Obviously outrageous. Federal *and* state governments, and all their minions, are completely out of control.

Via CNS.

Gary Harrington, the Oregon man convicted of collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his rural property surrendered Wednesday morning to begin serving his 30-day, jail sentence in Medford, Ore.
“I’m sacrificing my liberty so we can stand up as a country and stand for our liberty,” Harrington told a small crowd of people gathered outside of the Jackson County (Ore.) Jail.

Several people held signs that showed support for Harrington as he was taken inside the jail.

Harrington was found guilty two weeks ago of breaking a 1925 law for having, what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property. He was convicted of nine misdemeanors, sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1500 for collecting rainwater and snow runoff on his property…Harrington says he is not diverting the state’s water — merely collecting rainwater and snow melt that falls or flows on his own property.

Harrington has vowed to continue to fight the penalty, stating that the government has become “big bullies” and that “from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”

Here’s audio of the CNS interview with Gary.

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14 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Alain41 says:

    I’m interested in what the law says and why. My immediate guess is that the law was probably created to prevent farmers from impounding river & stream water in reservoirs on their property. And when passed, the lawmakers never thought that bureaucratic regulatory agency would use law against someone collecting rainwater. State gov’t might argue, how do we know that it’s just rainwater, we think that he may be pumping groundwater up and capturing it in his reservoirs. (You should be able to inspect to see if this is the case or not.)

    I’m also wondering how a jury found him guilty to give him jail time. Might be a case of he doesn’t meet bureaucratic notice, therefore, he was found guilty of not obeying a ‘lawful order’.

    Regardless, it is bureaucracy out of control.

  2. Shifra says:

    I caught a snowflake in my mouth last winter. Can I get arrested for this ? 🙁

  3. TigerAim says:

    Well, I don’t know why no one wants to talk about UN Agenda 21, but this very much plays right in to what the UN is trying to force on countries, and we have leaders right now who go right along with it. Basically, they want to take away individual property rights & ensure that governments control all land. So, it seems local & federal govts are beginning to really press some of these issues, keep testing the waters to see how many of our property rights we’ll give up. There are actual published maps out there that show how very much of the U.S. for instance, they want people-free so that it is supposedly open to migrating animals, devoted to plant life, etc. (I say published maps, but my understanding is they are much harder to find on the web than they used to be. -Don’t want to make it too clear what there ultimate “agenda” is.) If this has been officially de-bunked, please do enlighten me, but it appears there are many things going on, like this example, that seem to be right in-line with the UN plan – sustainable development, sustainability, etc. 🙁

    • imacat says:

      You are absolutely right, TigerAim, and sadly United Nations Agenda 21 is not de-bunk-able. It is the global plan to which our country has been committed since President GHW Bush (Mr. New World Order) signed it in 1992. It really started to take off after a Clinton-appointed committee published a blueprint for all U.S. cities and counties to write their own “sustainable development” or “smart growth” plans in accordance with the U.N.’s wishes. Someone who is working very hard to educate the public about this topic is Rosa Koire, author of “Behind the Green Mask”. Rosa is a democrat who has seen the light, much like Tammy. She has lots of info at DemocratsAgainstUNAgenda21 (dot com), including maps of the mega-regions that are being planned to replace the Fifty States. The ultimate goal of U.N. Agenda 21 is global control through forced urbanization, de-industrialization, and depopulation.

      • ancientwrrior says:

        Imacat, thank you very much for your info on UN Agenda21. I had heard about it but didn’t know what it was all about. Rosa Koire changed all of that for me. This world wide power grab for control of people and nations, is like a medical virus that is infecting everyone everywhere from the top to the very bottom of societies. One cannot escape it, it must be fought on every level if we are to thwart the elite world puppet masters.

        • TigerAim says:

          Imacat & Ancientwrrior, thanks for that info; I was not familiar with Rosa Koire but will look up her & the website you mentioned now. I am also familiar with Agenda 21 due to a couple of dedicated men in my state (Ala.) who are educating people about this. In Alabama, there is a program called “Forever Wild” that sounds wonderful, but they use money, I believe, from a state trust fund to buy up bunches of land to keep it “forever wild.” The draw is supposed to be that hunters can go hunting on this wild land, etc; however, they only open it up to hunters, like maybe a total of a couple of weeks per year!! And, it removes large tracts of land from the tax rolls. Well, in turn, it seems like that will mean the rest of us will have to pay higher property taxes eventually to make up for all of it they’ve removed from taxation because the Forever Wild land is held by the state.

  4. trevy says:

    Does that mean people in Oregon need to cover their swimming pools when it rains?

  5. Maynard says:

    It occurs to me that we could replenish the illegally-sequestered fluids and thus neutralize the transgression by getting a large group of volunteers to head over to the bureaucratic headquarters and urinate on the grounds until enough gallons of fluid have been produced to balance the karmic scales. Kegs of beer would keep the party active and productive until the job is done. We’ll call our movement the “Angry Peons”. Good idea, huh?

  6. Gordon says:

    I guess that under the Evil-Bastard, Spawn-of-Satan’s administration ALL things are own by the Federal Government, including gifts from GOD. (Obviously I’m going far beyond the DB moniker with EB/SoS but it’s obvious to me what Obama actually is.)

  7. imacat says:

    Two earlier examples of the assault on property rights are:

    “Health department raids community picnic and destroys all food with bleach” (from ADistinctiveWorld dot net)

    “Pitchfork-wielding Virginia farmers rally against birthday party fine” (from FoxNews dot com)

    In accordance with the no-links rule, just search for these titles to find the articles.

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