WANTED: True stories about Matty Moroun
Please post them on my Comments section or send to joelthurtell(at)gmail.com.
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By Joel Thurtell
I lost Round One of my bout with Matty Moroun.
The billionaire bridge and trucking magnate had me escaping from a public park where I was quietly
Entrance to City of Detroit boat launch seized by Ambassador Bridge magnate Matty Moroun. Warning sign is bogus -- city officials say Moroun has no authority from the Department of Homeland Security to take over the boat ramp. Joel Thurtell photo.
trying to take pictures and wound up being chased out by a shotgun-toting goon employed by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun.
My original goal was to look at and photograph a City of Detroit boat ramp I’d heard was blocked by good ol’ Matty with a phony claim of federal Homeland Security authority.
Next day, I learned that Homeland Security never gave Moroun authority to block the ramp, or to seize part of Detroit’s public Riverside Park and Riverside Extension. So I’m told by city officials.
Matty just made some threatening signs, put them on chain link fences and sealed off sections of the park, including what once was a set of basketball courts in Riverside Park Extension at 23rd Street a block south of Fort.
Warning signs like this one at Riverside Park boat launch and others at Riverside Extension Park were not authorized by federal government, I'm told. Joel Thurtell photo.
In fact, the reason Riverside Extension looks so small is that Moroun is using the basketball courts to store building materials for his bridge expansion.
Squatters’ rights.
What a guy! Has a huge fortune and still needs to pilfer a public park from cash-strapped Detroit.
I also learned that Moroun’s guards have ejected at least one city recreation worker twice from the same park — nearby Riverside Extension — where a shotgun-armed guard named “Doug” ordered me out on Monday, September 22, 2008.
After “Doug” ordered me to wait so a Border Patrol officer could interrogate me, I left, despite the guard’s feeble try at blocking my car with his company pickup on city property.
With better directions, I found the boat ramp the next day, Tuesday, September 23, 2008. I confirmed that the boat launch area has been padlocked at two spots, and one of Moroun’s bogus Homeland
Padlock reportedly placed by Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun on City of Detroit gate to Riverside Park's public boat launch. Joel Thurtell photo.
Security signs has been attached to a gate.
I understand city lawyers are thinking of suing Moroun to open the park and put that boat ramp back into operation.
Well, maybe sue him for damages, sure. Sue him to pay for repairing the park and replacing basketball courts and other equipment he trampled on.
But wait a minute — sue him to take back the city’s own park?
Come on!
Did Matty sue the city to steal the park?
Hell, no.
He just ordered his lackeys to build fences, make ersatz signs and start dumping gravel and concrete on the city park. Anybody who comes close, even on park land, gets bullied off public land.
Why go to court?
Give Matty the bum’s rush: Send a city work crew with bulldozers and dump trucks to tear down the fences and clear out the construction crap. Assign a couple dozen Special Weapons And Tactics cops with heavy artillery to guard the workers. Open up the boat ramp and invite people to bring their boats.
Ambassador Bridge seen from Detroit's public Riverside Park. Joel Thurtell photo.
I’ll bring my boat. I’d be honored to launch the “Slick” at Riverside Park.
Then assign police to keep an eye on the park. If Matty tries to retake it, to close the ramp, to bring his crud back, why, just send a SWAT team in to push his bully boys out.
Believe me, Doug and his gunslinger pals would wilt at the first sign the city means business.
Drop me a line at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
Strong follow-up, Joel On A Roll. Also cross-posted at detroityes.com, where outrage is simmering . . . as you know.
Time for our new mayor, whose family didn’t get MM campaign $, to take a Reaganesque stance:
“Mr. Moroun, tear down this fence!”
Bring your lock bolt cutter to cut this illegal padlock on our Riverside Park Boat Launch area; this our City Park not privately owned by the Ambassador Bridge Co.
Also, it is well past time that the City of Detroit Law Dept. move forward with their appeal to the higher courts to rule that the Ambassador Bridge is a private company. They are concerned only for their private welfare and NOT a federal instrumentality and are not concerned for the public welfare, our SWD community’s welfare, our City, our State, our Country!!! Now that Kwame’s corrupt Administration is gone (though not completely because some of his appointees are still in place and some of his people became City of Detroit Civil Servants….BEWARE!
The other day I was trying to find a way to turn around in the North bound I 75 ramp to go towards Detroit Flint I was then ushhered into the Canadian Exit with out the right to turn around and to stay into my country the USA. I was then informed that I had to travel over the Ambassador Bridge to go to Canada. I was literally forced to go to Canada over the Ambassador Bride and pay the $4.00 toll. As soon as i made it into Canada I imediately turned around and turned back to the US entrance went over the Ambassador bridge and entered the US boarder patrol and I told the officer what had happened. He told me that I should get a hold of a n attorney and sue the Ambassador bridge Company. He said it was a violation of my Civil rights to have to leave the Country by the Ambassador Bridge Company.
I told everyone that I did not want to go to Canada. I wanted to go back to I 75 North to get back home. There was no turn around lane to stay in the US. I wonder how many other people have had to make that mistake and how much money the Ambassador bridge has profited by that one mistake alone. It cost me time and money to make that certain error. Once you get into that lane there is no turn around point and therefore you are forced by the police and everyone else to move across that bridge and pay the toll.
Thanking God I had a passport and didn’t have much of a problem getting back to the US. My question is. Is this a huge Civil Suit as the Border Patrol Officer told me. He told me to get a hold of an attorney who would handle my case right a way. He said he wasn’t joking.