Posted on 06/13/2022 7:53:40 AM PDT by grundle
An Alabama man who planted flowers on the gravesite of his fiancee and was arrested at the direction of the woman’s disapproving father was found guilty of littering this week.
About a month after Winston “Winchester” Hagans got engaged, his fiancee, Hannah Ford, was killed in a three-car crash in January 2021 that shattered what was supposed to be the happiest time of their lives. To honor the 27-year-old, Hagans placed a planter box full of fresh flowers and photos of the two of them on her grave in Auburn, Ala.
But earlier this year, Hagans was arrested on a charge of criminal littering. City officials had reassured him that he could put the planter at Ford’s gravesite unless there was a complaint. Then he discovered that a complaint had been filed — by the Rev. Tom Ford, his fiancee’s father.
“The police don’t enforce the law unless the owner of the plot tries to do something about it,” Hagans told The Washington Post earlier this year, adding that his late fiancee’s father did not approve of their relationship.
Hagans was convicted Thursday on one count of criminal littering and ordered to pay about $300 in fines and court costs, the Opelika-Auburn News reported. The 32-year-old man was also given a suspended jail sentence of 30 days that will remain suspended as long as Hagans does not place any more flowers or planter boxes on his fiancee’s grave.
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I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln, who once asked a witness:
"Suppose you call a tail a "leg", how many legs would a sheep have?"
The witness replied "five."
Abraham Lincoln said "No. Four. Just because you call a tail a "leg", doesn't make it so. "
I know what "litter" is, and so do most of the people.
NIV or NLT for a Bible rookie like me. 😏
Didn’t mean to offend anyone my friend. That’s why I prefaced my comment by saying “in my experience” lol.
You are confused over the principle of turning the other cheek.
All good parents and judges know that there has to be a balance of law and mercy. All of our criminal and civil laws are based on the principle that first offenders get more mercy, repeat offenders get progressively more punishment. Why do they give progressively harsher sentences for repeat offenders? Because the mercy shown was ABUSED. Good parents know that if they do not discipline their child, they ARE NOT being merciful to the child by ENABLING more bad behavior with no consequences -your unlimited cheek turning misapplied. All good parents and judges decide how much mercy to show depends on remorse shown. If the child or perp shows an attitude “Of screw you, I’m going to keep doing whatever I WANT”, the hammer comes down hard. YOUR PERP had that attitude. They were shown mercy 9 times.
:)
Naw...not at all. Only when I see you post your “thoughts” 30-40 times a day...........
If it is you are F'ing out of line....And if you want you can stuff it. And come up and try me..........
Maybe. I'm certain the Reverend Father is.
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; "
Have you, or would you, ever report a crime?
And don’t give some evasive non answer.
How dare you to even think that. The guy knew how his fiancée felt about her father's efforts to break them apart. By extension he was continuing in the spirit of their relationship to honor it along with her feelings. Their bond together in their hearts excluded her father from the equation even though they didn't get to consecrate it in Church. The Reverend Tom Ford is a hypocritical fool.
I met my future in-laws with my hair down to my shoulders, a scraggly beard, a Leon Russell Shelter Records t-shirt, bell bottom jeans stuffed into Comanche Indian moccasin boots with tiny bells just below my knees and an old USAF service jacket with the silver buttons replace by large black buttons, which was the youth counter culture style for the day.
My wife and I went out on a blind date on May 3rd and were married on June 28th. The guy who set us up showed me her ravishingly beautiful high school senior picture and said you might remember her from elementary school (I did). I asked him (my brother's college roommate) how much I would have to pay him.
If either her parents or my parents had objected it would not have mattered because it was just us against the world. About four months later I enlisted in the USAF. You can check the date for yourself, in two weeks we'll have 48 years together. Right now my beautiful bride is in the living room playing classical jazz on her piano.
The Preacher is a fool.
And don’t give some evasive non answer.
Sounds like you are giving me an evasive question.
It sounds like you are trying to equate "crime" to mean what this guy did.
There is a concept in law called "mens rea."
You have to be of a mind to do evil before it's really a crime.
And yes, I would report a crime. I just don't consider this a "crime" in the normal meaning of the word.
You don’t own the land when you “buy’ a grave. You are buying a “right of burial”. The cemetery can dictate what may be placed on the grave up to and including the memorial. If they don’t like anything placed on a grave up to and including, say, 2500.00 dollars worth of granite memorial, they can remove it (Ive seen it done). It likely says this somewhere on the cemetery in questions website.
“Is that some sort of threat?”
ROTFLMAO! You are really paranoid. You neectonget me out of your head!
When Hagans and Ford got engaged on Dec. 5, 2020, she shared on Facebook how she had cried her eyes out with “happy tears.”“I still can’t believe I actually got to say YES to you!!!” she wrote. “I LOVE YOU and I simply can’t wait to be your WIFE!!!!!”
The couple’s wedding date was fast approaching, and they began to look at venues. As they were leaving a barn venue, they talked about how they still had much planning to do. She leaned over, kissed Hagans on the cheek and told him she was looking forward to seeing him in a couple days.
“You don’t own the land when you “buy’ a grave. You are buying a “right of burial”. The cemetery can dictate what may be placed on the grave up to and including the memorial.”
You buy rights to the property for your exclusive use. The cemetery can only dictate what is placed on the grave as stated in the deed. If no restrictions are listed, you are free to use any memorial you choose.
“If either her parents or my parents had objected it would not have mattered because it was just us against the world. “
Not germane to this story, unless your “it would not have mattered”, means you would have repeatably gone into her house, even after the parents had told you not to.
“And yes, I would report a crime. “
Really? But you just carried on how you should turn the other cheek an unlimited number of times? I guess the glaring cognitive dissonance whizzes right over your head.
I get ya....the Jesus newbies like me need it spelled out.......slowly. lol
Photo of cemetery doesn’t show any.
“If it’s the tacky display, then cemeteries all over the country are guilty of allowing that stuff to stay.”
None that I have ever seen.
Have you ever visited an Alabama cemetery on Decoration Day?
I can show you a rural Alabama cemetery where five generations of my family are buried that can get pretty tacky on the third Sunday in May which has been our Decoration Day for the past one hundred years.
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