>http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3239024
>
>FREEPORT (TX) - With Thursday's Supreme Court decision, Freeport
>officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to
>seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River
>from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private
>boat marina.
NetPlanetNews.com
Dateline: Freeport, Texas June 27, 2007
Freeport Police, the Brazoria County Sheriff, and Texas Rangers are considering
asking the FBI and Homeland Security for assistance after a grisly discovery in
Freeport Municipal Park this morning. The bodies of twelve people, three of
them women, were found hanged from tall overhanging branches and lamp posts in
the early morning hours. All had expired. The exact cause of death is still
under investigation.
The city government of Freeport is effectively without leadership, as all the
bodies were identified as members of the city government and staff. Mayor Jim
Phillips, City Manager Ron Bottoms, and Lee Cameron, director of the city's
Economic Development Corp. were among the slain, as were all four council
members.
"Right now we have about a thousand suspects in the area alone," said Sheriff
Joe King. "It was a well-planned and well-executed operation that left no
useful evidence and made very clear the motive for this mass lynching."
The bodies had been completely stripped, the only adornment were placards placed
around the necks of the victims over the noose. Those placards contained the
letterhead of Freeport Marina with various insults included. "Useful Idiot"
adorned the bodies of the Mayor and City Manager. "Horsethief" was placed on
all four councilmen. "Collaborator" was found on three people, two of them
women, identified as attorneys involved in the eminent domain proceedings that
forced the closure of the Western Seafood processing plant and the loss of 300
jobs in the city for the Freeport Marina project.
The marina project was stalled by federal demands for environmental impact
studies soon after the city successfully disallowed over 50% of the petition
signatures that would have forced a referendum on the eminent domain
proceedings. Three of the initial four hotels have pulled out of the project,
citing delays and threats of a national boycott against their chains. Hiram
Walker Royall, the lead figure in the project died in a car crash six months ago
and left the remaining partners squabbling for control. This leaves the
project, and the expected economic improvements on hiatus for the forseeable
future.
"We would like to see this incident classified as a domestic terrorism event," a
spokesman for the Texas Rangers told NetPlanetNews. "This would invoke
provisions of PATRIOT II that would give us free reign to investigate all
suspects, beginning with the 300 former employees of Western Seafood." Under
those provisions, those employees would be placed on a terrorist watch list.
Their last known locations, all vehicles registered in their names and the names
of their families would be included. A mass arrest of all may be considered if
there is no progress on the investigation within a month. "We are placing
everyone on notice that they are suspected and we are watching. Someone will
make a mistake, and we'll be there to take appropriate action."
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Frank Ney N4ZHG WV/EMT-B NRA(L) GOA CCRKBA JPFO ProvNRA LPWV
