Post by: RadioFreeSeaLab on July 09, 2007, 05:52:47 AM
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Woman Arrested for Not Watering Lawn
July 6, 2007
Sam Penrod Reporting
A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn't watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance.
Tonight, the woman says she is traumatized and shocked that she was hauled to jail, just because she says she can't afford to water her lawn.
Betty Perry says, "I never thought they would ever do anything like that to a person that is 70 years old. I've never bothered anybody, I've never hurt anybody."
She says the policeman who brought her home tonight was very courteous, even held open the door for her. But there were no gentlemen there when she was taken from her home this morning and booked into jail.
When Betty Perry heard a knock at her door and saw a police officer standing outside, she never imagined she would end up in jail. That's what happened, though, when the officer tried enforcing Orem's nuisance ordinance against neglected yards.
"I didn't want to tell him anything until I talked to a lawyer or my son. I wanted to see what he'd tell me to do. I've never had any experience before with the law, ever in my life," she said.
As the enforcement officer started writing her a ticket, she tried going back in her house. That's when the officer tried to handcuff her for refusing to give her name and resisting the ticket. She tripped on the steps, scraping up her nose and elbows, leaving blood on her door, her porch and her clothes. Perry was handcuffed, fingerprinted and put in a jail cell, where she sat for more than an hour.
"I laid down in there. I never seen the inside of a jail before. I didn't know how it looked, I was really scared," she says.
When police brass learned what happened, she was immediately released.
Orem police spokesman Lt. Doug Edwards said, "Every officer in his career has situations they find themselves getting into, at the end of it they scratch their head and say, gosh, how did this happen?' Today, I think, was one of those days. Clearly there were some other options available."
After being arrested, Perry is now scared of the police. She says, "Don't ever say no when the police tell you do to something. You better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don't have anybody to help you. You've got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you."
The officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave. Police are not pressing any charges against Betty Perry for either neglecting her yard or resisting the ticket.
July 6, 2007
Sam Penrod Reporting
A widow and grandma spent the morning in jail, arrested for refusing to give a policeman her name when he tried writing her a ticket for failing to water her yard. The woman hasn't watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violates an Orem zoning ordinance.
Tonight, the woman says she is traumatized and shocked that she was hauled to jail, just because she says she can't afford to water her lawn.
Betty Perry says, "I never thought they would ever do anything like that to a person that is 70 years old. I've never bothered anybody, I've never hurt anybody."
She says the policeman who brought her home tonight was very courteous, even held open the door for her. But there were no gentlemen there when she was taken from her home this morning and booked into jail.
When Betty Perry heard a knock at her door and saw a police officer standing outside, she never imagined she would end up in jail. That's what happened, though, when the officer tried enforcing Orem's nuisance ordinance against neglected yards.
"I didn't want to tell him anything until I talked to a lawyer or my son. I wanted to see what he'd tell me to do. I've never had any experience before with the law, ever in my life," she said.
As the enforcement officer started writing her a ticket, she tried going back in her house. That's when the officer tried to handcuff her for refusing to give her name and resisting the ticket. She tripped on the steps, scraping up her nose and elbows, leaving blood on her door, her porch and her clothes. Perry was handcuffed, fingerprinted and put in a jail cell, where she sat for more than an hour.
"I laid down in there. I never seen the inside of a jail before. I didn't know how it looked, I was really scared," she says.
When police brass learned what happened, she was immediately released.
Orem police spokesman Lt. Doug Edwards said, "Every officer in his career has situations they find themselves getting into, at the end of it they scratch their head and say, gosh, how did this happen?' Today, I think, was one of those days. Clearly there were some other options available."
After being arrested, Perry is now scared of the police. She says, "Don't ever say no when the police tell you do to something. You better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don't have anybody to help you. You've got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you."
The officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave. Police are not pressing any charges against Betty Perry for either neglecting her yard or resisting the ticket.
Post by: ilbob on July 09, 2007, 06:03:16 AM
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After being arrested, Perry is now scared of the police. She says, "Don't ever say no when the police tell you do to something. You better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don't have anybody to help you. You've got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you."
Which is exactly why they do these kind of things in the first place.
Post by: Art Eatman on July 09, 2007, 06:31:33 AM
By the time folks around town get done laughing at the cops over this one, I'd bet that the only dealings they'd have with little old ladies would be to help carry groceries or cross a street.
Art
Post by: Antibubba on July 09, 2007, 07:27:30 AM
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After being arrested, Perry is now scared of the police. She says, "Don't ever say no when the police tell you do to something. You better do what they tell you no matter what, even if you don't have anybody to help you. You've got to do what they tell you or they will hurt you."
Well, just so long as she's learned her place.
Quote
She says the policeman who brought her home tonight was very courteous, even held open the door for her. But there were no gentlemen there when she was taken from her home this morning and booked into jail.
andPost by: Tallpine on July 09, 2007, 07:30:20 AM
Post by: Leatherneck on July 09, 2007, 09:13:02 AM
TC
Post by: griz on July 09, 2007, 09:16:16 AM
Post by: HankB on July 09, 2007, 09:25:54 AM
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The officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave.
Rewarded with a paid vacation for roughing up a little old lady. Nice going, officer! 
OK, so there are two spins on the story . . . but if someone - anyone - had treated my mother the way the original posting alleges . . . I'd probably be in jail (or worse) and the one who did it would be in intensive care (at best.)
Post by: SteveS on July 09, 2007, 09:38:12 AM
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The officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave.
Rewarded with a paid vacation for roughing up a little old lady. Nice going, officer! OK, so there are two spins on the story . . . but if someone - anyone - had treated my mother the way the original posting alleges . . . I'd probably be in jail (or worse) and the one who did it would be in intensive care (at best.)
Hopefully, my mother would have known enough to just provide her name and ask why she was being ticketed. She could fight the ticket later.
I am certainly not defending how this was handled. This seems like a stupid thing to be ticketed for and this cop could have handled this a lot better.
Post by: El Tejon on July 09, 2007, 11:23:34 AM
Pack the bags, I'm moving to Utah.
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 11:38:06 AM
But I did just now notice Dasmi's sig...it's wild, crazy, and disgusting at the same time.
Post by: El Tejon on July 09, 2007, 12:14:54 PM
You're soft on Lawn Crime!
Post by: Mabs2 on July 09, 2007, 12:17:28 PM
El Tejon is really Maddox in disguise.
Every time you post I'm reminded of this: http://store.theworstpageintheuniverse.com/shirts.html#CIVILBLACKRED
Post by: Firethorn on July 09, 2007, 01:04:52 PM
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The officer was sent home for the day and placed on paid administrative leave.
Rewarded with a paid vacation for roughing up a little old lady. Nice going, officer!Paid administrative 'leave' is a standard procedure when they're in the process of deciding whether or not you're fit to continue working your job. From my understanding it's not like being on vacation, you're essentially on call, probably at some office somewhere, for them to question you and fill out paperwork and such.
You're on 'leave' because you're not allowed to do your job, but you're paid because you haven't been found guilty yet(or otherwise worthy of being fired/fined/demoted/reprimanded).
Post by: El Tejon on July 09, 2007, 01:48:21 PM
Imagine him goose stepping about kicking into a coma those who fail to pick up their trash cans by 7:00 pm, torturing those who park with two wheels over the curb, cutting the eyes open and pouring in gasoline of those who do not cut their grass, shooting in the back of the head those who have flaking paint on their buildings.
Ahhh, what a beautiful sight.
Post by: Sylvilagus Aquaticus on July 09, 2007, 02:10:03 PM
Of course, our drought was broken about a month ago. Now he can't figure out why he's got those big patches of dead grass in the middle of his lawn. I just laugh, and thank Monsanto and the cover of darkness.
Bastages.
Regards,
Rabbit.
Post by: doczinn on July 09, 2007, 05:21:22 PM
Post by: ilbob on July 10, 2007, 04:51:33 AM
One would think that somewhere along the line a cop would get some training on tact, especially when dealing with seniors who may not be completely all together upstairs.
Post by: Firethorn on July 10, 2007, 08:36:42 AM
I think that I'd at least mention that if you're going to water your lawn, these are some of the more water efficient ways to do it.
Weeper hoses don't spew water up into the air, to have something like 30% of it evaporate before it can soak into the ground, and watering in the early morning(generally when it's coolest) helps reduce evaporation because the sun's not heating everything up and evaporating the water.
That doesn't mean that breaking the law and wasting water on keeping your lawn green when they're so short on water that they're imposing restrictions isn't being an ass.
Neither is berating somebody who's lawn isn't green because they didn't choose to water it.
Post by: El Tejon on July 10, 2007, 09:39:16 AM
Post by: Bogie on July 10, 2007, 09:50:31 AM
Post by: RocketMan on July 10, 2007, 09:52:29 AM
...during the days when the bales would occasionally plummet from the sky...
Say what? Obviously I am missing something here.
Post by: ONE-SHOT-ONE on July 10, 2007, 12:25:20 PM
anyone else think that this might be the neighbor who called the cops in the first place?
just one more spin!
Post by: Gewehr98 on July 10, 2007, 01:04:04 PM
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Say what? Obviously I am missing something here.
Certain countryside fields make good night-time drop zones for folks who lurv their wacky weed shipments.
If you have access to nearby or adjacent field, imitating the drop zone markings with a big "X" may confuse the pilots (probably already using the stuff) and net you your own bale of wacky weed, which you then grab and high-tail out of there before the originally intended recipients figure out what went wrong.
Free enterprise, distilled down to its bare essence.
Post by: Sylvilagus Aquaticus on July 10, 2007, 02:32:56 PM
Did you at least spell something out?
only if you connect the dots, and then, you have to back up a ways from it...
Regards,
Rabbit.
Post by: stevelyn on July 10, 2007, 02:50:42 PM
Post by: Ned Hamford on July 10, 2007, 04:04:57 PM
I'm still trying to figure out how or why a govt has the authority to make a person water or not water their private property.
As the taxman says, the problem is your thinking of it as yours.
Post by: stevelyn on July 10, 2007, 05:21:49 PM
I'm still trying to figure out how or why a govt has the authority to make a person water or not water their private property.
As the taxman says, the problem is your thinking of it as yours.
Hmmmm...........part of the reason my retirement property will be outside borough and city boundries.
Post by: Firethorn on July 10, 2007, 07:21:56 PM
I'm still trying to figure out how or why a govt has the authority to make a person water or not water their private property.
Yes, I know it's not a libertarian idea, but:
1. Many cities have been built in excessivly arid areas, or at least outgrown their native water supplies
2. Reservoirs only hold so much, you can only pull so much water from rivers without massive ecological damage.
3. Water is necessary for life
4. Water is pretty much necessary for modern sanitation levels.
5. Of all the things to cut water usage down on, watering your lawn is one of the easiest to cut out to save large amounts of water. Many such areas also have car wash bans, but that's marginal.
During droughts, it's prudent to limit your water usage.
Personally, I'd simply offer the first 2k or so gallons for the cheap 'poor people have to drink too', and gradually ramp it up to 'You might as well water your lawn with Evian'. Assuming that the water company is either publicly owned or a coop or such. Offer some rebates or such for people to swap out water-inefficient appliances with water saving ones.
Post by: griz on July 11, 2007, 02:40:00 AM
Post by: HankB on July 11, 2007, 03:24:11 AM
. . . Specifically, here at least, there have been times when you couldn't water your lawn and the car washes were closed, yet the golf courses were allowed to water their grass.
Makes you wish you could buy Round-Up cheap in 55 gallon drums, right?