Published June 24, 2004, in issue 0325 of The Hook

Although one would never know it from the Hook's coverage ["Quash game: How many subpoenas does a code violation need?" News, June 17], the prosecution of Shirley Presley for fencing her land is merely another episode in the long running campaign to steal her property rights.

The attack on Presley began when a group with no legal standing, but powerful political connections, designated and marked a portion of her property as a public trail without authority or permission. When Presley objected, the city of Charlottesville failed to make any effort to stop the continued trespass. When the trespassers destroyed her initial efforts to block passage through her property, the city ignored that, too, although the destruction and photographs of at least one destroyer were carried in the local press.

It was only when Presley undertook effectual protection of her property that the city intervened. The city chose to enforce an obscure ordinance against Presley while still ignoring the ongoing trespass.

One may reasonably assume that attorney Fred Payne's plethora of subpoenas is aimed at establishing complicity by the city of Charlottesville in the attack on Presley's property rights. I wish him well.

And, as for Presley, after years of persecution with the acquiescence if not collusion of city officials, I would not blame her for installing land mines rather than concertina wire.

Emmett Boaz
Stanardsville

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