Arresting Americans for having a brown lawn

[level.eleven]

I've found that some people really don't understand the concept of "You made your own bed, now lie in it."

I don't think people are saying that as much as they are saying....."Why are you in my bedroom?" The speeding example, involves the use of public roads. The lawn, which I supposedly own, is a different beast.

Who owns the land on which your house was built? This is why all rights, and I despise that word, are property rights. Everything else is legal fiction.

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

I am fairly certain the folks defending these arrests would probably feel differently if they were the ones on the receiving end of this sort of treatment.

I mow and water my grass. If not out of respect for my neighbors then for self respect.

 

[jbombelli]

Do I not have a right to the value of my property?

Is not the ball of putrid filth next door damaging/stealing my right to the value of my property?

Is this not a legitimate function of government, to enforce my property rights? Is this not why we have government?

Since when is the value of anything guaranteed? Why do you think you have the right to have your property not decline in value? Why do *I* not have the right to trash up *my* property as much as I want? What if that's what I bought it for? Since when does your spending money on something guarantee you ANYTHING in terms of value?

 

[Lobo]

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[RichardR]

I can't speak for anyone but myself. I used to live in a neighborhood with an HOA, before I knew any better. After getting tired of their BS, I moved. Simple, really.

Also, I've received tickets before. Not for my lawn, but for speeding. Never occurred to me to refuse to give my name and try to walk/drive away.

I've found that some people really don't understand the concept of "You made your own bed, now lie in it."

I think that you are forgetting that a person is "free to go" at any time, unless the officer has probable cause that a violation of a statute has occurred before they can detain or arrest that person & the person also has the "right to remain silent" before, during & after the encounter.

 

[Lobo]

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[rambone]

I mow and water my grass. If not out of respect for my neighbors then for self respect.

Do you fertilize too? What if they told you to re-sod your property? Do people who lack the level of "self-respect" that you have deserve to be jailed?

Do tax-payers deserve to be punished every time the nannies name another thing they don't like? It costs money to put these old retirees in jail.

 

[RichardR]

Once again, the law is the law....not what people WANT the law to be.

"Law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." - Thomas Jefferson.

 

[Lobo]

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[jsharmon7]

In this type of situation we are discussing the "responsibility" for your inactions. They are arresting people for NOT doing stuff. Both these stories were about very poor elderly people. They don't always have the resources to just drop hundreds or thousands of dollars to re-sod their lawn. That is why it is wrong and immoral for imprisoning people for staying home and "not doing something."

Again, for the 12th time...that's not why they were arrested. Do you really not understand this or do you want so badly for this to be true that you're just ignoring it? Dispute the validity of having such an ordinance in the first place just as some would dispute the validity of speed limits, but their arrest wasn't for brown grass.

Please answer the question I posed earlier: if I'm pulled over for speeding, get out of the car screaming/cursing/going nuts, get back in and drive off, and subsequently get arrested, am I being arrested for speeding?

 

[Indy317]

My point is that the story is saying that "brown grass = jail time" and that is absolutely not the case here.

In these two cases, these incidents are a direct result of brown grass. States have to have general laws in place to enforce their rational, and irrational laws. Had it not been for the brown grass, none of this would have ever happened. Brown grass indirectly caused these folks to be arrested. Take away the no brown grass law, you take away these arrest.

 

[Indy317]

...but their arrest wasn't for brown grass.

They were arrested in the course of a brown grass investigation. They got arrested for brown grass. The grass was brown, the police went to investigate, and at least in one case, the person was arrested. Just because you have an option to not be taken to jail doesn't mean the underlying crime no longer has any bearing on the arrest. In both of these cases, I can assure you the officer likely indicated they initially put themselves into these people's lives due to the condition of their grass.

 

[Lobo]

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[Lex Concord]

Do I not have a right to the value of my property?

Is not the ball of putrid filth next door damaging/stealing my right to the value of my property?

Is this not a legitimate function of government, to enforce my property rights? Is this not why we have government?

No, I don't think you do have a right to the *value* of your property, only its use and enjoyment.

Otherwise, there is one hell of a case for a class-action suit against the Federal Reserve for their destruction of property values via their manipulation of interest rates and the resultant bubble creation. I think you'll find at least 80 million class members.

If your neighbor's lawn damages your use or enjoyment of your property, prove it in civil court; no need to get the mob involved.