This is one of those stories that often never makes it to the Front Page of any newspaper or website. It’s a story about Property Rights and Eminent domain. It’s the story of one man who tried to fight back, and sadly it’s the story of a man who lost it all in the process. It’s also a story that can happen to anyone who is reading this article.
The story begins back in 2009 when Andrew Wordes, otherwise known as the Roswell Chicken Man, began his fight to raise chickens on his property. In February 2009, the city of Roswell, GA started to cite Andrew Wordes for raising livestock in his backyard. Wordes, who had started raising chickens on his .97-acre homestead in 2005, decided to fight back. And guess what he won.
But sadly, that’s when the real trouble started:
You see, the story actually has very little to do with chickens. While the city of Roswell, and cities just like it across America, would like people to believe it’s a story about chickens, the real story is about the rights of property owners.
When taking a look at a map that was published back in 2003, as part of Roswell’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan for city improvements, one thing becomes painfully obvious; The city had already planned to take Wordes’ property.
The Map showed that the city had major plans for his property. In fact, his property sat right in the middle of a planned city park. His property was being targeted for “city improvements”, and this fight had nothing to do with chickens. The chickens were really just the catalyst for the city to unlawfully seize his land.
After initially winning his fight in municipal court, the City of Roswell made Wordes life a living hell.
The Harassment Campaign Against Andrew Wordes
On Dec. 14, 2009, the city council approved a new ordinance banning roosters and using lot size to limit how many chickens a resident could keep. Wordes claimed that the harassment started immediately after the meeting when Roswell police ticketed him for no insurance and a number of other moving violations.
- In September of 2010, Roswell prosecuted Wordes under the new ordinance claiming he had too many birds for his lot size. The judge found him not guilty since he had the chickens before the ordinance became law.
- In September of 2010, he was convicted of grading sediment on his land without a permit and having inoperable vehicles in his yard. He was sentenced to community service.
- In November of 2010, code enforcement served Wordes with a nuisance citation.
- After winning twice in court against the city, the county then got involved and actually cited him for “not properly stacking his firewood.”
- In 2011, the 84-year-old women who held Mr. Wordes’ mortgage was harassed by the city into selling Wordes mortgage for forty cents on the dollar. The city then began the foreclosure process.
- While in the process of trying to save his home, Andrew Wordes was arrested by Roswell Police on the day that he was to bring paperwork that would’ve delayed his bankruptcy and the foreclosure on his home.
- Wordes was jailed for violating his probation after the city claimed he only served 122 of the 150 hours of community service that he had been ordered to serve. He then served 99 days in jail.
After his release, he placed a sign on his property that read “Trespassers will be construed as a bodily threat” and then waited for authorities to arrive and remove him.
On Monday at 10:45 a.m. Marshalls arrived at the home. After a two-hour standoff, Wordes advised the Marshall that they needed to immediately leave the property. That’s when the explosion happened. After years of battling for his right to keep his land, Wordes finally had enough.
On a website dedicated to Andrew Wordes, one of his friends wrote:
We all lost a little something today. Andrew was a man of faith, with a strong love for God. He was a staunch Constitutionalist with a passion for our freedoms and liberties.
You pushed Mr. Wordes to this point. You marched around Roswell bashing Andrew, annihilating his character, marking him as crazy and filing lawsuits whenever you could, bankrupting him and denying him rights given to property owners in the United States.
Andrew fought the good fight, not just for himself but for others because he knew it could happen to anyone. And it is. Eminent domain is being abused all over our country, just look it up. Communities are plagued with repeated abuses of the use of eminent domain. It’s tragic and your neighborhood could be next. Andrew fought to his last breath, for himself, for me, for you. In his mind, he went on his terms. Right out of Atlas Shrugged. Andrew is at peace now but it’s not over.
The sad truth about this story is its 100% true.
It’s also not an isolated incident.
From the Federal Government seizing property because of “environmental regulations”, to local municipalities who use code enforcement agents codes to intimidate people into giving up their land, we have a huge problem in this country. Our property rights are being shredded before our eyes, and it’s only a matter of time before this story becomes an everyday occurrence.
The Chicken Man, Andrew Wordes, in his own words from an interview he gave last month on the Rusty Humphries show.
I live in Sandy Springs and they have been doing the same thing to me. I own one of the older homes, and all of the homes around me are new, so I guess they want me to leave. BULL SHIT!!!!!
About the older home and eminant domain, get a copy of the book Little Pink House. Results may help you.
It just might be time to fight fire with fire…. literally. Reason and the Constitution mean nothing anymore so the next step is physical action. The government goons keep pushing and one day SOON a LOT of them will be leaving families behind. This will be happening all over the country.
Yes…this can, and does happen to anyone , anywhere here in the US. People like to continue to say this is a free country…it is free for the individual as far as the state/Fed let you be free. Your freedon stops at their whim
The question is:
Where were his neighbors, his family and his friends? It is imperative that we all think about this very very carefully. He may not have died had he not been alone.
The police, council and all involved should be jailed. They should hang their heads in shame and not expect to meet God when they finally drop their sad selves off the planet. Hell is too good for them…
The sad part is this mans death helped the city/states cause. Im sure with him out of the way they’ve already moved forward on the park. (only speculation) damn shame man
Wow, please go back on your meds…
Remember growing up and being told about those “evil” governments all over the planet?
We were told that only “evil” governments control everybody’s property.
Well, its all happening right here now – isn’t it?
Being that this happened in the south and has been going on for over a decade, I don’t think you can blame Obama. There are almost no democrats in power in GA.
And certainly not in Roswell – Liberals, Democrats and Yankees need not apply
People who write that this is an issue of political party have no idea of what is actually happening. This is about power, it’s abuse and abdication.
I really feel for this man, was he supposed to starve to death? seems to me He was trying to be self-sufficient raising his own animals to survive… I dont think he could have made it after being retired, still paying a mortgage, property taxes, bills, malicious tickets n citations, court costs!!! Shame on the government officials who hide behind the country’s real state laws, wrongfully enforcing them, driving good people like Mr. Wordes to the extreme and taking matters in to his own hands to defend his rights since going to court and winning did him no good!
This country is definitely not the land of the free any more, and please dont blame Obama, this shit has been going on way before he was even born…
We have let our government have too much power to the point where we, the people who elect our officials ( WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT US…) have no say at all.
THEY DON’T REGULATE US, THEY OWN US!!!!!!!!!!
The government wants to own everything but they don’t realize that when they own everything they lose because
We import more than we export are the major export is grain
We can’t pay taxes when no one has money
So sad. Every single one of those involved in this situation deserves to be strung up front he highest tree as a warning to others.
This is,indeed,a travesty. Folks, we are gulag bound. Until American citizens are willing to educate themselves about U.N. Agenda21 and actively work to remove it from our local and state governments, the death knell of liberty will continue toll. I agree with the earlier post. His blood is on the hands of the city of Roswell and they should be sued by his family and criminally charged!
I hope they name the memorial park after him so everyone remembers this park is a memorial to the death of property rights.
I’m from Roswell and that town is full of “small town” wanna be “big city” politicians, city officials, and law enforcement. They run around town in blacked out cars and suv’s, dress and act like para-military thugs.Even the city health inspectors wear black fatigues and carry guns… it’s dangerously cartoonish!
Are Roswellians just going to sit back and take this kind of shit?
so very strange sucess geographics rosswell
very strange these events
Honestly, if I were in his shoes I wouldn’t have just made an explosion, I would have figured out how to make the land 100% toxic for them to even try to use it. Screw eminent domain, it’s my land and I’ve paid for it; if you want to give me pennies for what it’s worth, I’ll make it worth pennies.
Exactly! Make it such a toxic wasteland that it would cost them more to use it than it would to put the park elsewhere. I battled a county and won so they passed an ordinance and came after me again. I was already grandfathered in. They had to pay my lawyer and all costs twice. I moved to another state and had to battle the county there too and won, sost them $20K in legal fees. I live off-grid and nobody will ever dictate to me how I choose to live on my land. I use my second ammendment rights to defend the rest of my rights. The constitution applies on my land, and no bureaucrat at any level has the authority to infringe on that. I devoted the majority of my life to defending this country from all threats, foreign and domestic, and swore an oath to defend the constitution. That oath is binding for life!
Vote Ron Paul, it’s the only SANE choice for 2012
Why do so many of you attack each other over politics? There are many things that have gone wrong and the solutions are unclear except that they will only come when we band together.