Grandma Arrested For Brown Lawn

[Freddy]

A Utah Grandma was arrested for failing to keep her lawn green. Where I live you can be heavily fined for watering the lawn during a water ban. My lawn has been brown several summers.
ksl.com - Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn

[Dingfod]

I've never understood those kind of regulations when they live ... in ... a .... fucking ... desert.

[livius drusus]

It's amazing how controlling zoning/HOA regulations can be. The last thing they give a shit about is economic and environmental reality. Stop and smell the fascism.

[California Tanker]

I'm actually surprised it wasn't a HOA deal.

Technically, she doesn't seem to have been arrested for not watering the lawn, but instead of obstructing a peace officer in the performance of his duty, or some such.

Still, I am disappointed that it even got to a ticket-writing stage.

NTM

[Freddy]

There is a video at the above link where grandma tells her story.

Grandma sustained a cut nose when she was forced against the door
No charges filed
Officer now on paid leave
Internal affairs investigation begun

I smell a lawsuit.

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I've never understood those kind of regulations when they live ... in ... a .... fucking ... desert.

Never mind the fucking desert. I don't live in a fucking desert and our local officials, along with environmentalist advisors, have been advising homeowners and property owners not to water lawns during the four months of relatively little rain. It's not necessary, as the grass comes back green, and it uses a lot of water...this started during the drought of the late 70s and has been kept up as advice to lawn fetish types.

(Y'know....Phoenix used to be a place where those troubled by pollen allergies went to escape. The last I heard, Phoenix was one of the worst places in the US for allergy-causing pollen loads, thanks to thousands of acres of watered lawns.)

I think it's a wonder that grass lawns have outlived their purpose by over a hundred years. Their original purpose was for your transportation (a horse or donkey) to refuel. Now, how many horses or donkeys do you see standing around in communities near you? I'll bet there aren't too many in Oren, either.

While we're at it, if that's so damned important to them there, why the hell aren't they watering the rest of the state?

[Dingfod]

Not only is it a desert, it's a desert in about the fourth or fifth year of drought.

[godfry n. glad]

I'll bet they have covanents that prevent her from paving it over with green asphalt, too.

[JoeP]

Could be worse. She could have been arrested for having a grey bush.

[livius drusus]

[Shelli]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Could be worse. She could have been arrested for having a grey bush.

[Freddy]

My 76 year old mother and grandma told me about this story but I was away from home so I could not post until today. She was so upset over this story I had to check it out. Luckily, there is no silly law like this on the books in NH.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

It's amazing how controlling zoning/HOA regulations can be.

Boy howdy. A homeowners' association in a town not far from here recently tried to fine a 65-year-old lady $500 for displaying the U.S. flag upside down to protest the Iraq war. The HOA said she was violating the federal Flag Code and -- I shit you not -- the association's political expression code of conduct. First of all, there's no provision of the Flag Code that anyone can "violate," at least not outside of D.C. Second of all, the very idea that an HOA can promulgate a "political expression code of conduct" is sufficiently disgusting to warrant outlawing HOAs entirely.

In this case, the HOA backed off when some hoity toity civil rights lawyer in Denver offered to represent the homeowner pro bono. Hooray for that there lawyer.

[Angakuk]

I understand that she received a very handsome apology from the mayor. It looks to me like a case of overzealous law enforcement by an officer with more power than his common sense can manage. Granny should have given her name and accepted the ticket, but the officer should probably not have been writing that ticket in the first place. The sensible thing would have been to simply inform her that she was in probable violation of a city ordinance. Placing her under arrest for being uncooperative, in the absence of an underlying arrestable offense strikes me as being more than a little extreme.

And yeah, in most localities you are required to identify yourself when a law enforcement officer asks for your name. I recall an incident when I was around 19 or 20 yrs. old. A friend and I were walking on a public sidewalk, minding our own business, when a policeman stopped us and asked for our names and what we were doing in the neighborhood. We told him our names and that we were walking to my friend's house. We asked him why he had stopped us. He said that he had never seen us in that neighborhood. My friend explained that he had lived in that neighborhood his entire life and then asked the officer how long he had lived in the town. The officer appeared to get a little irritated at that response and asked for our driver's licenses. I explained that as neither of us was operating a motor vehicle we were not required to produce a driver's license. The law only required that we identify ourselves verbally and that we had already complied with that requirement. We did not get arrested, but I got the distinct impression that he would have liked nothing better than an excuse to do so. Fortunately, neither of us was holding at the time. We would probably have been a bit more cooperative if we had been carrying any of the usual illegal substances.

[California Tanker]

Second of all, the very idea that an HOA can promulgate a "political expression code of conduct" is sufficiently disgusting to warrant outlawing HOAs entirely.

However, it appears to be a commonplace restriction. As long as the prohibition on political paraphanalia is done without bias, I think the HOA could win if it came to it.

First of all, there's no provision of the Flag Code that anyone can "violate," at least not outside of D.C.

The Federal flag code is voluntary for non-federal persons, but many states have less voluntary provisions in their own flag codes. For example California Government Code sections 430 to 439. (Which, looking at it, I find California mandates the US flag in all Sheriff's posses. Do we still have sheriff's posses? How do I get involved!?)

NTM

[Pendaric]

I remember a Stephen King story where if you didn't keep your house up to scratch with the neighbourhood the local monster came round and did unpleasant things to you.

[Shelli]