WASHINGTON, D.C. Nov. 7 (DPI) – Sen. Rand Paul grows pumpkins in his yard and “has shown little interest in neighborhood regulations,” according to a report yesterday in The New York Times, a disclosure that raises a reasonable question: Did Paul’s longtime next-door neighbor, who beat up Washington’s best-known libertarian last Friday, simply get fed up with Paul’s rule-breaking behavior? The answer may never be known, but the moral could be there’s a downside of applying your libertarian ideals to daily life.
Paul, 54, lives in an exclusive gated community in Bowling Green, KY, and has lived for 17 years next door to a retired 59-year-old anesthesiologist named Rene Boucher. Boucher allegedly jumped Paul as Paul was getting off a riding mower, and the assault left Paul with five broken ribs and lacerations. Both practiced medicine at the same hospital for many years.
At first the assault was downplayed by Paul’s DC office, and local police planned to charge Boucher with a misdemeanor. But as the extent of Paul’s injuries emerged, police in Bowling Green said they may charge the neighbor with felony assault. The attack, according to Boucher’s lawyer, had nothing to do with politics.
Libertarians, of course, are that strain of Ayn Rand-inspired conservatives with a leave-me-alone, independent-minded, every-man-for-himself ethos. They often flout what they see as petty rules. Quite naturally, such an attitude will rub some the wrong way, especially at the local level, where community rules help define the look and feel of where people live.
A headline this week in The Louisville Courier Journal described Paul as “not the perfect neighbor.”
According to the NY Times report:
The senator grows pumpkins on his property, composts and has shown little interest for neighborhood regulations … Competing explanations of the origins of the drama cited stray yard clippings, newly planted saplings and unraked leaves.
None of the reports related to the incident in The New York Times included comment threads, although The Wall Street Journal saw 430 comments posted. Many of the comments there focused on the fact that Boucher was reported to be a Democrat. The most popular comments:
Rand Paul was the latest victim of a Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer His attacker, a registered Dem, was on social media the last few months criticizing Trump daily. I guess he finally snapped.
Love how the WSJ just happens to accidentally on purpose leave out the fact that this idiot is a Democrat…..just gotta love that fair and balanced reporting WSJ…..shame!
We got more reporting in KY, since he’s the Senator- apparently, his neighbor is a liberal, but neighbors said they generally got along- that changed when apparently the neighbor attacked Paul while he was cutting his grass, by attacking him from behind.