Make sure you tend your lawn in the land of the free

[Idaho]

Pensioner beaten and jailed for not tending lawn

Jeepers - lucky they didn't check her guttering - she'd have ended up at X-Ray.

[Fragony]

lol that would be funny if it wasn't so hilarious

[Idaho]

It's something I have heard reports of and seen footage of a few times with regard to US officials of any sort.

It seems like once you give someone a uniform in the US they see themselves as masters rather than servants and demand deference. I recall the story about the academic crossing the road and being assaulted by the plain clothes policeman who he refused to give his ID to. I also recall a story about a British journalist being interrogated at immigration control for hours because he forgot to call the official 'sir'.

Perhaps this is also connected to the abuses that american soldiers inflict on civillians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something to do with the protection and status offered by a uniform gives them rights over others? Perhaps a throwback to the slave-overseer culture that the US was founded upon. I'd be interested in others ideas and experiences.

[Fragony]

That's taking it a bit far, just an idiot. Ever had dealings with the french police? They bite let me tell you.

[Husar]

I saw some report about trying to make a complaint in a US police department, that wasn't very nice either. People were either thrown out, scared away with harsh words or told that no such complaint papers were there. Probably not like that everywhere, but some of them seem to be good at getting no complaints after they screwed up.

[PanzerJaeger]

It's something I have heard reports of and seen footage of a few times with regard to US officials of any sort.

It seems like once you give someone a uniform in the US they see themselves as masters rather than servants and demand deference. I recall the story about the academic crossing the road and being assaulted by the plain clothes policeman who he refused to give his ID to. I also recall a story about a British journalist being interrogated at immigration control for hours because he forgot to call the official 'sir'.

Perhaps this is also connected to the abuses that american soldiers inflict on civillians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something to do with the protection and status offered by a uniform gives them rights over others? Perhaps a throwback to the slave-overseer culture that the US was founded upon. I'd be interested in others ideas and experiences.

There is so much wrong with that, its not even worth getting into. Needless to say, you're reading a lot into this.

The story itself - or at least what's presented in the article - is a little hard to swallow.

An old lady doesn't tend her yard and the city sends on ordinance officer to warn her about keeping it up to city standards. Shes a bit uncooperative so he takes out his cuffs and bitch slaps her across the face.

Something doesnt add up...

[macsen rufus]

Sheesh - if they saw MY lawn, I'd be on death row.

People in uniforms getting a little above themselves is not solely a US problem, it happens everywhere, but this does really take the biscuit

[Mikeus Caesar]

I'm sure there were more serious things he could have been doing, such as going after real criminals, rather than little old ladies who are unable to water their lawns.

[Tristuskhan]

That's taking it a bit far, just an idiot. Ever had dealings with the french police? They bite let me tell you.

Do you mean french police is impolite, brutal and stupid? Check a french slang dictionnary: bourres, cognes, vaches, condés... I never had to deal with them (cautiously avoiding it for thirty-two years now) and I'm quite proud of it.

[Sigurd]

Ms Perry, who says she has never had a run-in with police in the past, has been offered help by local church leaders to clean up her garden

I guess someone has it in for the mormons. Or rather older mormon ladies.

Wasn't the entire Salt Lake valley a desert when the LDS first arrived there? They tended and tilled it until it became what it is today. I guess it is dishonouring the pioneers to let your garden return to the desert it once was.
What is the chance of both the cop and the lady being LDS. Isn't Orem about 90% LDS?
Well done promoting church values of peace and love in such a fashion.

[KukriKhan]

Orem Utah is following "the plan" being used increasingly out west here to obtain county, state and federal money for local projects/neighborhood improvement - namely grass-roots neighborhood organizations.

Orem has 21 "Neighborhoods in Action" each vying for pieces of the upper-level gov't funding pie. What they have to do, is:

1. Think up a name for themselves
2. Start a Neighborhood Watch program
3. Elect a neighborhood 'board'
4. Apply for money.

Pro's: get better reaction on public-works projects/problems like potholes, street-signs, traffic signals; better police response times; area beautification money; etc...

Cons: some money goes to silly projects; that 'better police response' gets blended with 'area beautification' efforts (e.g. the neighborhood passes an ordinance to keep grass to 3 inches or less; police become obliged to enforce the ordinance - even if it's not city-wide; 'area Beautification' committee head sees gramma's overgrown yard, calls Neighborhood Watch, who call the cops - and bad things happen).

Speaking of the desert > fertile greenbelt, neighboring state Arizona is getting good at encouraging (and in some 'Neighborhoods in Action', directing) desert-friendly yards vs water-sucking green grass lawns.

[Ronin]

to quote an anoying (but surprisingly relevant in this issue )pop song I heard on the radio just now...

"this **** is bananas!"


how the hell is it anybody else´s business how you care (or decide not to care) for your garden?

[Banquo's Ghost]

how the hell is it anybody else´s business how you care (or decide not to care) for your garden?

I don't know about Portugal, but here and in many countries there are local byelaws and/or national planning laws that restrict what one can or cannot do with one's garden. Planting tree species that grow to enormous heights and over-shadow one's neighbours is one such common prohibition, allowing refuse to fester and create a health hazard and haven for rats might be another. Many residential communities have local agreements to ensure that gardens are neat and tidy.

Peculiar local ordinances, confused old ladies and aggressive police officers are not the sole purview of the United States.

[Xiahou]

I think it's worth noting that the police officer in this case has been "placed on administrative leave" aka temporarily suspended. Maybe a proper investigation will show otherwise, but I don't think clapping the woman in irons was the best way to resolve the situation, so the officer was probably suspended rightly.

[lars573]

Peculiar local ordinances, confused old ladies and aggressive police officers are not the sole purview of the United States.

Wasn't it Divinus who said that there are two kinds of personalities in people who become cops. Those who have a strong desire to right wrongs and believe in justice, and bullies. I can guess which category this doof falls into.

[Duke John]

This seems to be the lawn in question (hidden for sensitive readers):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Louis VI the Fat]

What strikes me, is not the police brutality - we have plenty of that. No, for me, it's the lawn, the American psyche, and the incoherent view of property. How can a people, so obsessed with private property and individuality, have turned a, for me, such private, individual and ultimately petty institution as the front lawn, into a communal battlefield?

I should deconstruct America's lawn, but this article goes a long way:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Decoding the Lawn

The American lawn has become a strategic battleground between the collective image of democracy and the property rights of the individual. The utilization of "borrowed views," in which one neighbour’s vista is another’s property, evolved into a standard for suburban design unique to North America. The goal of making private properties park-like, and thereby communal, led to the development of "no-fence" agreements with the lawn itself as a fenceless barrier. Yet the omission of enclosures around suburban gardens jeopardized the privacy afforded by fence or wall. This ambiguity of the lawn as a threshold between the public space of the street and private domestic space has remained a constant of the American landscape from the moment of its colonization.

This dynamic comes to the fore in publications on lawn aesthetics. Frank J. Scott’s The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds, for example, stated that responsibility for the beauty of the lawn as a publicly viewed surface falls under the owner’s civic responsibility. In the same year, Weidenmann’s Beautifying Country Homes described the proper composition of suburban residences as one that opened the front yards to view, a continuity and transparency that forms one of the chief pleasures of the suburban landscape. The lawn, it seems, acts as a great communal house, a vast universal yard. But while the absence or erasure of overt partitions and barriers produces a sense of apparent democratic openness, an array of laws, codes, and restrictive covenants regulates the use and appearance of privately owned lawns, thereby ensuring the visual conformity of these communities. A defining mark of suburban life, the "visibility principle" describes a visual arena that permits residents to observe each other’s behaviour and lifestyles with an unprecedented ease. Civic duty is thus linked to the aesthetic of the landscape ultimately as a moral law: inhabitants must maintain their lawns as a community place. In this environment the subtle yet unmistakable frontier, where the manicured lawn brushes against the unkempt one, is enough to disturb the peace of the neighbourhood.

More.

[Slyspy]

It's something I have heard reports of and seen footage of a few times with regard to US officials of any sort.

It seems like once you give someone a uniform in the US they see themselves as masters rather than servants and demand deference. I recall the story about the academic crossing the road and being assaulted by the plain clothes policeman who he refused to give his ID to. I also recall a story about a British journalist being interrogated at immigration control for hours because he forgot to call the official 'sir'.

Perhaps this is also connected to the abuses that american soldiers inflict on civillians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Something to do with the protection and status offered by a uniform gives them rights over others? Perhaps a throwback to the slave-overseer culture that the US was founded upon. I'd be interested in others ideas and experiences.

I think this is the most nonsensical thing that you have ever posted here.

[Spetulhu]

Peculiar local ordinances, confused old ladies and aggressive police officers are not the sole purview of the United States.

I know for a fact that you're supposed to get a permit from the local zoning office before painting your house in a different color. They like to ensure that it won't clash violently with the neighboring buildings, you see. This same office will also (when it gets around to it - they're understaffed) remind you that your house is starting to look a bit scruffy and could use some new paint.

Luckily we haven't gotten to the stage where it's a law enforced by immediate police action.

[BigTex]

What strikes me, is not the police brutality - we have plenty of that. No, for me, it's the lawn, the American psyche, and the incoherent view of property. How can a people, so obsessed with private property and individuality, have turned a, for me, such private, individual and ultimately petty institution as the front lawn, into a communal battlefield?

I should deconstruct America's lawn, but this article goes a long way:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Decoding the Lawn

The American lawn has become a strategic battleground between the collective image of democracy and the property rights of the individual. The utilization of "borrowed views," in which one neighbour’s vista is another’s property, evolved into a standard for suburban design unique to North America. The goal of making private properties park-like, and thereby communal, led to the development of "no-fence" agreements with the lawn itself as a fenceless barrier. Yet the omission of enclosures around suburban gardens jeopardized the privacy afforded by fence or wall. This ambiguity of the lawn as a threshold between the public space of the street and private domestic space has remained a constant of the American landscape from the moment of its colonization.

This dynamic comes to the fore in publications on lawn aesthetics. Frank J. Scott’s The Art of Beautifying Suburban Home Grounds, for example, stated that responsibility for the beauty of the lawn as a publicly viewed surface falls under the owner’s civic responsibility. In the same year, Weidenmann’s Beautifying Country Homes described the proper composition of suburban residences as one that opened the front yards to view, a continuity and transparency that forms one of the chief pleasures of the suburban landscape. The lawn, it seems, acts as a great communal house, a vast universal yard. But while the absence or erasure of overt partitions and barriers produces a sense of apparent democratic openness, an array of laws, codes, and restrictive covenants regulates the use and appearance of privately owned lawns, thereby ensuring the visual conformity of these communities. A defining mark of suburban life, the "visibility principle" describes a visual arena that permits residents to observe each other’s behaviour and lifestyles with an unprecedented ease. Civic duty is thus linked to the aesthetic of the landscape ultimately as a moral law: inhabitants must maintain their lawns as a community place. In this environment the subtle yet unmistakable frontier, where the manicured lawn brushes against the unkempt one, is enough to disturb the peace of the neighbourhood.

More.

Something I havent seem people mention is the fact that over grown lanws out in the west can become severe fire hazards. One of the main reasons arizona started to promote those desert friendly lawns was to cut down on the risk of fires around houses. Over in CA FL and even in Texas they are going quite hard to promote fire safer lawns out in the country. May not be the reason for this code, but there is a good reason why they exist and why they should exist.

[Bijo]

People and their lawns. Barrgh!

[Gregoshi]

It's something I have heard reports of and seen footage of a few times with regard to US officials of any sort...

So the vast majority of America's image woes can be fixed by making our uniformed civil servants and military go business casual?

Heck, put me in a uniform and I'll be flippin' burgers.

[AntiochusIII]

Eh, Housing Associations are usually fascist scumbags anyway. Get the **** off my lawn would be an appropriate response to them had it not been for the contracts... Gah!

I tell you, I'd have agreed to those shotgun laws from Florida if it means I can shoot them off their self-righteous conformist arses.

[Ice]

I don't know about Portugal, but here and in many countries there are local byelaws and/or national planning laws that restrict what one can or cannot do with one's garden. Planting tree species that grow to enormous heights and over-shadow one's neighbours is one such common prohibition, allowing refuse to fester and create a health hazard and haven for rats might be another. Many residential communities have local agreements to ensure that gardens are neat and tidy.

Peculiar local ordinances, confused old ladies and aggressive police officers are not the sole purview of the United States.

Thank you. I was getting scared reading some of the responses before this.

[Fragony]

Do you mean french police is impolite, brutal and stupid? Check a french slang dictionnary: bourres, cognes, vaches, condés... I never had to deal with them (cautiously avoiding it for thirty-two years now) and I'm quite proud of it.

Still have bitemarks from these HUGE dogs they have, now I fully agree that picking fights with french police is mighty stupid. Not dutch these guys are, not at all. Ouch. On the bright side, when it's going to rain I can feel it comming, leg starts to hurt. Dunno why.

[Tristuskhan]

Aouch, they released the dogs ? How did it come to that point, Fragony? Did you try to test their sense of humour? Bad idea, they have none... They have strict orders to leave their brains in the locker before going out.

[Fragony]

Aouch, they released the dogs ? How did it come to that point, Fragony? Did you try to test their sense of humour? Bad idea, they have none... They have strict orders to leave their brains in the locker before going out.

Nah they didn't release them, but kindly allowed them to chew on me. I am a hero really. Was on vacation with friends in argeles sur mer, and a group of arabs was harrasing a french girl and I helped her out. They didn't apreciate that, and started to fight. Then the police came and calmed it down the french way. Didn't actually pick a fight with the police.

[Tristuskhan]

Best of southern France! Cool indigenes, nice dogs, smart police force... Be happy the girl did not try to steal your credit card!

edit: your credit card must have been emptied by rude shopkeepers selling crappy food anyway!

[Fragony]

Best of southern France! Be happy the girl did not try to steal your credit card!

Wouldn't be of much use, had to pay docter in cash and had a misserable last 3 days. Good vacation all in all, I am sure the germans on our camping haven't forgotten about us. hehe. Sneaked into the karaokebar at 6pm and treated them on my best 'deutschland deutschland alles ist vorbei'. That is when we relocated.

[Adrian II]

It seems like once you give someone a uniform in the US they see themselves as masters rather than servants and demand deference.

In case anyone thinks that uniform abuse is typically American (or French) they should look at Russia or South Africa. And in case any Russian or South African starts complaining I have one word for them: Nigeria.

"Why Nigeria?" I hear you ask.

Well, have you ever tried to even enter that country without having to appease at least five brutes in uniform?