Posted on 10/22/2014 9:06:14 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
The trend of average U.S. citizens being incarcerated by overzealous judges and prosecutors within the police state formerly known as America continues with reckless abandon. In fact, these sorts of cases are becoming so commonplace I simply cannot keep up with all of them. The following story is a perfect followup to my piece earlier today, which shows how American public school students are being arrested or harassed by police for the most minor of infractions, such as wearing too much perfume, sharing a classmates’ chicken nuggets, throwing an eraser or chewing gum.
If you are an adult American slave, you can add not mowing your lawn to the list of prison-worthy crimes in the police state.
From Yahoo News:
If you are a resident of Lenoir City, Tennessee, you might want to remember to mow your lawn — otherwise, you will be spending the night in jail.
Karen Holloway just spent six hours in a jail cell for failing to maintain her yard in accordance with the standards set by the city.
The saga began last summer, when Holloway was sent a citation for her overgrown grass and shrubbery. Holloway, who works a full-time job and has two children living at home, a husband in school, and one family vehicle, admits the yard needed some attention but that it just wasn’t feasible to do the work.
“The bushes and trees were overgrown. But that’s certainly not a criminal offense,” she says.
Last week, Judge Terry Vann handed down a five-day jail sentence to Holloway for refusing to comply with the city ordinances regarding yard maintenance, specifically the lack thereof. Holloway feels this was all just too much, saying, “It’s not right. Why would you put me in jail with child molesters and people who’ve done real crimes, because I haven’t maintained my yard.”
In addition to the severity of the sentencing, Holloway say she also feels that she was bullied during the process because she was never read her rights or told that she could have a lawyer present.
And you wonder why so many Americans feel the country is on the wrong track. As the Wall Street Journal noted yesterday:
The only time the public has felt worse was in October 2008, during the first, deep spasms of the recession. Then, 78% said the nation was on the wrong track, and only 12% felt good about the country’s direction. The last time “right direction” beat out “wrong track” was in January 2004 — and the last election cycle where that was the case was 2002.
For related storied about serfs being arrested for minor incidents, while the rich and powerful get away with enormous criminality, see:
Connecticut Man Arrested for “Passive Aggressive” Behavior to a Watermelon
New Jersey Threatens to Take 13-Year-Old Student From His Father Due to “Non-Conforming Behavior”
Hyper-Sensitive Illinois Mayor Orders Police Raid Over Parody Twitter Account
Charleston Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill
The “War on Street Artists” – Puppeteer Unlawfully Arrested and Harassed in NYC Subway
Video of the Day – Thuggish Militarized Police Terrorize and SWAT Team Iowa Family
One of the reasons I never want to live in municipalities is because of the nazi factor. Small town w/a few tin-hats w/nothing better to do.
I made the mistake of buying a property once with an HOA. Never again!
“One of the reasons I never want to live in municipalities is because of the nazi factor. Small town w/a few tin-hats w/nothing better to do.”
You might change your mind if you ever lived next to a person who did not maintain their property. I have.
Keep in mind that if she had resisted by protecting herself with a gun (or knife) the police would have killed her on the spot. And the cops would have been completely justified in doing so.
So then why would the state (or local government) kill a citizen over not cutting their lawn?
As Lysander Spooner has said (paraphrasing here),
“Law is force.”
Law enFORCEment is there to FORCE you to do or not do something agreed to by a group of people (aka politicians) that you disagree with against your will to the point of killing you if necessary.
This means that whatever law you create you have to first ask whether it is worth taking a human life over, but it never factors into most people’s minds.
“Law, without force, is impotent.”
-Blaise Pascal
Many years ago when I was a single working mom I had a hard time keeping my lawn mowed. My neighbors would come over and mow my lawn for me when I wasn’t home. Very nice of them.
We have seen a girl hardly old enough to reach the pedals mowing a lawn with a riding mower, while talking on a cell phone...
Fascism has arrived.
Worse,many people welcome it.
Which is the way it should be.
You my neighbor? That’s why I put up a fence though that didn’t stop the neighbor from clipping out the tops of my flowers this morning.
No it wasn’t me...
Probably not your neighbor.
I did have a neighbor in suburbia once who would not mow his yard. We would wait until the grass was ten inches high in his front yard. Then, the county would come mow it. When this neighbor moved out, the health department spent a day taking pictures of the interior and exterior to use in training health inspectors. It took three men two weeks to clean the trash out of the house.
I now have a neighbor who mows his front yard but his backyard could be used for special forces training. Seriously, the backyard has not been mowed in so long, trees have sprouted and grown to be eight to ten feet high and are so dense one could only walk through it with difficulty.
If you move into a residential area, you assume a responsibility to maintain the property. It is not fascist to insist that you do so in accordance with local regulations.
LOL
“If you move into a residential area, you assume a responsibility to maintain the property”
I agree, but it is certainly not criminal not to mow your lawn and does not merit jail time. Fines and if not paid property liens should do the trick.
I wonder what the cost to the city is for jailing her vs. sending a crew out to mow her yard for her.
And you did not cause them to be jailed or fined, or even cause their home and property to be seized and sold (HOAs) because...?
“I agree, but it is certainly not criminal not to mow your lawn and does not merit jail time. Fines and if not paid property liens should do the trick.”
That’s simply not the case. If the local ordinances require certain standards, you can be sent to jail if you do not maintain your property to those standards. It’s like a parking ticket. If one doesn’t pay the fines, you can be sent to jail.
There are some who simply will not respond to anything short of jail. The neighbor I mentioned, the one where the country had to mow his yard, would receive a bill from the county. Didn’t seem to faze him since he never mowed the yard in almost two years of living there.
That’s why I added property liens for non payment of fines.
“And you did not cause them to be jailed or fined, or even cause their home and property to be seized and sold (HOAs) because...?”
I lived about six doors down from one of those and I left the enforcement up to those who lived next door.
The neighbor with the special forces training area... Well, we’re working with him and I think he will change. He lost his wife about four years ago and is now dating again. A new wife might straighten him out.
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