Over the course of the last decades more and more people have taken up the prepper/off the grid lifestyle. The most common reasons are the fact that once SHTF the government is useless and will provide little to no help and another is that the big corporations are robbing honest Americans blind with their overpriced services (electricity, water, heating, etc).

Regular, hard working Americans like you and I, have decided that they will not subject themselves to the tyranny of the fat cats and that they won’t look for hand outs from a corrupt and incompetent government.

We want to live simple self-reliable lives. We want to generate free clean energy, grow our own food and get crystal clean water from a natural source. We are sick and tired of having to pay through the nose for food that is full of GMO’s and other dangerous additives and chemicals, for tap water that isn’t that safe to drink, or outrageous energy and heating bills.

Living off the land is a noble and rewarding lifestyle. It is how our forefathers lived and that self-sufficient spirit is what made this country the greatest in the world…until now.

Unfortunately our country is spiraling down towards becoming what Communist Russia or Nazi Germany were not so long ago. Each year, each month we see more and more of our rights and freedoms being taken away.

Your Land, Their Rules

Now they are trying to take away our right to live on our lands as we see fit.

Across the country more and more states have begun a draconic witch hunt for those of us who decided to stop financing the luxurious lifestyle of the corporate masters and want to be self-reliant. New laws are being written up and old zone codes are being deliberately misinterpreted in order to force citizens into compliance with “the norm”.

The latest in this obscene abuse of our constitutional rights comes from Costilla County, Colorado. This is one of the least populated counties in the state and an area where hundreds of people have been purchasing land and attempting to live off-grid. Homesteaders are facing harassment from county authorities who make life difficult for anyone who dares to pursue a self-reliant lifestyle.

Things have become so tense that a peaceful gathering of people upholding their constitutional rights was dispersed by the local police for no reason and one person was even arrested because he didn’t want to leave. Here’s a video of the whole thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WN_d4tBoPbg&feature=youtu.be

This was a crude violation of those citizens freedom of speech and arresting a person just because he was hanging out in a public space is wrong and abusive.

But this isn’t even the worst part about the whole situation in Colorado. Costilla County does not allow people to camp on their own land for more than 14 days per every three months. And even for those 14 days you’re required to have a permit. So living for more than 14 days in a RV, shed, or tent on your own property is illegal. Why, you ask? According to Matt Valdez, a land use administrator, it’s because the authorities want to make sure rules are followed for aesthetic and safety reasons.

And the shocking part is that even if you apply for one, you might not get it, as Chloe Everhart and Hyrum Jensen found out. The couple bought a piece of land in the county, applied for a camping permit, but it was denied. All because the board of county commissioners instructed the planning and zoning office to stop issuing the camping permits.

You might be wondering: Ok, but why would people want to live in a tent in the first place? Well, because there are no houses built on the land being sold, you have to build your own. So if you’re camping on your property, while waiting for the house to be built, but you don’t have a permit, you’re breaking the law. By the way, I do believe it takes more than 14 days to build a house, so I must really wonder how they came up with that number.

You Have To Be On The Grid To Build Your Home

And now we reached another legal problem in Costilla: building permits. When the news about the situation in the Colorado county broke in the media, the local authorities were looking to make changes to the zoning code that required water, sewage and electricity to be installed prior to building permits being issued. Also small lots could only have one dwelling unit.

Once the media got wind of the situation, they dropped the idea, but said that the current code already gives them the discretion to require water, septic and electricity (in addition to a variety of other permits) before they grant a final building permit. The changes would have made that more clear.

What the authorities are doing is shoving down the throat of hard working Americans the demands of their corporate masters. In their eyes everyone must empty their pockets into their overstuffed coffers and the ones that don’t want to pay the toll must be persecuted and severely punished.

Side effects of living off the grid include: persecution, intimidation and jail time

As I said, this isn’t an isolated event. In Cape Coral, Florida, living off the grid is illegal, as Robin Speronis found out when the court declared her guilty of “code violations” and ordered her to “hook up” to the grid.

In Los Angeles County, California, people living off the grid are being targeted, arrested, and intimidated into to hooking back into the gird. Instituted in 2006 by Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors’ Nuisance Abatement Teams have been deliberately going after people that are living off the land and jailing them for victimless misdemeanors and code violations.

Even the name of those teams is insulting and degrading to any human being: nuisance. They’re labeling people that seek independence with the same word commonly used for mosquitoes, bugs and pests in general.

Here are two videos that present the horrifying experience of honest to God Americans in the area.

Huntsville, Alabama is another place where living a simple off the grid life is illegal. Marine veteran Tyler Truitt discovered that the hard way when the city condemned his off-grid retreat because he chose not to use city utilities and a judge subsequently upheld the city’s decision.

This is even more terrifying as according to Truitt he checked in the Huntsville’s Code of Ordinances and didn’t find anything prohibiting him from using off-grid utilities. Apparently the authorities argument was that it’s not sufficient to use off-grid utilities because it’s not a ‘permanent’ source of power.

We are truly living in the darkest times this country has ever seen. Each day, little by little, this infested and corrupt government, alongside the corporate jackals, are taking away our freedoms and God given rights.

America is known as “the land of the free and the home of the brave”, but at the rate things are going, the best we can hope for is the second part of that saying. That way at least we will have a fighting chance at reclaiming our place in the world as the country with the most freedoms and rights. I truly believe that there are still brave men and women in this country that will stand up to oppression and fight for what is right and just.

What are your feelings towards this whole situation? Share them in the comments section below.