Right to say no.

I rarely agree with libertarians (who tend to be conservative wolves in sheep's clothing nowadays) but this one is a doozy. A Superior, Wisconsin man's treatment by the authorities definitely causes one's eyebrow to raise. I have seen it referenced on several right wing sites in the past two days and I am with them on this one.

In Douglas County, 27 year old Jeremy Engelking has been arrested and threatened with a taser for trespassing on his own property. He is also facing new charges of disorderly conduct. Engelking and his father are embroiled in a dispute with the Enbridge Energy Partners L.P. over an easement that runs across their property. Enbridge is one of the largest energy companies in the world and it is building a pipeline across Wisconsin.

The story unfolds thusly: Jeremy goes out deer hunting and parks his atv in front of some of Enbridge's heavy equipment. The Sheriff, Sergeant Robert Smith, drives up and chides Engelking that he is “trying to stop a multi-million-dollar project.” When the young man tells Smith that he is on his own property, he is told to "Get down on the ground now! And he said that I was being arrested for trespassing,” Engelking said. When Engelking protested, pointing out that he was on his own property, he said the officer told him: “It doesn’t matter. You’re going to jail. You can tell it to a judge tomorrow.”

Enbridge spokesman says that the company has worked with approximately 1,500 landowners as part of the pipeline project.

“We recognize construction is an inconvenience to people; people want access to their land,” she said. “We strive to be respectful of that, to have a good working relationship.” The Engleking's say that the new proposed easement alters their property rights and won't cash the company check.

According to an article in the Superior Telegram, Jerry Engelking said that he refused to sign off on changes proposed to the original 1949 easement agreement across his property because he felt the revised document put too many restrictions on how he could use neighboring property in the future. That first easement said any future pipes laid along the same route would be predicated on additional payments being made to affected property owners.


According to court documents from the Sept. 25 hearing, Enbridge sent a $15,000 check to Barbara and Gerald Engleking, and also tried to hand-deliver payments, but the couple refused to accept them. Engleking acknowledged that Enbridge repeatedly offered him money to sign a revised lease agreement. But to claim the money he would have had to broaden the scope of the existing easement across his property, so he turned the checks down.


When the latest pipeline project came along, the Engelkings again refused to modify the original 1949 right-of-way agreement.


This treatment of this family really burns me up. And the obsequious toadiness of Sergeant Smith. Too many cops think that they are there to serve property owners and large corporations. It happens in mill towns across the land on a daily basis. I think that too many cops see being poor as being criminal. With the gentrification and sprucing up of downtown San Diego, more and more of the homeless have been shunted out of the east village. Don't know what the police position is.  Enbridge seems to think that it is their god given right to do anything they please, not withstanding the fact that they are operating on other people's property.

I hope that a high powered attorney will take Douglas County, the sheriff and Enbridge Energy out to the woodshed and give them an ass whoopin.  If the language and tenets of the lease have in fact been changed, it seems that they are in their moral right to refuse to enter into a new agreement, no matter how inexpedient it is for Enbridge. Or the county can aquire the property the old fashioned way, through eminent domain.  Hope the kid can hang on.