The Bug Bomber

October 1st, 2003 · Post your comment (No Comments)

WASHINGTON — The White working class tobacco farmer Mr. Dwight Watson whose protest on the National Mall in Washington D.C. caused much excitement and massive gridlock during a 47-hour siege in the United States capital last March, was convicted Friday of two federal felony charges.

Dwight drove his tractor waving a large upside down American flag across Constitution Gardens onto a small island in a shallow pond between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. It was covered on National and International television stations world-wide. His protest — which he had a permit to demonstrate against Government tobacco policies which had ruined him financially — triggered a 47-hour standoff with police that led to huge media coverage.

This protest, unlike may other anti-American corporate government protests since the Patriot Act was instated as law, recieved much media attention. The Tractor Protest as it has become commonly called recieved a lot of television air time and media coverage which sent his strong anti-corporate American government message to the masses.

Dwight is obviously a proud American who supports our troops because written across the front of his tractor were the words,” SALUTE TO VETERANS.” and “GOD BLESS THE TROOPS.” His protest was against the corrupt United States governing systems and NOT against America or our troops. Important Note: An upside down American flag is a distress signal. See the United States of America National Boy Scout Manual. Certainly at this time America IS in distress.

Mr. Watson, whose 51st birthday is on Sunday, had testified in court that he had merely engaged in civil disobedience and that he had told police he had an “organophosphate bomb” in a box. Watson, talked with police by cell phone during the standoff. Police ignorance mistook his statement to mean he had an explosive, which he had not. For two days, Watson held police at bay with what were two aerosol cans of Raid insecticide i.e. organophosphate bug bombs. He had purchased the bug bombs at a store in Rocky Mount, N.C., before making the 10-hour journey to Washington.

His conversations with police officials over the phone were tape-recorded and played for the jury. In one conversation, Watson, a veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division, told a Park Police sergeant that he wanted to talk with former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. “He’s my hero,” Watson declared. “He’s a Navy SEAL. . . . But I’ve got to talk to him on national TV live.” In another phone conversation, Watson told Park Police Sgt. Kathleen Harasek, a negotiator: “I’m not going to surrender. I’m not going to be put on my knees. I’m the 82 Airborne, military police, and I’m sorry to have to do this to y’all, but dammit, y’all did it to me.”

Watson a fifth-generation tobacco farmer from Whitakers, N.C., never got to talk with Ventura. He has been in custody since he surrendered March 19th, 2003. He has said he wanted to bring attention to the plight of farmers like himself who are in financial trouble because of United States government policies. Watson also said he wanted to make a public case about the danger of pesticides. His contention in his demonstration at the Mall is that bug bombs are also dangerous to humans. He threatened to set them off into the air if his complaints and protest were not aired on television.

Public statement to the press by Mr. Watson’s attorney,”Organophosphates are not explosives, cans of Raid are not explosives,” Assistant Federal Public Defender Erica Hashimoto had argued in court. “Cans of Raid are bug bombs.”

People need to understand that being a farmer in these days of corporate take-overs is hard. Mr. Dwight Watson is obviously and understandingly a disgruntled tobacco farmer from North Carolina. He was protesting against the U.S. government’s cuts in subsidies to tobacco farmers (Which have gotten worse since the War On Iraq ruined the economy.) making it virtually impossible for him and other farmers to run thier farms.

“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” – Dwight Eisenhower

During Mr. Watson’s protest he was surrounded by 100 officers, some with sniper scopes aimed in his direction. Security forces surrounded the tractor for hours.

Some people are asking: What chance has the US got of catching Ossama Bin Ladden when it cannot get an angry farmer out of a pond?

Watson, who was acting as his own attorney, directed his opening trial remarks to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, saying the charges against him were incorrect and that his rights had been violated by police after his arrest.

Watson decided against continuing to represent himself. He agreed to let Erica J. Hashimoto, a lawyer for the Federal Public Defenders Office who had been aiding him, take over. Hashimoto explained to the court that Watson is someone concerned about the well-being of the public, particularly when it came to pesticides. She told the jury that Watson was concerned that children were getting sick from pesticide products that were being sold beside toys by a major retailer. “Raising awareness of those dangers is not a crime,” she said. She added that he never explicitly used the word “explosives.”

And so, Mr. Dwight Watson, 50, of Whitakers, N.C., a United States Veteran, was convicted of 2 counts; making a false threat to detonate explosives, and of destroying federal property. Each count could carry a prison sentence of as long as 10 years. The jury deliberated barely one hour before reaching its decision. 2003-09-26. Hopefully Mr. Watson will appeal this decision and fight for a lighter sentence.

I say we need more men with the courage and guts to voice protest against our horrendously unfair governing system! Free Dwight Watson now!