H/T Westerly Tea Party, RI
from Letters to the Editor
The Providence Journal
4/2/2010
At one time in this great country, it was illegal to take a person’s property and give it to someone else. I want to report a great crime. This crime was facilitated by the U.S. government, with the help of the U.S. justice system, against its own people.
On May 14, 2009, I received a letter stating I would no longer be a Jeep dealer. This action violated my constitutional rights. For my business to arbitrarily be taken away from me, my employees and my family with no compensation or explanation and then given to my competitors for nothing is unthinkable. The recipients of my Jeep franchise know and have acknowledged that this is wrong. Regardless, they have willingly accepted my stolen franchise. This certainly violates all the laws and principles that America was founded upon.
The crimes I am speaking of are the outright thefts of auto dealerships across America. I am one of the 789 Chrysler dealers robbed in broad daylight by my government.
I rightfully owned and legally operated a third-generation business. I employed 60 tax-paying Americans who played by the rules, came to work every day and contributed to society. As a reward, the government decided that we were no longer needed, no longer wanted and were a worthless burden on Chrysler and our communities.
I cannot disagree more with that perception of us. All of us together, working as a team, managed to earn the highest customer satisfaction in the region. We were the highest-performing dealer in Rhode Island, hands down, but we were somehow the only dealer rejected.
Thousands of hard-working U.S. taxpayers who worked diligently and played by the rules were robbed of their property, pride, credit and dignity. These victims will never receive a dime in restitution. Most will never get their day in court to face the perpetrators who committed these crimes.
Many of the victims lost everything they had worked for their entire lives. The economic impact that this dealership had on the community was enormous. Over $2 million in annual tax revenue will disappear, as will the thousands of vehicles that Tarbox Jeep has sold for Chrysler. Near five generations of customers will be hurt and inconvenienced by our absence.
We need to enforce our Constitution for what it stands for. If this doesn’t happen, I fear what the future holds for all Americans.
Jim Tarbox
North Kingstown, RI
