Arrested for Trespassing, on his OWN LAND

Here’s the scenario, you go out to do a little deer hunting on your own property, when you discover pipeline workers digging a trench on your land.

You know why they are there, because, they have been trying to get you to agree to changes to an existing agreement. They have tried to pay you, but you refused payment.

So you hop on your ATV, to go ask these men to leave your property.  Once you pull up, the workers tell you that the area you are standing in is not safe, and to go to a staging area to continue the conversation, you comply, and go with your ATV to the designated area.

In the real world, the workers from the utility company, would have to leave your property, and the company would lawyer up, and go see a judge over the dispute, or even better would have been to court well in advance of being on your property, since they are fully aware of the disagreement.

Unfortunately for Jeremy Engleking, he does not live in the real world, he lives in Superior, Minnesota. So instead of Enbridge Enery Partners, calling it a day, a county sheriff officer shows up, with Taser drawn. He ends up face down in the dirt, and “apparently being lectured by the cop for holding up a multi million dollar project.” What’s the charge?Trespassing, wait a minute, what? That’s right, he is being charged with trespassing on his own land.

When Jeremy protested the charge, informing the deputy, that he was on his own land, he was told, “it doesn’t matter. You’re going to jail. You can tell it to the judge tomorrow.”

Mr Engleking is also being charged with disorderly conduct, in connection with parking his ATV in front of the utility vehicle. In the location he was directed to, by the utility workers.

So in addition to the trespassing arrest, his ATV was impounded, and his cased rifle, confiscated.

Are you kidding me, it does not matter if Engleking is 100% wrong in his dispute with the utility. Until a judge, rules that he is wrong, Enbridge Energy, needs to pack up and go home. The sheriff deputy, should have recognized this for what it is, a civil case, and informed Engleking, of the possibility of a disorderly conduct charge if he did not move his ATV.

This case has government over reach, corporate sympathising, and property rights violations, all rolled up into one. Let us hope, that at least the judge in the case, lives in the real world, and that people learn of their rights, and demand an officer show a warrant, or this could become, the real world we will all soon live in.

Political, with a Conservative View