Woman jailed for 'neglected' lawn (70 Years old Utah)

Source: BBC UK Version

A 70-year-old US woman has been left bruised and bloody after an unexpected clash with police who came to arrest her because her lawn was dry and brown.

Trouble flared when Utah pensioner Betty Perry, 70, refused to give her name to an officer trying to caution her for not watering her lawn.

She says the officer hit her with handcuffs, cutting her nose, although police insist she slipped and fell.

"I tried to sit down and get away from him," she told Utah newspaper the Daily Herald. "I don't know what he's doing. I said: 'What are you doing?' And he hit me with those handcuffs in my face," she said.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6282348.stm

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Life in Corporate right wing amerika

Just why?

especially in the west, they're going to force people to waste it on lawns?

That's about as sick as you get.

Let's chip in and buy this woman astroturf.

- "I tried to sit down and get away from him," she told Utah newspaper the Daily Herald.

er, I mean the police.

She was treated in a local hospital for the cut to her nose and for other bruises before being taken to jail.

Cut.

Wish Libby had gotten his nose cut.

falls DO cut.

or she could have fell against him and his handcuffs, etc.

the story is too farfetched.

She didn't "sit down" to "get away from him" - she fell. She's probably getting senile and paranoid.

I lost two elderly parents - one to Alzheimer's and the other to senile dementia (and no, they're not the same thing) - and they do fall and they do get cut. Their tissue is paper thin. And they do get confused and paranoid.

"She says the officer hit her with handcuffs, cutting her nose"

If she fell and cut her nose, at her age her nose would have been broken and she would have had extensive damage to her face.


See post #11. The cop was suspended for his actions.

Her comments to the paper don't sound senile to me. My mother is older than 70, and she doesn't fall down without help. She doesn't sound paranoid, either.

Why did the police attempt to arrest a citizen for not watering her lawn? Don't the police have better things to do?

was 86 years old. He was still climbing on roofs and working in the west Texas sun. My grandmother raised her own four children and then five of her grandchildren (ages 6 months to 10 years), beginning at age 65. All five of the grandkids graduated from Texas Tech. Those old folks did OK, I think, and they were neither senile nor weak.

Young whippersnappers think that 70 is old.....

In the middle of the desert, why waste water?

and what was their influence in the "law" requiring a "well-watered" lawn?

but that type of information or hard questioning seems lacking in the two articles I've seen. They seem to concentrate on the symptom of police brutality, which they should, but offer nothing deeper into the cause of a stupid law skewed against those in poverty (which are often the elderly, BTW).

This article states something about a "city guideline", nothing more. Since when is a "guideline" a law worthy of arrest?

There are laws.... LAWS... in many western cities that you have to have a lawn in front of your house. :eyes:

She could have landed in Gitmo practicing war on terra.

:P

not arrested for failing to water her lawn, but for (and I find this even more outrageous and frankly terrifying) refusing to give her name.

Good thing we don't under a fascist government...:eyes:

The Associated Press
Published: July 6, 2007

~snip~ Perry was eventually handcuffed and taken to jail, where she spent more than an hour before officials decided custody was inappropriate.

The police officer who arrested Perry was suspended.

"Life is a learning experience, and each officer learns over the course of a career that tactics and responses are not absolute in each situation," Edwards said.

The officer's name was not released. Orem is in Utah County, 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/07/america/NA-ODD-US-Lousy-Lawn-Arrest.php

'He really abused me,' resident says after arrest by Orem police officer
By Julie Espinosa
Special to The Tribune
Article Last Updated: 07/07/2007 02:05:12 AM MDT

~snip~ 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. ~snip~

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6319911

My friend Nate was pulled over on average twice a week for driving while having pink hair. They would hassle him for an hour and then let him go "with a warning" he would always ask what the warning was for and they would tell him to watch it.

I'm not yanking your chain -- I'm serious.

See: http://www.acluhawaii.org/downloads/youthpolice.pdf

Tesha

Where I live it is "let the buyer beware" when it comes to real estate. Shit, if I had my way, I'd have mostly a rock garden, and not much of a lawn.

Maybe if she lives in a town where Cops whip old ladies she needs to lay down a row of Dragon's Teeth to retard the next Nazi assault.
I'll never again deal with a Utah business.

don'tcha know...

To leave your lawns brown and dry! COMRADES!!!! It is the sign of dangerous bourgeoisie individuality to have your yard different than your Comrades. COMRADES!!! Arise and smite these parasites of the Gentrification Soviet!!!

Either that or "Only Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals are preoccupied with saving water." :eyes:

Why didn't office Hatch maced, or taser the poor woman?

I hope she sues the city of Orem for all they got!!

I can think of few other countries that so richly deserve their fate (collapse) as does America in the next few decades....

Since they have obviously conquered all other forms of crime. </sarcasm>

Let these fascists live on the street.

An earlier version quoted her as saying she couldn't afford the water. The city's website lists a 1-inch meter base rate of $22.59 per month, plus 50 cents per 1,000 gallons.

I'm certainly not supporting her arrest, but we should be clear she's likely not telling the entire story. Which I wouldn't either, frankly.

otherwise known as homeowners associations.

These power mad anal retentive control freaks who hold sway over neighborhoods like it's their own little fiefdom are a blight upon society.

must have lawns a certain way, can't have a laundry line, must get color of house approved, can't have a basket ball net on garage, regulations for parties in your own home, etc... the list goes on and on.

I hate them. They are evil. There will come a day when there will be a universal backlash against them. I pray for that day.

nt

:shrug:

Off topic, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Was she sitting down on her motorized wheelchair/scooter? Or was she trying to stage an impromptu "sit-in" like she'd seen on tv?

I do think she is owed an apology, but I think the whole thing is a misunderstanding.

That being said, my friend in Salt Lake City is having to haul water daily to her 22 horses because the pool dried up. It usually dries up in late August, but this year it was dry by early June. With a water shortage I wonder why they are forcing people to water their lawns.

And perhaps they have some really complicated system where houses alternate days they can water their lawn on--like she can water every third Saturday between 7 and 9 pm, except on months that have only 30 days then it's on Fridays, but if the water level goes down it's every fourth Saturday, etc. It could be more than her 70 year old mind can handle to figure out what she's supposed to do.

There may be a reason behind this.

If her yard was severely overgrown and then died and dried up, that might be a fire hazard, among other things. But a regular mowed yard that dries up would not be a fire hazard. It would pretty much be dirt.

:)

I can say from experience that mowed, dry grass can burn VERY well if it's sufficiently dense. If the lawn in thick and healthy, and then simply dies from lack of water, it IS a fire hazard as long as the blades are still upright.

I once watched a small city park, dry because of drought watering restrictions, burn up in about 5 minutes this way. Not one blade of that lawn was over 4 inches tall, but more than an acre had burned before the fire crews got it under control. Something as small as an urban yard can burn in just a minute or two.

this in a nut shell is what is wrong with out society.

Rather then a neighbor going over and, god forbid, be neighborly and inquire as to what was going on with her lawn, they get a cop to do their dirty work.

Many people volunteer to help out elderly residents in my neighborhood. Mow their laws, pick up old news papers, and put out their trash, etc. It's just part of being a neighbor.

Heaven forbid these assholes for doing the right thing, it appears as if they chose to do the wrong thing.

dumb as a bag of rocks.

I hope this woman gets the apology she deserves and gets a chance to kick the homeowners association right in the nuts.

I wonder how many cities and towns have such waste of time laws on the books for petty officials to get their kicks harraassing people like that lady.