Hi readers. Here’s an old guy made the front page of the KC Star today. 73 years old, affluent [660,000 in the bank and a paid-for $300,000 home], and some health problems. Messy kinda guy, house full of wiring the county workers couldn’t figure out, Physicist from way back.
Gets himself some health problems, takes a fall or two, and Whoo0pee! This old bastard has money! The County decides he needs a full time guarded environment, someone with county government to handle his finances. Hold him captive and the MO Supreme Court refuses to hear his appeals. The County uses his own finances to fight him in court, sell off his house and all his belongings.
The Saga of John Flentie
Kansas City Star ^| June 28, 2014 | Eric Adler
Posted on Saturday, June 28, 2014 4:08:06 PM by yldstrk
Sunken into the plaid couch of his cinder-block room, John Flentie spends nearly every waking hour obsessed with obtaining his freedom.
“I merely want to go home,” he says.
At 73, the once-affluent Parkville resident is not a criminal inmate, nor is he an enemy combatant. John Flentie, 73, has been under the guardianship and conservatorship of the Office of the Platte County Public Administrator since April 2012.. He has been committed to various nursing homes, including Cedars of Liberty, where he currently resides in a small, cluttered room. Frustrated by the loss of his freedom, Flentie spends his time listening to music, watching movies and trying to undo his guardianship.
John Flentie, 73, has been under the guardianship and conservatorship of the Office of the Platte County Public Administrator since April 2012.. He has been committed to various nursing homes, including Cedars of Liberty, where he currently resides in a small, cluttered room. Frustrated by the loss of his freedom, Flentie spends his time listening to music, watching movies and trying to undo his guardianship.
Instead — to the extreme frustration of Flentie, his lawyer and a cadre of former high school classmates who for two years have been advocating for the release of a friend they insist is as capable and highly intelligent as always — Flentie is a ward of the state of Missouri.
Since April 2012, he has been committed to various nursing homes under the guardianship and conservatorship of the office of the Platte County public administrator, which claims in court proceedings that taking charge of Flentie, his estate and his possessions was and continues to be for his own health and well-being.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com …
Seems to me we oldsters who are still free ought to be doing some thinking about this. Hell, I hate this guy. He was a CIA man or contractor for them for 30 years. But the fact is, he’s 73 years old and what’s happening to him is merely a demonstration of what can probably happen to any of us.
Probably those of us who still own firearms need to go over there and shoot up the county offices the way Kansans and Missourians used to do back when they didn’t have as much to get pissed off about.
I don’t know what a person ought to do in a case such as this. Probably he made a bad mistake thinking back when he first got involved with them that nothing of that nature could happen to him. Same as I am prone to think about my ownself. And other oldsters probably think about their ownselves.
Well, hells bells, it can happen. And the legal system isn’t there to give them any relief, reassurance, or justice. So do we sit still and wait for the jackboots to kick down the door, or do we raid the Platte County Courthouse and teach the bastards some manners and respect?
Even if the SOB they did it to was a CIA crapwad.
Old Jules
Afterthought: I responded to a comment with this anecdote, but I think it belongs in the main post: I read a few years ago about an old guy somewhere who’d gotten caught up in the beginnings of something of this sort, went on the run in his car with police chasing him until they ran him off the road and he came out of the car shooting. They had to kill him for his own good. J
I’m probably more suspicious about these affairs than most. Back when I was a lot younger my mom and all her brothers and sisters got together and had my Granddad hauled off to the State insane asylum where he spent the remainder of his life. I used to get pleading letters from him to come break him out of there. Cogent letters, though desparate. I was young and early married, destitute. Couldn’t afford to take care of him, or take him in myself. But afterward I often thought I should have anyway. He was the only one of the bunch worth shooting.
My uncle, Ursey, went out to his farm, “Hey Dad, let’s go to town. Get a motel room. Do some shopping for groceries, go to the auction.” He left him napping in that motel room, went and got the Sheriff. Came back and they hauled my granddad off to jail until they could get the county judge to involuntarily send him off to the State Hospital.
I hope each of those bastards – I trust they’re all dead by now, died of something lingering and dreadfully painful. If not, maybe their next lifetimes can be something akin to his during those last few years.
J
So Far From Heaven 
Still, I agree, the possibility remains of such a circumstance happening to someone who might be at the county’s mercy. I do wonder though, if this hasn’t happened because this is pay-back time for past deeds. How is it his house and possessions can be taken so easily. Might be I don’t understand because I come for another country.
Hi Tess: If I thought it were payback for past deeds I’d probably feel differently. But payback’s a personal thing. If he needed paying back it needed to come from the person who’d suffered from something he did. And I don’t have a problem, say, if someone got tortured back when he was CIA in Southeast Asia finally locating him and putting a bullet in his head, kicking in his ribs, whatever. My problem is that what they’re doing is almost certainly a combination of phony moral high ground protecting him from himself while picking his pocket without any remorse, just because they could.
Immunity from being examined or criticized because it’s for his own good.
I read a few years ago about an old guy somewhere who’d gotten caught up in the beginnings of something of this sort, went on the run in his car with police chasing him until they ran him off the road and he came out of the car shooting. They had to kill him for his own good. J
Does the moral high ground feel like enough of a reason? Why target him then and not any other or every other senior with money? Anyway, it’s ghastly what’s happening. Hope this isn’t a precedent for things to come.
You can run, but you can’t hide. That troubles me because they’ll (who are THEY?) get you every time, one way or another if they want to..
Hi Tess: If they don’t something else likely will. We killed off all the wolves so someone else has to do what wolves used to do. Goldilox, or Little Red Rydinghood demands it. J
*shakes head*
“Had to kill him for his own good.” Yep, I believe the plan this administration has is to kill off all the retired folks. I don’t plan to go easily.
Hi DizzyDick: I think it isn’t so much this administration as that it’s just civilization trying to decide what to do with people who’ve ascended beyond the age of reproduction but still have some useful reswources. Or failing them having useful resources, have needs that could better be met by stacking them like cordwood. J
It seems like the older you get, the more “normal” you are required to be. Doesn’t bode well for some of us….
Normal is something I’ve searched for all my life, BobG, and never found. Right out there ith the fountain of youth and the lost adams diggings. Gracias, J
There’s a lesson in this somewhere. Maybe, if you are going to end up in jail anyway, you might as well commit some crime…
No, that can’t be it. But there’s a lesson in this somewhere….
BobG: We might end up having to stick up convenience stores to pay off copays on hospital bills, but I doubt anyone would pay any attentioon enough to chase after and catch us. If it ain’t drug related a person probbly can’t get into a regular lockup anymore. These other prisons such as the one this guy found are just the penalty for having something worth stealing and attracting the real serious predators. Gracias, J
The critical charge seems to be that he was “a danger to himself”. A danger to others I can understand. But a danger to himself? WTF? It seems to me I’ve always been a danger to myself, at least since I’ve been grown. Hell, isn’t that part of the definition of “male”?
I don’t know what excuse the girls use.
Hi BobG: I’m thinking the overwhelming percentage blame it on men. Gracias, J
To BobG, we girls blame it on estrogen. Works every time. Jules, me thinks this guy had to much money and someone knew it and had a plan to get in when he had the need for a health care. The less we have the less likely we are to have this particular sequence of events happen to us. They may find another reason to lock us up, but probably not to take our money. I hate to say it, but, I think we can look forward to more strange events happening to those of us who are over the hill. Funny thing is they forget they are going to be over the hill sooner than they think. Then maybe they think they are immune to this happening to them…..just wait, when usefulness by the powers that be in their world happens they will find themselves in the same boat. Blessings, M.
Hi Mary. He definitely have considerable money. And I’m left with the impression that whatever he got nowadays, likely he paid for in advance earlier in his life. Gracias, J