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Date: Fri, 24 Oct 1997 03:49:33 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Widow's standoff becomes symbol for anti-government
  groups (fwd)

<snip>
>
>http://www.boston.com/dailynews/wirehtml/295_lr/Widow_s_standoff_becomes_sy
mbol_for.htm
>
>ROBY, Ill. (AP) - To neighbors, 51-year-old Shirley Ann Allen was the
>harmless loner who sometimes talked of spies in helicopters or sprang
>from ditches to surprise people. Outside this rural community, she was
>unknown.
>
>10/22/97 01:11
>
>By Nicole Ziegler, Associated Press, 10/22/97 01:11
>The Boston Globe
>
>
>Widow's standoff becomes symbol for anti-government groups
>
>Associated Press, 10/22/97 01:11 
>
>
>ROBY, Ill. (AP) - To neighbors, 51-year-old Shirley Ann Allen was the
>harmless loner who sometimes talked of spies in helicopters or sprang
>from ditches to surprise people. Outside this rural community, she was
>unknown.
>
>But that was before Allen took up her shotgun and threatened sheriff's
>deputies who were sent to take her away for a court-ordered psychiatric
>exam.
>
>In a standoff that has gone on for a month now, she has fended off a
>tear gas attack by slathering petroleum jelly on her face, withstood
>bean bag bullets by wearing heavy layers of clothing and ignored the
>Barry Manilow songs blared through loudspeakers.
>
>Now, the widow is in the national spotlight, the darling of right-wing
>groups who feel she is the latest example - after Ruby Ridge and Waco -
>of innocent civilians being bullied by overzealous law enforcement.
>
>Radio talk hosts across the nation have used the case to engage callers
>in a debate over property rights, mental health laws and the right to
>bear arms.
>
>``The American people are not going to take this lying down,'' said
>Thomas Wayne, a spokesman for a Michigan-based ``patriot'' group.
>
>Wayne said the woman's cause is compelling because she has not been
>charged with any crime, yet must live under 24-hour surveillance of
>state police.
>
>The standoff began with the court order obtained by Allen's family, who
>had begun to worry about her increasingly bizarre behavior and
>depression since her husband died of cancer in 1989.
>
>Allen holed up in her home in Roby, about 20 miles southeast of
>Springfield, after telling sheriff's deputies and her brother to get off
>her property.
>
>She fired at officers twice during the early days of the standoff, with
>no injuries. The second shotgun blast came after troopers pummeled her
>in the chest with bean bag bullets.
>
>When deputies tried to drive her out with tear gas, she stuck her head
>under running water and used the petroleum jelly to prevent her pores
>from absorbing the gas.
>
>Weary police speculate that the avid canner has enough food in her
>cupboards to last several more weeks.
>
>Allen's family issued a statement last week expressing support for
>police and saying ``we're just trying to get her some help.'' Otherwise,
>they've been quiet.
>
>But as the standoff drags on, sympathies in Allen's wooded neighborhood
>have shifted decidedly in her favor.
>
>Last week, about 150 protesters gathered in the county seat to demand
>police leave Allen alone. Many said it was inhumane for troopers to cut
>off her water and power, particularly as temperatures dropped near
>freezing.
>
>A woman was arrested after she sneaked past police barriers and tried to
>sprint to Allen's door with a bag of groceries.
>
>``It's a surreal experience,'' said Shellie Jacobs, one of Allen's
>neighbors.
>
>Ms. Jacobs, like residents in about a dozen other houses in the wooded
>area, must check in with troopers who have set up roadblocks at the
>entrances to the neighborhood. She must get clearance for visitors, and
>only recently had her family's mail and garbage service restored.
>
>``The other day, my 4-year-old said, `Mommy, when are the policemen
>going to be out of our yard?''' Ms. Jacobs said.
>
>That's a question State Police Director Terrance Gainer gets asked
>almost daily. He insists that the dozens of troopers and hidden tactical
>agents who rotate duty on the 24-hour watch - at a cost to the state of
>almost $500,000 so far - will stay at it until the standoff ends.
>
>Gainer conceded that the waiting game and the criticism are frustrating.
>But he said mental health experts have assured him that this is the way
>to bring the standoff to a peaceful end.
>
>``We are not in this woman's face,'' Gainer said. ``We are there for
>this woman's protection and for the protection of her neighbors.''
>
>© Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company
>
<snip>

===========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris      : Counselor at Law, federal witness 01
B.A.: Political Science, UCLA;   M.S.: Public Administration, U.C.Irvine 02
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_____________________________________: Law is authority in written words 09
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice.  We shall 10
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. 11
======================================================================== 12
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