Keep your ducks in a row, because Mother Government is duck hunting and we are the target.
Posted on 12/04/2022 6:14:30 AM PST by devane617
An 82-year-old woman in Alabama was arrested for failing to pay her trash bill, police said.
Martha Louis Minefield, a longtime resident of Valley, Alabama, was arrested on Sunday after she failed to make payments for her trash service for the months of June, July, and August, according to a statement by Valley Police Chief Mike Reynolds.
Code Enforcement attempted to contact Menefield several times and issued a citation in August that advised her to appear in court on September 7, police said. A warrant for Menefield's arrest was subsequently issued after she failed to appear in court, per officials.
Menefield, however, told local news outlet CBS 42 that she was surprised when police officers came to her home on Sunday to arrest her.
The senior told the outlet that she had never received any notice to appear in court and that she thought the $77.80 bill had already been paid because her trash pickup was never suspended.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
She didn’t show up.
She said she didn’t know about the court appearance.
The chief of that PD should have had a word with the bloody bureaucrats down there and tell them to work something out with the lady that does involve using his personnel as stormtroopers.
How about just suspending her trash service? That seems a lot simpler, gets the point across to both her and others in the neighborhood, and is just an overall nicer way to handle things.
> Assuming she ever saw the summons... <
Right. And if she saw the summons, did she even understand what it meant? There are no easy answers in stories such as these. I think one thing is clear, however. She first needed a visit from a social worker who specializes in working with the elderly.
By hey, it’s so much easier to just throw on the handcuffs.
The problem with this was that some people quickly learned there was not much reason to pay for a service that could never be turned off whether you paid or not. So quite a few just went cold turkey and stopped paying for everything. Too crack down, the county started implementing tougher collection practices. First reporting debts to credit bureaus, then putting liens on property, and eventually civil and criminal proceeding against the worst offenders.
She wasn’t. She was arrested for failure to appear in court after receiving a summons.
For what it’s worth (nothing) I sent a really nasty email to this dorf’s mayor.
She wasn’t. She was arrested for failure to appear in court after receiving a summons.
Keep your ducks in a row, because Mother Government is duck hunting and we are the target.
I just compost and burn the rest. I had Alliance and they never sent a bill until was was past due. Told them to pound sand. Freaking racket. Screw them.
That would either confirm or dismiss her claim that she never received proper notice, as opposed to presumed to received proper notice.
In foreclosure cases, the lender has to tape a copy of notice to the front door of the property.
The city/county already has spent much more by bringing charges and arresting her than her trash bill was worth.
Perfect.
If we knew what RACIAL profile she checked or if she was binary, it would HELP a lot for us to know if she was guilty.
Nope, it is law here in Jackson county. If you have an electric meter in your name it is compulsory to have garbage service in your name. There are exceptions and the fee can be waived. Service is never interrupted for non payment.This law was implemented so that everyone, even if far rural places could have trash pick up.
Cops who will do this will do anything else.
> ..was .there proof of service? <
It’s also worth asking if she even understood what was going on. Many older folks are as sharp as a tack. But many aren’t. And I suppose we all have stories of senior relatives who forgotten to pay credit card bills, or whatever.
Compassion was needed in this particular case. I wonder if the city bothered to contact one of her relatives, or send out a social worker to talk to her.
I thought if you didn’t pay your trash bill, they cut off your service. I didn’t think this was normally something that might invite jail time. on
You can argue that she was arrested for ignoring a summons but Police are not used for door to door arrests of common everyday infractions.
In this case it was for not doing something, such as paying a tax for a service.
This might cause the City to cut off her trash pick up but they do not have the right to arrest her.
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