By Matt Agorist
Augusta, GA — Nothing dismantles the notion of Land of the Free quite like the government kidnapping and caging you for building an addition to your home on your own property. Amy McKinnon is learning the hard way after she was thrown in jail this month for building an addition for her sick mother without going through the proper extortion channels of the state.
Sadly, her neighbors and the media are actually praising this nonsense as if McKinnon is some kind of criminal.
“Nobody in their right mind would buy something next to a monstrosity like this,” neighbor Don Gilmore told FOX 8 News. “Obviously, it’s an eyesore and it sticks out because it doesn’t belong here.”
Don is referring to the addition in McKinnon’s backyard that is on her own property and behind a fence.
McKinnon was arrested because her building size exceeded that of the permit she was forced to acquire through the city.
Code enforcement officials say McKinnon was initially approved for a 562ft2 gazebo, according to FOX 8. However, according to officials, McKinnon’s structure was more than just a gazebo.
“It was between the end of the first phase being approved and the second phase being approved that the inspectors found that this was not at 562ft2 home,” Code Enforcement Manager Terrence Wynder said.
McKinnon, who actually went through the proper channels of extortion and permission to build a structure on her own property, felt she was acting within the confines of the law.
As FOX 8 reports, according to documents from the planning and zoning board meeting, McKinnon said she was told by an inspector that as long as she connected the new structure to her current home, it would be fine. So she decided to go bigger in order to move her sick mother in.
But Wynder said the city never said this, and says they issued McKinnon a ticket for building a structure larger than authorities granted her permission to build.
“We wrote her a citation saying that you have to go to court. You are in violation of the zoning ordinance having two structures on one parcel of land,” says Wynder.
After officials ‘caught’ McKinnon committing the ‘crime’ of building a structure on her own property that they did not approve of, McKinnon was given an ultimatum.
Drastically reduce the size of the structure or demolish the entire thing. Not wanting to throw her hard earned money down the drain because of this tyrannical move by officials, McKinnon refused.
For not demolishing a building on her own property — McKinnon was sentenced to 120 days in a cage.
FOX 8 reports that they hope this is “wake-up call for anyone who is looking for loopholes to get around the law.”
“I want to see this thing come down yesterday!” says Gilmore as he gloats in his ability to use state power to hurt innocent people for doing things on their own property that he disagrees with.
Of course, if McKinnon had done something to harm Gilmore or her other neighbors like burying toxic waste in her backyard, this would not be justified. However, that was not at all the case in this instance. McKinnon is in a jail cell right now for the sole reason that she didn’t pay enough money to the state to do what she wanted on her own property — simple as that.
FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports, Social
Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist. and now on Steemit
Top Image Credit: WFXG
I hate people like Don Gilmore. A petty pathetic ignorant loser. No doubt he’s completely clueless about anything that matters.
This is complete hawg wash. It looks like they are doing a good job and would have been a nice addition to the hood.
Government absurdity. All “hoa’s” are nonsense and should be banned.
Of’ course they are “doing their job”.
I live in a hood where their are no hoa’s and few coding rules and the hood has so many different and unique houses, this brings in a certain quaint type of hamlet and not like the cookie cutters of the current houses built to look like all the others baloney.
I hope Amy’s Mom is “allowed” to move into the addition.
Thumbs down to Don Gilmore and his ilk.
There is good reason for zoning rules. If someone ignores them, they should be held accountable. To make it easier to understand, think of this. You wake up one day, and all of a sudden a Muslim family is building a prayer room in their own yard, just like in this story. Seeing as there are so many islamaphobes, even if this family broke no laws, and even are protected by religious freedom, many neighors would be up in arms!
Yes, because people are too damned selfish to put up a fence to secure their own little world and expect government to serve their every cupcake desire.
then i would have something to blow up
REAL islamaphopia is manifest by muslims who want to kill anyone who disagrees with their pedophilic ideology and any muslim who cheers them on.
Pedophilic? You are a loon. But do you know orthodox rabbis suck the penis after a circumcision?
The guilty dog barked…^^
The issue of local land use ordinances and free ownership of land need to be seriously discussed. The fact that we are forced to rent our own property from the govt undermines freedom. Property should be fee-simple.
MAGA
We are definitely missing information. There is absolutely nothing about violating the administrative codes agreed to when the permit was applied for that can result in jail time. Fines, yeah but not jail. That is the difference between administrative codes and statutory codes (state and local laws) you can only be fined for breaking the contract not jailed– the same as traffic infractions. What are the criminal charges against this woman??? Additionally I would bet you the only signature on the “contract” (permit) is hers. That means it is subject to her interpretation, not some party not a signatory to the contract. Now if the city has a law that 2 structures/homes on the same lot is illegal they can not possibly justify it at the criminal level. I guarantee they cannot prove harm. I guarantee the city cannot show one single incident where they lowered any neighbors property values due to construction on or condition of an adjacent property.
This just another of the tens of thousands of consequences of the whirlwind today’s America is reaping as a
result of the wind sown by the constitutional framers:
“[B]ecause they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law … they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind….” (Hosea 8:1,7)
This would never occur under a biblical government like those in 17th-century Colonial America whose governments of, by, and for God were established upon His unchanging moral law, including His property statutes. One of those statutes prevents one’s property from being taken from him by the government for any reason.
For more on how Yahweh’s immutable moral law applies and should be implemented today, see free online book “Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our Online Books page and scroll down to title.
Then find out how much you REALLY know about the Constitution as compared to the Bible. Take our 10-question Constitution Survey in the right-hand sidebar and receive a complimentary copy of a book that EXAMINES the Constitution by the Bible.
What’s your reference for claiming that the constitutional framers did anything wrong? How did they “transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law…”?
After generations of Americans enjoying liberty and freedom, it’s hard to fault them for drafting the U.S. Constitution.
Grundune is a Mormon who rejects the Christ of the Bible and the Word of God (Psalm 19:7-11; John 1:1-3, 14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 John 1:7-11; etc.) and whose Doctrine and Covenants demand he defend the Constitution as divinely inspired (D&C 101:80, etc.), much the same as with the Book of Mormon. He knows if the Constitution is exposed for the biblically seditious document it is, that the entire Mormon house of cards comes tumbling down.
He also rejects that Christ is our (ONLY) King now, despite a plethora of New Testament passages that prove otherwise. See blog article “The Kingdom is Not of the World But in the World.” Click on my name, then our website. Go to our Blog and search on title.
Tragically, many Christians are more inclined to follow Doctrine and Covenants than they are the Bible when it comes to the Constitution.
Grundune knows all too well why I don’t respond to him directly. When he first began responding to my posts, I treated him as someone who honestly disagreed with me, which is his or anyone’s prerogative. However, it quickly became evident I was dealing with fool who had no compunction about libeling me (e.g., accusing me of being financed by George Soros). Thus, in hopes he might yet repent, I responded to him in obedience to Proverbs 26:5.
But you can deal with a “tar baby” only so long without getting “tar” all over you (just like brer Rabbit did). Thus, the point came when it became apparent that I needed to take my marching orders from Proverbs 26:4 and Matthew 7:6.
Below is a personal attack on Grundune who has asked a valid question and voiced his opinion. Why won’t Ted R. Weiland respond to the question and the comment other than with an ad hominem attack?
I’m kinda torn in 2 ways on this…..not much one can do about the local draconian zoning laws and restrictions and there are consequences for non-compiance, BUT this lady should have never been incarcerated, period!
On that note- maybe someone who knows how can start a Go-Fund-Me page for her!
GoFundMe will absolutely never allow any funding opportunity if jail is involved in any way. It’s against their rules no matter what. Difficult to imagine why since they are grabbing more than 10% of any monies donated. I agree with you and others that this should never be the basis for jailing anyone. They go to court and get injunctive relief requiring tear down. End of story, even if the reason for the tear down is despicable. The manner in which people with nothing better to do have taken to abusing and misusing official power makes most reasonable people want to move to a place with fewer souls.
Thanks for the heads-up. I wasn’t aware that GoFundMe would refuse to help those who are wrongfully-incarcerated, but now I know.
Yes, GoFundMe will absolutely not help anyone who has been unjustly accused, incarcerated or otherwise caught up in the corrupt criminal justice system. And, they are arrogant in their refusal to do so. Horrible people.
Why didn’t she just attach it to her home in the first place instead of making it a separate building? Duh? Also what was the reason to NOT house her mother in her home? Looks big enough….why a separate building? Nothing makes any sense here.
Nothing makes sense about your comment.
This clearly proves the Deed is not full lawful ownership/control of the land/buildings. If it were, she would not have been offered the contract of jail.
Fascism writ large! No other nation jails people for library fines either.
‘Planning’ departments (American Planning Association) was highjacked in the early ’90s as a way to insidiously impose the land use / housing / property rights tenets of UN Agenda 21.
This is why private property rights have been so molested.