Jail Time For Brown Lawn. And Yes, I'll Use the Word Fascism.

[Truth2Tell]

I said it. Fascism.

From: St. Petersberg Times

Brown lawn means jail time



By Jodie Tillman
October 11, 2008

BAYONET POINT — On Friday morning, Joseph Prudente put on a pair of shorts and his "Grandpa Gone Wild" T-shirt. He took off his wedding band and put his heart medication in a plastic Wal-Mart bag.

Then his daughter drove him to jail. Grandpa had time to do.

His crime? He had disobeyed a court order that he sod the lawn at his Beacon Woods home.

His bail? Zero.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article847365.ece">More here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism">Wikipedia describes fascism as

a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology... primarily concerned with perceived problems associated with cultural, economic, political, and social decline or decadence, and which seeks to solve such problems by achieving a millenarian national rebirth by exalting the nation, as well as promoting cults of unity, strength and purity.

Sounds like an accurate description of American politics to me. And one of the primary outgrowths - symptoms if you will - of such a system is mindless authoritarianism and knee-jerk conformism.

Jail for brown lawn is a symptom. Fascism is the disease.

[ikojo]

1. He probably lives in a sub division with a compact

saying he can do this and that to his house and that he must maintain this or that to neighborhood specifications. To go against the contract means jail time.

There's an X Files episode where Mulder and Scully move into such a neighborhood to investigate mysterious disappearances. They have to act like they are married. The neighborhood has a bunch of rules, which are enforced by the "president" of the neighborhood association.

[aroach]

5. This is ridiculous.

I guess we are very fortunate that the neighborhood association sent a volunteer today to haul away our pile of storm debris since we don't have access to a truck to do it ourselves and couldn't afford to pay to have it done. I had no idea they could have just thrown us in jail.

[MrScorpio]

2. His "God fearing" neighbors are a bunch of unsympathetic bastards

His jail time might be a vacation away from them

[tom_paine]

3. Tyranny is the ONLY thing that has EVER "trickled-down"

And yes, it is without question this is directyl related to the Bushification/Nazification of Amerika.

The part of trickle-down that works is the only part the Bushies EVER wanted to work.

[OKNancy]

4. OMG - I read the story..check out this comment

i guess if youre black and shoot someone the public will make excuses for your poor upbringing,but if you're white and poor theyll jail you for a brown lawn..get used to it..when obama wins youll see more of it

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What in the world is going on in the country? I'm getting sick

[Warpy]

6. I will never live in a place with a HOA

Honestly, I like that canary yellow house with electric blue trim with the turquoise place with the purple trim across the street. The exuberant use of color by some of my neighbors is one thing that drew me to this area.

Car seats on the front porch? Sure! They work really well until you can afford porch furniture. Working on your car in the driveway? No problem, some day I might ask you to work on mine.

Just save me from nasty, narrow people who will make everybody else's life miserable to keep a few dollars of property value.

[ngant17]

7. best solution is to do the work in stages

First cut out as much as the old, dead sod in the front yard as you can. Haul off debris and then fix irrigation. Once you get irrigation running, prep the front yard and buy as much sod each month as your budget can afford. Then work on the backyard in the same way.

As long as you can show the HOA you're doing your best to comply, it will tend keep you out of the legal system, fines/prison, ect.

It's obvious the owner is not physically able to do all the labor on his own, but he definitely needs to find a way to cover as much of the labor costs, as that will be a hugh part of the landscaping business. Definitely needs rent a sod-cutter.

I work part-time as a landscaper, and I do some yards where the owner is living in a HOA. You got to act quickly when you start getting those nasty letters from them. Usually the HOA will make spot checks and start sending out notices when even small sections of yards are starting to get brown, so I wouldn't think they would have suddenly saw the yard when it was all brown and dead and they acting on it. Unless someone accidently sprayed herbicide with it by mistake one day.

You can't fight their system, so the best way is to try to play their game with as much money as you can afford to maintain the lawn each month.