June 4, 2023 will marked the 19th anniversary of the Killdozer’s rampage through Granby Colorado.
Sit down children’s, and let me tell you a tale, about a reasonable man driven to do unreasonable things. This is the short version of the story. This was a corrupt town with a Boss Hogg style family government installed as a Tyrannical City Council, who was on a mission to make this man’s ( who the family disliked) life miserable.
Marvin Heemeyer was a man who owned a muffler shop in Granby Colorado. The city council agreed to approve the construction of a concrete factory in the lot across from Marvin’s shop. During this process, the only access to the road for his muffler shop was Ling term blocked. Marvin petitioned to stop the construction to no avail. Petitioned to construct a new access road, and even bought the heavy machinery to do so himself. All Denied!
The concrete factory (family relationship to City Concil Members, went up in disregard to the ramifications on Marvin’s business. To add insult to injury, the factory construction “accidentally” disconnected the muffler shop from the city sewage lines and the city government chose to fine Marvin for this disconnection to city services.
(Kinda sounds like the FBI on Conservatives)
His business and livelihood were in ruin. Rather than lie down and die, Marvin chose to fight back. Over the course of a year and a half Marvin secretly outfitted the bulldozer he bought to save his business with three inch thick steel and concrete armor, camera systems guarded with bulletproof glass.
On June 4, 2004, Marvin Heemeyer lowered the armored shell over top of himself, entombing himself inside the Killdozer to make his last stand. He burst forth from the walls of his muffler shop and straight into the concrete factory that ruined his business. Over the course of the next several hours Marvin drove his Killdozer through 13 buildings owned by those officials that had wronged him, including the city council building itself.
Swat teams swarmed the dozer, but it proved immune to small arms fire and even explosives. Another piece of heavy machinery was even brought out to fight the Killdozer, but it too fell to the dozers righteous fury.
In the end, Marvin’s Killdozer became trapped in one of the buildings it was built to destroy. Marvin chose to take his life, the only life he took that day.
I chose to celebrate Killdozer day and Marvin Heemeyer, the last great American folk hero. For over a year and a half, a tyrannical local government toyed a man the committee’s family membership tried to the brink of suicide. A man driven to the brink who chose to fight back against an indifferent system by taking away the property of those who took his away.
From notes left behind after his passing:
“I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things.“
When injustice becomes the law, resistance becomes duty. Stop living under tyranny and do something about it. Marvin lost his life because of Tyranny, but nearly 20 years later we still tell his story.
