The “South Dakota Property Rights” group is on the Internet encouraging people to attend their rally tomorrow at the Capitol claiming that “individual rights are being taken by wealthy corporations.” But it’s hard to get past a few self-interested facts of the matter, as they relate to the people behind the rally.
The South Dakota Property Rights group write on their website that they are going to the legislative session in Pierre this year, with the group’s primary contact is Jared Bossly – a farmer who was involved in some trouble early last year, but really doesn’t talk about it much on the group’s website.. nor does he really mention it in his press junkets.
Bossly was in the news this last May, after Summit Carbon Solutions attempted to survey his land among others, with Summit having to go so far as to seek a court order last April to be able to conduct their surveys. What happened when they attempted to do so? As the Argus Leader related..
Bossly’s wife allegedly replied they were “not wanted here” and informed them her husband was on his way to the site, according to the affidavits.
and..
After the lead surveyor told Bossly he would ensure they clean up after themselves, the farmer allegedly responded, “when I get there, I’m killing the first person I see.”
The lead surveyor then asked Bossly’s wife if they could complete the surveys. Bossly’s wife did not answer the question and instead repeated that her husband was on her way to the site.
Upon hearing this, the surveyors left Bossly’s property without completing the surveys and have not returned “due to his threat that he would kill us,” the affidavits state.
and..
Bossly claimed to have video of the Summit Carbon crews stepping into his shop. He later equated the surveyor’s attempts to reach Bossly by knocking on doors around his property and the alleged entering of his shop to “trespassing/breaking and entering.”
Read that here.
2023-05-17 Aff-Affidavit Declaration of Dominique Salgado by Pat Powers on Scribd
Both sides found themselves in front of a judge as a result of Bossly failing to honor the court order, and as alleged by the surveyors as they filed in their affidavit (one of which is above), their claim of his threat to kill them. According to the transcript of the hearing held in the matter..
06civ22-000253_transcript of Motion Hearing by Pat Powers on Scribd
While the judge ultimately decided he wasn’t going to rule on Summit’s request to hold Bossly in contempt, he did have some commentary that offered some insight about how he viewed what happened (Page 21).
So don’t do something foolish that’s going to get somebody hurt. That goes for both sides. The surveyors — obviously, I don’t know who they are. There’s been no other allegations made to me that they’ve walked in anybody else’s house. I find that hard to believe, quite frankly.
Having to be threatened with contempt of court and allegations of threatening to kill people trying to do their job probably won’t be considered worthy of mention at tomorrow’s rally. Nor will the fact that he had to be told by a judge “don’t do something foolish that’s going to get somebody hurt.” And it didn’t seem like he believed the Bossly side of the tale.
Something that also seems to be quiet about the group’s activities is the fact that the South Dakota Property Rights group is not organized as a charitable or non-profit group. If you look at the bottom of their website…
… while they don’t advertise it on the flyers and on-line posters they distribute to the media, we see their official title and organization is “South Dakota Property Rights PAC.” As in Political Action Committee. Interestingly, the group has filed their year end campaign finance report..
Sd Property Rights Pac SDCF Disclosure by Pat Powers on Scribd
..which shows us their largest donor ($10k) comes out of Texas, and they’re spending tens of thousands on advertising, and another $2500 on consulting. And all of their propaganda seems to be funded by only about 25 people.
More things that probably won’t make the podium.
Finally, as some of the parties opposing the carbon capture pipelines are complaining that they don’t appreciate being portrayed as opposing ethanol…
South Dakota Farmers Union President Doug Sombke says members feel betrayed.
and..
Sombke says he’s furious at farmers being called anti-ethanol.
Read that here.
It’s worth noting that while most of the opponents are complaining about being portrayed as being anti-ethanol.. the head of the South Dakota Property Rights PAC isn’t complaining. Because he wants them to produce something entirely different..
Landowners held a meeting Wednesday at the Ramkota in Aberdeen. Brown County landowner Jared Bossly told the gathering about the importance of methanol.
and..
Bossly talks about methanol can be used for such things as jet fuel.
Read it here.
Admonishments from the judge over threats, running a political action committee funded by a small group, and abandoning ethanol entirely.
Three things that you probably won’t hear about in the Property Rights PAC rally tomorrow.
They recognized the first name.. but when it came to the other one..
