Mugged by the State: Outrageous Government Assaults on Ordinary People and Their Property

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895261022 ISBN 13: 9780895261021

Publisher: Regnery Publishing, 2003

Fitzgerald gives a voice to the countless Americans around the country whose freedoms are being violated by the very government that should be protecting them.

From the Inside Flap:

Investigative reporter Randall Fitzgerald has traveled the country meeting ordinary, innocent Americans with horrifying stories of how they have lost their homes, land, businesses, bank accounts, cars, and other assets to federal, state, and local government.

Thanks to out-of-control regulations, property can be seized, impounded, and sold without recompense to the rightful and innocent owner. And as Randall Fitzgerald points out, it could happen to you.

This shocking book reveals:

-How developer Donald Trump used a state agency to try to confiscate a widow's home whose land he coveted for a casino parking lot

-How a family in New York was unable to move into their newly bought house because of a change in the state housing laws, costing them an eight-year battle and $700,000

-How the FDA shut down a Maine fish business because its processing methods were allegedly a life-threatening health hazard-but allowed Canadian firms to sell fish in the United States processed exactly the same way

-How a Utah cattle rancher was threatened with fines after wild birds found nesting on his ranch were thought to be eating an endangered species of snail

-Why few victims contest their treatment (and it's not because they're guilty)

-Proof that enforcement quotas-and fundraising incentives-lead to unjustified property seizures

-How corporate America cuts itself in on the racket

-How to fight back effectively if you or someone you know becomes ensnared in the regulatory spider web

Randall Fitzgerald chronicles a clear and disturbing pattern of government abuse that has gone woefully unchallenged. Mugged by the State is a warning, a call to arms, and a practical manual of self-defense.

About the Author:

Randall Fitzgerald was a Reader's Digest contributing editor for twenty years and is now a full-time freelance writer. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Capitol Hill News, the Houston Post, and other publications.