Supremes Loose Leviathan to Become Master of All

On Thursday the United States Supreme Court handed down a ruling in the case of Susette Kelo (left) et al v. City of New London, 04-108 that stated in it’s simplest explanation “If the government wants your property, it can come and take it, no matter what you want. Period.”

In what is becoming typical of most of the court’s controversial rulings, the vote was by just a 5-4 margin.

Voting to allow local government’s increased powers to take your land, home and business were the four usual liberal suspects: Ginsburg, Souter, Breyer and Stevens. Siding with them, as he has done increasingly over years, was Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy.

The Great Communicator must be rolling over in his grave these days about that appointment. Caving in to the political pressures against outstanding dream nominee Robert Bork was one thing. But compromising with the increasingly nightmarish Kennedy has to be considered a whole other matter entirely. The liberals fretted all those years with Reagan, and ended up with one of their own on the top bench anyway.

But back to the matter at hand. The case that the court was deciding involved the small Connecticut town of New London. A few years back, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Corporation decided that it wanted to locate a facility in the town.

Good news for local business, right? Everyone in the community on board. The trouble started when the commission formed to evaluate the plans for the Pfizer development decided to get ambitious.

Plans began to expand in city officials’ minds for an entire waterfront business park initiative. They foresaw hotels, clubs, restaurants, even a new Coast Guard Museum, all attached to the Pfizer property and aimed at bringing tourists to the area.

Problem was, some folks, including Kelo (pictured) owned houses in the development area, and they didn’t want to sell.

Death by Radical Protest

Sometimes, Death sneaks up on you and takes you from behind, and you never even see or hear it coming. Even if you are a veteran police officer trained in observation, evaluation, and response, the final moment that Death brings can come suddenly and without warning.

In fact, as a police officer, when you die on the job this is usually how Death will show up, like a thief in the night.

On Tuesday June 21st, 2005 in the 1200 block of Arch Street in downtown Philadelphia, a rowdy mob of protesters from a variety of radical left-wing organizations were testing the skill, patience, and professionalism of Philly’s Finest.

The mob was allegedly there to peacefully protest during the Biotech 2005 conference taking place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. But this mob on Arch Street had turned ugly and unruly, and began to fight police officers who were simply trying to hold them back and keep them from interrupting the conventioneers’ event.

It was under these circumstances that death crept up on 17-year veteran Philly cop Paris Williams and jumped him from behind, taking one of the most respected and well-liked officers away from his family, friends, and fellow officers at the all-too-young age of 52 years.

In Officer Williams’ case, death did not come in the form of a bullet with his name on it, or a tragic auto accident. No, death came for him in the form of this unruly mob.