Government Threatens Retired Engineer With a Crime for Doing Math

If you have decades of experience in a subject, can you stay silent when you see a mistake. For a retired North Carolina engineer using his knowledge has landed him in hot water with the government. I'm Wayne Nutt and I worked as a chemical engineer for about 45 and a half years. At 77 years old Wayne may be retired, but he's still an engineer at heart. When he sees engineering mistakes, he writes letters or speaks up at public meetings. I liked the freedom to be able to speak up. If there are situations where someone doesn't understand an engineering principle or how something's going to impact them, and they ask me for help, I like to be able to give it. Recently Wayne tried to help out some homeowners involved in a lawsuit over their flooded homes. What I was able to do was gather a lot of information from eyewitnesses, from drawings, from various sources, do some critical calculations and put that all together and come up with a reasonable explanation of why this pipe didn't carry away the stormwater. Wayne didn't charge anyone for his calculations. He just loves to put his engineering know-how to work, but none of that matters to North Carolina's engineering board. I received a letter from the state board saying I was being investigated. The outcome of this investigation could be that I would be charged with a class two misdemeanor. Most engineers working for big companies, like Wayne did, aren't required to get a license. But now the board says, talking about engineering without a license is a crime. I am not a licensed professional engineer. However, licensed professional engineers are not the only people who know anything about say stormwater design or traffic. The first amendment means the government can't ban talking about engineering. The first amendment, right to free speech of many people in the state of North Carolina is being violated. Expertise resides in many people, not just licensed professional engineers. Wayne has now teamed up with the Institute for Justice to sue the board, to protect his right and the right of any other engineer to speak about engineering. In this country, we rely on people to decide who they want to listen to. We do not rely on government to decide who gets to speak.

Channel: Institute for Justice

Views: 2,057,253

Keywords: IJ, Institute for Justice, Freedom, Liberty, Individual Rights, Constitution, Constitutional Law, Unconstitutional Law, Con Law, Constitutional Litigation

Id: 9nwP826RY50

Length: 2min 56sec (176 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 10 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/BruskMonkey]

Woooow, fuck North Carolina. He was an engineer for 45 years and is retired. Why would he maintain a license for something he doesn't do anymore. To pointlessly waste money? This is a blatant attempt to silence someone who is just trying to help people understand how what happened happened, like a good hearted retired engineer should be allowed to do.

[u/Frunnin]

They pulled the same shit on a guy here in Beaverton, Oregon. He proved red light cameras were a bunch of BS by using engineering principals to show that the lights were not giving enough time for people to safely stop and then issuing them citations when they went through on the red. Sent him the same type of letter and threatened him with being charged criminally.

How about this. Admit when you screw up and take your medicine. I find engineering mistakes ALL THE TIME on construction projects that I work on. Nobody gets it perfect every time.