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Tuesday, February 15, 2000

"Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights). So strong and far-reaching are these rights they raise the question of what, if anything, the state and its officials may do." Robert Nozick "Anarchy, State and Utopia" 1974

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. . . when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future. Such has been the patient suffrance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government.

The history of the present civil administration is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over the people of this city. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

They have refused to assent to the Constitution, its intrinsic law, and to common law as is most wholesome and necessary for the common good.

They have allowed minor officials to exert power of oppression and effect personal prejudice through improper use of powers thereby granted.

They have brandished their powers unequally, granting favors to some, improperly oppressing others.

They have ignored the mounting evidence of need, willfully avoiding the protection, the safety and well being of the governed through improper planning and ignorant awarding of permits to favored individuals. The result has been undue hardship to the residents, chaotic disorder, painful wastes of time and emotion.

They erected a state of siege upon the personal rights of the people, erecting surveillance devices that abridge a person’ right to liberty.