Woman, 70, Bloody nose for having a dry lawn

sltrib.com ^ | 07/07/07 | Julie Espinosa

[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.

[mgstarr]

It was Greggie and Douggie...and some of the other Hitler youth.

[Grizzled Bear]

In south Florida you better not water your lawn or they will give you a bloody nose.

---

My base housing manager tried to “nickel and dime” me to death with the base watering regulations. I had put out our sprinkler early (outside the official watering hours) and got ticketed. Meanwhile there were other households watering from sunrise to sunset every day (you are only allowed to water every other day based on your house number). My neighbor did not get ticketed even though they had turned on their sprinkler early and also watered on “the wrong day.”

After speaking with my First Sergeant I took a note pad and drove around the base, three days in a row, annotating addresses of “violators.” Meanwhile my first sergeant warned the housing manager that if I get one more ticket I would be bringing my chain of command and my list to his office. We would see if the rules are being enforced equally. The reasonable expectation would be that most of those households would have tickets on file.

I have no problem paying the consequences if I am in the wrong. Just don’t go enforcing rules selectively! You can tell a lot about a man by how he reacts when he is given a little authority.

[Mila]

I take it this is what passes for crime in Orem.

[tenthirteen]

This is a mess. This Officer should have used a whole lot more discretion than he did. It seems this matter did not warrant what he proscribed. OTOH, however, not having been there, I can only surmise that this older lady should not have dealt with it the way she did. Walking away from cops in the middle of a field interview can not be too smart.

Flame away.

[Bon mots]

There is even a case where a black cop was FILMED shooting an unarmed white boy who was laying on the ground trying to calm him down. He told the kid to get up and then shot him repeatedly. She should be happy all she got was a bloody nose.

In the video below, the black cop shot the white kid who was unarmed and lying on the ground prone and trying to calm the obviously hysterical cop.

The cop lied and said that the kid lunged at him - the video is dark, but you can clearly see that this kid did not lunge at anything, he was terrified. The cop was a maniac and shot him in cold blood. He knows that he will get a black jury to let him go.

The kid happened to also have been a military policeman.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=547_1183537759

Welcome to the Police State.
Water your lawn b!tch!

[Samwise]

Oh geez...and I’ve been afraid I’ll be arrested for watering my flowers.

[4yearlurker]

I can hear the supervisors now: “you arrested this old woman for WHAT?????” You A$$hole! This creep does not belong on the police force.

[SevenMinusOne]

Another hyper-inflated police uniform.

Officer should be fired immediately and charged in some measure or another with assault on a citizen.

Absolute gutless little pr*ck....who clearly has no demeanor needed in a position of authority. However sadly, we will likely see the blue protects blue mindset come into play....and he will continue "serving" to "protect us".

[HereInTheHeartland]

“Next time, maybe you’ll remember to water your lawn!”

I agree, miscreants like this need severe punishment.
I’m guessing the lawn is only the tip of the iceberg.

The walls inside her home, probably have paint that is over 2 years old on them.

[mt tom]

thats because if you use water in the Owens valley l.a. water and power police will have less water to steal much of the Owens valley is on fire due to lightning strikes yesterday afternoon. makes the Tahoe fire like a Sunday school picnic

[ErnBatavia]

Does Base Housing still suck as much as it did at Camp Pendleton in the late 60's?

I lived in the barracks, but one weekend the Captain paid some great cash to a handful of us to do some stuff around his place...what an absolutely disgraceful dump.

[TASMANIANRED]

Mr. Badge heavy needs a different line of work...

[Westlander]

I’m sure some FReepers would be more than happy to send an email to the elected officials.

http://www.orem.org/

[Mugwump]

What, Bill Lutze is on lawn patrol, now?

[puppypusher]

Another lawsuit pending against the police. I see a violation of her cival rights as well.

[HANG THE EXPENSE]

What a dumbassed cop.The vetting process is sorely deficient in that police department.Lawsuit city is on the way.

[puppypusher]

Another lawsuit pending against the police. I see a violation of her cival rights as well.

Cival should be Civil but my brains spelling function is out of service,

[CindyDawg]

Yall aren't going to like this but not all 70 y/o women are sweet little old ladies. The officer was probably sent to give her a ticket. It says she refused to give him her name and walked off. I don't like her playing the age card. She should have to obey the law like anyone else. She had already been warned.

That said, because of the decreased balance and fragile skin that tends to go with aging he might have been able to have been more careful. I don't know though. I wasn't there

[CindyDawg]

I think they need to hire “old people” to arrest “old people” :’)

[msrngtp2002]

The bigger issue is the actual ordinance that said you have to have a green lawn!

In the city I live in they now have a law that if your grass is over 8 inches tall you can be ticketed and fined up to $500!

I have weeds that are a foot tall - will I get fined? Nobody knows. Who enforces this? Nobody knows. From what point is the 8 inches measured and does ALL the grass have to be that tall or only some of it?

It’s like we all live in gated communities with the people we elect to these offices (or are hired like a City Manager) worried about housing values. For Pete’s sake the housing values here have already tanked - can’t go anywhere but up even if the grass is two feet tall.

It’s really time to start taking a look at these silly laws and ordinances and get rid of the fools who write them, then get them off the books.