Standoff over eviction notice ends after 29 hours

[proud2BlibKansan]

A standoff between an Overland Park man and authorities ended peacefully this afternoon after nearly 29 hours.

The man, identified as 43-year-old Ian Goldsmith, surrendered about 3 p.m. today at a home in the 8100 block of 144th Place, according to Johnson County Sheriff’s Deputy Tom Erickson.

Deputies said they tried to serve a foreclosure eviction order to Goldsmith about 10:30 a.m. Friday, but he locked himself inside the home. Officers threw cans of a kind of pepper gas into the home, but he showed no sign of leaving as the hours passed.

Officers were finally able to establish contact with Goldsmith this afternoon and were able to talk him out of the house, Erickson said. He was taken into custody and is expected to make his first court appearance Monday.

Erickson thanked neighbors who were inconvenienced during the lengthy standoff. Those living closest to the house were evacuated, and others were not able to drive to their homes. But Erickson said the neighbors were gracious and cooperative and even made sandwiches for the officers.



Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/18/2233100/standoff-over-eviction-notice.html#ixzz100FzlFns

[Turbineguy]

1. The cost of the operation

would have made his mortgage payments for several years.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I can't help but think of the sheriff in Chicago(?) who is refusing to serve evictions

Meanwhile, this one serves them and the neighbors make sandwiches for the officers.

That is messed up.

[Hannah Bell]

3. +100. where's the push-back? in 1933 they had eviction riots & neighborhood solidarity.

Time probably has cleared the fog of tear-gassed memories along Lardet Avenue of the day more than 75 years ago when several thousand Clevelanders raised their voices and fists in protest of the foreclosures, unemployment and economic ruin sweeping the nation -- problems not unlike today...

At the height of the Great Depression, thousands took to the streets here to protest an eviction, sometimes violently. Now, 75 years later, many of the Depression-era woes that spawned the demonstration have returned. History is repeating itself, but this time with barely a whimper.