Posted on 03/07/2015 4:28:46 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
Well this is garbage.
A sanitation worker in an Atlanta suburb has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for working too early.
Kevin McGill had been working for only a few months for a company contracted to do sanitation work in Sandy Springs when he was cited for picking up trash just after 5 a.m. one morning, according to WSB-TV.
That violated a city ordinance which limits trash pickup to between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. The statute is in place because residents have complained that early pick-up disrupts their sleep.
When McGill showed up to court to answer the citation, Sandy Springs prosecutor Bill Riley sought the maximum punishment against him — 30 days in jail.
And in a trashy move, a judge granted Riley the request.
“Fines don’t seem to work,” Riley told WSB. “The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.”
Riley, who jailed another sanitation worker for the same infraction last year, said that residents swamp 911 with calls when trash pick-up occurs too early in the morning.
“The solicitor said it’s automatic jail time,” McGill told WSB. “He didn’t want to hear nothing I had to say. I said it’s my first time.”
“I was stunned. I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked,” he added.
McGill, a family man, did not have an attorney during his sentencing. He pleaded no contest and took the punishment, agreeing to serve his 30 days spread out on the weekends. He began serving the sentence last weekend and will do so for 14 more.
“I just want this to be over with,” McGill told WSB. “I’m away from my family, my wife, and she’s got to take care of the two little boys and I have four dogs.”
McGill has an attorney now, and she believes the sentence is too harsh.
“Give him a warning,” the lawyer, Kimberly Bandoh, told WSB. “I mean he’s the employee. He’s not the employer. Sentencing him to jail is doing what?”
But Riley appears to be unmoved, saying that McGill, and not his employer, is responsible for operating his own garbage truck.
“The company doesn’t start that truck up,” Riley told WSB. “The company doesn’t drive that truck down the street.”
If I recall correctly, when Paris Hilton got sentenced to 30 days in jail it translated to about 12 hours. So, perhaps it sounds worse than it really is.
He’s not Paris Hilton.
A 911 call? How is this in anyway an emergency?
A casino recently opened here. Early patrons had difficulty finding their way out of the large parking structure, so they called 911.
Won’t lock up an illegal but they will the trash man.
Hey, you can’t blame them for going after guys like this. They have known addresses, don’t shoot back, speak English. Much easier on everyone to put this kind of perp in the hoosegow than those nasty murderers, drug dealers and child rapists.
30 days for starting two hours early seems excessive. However, people move into those neighborhoods precisely because they want to control what happens there as much as possible. 5am in not 7am, and you will never get those sleeptime hours back.
The company must already know how touchy the residents are. The company shares the blame if they have not emphasizing from the moment of hire, that you as a worker are not doing yourself or your customers any favors by starting early. There should be room for at least one mistake resulting in either a fine or suspension. All this long before discussing jailtime. The guilty party is smart to lawyer up.
That prosecutor Riley has an axe to grind about that particular company. Some kind of vendetta is going on there.
“Hey, you can’t blame them for going after guys like this. They have known addresses, don’t shoot back, speak English. Much easier on everyone to put this kind of perp in the hoosegow than those nasty murderers, drug dealers and child rapists.”
I believe that 100%. Few seem to want to go after the real bad guys and if they do, they show up with an armored vehicle and 100 SWAT officers.
It has been an interesting trend in this area that few prior service people are hired for law enforcement. Most I know fail the psyche. I think it is because most are not afraid to take the fight to the bad guys.
Recently I was stopped by an officer who observed me driving from the pay window to the pick up window at the drive thru without my seat belt. Per usual I didn’t respond when he told me why. He asked for a response. I asked him if this is what he pictured himself doing when he entered the police academy. Surprisingly, he let me go with a verbal warning. I do not think most enter the force with the intention of busting average folks over the smallest infractions of the law.
Kevin McGill better call his brother Jimmy.
Was wondering if anyone would catch that.
Saul good man.
I have no idea what a working man is doing in jail for performing his job too early. Too bad the neighborhood can’t have the experience of hauling their own trash to the dump. Most of us could use a little humility training now and then because we forget how easy we have it. Nonetheless, just tell the guy to wait till the residents have gotten their beauty sleep and let him go. If he does it again, then maybe there is more going on. If he doesn’t, then the problem is solved with a minimum of fuss. Could be there are too many drama queens on this stage.
He’s not a member of a protected minority class, so he must be punished.
> Hey, you can’t blame them for going after guys like this. They have known addresses, don’t shoot back, speak English. Much easier on everyone to put this kind of perp in the hoosegow than those nasty murderers, drug dealers and child rapists.
You have no idea how dead on your statement is. You may have said it as a joke but its the honest truth. The court system is a money mill. The prosecuters go after the easy ones (to find) and don’t expend any effort other than warrants and BOLO reports on the hard ones. Its a lot easier to soak the easy ones with fines and court cost fees because they’ll pay them. You can pretty much forget any illegal aliens paying their traffic tickets.
The court systems aren’t hear to serve justice.
> Hey, you can’t blame them for going after guys like this. They have known addresses, don’t shoot back, speak English. Much easier on everyone to put this kind of perp in the hoosegow than those nasty murderers, drug dealers and child rapists.
You have no idea how dead on your statement is. You may have said it as a joke but its the honest truth. The court system is a money mill. The prosecuters go after the easy ones (to find) and don’t expend any effort other than warrants and BOLO reports on the hard ones. Its a lot easier to soak the easy ones with fines and court cost fees because they’ll pay them. You can pretty much forget any illegal aliens paying their traffic tickets.
The court systems aren’t here to serve justice.
On the flipside, it may get real expensive in the near future in sandy springs for a garbage pickup, assuming that they can even get any trash haulers to show up in the area. I understand that they have ordinances that enforce pickup times, but throwing company employees in jail will not bode well for their employers. Would you work for someone who would throw you under the bus in a heartbeat to make a slightly larger profit? Or worse, let you go to jail so they can get two more hours of collection time?
He also isn’t a chick.
The prosecutor used to have an assistant who was the wife of a convicted felon. http://www.ajc.com/news/news/wife-of-admitted-drug-dealer-quits-sandy-springs-s/nTmYK/
Jail him!
no one should drive a trash truck early enough to wake people.
I don’t think you completely comprehend the situation.
Don’t take my comment as a slur against your intellect.
It is meant to be a warning that when something in the news doesn’t sound logical, it just might mean there are competing interests at play!
The rest of the story has only partly come out, to date.
Wait a few more days...
As Paul Harvey said in every radio broadcast:
“Now you know the rest of the story.”
You could just close your eyes and fall asleep again instead of calling 911 and making a federal case out of it.
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