70 Year old Woman Jailed in Utah for "Not Watering Lawn"

70 Year old Woman Jailed in Utah for "Not Watering Lawn"

news.bbc.co.uk

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Not watering your lawn is a crime? Crikey....

Can someone in the US please put this into context? Why is it an offence to not water your garden? surely it's your garden and as long as it doesn't pose a risk to others, what is the problem?

Honestly... Over here in the UK we are frequently told NOT to water our gardens due to shortages!

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Actually, I think this is more along the lines of a case where the old lady flew off the handle. In the States, we do have ordinances, and in some small suburbs and communities, many of them may pertain to keeping your property looking decent. I know in the suburb I live in, grass has to be cut regularly, or the city will cut it for you, and send you a bloated bill. Where my father in-law lives, you can't park even a small trailer in the driveway for more than a few hours if not hooked to your vehicle, and to park it on the grass is worse.

All it really does is keep your city from looking like rural farmland. Her best bet would have been to give her name, accept the warning, and water the grass once a day. Sprinklers are cheap.

Originally posted by stumason
Not watering your lawn is a crime? Crikey....

Can someone in the US please put this into context? Why is it an offence to not water your garden? surely it's your garden and as long as it doesn't pose a risk to others, what is the problem?

Not sure. If she became hositle and agressive and attacked the officers then they have the right to protect themselves.

One possible aspect other than making it look good is the fire danger.

If she has a huge lawn its a fire risk if dry. The western US esp Utah is under a brutal heat wave that is drying out the already dry vegetation and sparking many wildfires. If this is the case a dry lawn becomes a fire risk and a community safety hazzard.

Edit: It looks like she violated a city ordinance. Im betting that the house is in bad shape and the neighbors called the city to complain.

[edit on 7/8/07 by FredT]

The heat wave and fires can be found:

Fierce heatwave fans US wildfires

The house is in bad shape, but does not seem to have a lawn at all


Taken from
deseretnews.com...

After reading the article, it seems the officer may have accted in an innapropriate manner, but we need to hear his side of the events before making a decison.

[edit on 7/8/07 by FredT]

She should have moved to Florida. The water restrictions here are perfect for her. You can only water the lawn 2 times a week.

She may have broken some rules that are set by the Homeowners' Association.

The H.O.A.'s are getting to be the true problem with our country. They are the first sign of a Corporate State.

[edit on 8-7-2007 by Kiddergold]

That's funny, Go to Jail for "NOT" watering your lawn....or go to Jail "For" watering your lawn, you cant win.

After living in Utah for some time I'm not at all suprised.

Utah is 97% Mormon, a religous belief that started in the states, and has unconventional beliefs compaired to others, to say the least. Basicly Mormons are a strict conservitive group of people, and some of them strive for the "perfect" neighborhood. For example, "Pleasntville", an all white community, man and a wife with, in the Mormons case, eight kids, and a nice green lawn with a white picket fence.

When I lived there Utah was one of the strangest places to live, not being a Mormon and all, and it dosn't suprise me when strange things happen there either.

-Reform America

I am sure that ordinance had something to do with the dry conditions they are having out there right now, which might a very high fire risk. Sending her to jail definitely seems excessive though, even if she did put up a fight. She's 70 for heavens sake!

When we lived in our townhome we had to deal with HOA. They are pains. We HAD to water the front lawn, keep the front area nice BUT couldn't put up a fence to keep the little creeps from ruining the yard in the first place out. These kids were menaces. I went out one time and there was about 4 kids sitting on the hood of MY car. The HOA only cares about their rules, the appearance of the common areas. You could be fined and they could probably go further then that, but I didn't check into ours when we lived there.