My friend Martin Wirth made the news yesterday trying to protect his Bailey Colorado home from a predatory mortgage company. Today he is dead and I can’t say I believe this is what he intended. He took a sheriff’s deputy with him, and he wounded two more, but I don’t believe Martin intended that either. At this point we know only law enforcement’s side of the story so it’s too early to give Martin credit or blame. RIP everyone, victims all.
I do know Martin was served an eviction notice and that he intended to resist it. He was waging the fight in court. Two years ago he hoped to deter an eviction by sheer number of allies camped on his lawn. It would have achieved only a stay, but a symbolic victory is the best you can hope for in a political battle.
Alone with a rifle, I think Martin meant to have a western standoff, as pure a demonstration of why Americans have the 2nd Amendment, to protect your home from the bad guys, often the armed proxies of the state.
Let’s say that’s what Martin had in mind. Do you not suppose that he was a surprised as you and I that the Sheriff’s deputies would open fire? That they’d kill him, over a house?
He’d be in trouble enough just brandishing a gun. You’d think the state would be satisfied to jail a person for that. It gets him out of the house.
According to reports, the sheriff’s deputies anticipated resistance. They sent eight deputies to take Martin’s house.
In Colorado we’ve seen law officers show up in combat gear to enforce an eviction. They carried assault rifles among other scary weapons, which most assumed were worn for deterrence. After all, recalcitrant evictees can be arrested enroute to the grocery store or to check their mail without the need for a military assault.
In Bailey Colorado apparently everyone is in a big hurry to shut up the loudmouth. Martin Wirth was an Occupy Denver activist and a Green Party candidate for the state senate. In the last election he won 25% of the vote. No good letting Martin Wirth get that far this year.
In life, Martin was probably a kinder, compassionate, more thoughtful variety of western archetype. In death, he was cinematic. Typical of the western archetype he will be both vilified and honored.