.5 billion fruit
industry. The canker causes trees to drop their fruit early, before it is mature enough
to ripen apart from the tree. And like the AIDS virus for citrus trees, it makes them
more susceptible to disease. But exactly how many residential citrus trees have been
affected is still unknown, and a search done on the State of Florida website finds no
mention of amounts with regard to trees at private homes. So, basically, whatever
the government tells us, must be taken as truth, because of the absence of hard
facts.
But one question continues to bug me. Who stands to benefit from the complete
annihilation of all residential citrus trees in Florida? What one group could gain from
the hype and hysterics of the citrus canker "horror?" The very $8.5 billion fruit
industry that has been harping about protecting the citrus crops FROM canker, is
going to rake in the dough from its exposure TO canker. In other words, with no
residential trees for consumers to get their fruit from for free, they must buy their fruit
from the supermarket, which, in turn, buys it from the citrus cooperatives. And when
you add in the fact that all trees with 1900 feet of an infected tree are targeted for
termination, which in Miami can be up to a 10 block radius, it becomes a bit more
believable that something is afoot between the citrus growers and the state
government.
So now the benevolent paternalistic bureaucrats who come to "save" us from the
horrific citrus canker become simply henchmen and co-conspirators for and with the
citrus industry lobbyists. So we can expect that a 95 year old man will pull his gun
on the bogeymen coming on to his property and spray painting red marks of death
on his trees. We can understand the thinking of the 65 year old man who last week
pulled his shotgun on inspectors and said, "Get off my property, or I’ll kill you." The
state thugs ran like beaten puppies, but he still got off a couple rounds from his gun.
It’s not clear whether he pointed at the sky to scare them, or aimed directly at them,
but we can be romantic and imagine him attempting to rid the world of bureaucratic
scum, like the heroic sausage maker in California.
The above event happened in Broward County, where people are used to having
their homes invaded. The Hallandale Police Department has been known on a few
occasions to raid the homes of suspected drug dealers, only to end up in the wrong
house, pointing a high-powered rifle at a half-naked old man or a young working
mother. Broward Sheriff Deputies walk in on Sunday barbeques and check to see if
residents’ dogs are licensed. So we’re not surprised that after an elderly man shot at
people invading his property and threatening his trees with death, he was tackled,
beaten, and arrested by the police on a firearms-related charge.
Of course, I’m particularly fond of conspiracy theories, but it does seem plausible
from the evidence we have. So I salute the brave individuals who have stood up to
the canker goons, and their fight to keep their unblemished orange, grapefruit, lemon
and lime trees. They are defending their right to be secure in their persons and
property, and exercising their right to bear arms in a country they still think is free.
August 7, 2000
Mr. Sapienza runs the Worldwide Capitalism Web at www.unknownideal.com.
------------------
LowClassCat
Always willing to calculate my chances
Canker Rage
by Jeremy Sapienza
For the past few months, there have been incidents of citizens in South Florida
pulling guns on, and in one case, shooting at, government bureaucrats. What could
have outraged these people so much, that they were compelled to threaten others’
lives? Ridiculous code compliance demands? High taxes? No, something akin to
taking the first born of a South Floridian: threatening the destruction of their precious
fruit trees.
This might seem a bit nutty to a Northerner, but if you had planted a grapefruit or
orange tree as a seed and waited ten years for it to bear fruit, you would be quite
belligerent if some jerk in a jumpsuit came on to your property to cut it down. Many
people have trees that are upwards of 40 years old in their yards. Growing up, in
the two different houses my dad had in the city of Margate, in western Broward
County, we had grapefruit, banana, and Japanese apricot trees. Banana trees only
take a few months to grow, but the apricot tree was about 50 feet high. We pulled
down buckets of them all year round. Cut our trees down? Just go ahead and try.
The official reason for this citrus tree holocaust is the dreaded citrus canker. In
1913, it destroyed nearly all of the citrus crops in the Miami area. In an effort to
stop its spread, the state government had thousands of acres of private groves cut
down and burned. The canker eventually subsided, with most of the citrus industry
destroyed. The reason that residential property owners weren’t affected is because
of the incredibly sparse population of Miami in 1913, estimated to be about 12,000.
The population of the same area, including Broward County, is now is about 4
million.
The new outbreak of citrus canker has killed an estimated 270,000 trees in the
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale area, threatening to decimate Florida’s $8.5 billion fruit
industry. The canker causes trees to drop their fruit early, before it is mature enough
to ripen apart from the tree. And like the AIDS virus for citrus trees, it makes them
more susceptible to disease. But exactly how many residential citrus trees have been
affected is still unknown, and a search done on the State of Florida website finds no
mention of amounts with regard to trees at private homes. So, basically, whatever
the government tells us, must be taken as truth, because of the absence of hard
facts.
But one question continues to bug me. Who stands to benefit from the complete
annihilation of all residential citrus trees in Florida? What one group could gain from
the hype and hysterics of the citrus canker "horror?" The very $8.5 billion fruit
industry that has been harping about protecting the citrus crops FROM canker, is
going to rake in the dough from its exposure TO canker. In other words, with no
residential trees for consumers to get their fruit from for free, they must buy their fruit
from the supermarket, which, in turn, buys it from the citrus cooperatives. And when
you add in the fact that all trees with 1900 feet of an infected tree are targeted for
termination, which in Miami can be up to a 10 block radius, it becomes a bit more
believable that something is afoot between the citrus growers and the state
government.
So now the benevolent paternalistic bureaucrats who come to "save" us from the
horrific citrus canker become simply henchmen and co-conspirators for and with the
citrus industry lobbyists. So we can expect that a 95 year old man will pull his gun
on the bogeymen coming on to his property and spray painting red marks of death
on his trees. We can understand the thinking of the 65 year old man who last week
pulled his shotgun on inspectors and said, "Get off my property, or I’ll kill you." The
state thugs ran like beaten puppies, but he still got off a couple rounds from his gun.
It’s not clear whether he pointed at the sky to scare them, or aimed directly at them,
but we can be romantic and imagine him attempting to rid the world of bureaucratic
scum, like the heroic sausage maker in California.
The above event happened in Broward County, where people are used to having
their homes invaded. The Hallandale Police Department has been known on a few
occasions to raid the homes of suspected drug dealers, only to end up in the wrong
house, pointing a high-powered rifle at a half-naked old man or a young working
mother. Broward Sheriff Deputies walk in on Sunday barbeques and check to see if
residents’ dogs are licensed. So we’re not surprised that after an elderly man shot at
people invading his property and threatening his trees with death, he was tackled,
beaten, and arrested by the police on a firearms-related charge.
Of course, I’m particularly fond of conspiracy theories, but it does seem plausible
from the evidence we have. So I salute the brave individuals who have stood up to
the canker goons, and their fight to keep their unblemished orange, grapefruit, lemon
and lime trees. They are defending their right to be secure in their persons and
property, and exercising their right to bear arms in a country they still think is free.
August 7, 2000
Mr. Sapienza runs the Worldwide Capitalism Web at www.unknownideal.com.
------------------
LowClassCat
Always willing to calculate my chances
