Posted on 07/07/2007 3:40:24 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
'He really abused me,' resident says after arrest by Orem police officer
OREM - Two days after Independence Day, 70-year-old Betty Perry experienced an ordeal she said shouldn't be happening in America.
The retired military and U.S. government employee answered the door at her home Friday morning to talk with a police officer about her bone-dry lawn and ended up getting arrested and suffering a bloody nose. "What have I done?" she asked. "I'm old now. I can't believe this."
The Orem police officer, as yet unnamed by city officials, cited Perry for violating a city ordinance with her "sadly neglected and dying landscape," which resembles dry hay.
When Perry refused to give her name and tried to walk inside to call her son, the officer tried to arrest her, police say. According to a police news release, while she was struggling, she tripped and fell on her doorstop, cutting open the bridge of her nose. But Perry maintains the officer split her nose when he hit her with the set of handcuffs he was trying to restrain her with.
"As far as I'm concerned, he really abused me - he brutally abused me," Perry said. "For what?" The officer called for backup, because he was driving a truck, and the now-handcuffed Perry was taken to a holding facility in Orem. She was not given water or allowed to wash her hands or call her son, she said.
"After being booked, supervisors became aware of the circumstances and immediately released the woman and returned her to her home on the basis that there were other options available to handle this situation besides making an arrest and holding the woman in jail," Orem police Lt. Doug Edwards wrote in the news release.
(Excerpt) Read more at sltrib.com ...
Maybe they should have hosed her down!
I got a ticket for watering my lawn on the wrong day.
She must not have any LDS neighbors to help her!
There is a big fire 20 miles so of SLC I heard on the news so this dry hay like lawn is a fire hazard!
And she should have been more cooperative and sort it out later!
***
Utah fire blamed for traffic deaths...Live Earth goes green...Pennsylvania ...
Jul 8 2007 12:03AM
Associated Press
Utah fire blamed for traffic deaths...Live Earth goes green...Pennsylvania shutdown likely
RENO, Nev. (AP) A Utah wildfire is blamed for a five-car pile-up that killed a motorcyclist and his passenger along Interstate 70. The blaze has destroyed a home and six buildings on a historic site. Scorching heat and dry conditions have also sparked more than a dozen fires in Nevada.
http://www.kxmc.com/News/141770.asp
The poor lady absolutely should sue, and every effort should be made to destroy this officer’s career.
Hey, I told her she could hook her sprinkler up to my hose but then she wanted me to cut her grass too. When I told her I don’t cut grass no more, she just quit watering them weeds.
......Agree. This lady 70 or 17 had an attitude problem with an officer trying to do his job. There is more to this story and we haven’t heard it yet. I’m willing to bet that this lady has had run ins with authority before.
You are the same poster I once saw spouting the same "he brought it on himself" stuff when cops seized a vehicle over some minor traffic infraction.
Do you have a special brown shirt you put on before you post, or do you just wear one all the time?
Read the tagline and go "baaaahhhh"
Of course, in some other places under water restrictions, they might beat and arrest people for not halting the yard watering.
If this old lady had good neighbors, instead of self-centered busybodies who happened to live on the same street, the problem would have long since been solved.
I used to shovel the driveway and sidewalk of the old widow lady next door after snowfalls. That's just what was done out in our part of the country when I was a young man, and my parents would really let me have it if I didn't take care of old Mrs. Clark when I was doing our own driveway.
But now, God forbid any of the local teenage layabouts should have to drop the Game-Boy for twenty minutes' honest sweat looking after an elderly neighbor's yard.
-ccm
Come on. You know you are a libertarian in drag, just baiting the freepers! NO ONE is that stupid!
Methinks you need a REAL history lesson. Look at some of the court cases in the early US out of Mass, Conn, New Hampshire, New York, etc.
CITIZENS took the state to court constantly over unconstituional ordinances, and continually resisted authority that was unlawful. They had just -ahem- FOUGHT A WAR for their rights, and weren't about to listen to some lying, stupid crap about having a "bad attitude" toward the law. OF COURSE they had a bad attitude. They understood that the nature of civil authority is to expand itself until it crushes freedom. When it does, it is always applauded by some nitwit who will cluck and say "he had it coming to him. You have nothing to fear if you do nothing wrong."
agreed
“Other options?” The Kelo decision?
The Orem police officer, as yet unnamed by city officials, cited Perry for violating a city ordinance with her "sadly neglected and dying landscape," which resembles dry hay.
You know what else dry hay resembles? Fuel. Orem is in part of Utah under severe fire weather warnings. I don't give a damn if your lawn is ugly, but I do care if I'm at risk of losing my house because you have a yard full of tinder.
A lot of the laws governing lawns are there for silly aesthetic reasons, but not all.
When Perry refused to give her name and tried to walk inside to call her son, the officer tried to arrest her, police say. According to a police news release, while she was struggling, she tripped and fell on her doorstop, cutting open the bridge of her nose. But Perry maintains the officer split her nose when he hit her with the set of handcuffs he was trying to restrain her with.
Free hint #1: When a cop gets you a ticket, take it. A ticket is as good as it will get.
Free hint #2: Don't turn your back on a cop and try to re-enter the house. He has no way of knowing you're not going for a shotgun just inside the front door.
Free hint #3: When a cop tries to physically prevent you from going back in the house, do not physically resist. Scream, protest and plead all you want, but do not physically resist. That just heightens his suspicions, and you will lose.
The place to fight the cop is in court.
"As far as I'm concerned, he really abused me - he brutally abused me," Perry said.
She was "brutally abused" by tripping while running from the cops?
Ask yourself honestly. Put a 35-year-old black male homeowner in the exact same fact pattern. Refuses to give his name, tries to go back in the house, struggles with the cop, trips and falls. How many FReepers' first reaction would be to condemn the cops and rush to his defense?
Agree; I won’t belabor what I said in 174. Unless new facts appear, I don’t see her actions as reasonable or his as unreasonable. The article does not say how long she was held in custody — that might have been excessive, but the claim is that she was “immediately” released and returned home.
If you'd rather fight a capital murder charge than a $500 fine, that's your funeral.
Or mow. I'm with you on that, with the minor note that we don't know if anyone offered and she refused.
If she was so anxious to call her son, both at the house and in the jail, where was the son while the lawn was drying out?
So your solution to someone who resists police is to let her go if she gets an owie?
To me, it's telling that she complains she wasn't allowed to have a drink of water, wash her call her son or wash her hands -- she doesn't say anything about medical attention. She's not even attempting to claim her injuries were serious.
lol...they sent the police to cite the lady for a dried up yard. I can’t believe this stuff happens in this country.
Normally, if your in violation of an ordinance the city just sends you a nasty letter ie; “The United Nations” and says you have 30 days to fix the situation. If you don’t, then they will fix it for you and charge you.
I wouldn’t step outside of my house to talk to a cop, or open the screen door to let them in. No way. They are not there to help.
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