Eminent Domain and The Village Tyrant

By Spun Counterguy on February 24, 2014

(‘Chai’ art by Huxley King)

Imagine if the mayor of your town was blackmailing you for money or your property. And if you refused him, he only had to spray paint a symbol on your house, which would assure that it would be demolished. This may seem like a scenario from the Wild Wild West but since 2005’s Kelo v. City of New London where the United States Supreme Court deemed it was acceptable for the government to give one person’s property to another for the ‘public good’, maybe the seeds for this kind of abuse of power are there.

Regardless, one place where this type of injustice happens constantly is China. So for this episode of In the corner, back by the woodpile podcast, we chat with a Chinese national whom grew up in such a situation. ‘Peter’ explains how his village mayor ruined the lives of local farmers to increase his own wealth and how this tyrant was eventually brought down.