Posted on 07/07/2007 3:40:24 PM PDT by TornadoAlley3
Xeriscaping. I'm working on that or my yard. Native drought-resistant plants I can't go "desert style," because they'd drown.
I'm in the Atlanta area. A couple of years ago, there was a measurable amount of rainfall every day in the month of June. This year, if there was any rain in June, I blinked and missed it.
We have drought cycles. The plants that have survived here for tens of thousands of years are smarter than I am at adapting to them. Thats why I like native plants. Now if I could just get something native to fight off the *&^%*&^ English Ivy, I'd be set.
But if you must have a lush green Bermuda lawn that requires daily watering, have at it. At least until the pools start getting seriously low. Then, screw you -- yes,I will rat you out for violating watering restrictions, because I'm going to be mightily upset the day I can't take a shower because you need your yard to look pretty.
To me, what really stands out is how quickly a thread can acquire a lot of knee-jerk responses, without serious thought and often without even reading the original article.
Claims of property rights, police excesses, and anything involving the word gun, Clinton or Muslim get those knees a-jerkin'. Name any Republican candidate, and they start jerkin' in opposite directions.
HAHA, you’re creative, I’ll give ya that.
If you don't believe that there are a lot of little old ladies with a loaded 12-gauge sitting right inside the front door, you haven't been around much. Letting procedure slip because someone doesn't fit the stereotype of a dangerous individual is how cops get killed.
A lot of predators think little old widow ladies are an easy mark. Little old widow ladies know this. So they get ... prepared. I can't use the word "paranoid," because there really are people out to get them.
But let's look at the account of this event with wording that is factually the same, but with different spin.
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.
The LAPD officer, as yet unnamed by department officials, cited Washington for violating a city ordinance by having his yard in a state that created a fire hazard.
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.
When Washington refused to cooperate with her police and lunged toward the door, the officer tried to arrest him, police say. According to a police news release, after Washington broke free of the officer's grip, he fell on the doorstep. But Washington maintains that the officer stuck him with his handcuffs.
Who says he wasn't in an official car? That's not stated in the article and I haven't seen the claim. Police in quite a few areas of the country are issued two-seater pickup trucks.
It was not in his capacity to arrest her.
It was in his capacity to arrest her, but not to transport her. That is not the least bit unusual. Foot cops, mounted cops, bicycle cops, and motorcycle cops arrest people thousands of times avery day, and then radio for a car or paddy wagon to take them in.
I wonder if he isn't some neighbor who holds a grudge because his yard is manicured?
Could be. Could be not. No information either way. What is at issue is what went down during the immediate altercation, not the source of the original complaint.
Suppose your neighbor was pouring gasoline on his yard. Would you call the police?
WIldfires have claimed about 50,000 acres of land in Utah this year. Only about a tenth of the acreage each in Florida and Georgia, but nothing to sneeze at. Or do your neighbors property rights extend to its flammability?
Everyone has made excellent points and while 70 year old ladies can go into “drama mode” and hurt themselves, there should never have been any reason for him to be in a physical altercation with her. She may go into her house, if she likes, period. The officer doesn’t have a warrant, she wants to go into her house, it’s over. He had no reasonable suspicion a crime was about to be committed, so what he should do is turn on his heels and leave. He writes it in his report they mail her a fine and all this is avoided. I have read it his her house and that it seems to be ok that her grass was dry.There is a law and I suspect there is a reason for the law. If I were her neighbor I might be a tad concerned that while she was out seeing the world in her RV someone might throw a cigarette in that tinderbox she calls a yard, and their house is clearly involved in the situation.
Based on the officer being suspended from duty it appears this guy had a real heavy badge, and never quite understood common sense discretion in matters like this.
Ok d1mw1t. Whatever you say. Houses are made of tinder. Who gives a sh1t what the yard is. I could sprinkle sawdust and birdnests all over my yard and it would still pale in comparisson to the fire hazard that my siding and paint on said siding represents.
Go douse yourself in flame retardant you nitwit. People have property rights where I come from. That’s why cops have to knock before entering. That’s why cops cant enter without permission. That’s why there are search warrants. No cop gets me out of my house without one. No cop gets into my house without one. And any neighbor that calls the cops on me will pay dearly for the duration they remain my neighbor.
You go think about that you busybody and pray you are not my neighbor.
Now go water your lawn before someone drops a match on it, whether you deserve it or not.
LOL! The old lady had a bloody face and then made this statement.
"I'm thoroughly exhausted," she said. "I'm very distraught about all this."
You clearly are not familiar how easy the elderly can be injured, and yet not show any outward immediate signs of injury. The city will have plenty of time to speak with her attorneys that.
Did you just graduate from the academy?
It's not always by the book, and there is that little thing called discretion. Clearly there was no common sense discretion used here. And I base this on the officer subsequently being suspended from duty.
I didn't just graduate from anything. I've just known several LOLs (little old ladies) with shotguns by the door. Some were out in the country and felt alone and isolated. Some were in homes in declining neighborhoods, but refused to leave.
I know at leas one woman in her '80s who walked out on the porch in her house coat and pointed a double-barrel to chase the crack dealers from her lawn. They moved down the block.
It's not always by the book, and there is that little thing called discretion.
Yeah, ain't that fun? I don't know what you do for a living, but I'm guessing that whatever it is, it doesn't involve people on a national Web forum opining that if they disagree with your exercise of discretion you should have been shot to death.
Clearly there was no common sense discretion used here.
That is not at all clear to me. If you consider it a matter of "common sense" that old folks are no threat, I hope that you're not a cop; and if you are, I hope you're never proven wrong.
And I base this on the officer subsequently being suspended from duty.
Then you're basing it on nothing.
Suspension from duty is a matter of routine when there's a pending investigation. That has no bearing on the strength or the evidence or the outcome of the investigation.
Good. Open with a rational and compelling argument.
Whatever you say. Houses are made of tinder.
I cannot imagine what your building standards are,
Who gives a sh1t what the yard is.
If you don't believe that long dry grass fuels wildfires, I really don't know whether it's worth typing another word on the subject. I'd just direct you to the millions of acres burned, thousands of homes lost, and dozens of people killed every single year about this time of year because poor construction and land management let the fire spread faster than any human effort could keep up.
I could sprinkle sawdust and birdnests all over my yard and it would still pale in comparisson to the fire hazard that my siding and paint on said siding represents.
Maybe you should focus on getting your house up to code.
Go douse yourself in flame retardant
I have smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and clothes that don't spontaneously burst into flame. So I guess I've already done that.
you nitwit. Again with the compelling argument.
People have property rights where I come from.
Including the right to endanger yours?
That’s why cops have to knock before entering.
So which country do you live in? Because last I heard, the no-knock provisions of the Patriot Act applied to all 50 US states.
That’s why cops cant enter without permission. That’s why there are search warrants. No cop gets me out of my house without one. No cop gets into my house without one.
Feel free to resist by force rather than by law. I'm sure that will end well for you.
And any neighbor that calls the cops on me will pay dearly for the duration they remain my neighbor.
How many "stop snitching" T-shirts do you own?
You go think about that you busybody
Ooh! Another compelling argument. No, wait, That was another playground name. It's so hard to tell.
and pray you are not my neighbor.
... and the name-calling is followed by tough-guy talk. Who saw that coming?
Listen, Skippy. If I believe that a local regulation impinges on individual property rights, I'll be the first to fight it -- with the people at the city, county, state or federal level who made the law. Not with the cops in my front yard enforcing it.
If you break the law. expect to pay. Fight it as you will. But it IS my business if you water your lawn all day, because it isn't my burden to be unable to flush a toilet because you spent all day watering dumbass vegetation you never should have planted in the first place. It is my business if your lawn could set my house on fire. Hell, it's even my business if your lawn could set your house on fire, which could then set my house on fire.
And if you're goingo to play the "pray you're not my neighbor" macho BS, if I am your neighbor, you'd better pray you catch me asleep. I don't miss much when I'm awake. I do not respond well to threats.
Now go water your lawn before someone drops a match on it, whether you deserve it or not.
I don't water my lawn. That just means I have to mow it. My front yard looks like a #2 buzz-cut right now, and I haven't mowed it in a month. It can't get much shorter, and it won't burn. Go ahead and drop a match.
That is no basis. Officers are suspended from duty pending investigation. It's not a conclusion -- that's what "investigation" means.
You're treating a precaution as a conclusion.
The militarization of our police force continues.
I wonder how long before the storm trooper apologists arrive.
Perfect description of every cop I know personally and 80% of the ones I have seen otherwise.
Flame away.
Allow me.
WHAT? Why? Now I am not allowed to even walk away from a cop when I have done nothing wrong without expecting to be thrown to the ground and cuffed?
Who the F do these Nazi thugs think they are?
I guess he just wanted to bag a bear out of hunting season.
Moron,how is a bear going to charge you through a fence,besides it was just sitting there.
Ditto.
OMG!
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