The Blaze – by Erica RitzA New Jersey mother was arrested and told to turn over her guns after reading the Constitution and peacefully protesting at a tax dispute forum, she says.
Eileen Hart was with her husband Keith and her 7-year-old daughter on Saturday at the Gloucester Community Center to dispute a mandatory home re-evaluation that would roughly double her property value (and therefore dramatically increase her rates), objecting on multiple grounds. As an Orthodox Jew, she refused to have the inspectors in her home when her husband was away at work. As an American citizen, she objected to the seemingly arbitrary reappraisal, noting that she is not planning on selling her home and hasn’t renovated her kitchen in 30 years.
But at the forum, Hart was allegedly told that since she didn’t let the inspectors into her home, they had a right to “assume” its value under the New Jersey state constitution.
“How could they assume that my value had doubled when there is absolutely no housing market?” she asked TheBlaze rhetorically over the phone. “There is basically no GDP growth.”
After Hart started citing the Constitution, a representative of Appraisal Systems, Inc.– the company contracted by the state to conduct appraisals– started “freaking out,” she said, and called for Gloucester County tax assessor Robyn Glocker-Hammond.
“Sit down and shut up,” Hart said Glocker-Hammond told her, adding that she (Glocker-Hammond) was there to “enforce the law.”
“I didn’t see a badge,” Hart noted. “Her title is tax assessor, not law enforcement officer.”
Glocker-Hammond started speaking to Hart’s husband like a “two-year-old,” Hart claimed, and after she objected, Glocker-Hammond once again told her to be quiet.
“I have a right to speak out against this, this is a public place, my tax dollars pay your salary,” Hart told the tax assessor, already incredulous at the drastic increase in her rates.
“I don’t work for you,” the assessor allegedly retorted.
At that point, Appraisal Systems, Inc. representative Andrew Colavecchio started advancing towards her, she said, like he was about to grab her arm. “Don’t you dare touch me,” she said after he allegedly got so close he touched her coat.
Glocker-Hammond then told her she had to leave the public forum and threatened to call the authorities, though Hart swears she never cursed or acted inappropriately.
That’s when things got serious.
As Hart left the building she saw Colavecchio “sneering” at her and said to him in passing, “look at the little pencil-pusher.”
Hart said Colavecchio threatened to call 911 and “ran after us in the parking lot like a banshee, his face was purple, [he was] disheveled, [he] started to take down my license plate and ran off. When he got to the doors of the building he screamed at us, ‘let’s see if you can pay your taxes now!’”
Much to her surprise, Hart returned home to numerous police cars, the officers asking if they could bring her in for questioning even though they did not have a warrant. She was not allowed to drive behind with her husband, but was forced to ride in the police vehicle.
Colavecchio had apparently told the police that Hart was “yelling and screaming” and threatened to return to the meeting with a gun.
Here’s a copy of the police complaint:
But Hart told TheBlaze: “I did not use one curse word, I didn’t say the word gun, I didn’t swear, none of that. I aired my grievances in a public place to [tell] the government that I did not agree with what they were doing to me or to anybody else.”
Hart said she was doubly surprised when, instead of getting her side of the story, police handcuffed her to a chair and charged her with “terroristic threats.”
She told TheBlaze with conviction:
“I have a 7-year-old daughter, I homeschool her. I would never risk going to prison for the rest of my life and lose everything. I have no criminal history, I have no history of drug abuse, no history of alcohol abuse, I have no history of mental illness, I have never committed a crime a day in my life. And because I used my First Amendment right I was arrested for it.”
After trying to “coerce” her into making a statement along the lines of “what he thinks happened,” Hart said the police sergeant informed her that if she didn’t turn over her firearms for “safe keeping,” her bail would be set prohibitively high and it was unclear how long she would have to remain in custody.
“[So I] sit in jail and my daughter doesn’t have a mother…?” she asked TheBlaze, implying that she didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
Hart turned over her two firearms and associated equipment, and was told that she’ll get them back “when this is all over.”
Hart says she has hired a “fantastic” attorney to fight the claims, and he’ll likely reach out to the other meeting attendees to corroborate her story. The group was small, so presumably someone would recall a raving woman threatening to return with a gun.
But the county’s public information officer Deb Sellitto told TheBlaze in an email, without any specifics, that Ms. Glocker-Hammond “has never experienced this type of extreme behavior from a taxpayer.”
She added that the Appraisal Systems, Inc. representative is the one who actually called police, though, because “he perceived the resident’s statements as a threat.”
Hart is deeply distressed by the entire situation.
The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Hart says she can’t help but recall the “massive gun registration [and] invasion of private property” that occurred when Hitler invaded Poland.
“If quoting the Constitution makes me a terrorist, we are in Hitler’s America,” she said incredulously.
Andrew Colavecchio of Appraisal Systems, Inc. has not responded to TheBlaze’s request for comment, and the company’s CEO Ernest Del Gurecio told us they plan to wait for all the facts before making a statement.
WOW!! Talk about using an incident to take someone’s guns. This had NOTHING to do with guns and all just a power grab by the tax department.
“I don’t work for you”, he says? Are you F**KING KIDDING ME??? Do they even know what they are doing? And he gets all scared about the Constitution? UNBELIEVABLE!!! ALL OF THEM ARE A BUNCH OF LOW LIFE CRIMINALS WHO MUST BE PUT AWAY AND TRIED FOR TREASON!! And the cops, well, they can go F**K themselves. I wouldn’t even go unless they have a warrant. THIS IS BULLSHIT!! Man I can’t wait for the day these bastards are put in their place. This makes me sick!
Terroristic threats? BAHAHAAHA!!!! ARE YOU F**KING KIDDING ME??? Where do these cops get their stories?? Unbelievable! The cops are totally working for the tax assessor. No doubt. That tax assessor is one sick power-hungry son of a bitch who needs to be put in his place. We are truly living in Hitler’s world like she says. Good for the woman for standing up to all of this. More people should do the same.
The biggest problem here is not even the event at hand but the tax itself. Property tax is the most insidious tax. It is contrary to everything American and traditional Western European common law. As more people become financially strapped, and as more counties and districts demand higher revenue, things are going to get ugly, and fast. No American citizen (or anyone else for that matter) should be coerced to pay a recurring, annual tax on property they already own. Especially his or her home and sanctuary. This has to stop.
My Fellow Patriots,
It has begun. Now the enemy has shown it’s hand! So far they have not gotten the desired response. That response will be the NEW SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD! This is what TPTB want, they intend to cloak their mis-deeds with ” Legitimate” complaints. Far too many sheep will be rudely awakened very soon. I know some of them as do you. These sheep say that the govt will never take our guns, and that we are paranoid.
Well, if I am paranoid then why am I so sure that the war will be a shooting war before the snow outside my window melts. That is cause for concern but I am ready for the ensuing battle. The UN small arms theft talks begin in four days. The treasonous, insurgent government in DC is poised to approve this grab. But, they had hoped to pull our teeth first.
The scum are desperate to force a confrontation in which they think they can defeat the largest disorganized army in the world! They can take their sophisticated weaponry and pack fudge with it. It has been the disorganized armies of the world that have given the Imperialist Socialist Armies the most grief.
Until now they have fought “Cavemen with AK-47’s” Their hubris will cost them. We are AMERICANS, we are born with a can do spirit, we are even more resourceful than our Cavemen brethren half way around the world. Remember, just the other day the SPLC called us “Neanderthals” Cavemen.
So lets build up the campfire and tune up the instruments of war.
LET THE DANCE BEGIN
Rhumstruck (All dressed up and waiting for the dance!)
Amen, Rhummy! I’m with you. Let’s get the show started and blast these bastards six feet into the ground.
I don’t know why she’s so upset, I’ve been told by everyone that you can’t lose money in real estate.
Yes my patience is running thin. I would like to start planting em soon NC! But I am still hoping for the enemy to start shooting first.
@Karen, why do you think that you “own” any property? Don’t you pay rent to the Gov. every year? You don’t own that. Obummer can take it, just look it up.
The DOJ would just love for you to shoot first rhum, the kindest gift you could ever give The Leviathan is justification.
It is important to distinguish corrupt local councils, and their hirelings
from The Feds. Feds are better armed.
Id suggest simply publishing the details of these lowlifes, and hey, sh*t happens…
It really has gotten out of control, this corrupt system is railroading innocent people everyday and we just sit around and say damn thats sorry but it has not happened to me yet. I have had enough of the bullshit and harrassment I am ready to tango down with these assclowns. They are smug doing this shit because they think that us americans “don’t have any balls.” they know they can do it and nothing will stop them because they think we are all “punks” It’s time they fear and respect the [American Eagles]
““If quoting the Constitution makes me a terrorist, we are in Hitler’s America,” she said incredulously.”
I really wish people would STOP using the fallacious example of Hitler.
She’d have nailed it had she said “Stalin’s America”.
No big surprise here. jews think they are above our laws. Hope they get hammered.