Illinois Siege Ends; Woman Institutionalized

• The six-week siege of an Illinois woman by state troopers has once again raised serious questions about government tyranny in the United States.

The reason for the Shirley Allen siege was that her brother has claimed she needs a mental health evaluation. Judge David Slater ordered a psychiatric examination, and police tried to take her involuntarily through force of arms and through the connivance of a group of relatives who claim she is mentally ill.

Many in the national media picked up on the claims of mental illness, but conveniently left out the fact that Mrs. Allen owns 47 acres of land with a pair of oil wells (SPOTLIGHT, October 20).

If Mrs. Allen is declared incompetent, these assets would more than likely go to the family.

Evidently, Mrs Allen claimed someone was 'directing radar waves" at her. This may not be as irrational as it sounds, in view of the reported use of Extra-Low Frequency (ELF) electro-magnetic waves, attuned to human brain waves, that can induce visual and auditory hallucinations.

When the sheriff's deputies came ot take her, she refused to go. Tear gas was fired through the windows at her. She fired back with a shotgun blast over their heads, and no one was injured.

The state police were then called, and the siege was begun on September 22. At one point, a police dog was sent in after her, and it came yelping back out with a bullet hole through its muzzle.

UNWARRANTED ATTACK

What we are seeing here is an unwarranted attack by state police forces against a citizen with an exemplary record, who has never committed a crime against society.

Mrs Allen is a 51-year-=old widow who the police deprived of water plumbing, food, electricity, heat and a clean environment free of disease and with proper sewage disposal.

Such deprivation constitutes a serious threat to her health that is not justified by law, since Mrs Allen has not been adjudged a criminal and has not been diagnosed by competent psychiatric authority as mentally ill. She has not been a demonstrable threat to her neighbors, and is almost universally respected as an upstanding citizen.

The Fourth, Fifth and Thirteenth amendments to the Constitution forbid deprival of liberty without due process of law. It has never been demonstrated that prior to the arrival of the police Mrs. Allen had ever committed a crime. She had never been shown to be a danger to herself or others.

TYRANNY

So what are we witnessing here? This is another act of tyranny perpetrated against an innocent citizen, much like what occurred at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

This act would not be possible were it not at least tacitly sanctioned by state authority. This situation is of grave concern to all Americans, especially following the atrocities at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

The governor refused to defuse this situation in accordance with constitutional law, as the protector of the sovereign rights of the people of the state of Illinois.

The siege lasted for six weeks, and ended when, after no water of food for three days, Shirley came out of her house to the front porch, where a state trooper fired hard rubber bullets at her and knocked her unconscious. That was October 30. She was then carried to an ambulance and taken to a psychiatric hospital, all without due process of law.

She was neither provided an attorney prior to commitment, nor granted a hearing to present her side.

Americans have stood by and seen this courageous woman tyrannized, and possibly injured or killed as she was forced out of her home.

The flames of liberty are banked now, and the coals glow dimly in the ashes of this once-glorious republic. But I would suspect that, sooner than some of us think, this spirit of freedom will once again rouse from slumber, and then it will arise in fury like a pillar of fire that is fed by an unquenchable flame.

We cannot -- we must not -- let freedom die. In the words of that great patriot, Sam Adams: "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animation contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget ye ware our countrymen.

Byron T. Weeks is a retired reserve colonel USAF, MC. He resides in Idaho Falls, Idaho.