JUST IN: Good Samaritan pleads not guilty to charges stemming from mowing city park

I'm so glad i live in the UK and not the USA.

Over here it's called 'friendly, neighbourly assistance' in New York, it's called a crime.

Oh and am i right in sayingthat crossing a road can be a crime too?

Jaywalking or whatever it's called....

Pfft.

The guy deserves a firm handshake not potential jail time.

reply to post by Iamonlyhuman


I'm betting a majority of these kinds of cases don't go anywhere. I've been to court for frivelous charges before, and when I talked to the DA before the hearing he said - if you ever tell anyone I said this, I'll call you a liar. But the cops around here are screwed up(paraphrasing there). The charges ended up being dropped and nothing happened. Except that I had to spend over an hour on the side of the road getting harassed that night, and having to drive 2 hours to get to court at 8am in the morning.

I would be surprised if the DA peruses it at all.

Official business? That seems like a stretch. Was it the cops business to make sure that grass got high?


Maybe it was a stakeout to find fairies and pixies an d he cut the grass taking away the stakeout.

[edit on 31-5-2009 by Myendica]

Lets put the blame where it belongs, our fouled-up legal system. The city is worried about who gets sued if his mower throws a rock or runs over a kid. If he adopted a section of the park, this would let the city off the hook for the liability.

By the way this is Sandusky Ohio, not New York and the UK has laws that make this look sane.

This man is obviously Al-Qaeda and should be sent to Guantanamo immediately and water boarded.

reply to post by JIMC5499


This is exactly the case. Our legal system has allowed so many loop holes which in turn will allow the police to arrest you for anything. My brother-in-law, who is a policeman, has told me on many occasions that if you are a person of interest, whether you know it or not, you are breaking the law and we can arrest you.

In the city I live in, if you don't cut your grass, the city comes out and cuts it for you (after a written warning) and then sends you a bill for $1500. A friend of a friends bought a vacant home lot in an empty neighborhood and never maintained the lot b/c every lot in the neighborhood was overgrown. The city went out and bush hogged every lot in the neighborhood (102 lots) at $1500 per lot. If you don't pay the fee, the city puts a lien on your lot.

Don't we refer to this as a "volunteer"?

I really hope the residents of the city stand behind him on this. Several places I have lived it was illegal to put anything on the "parkway" the area between the sidewalk and the yard. However, it was my responsibility to maintain said parkway or I would be fined. I never "adopted" the parkway, and I did not own it.

I had a similar problem with the sidewalk itself. At one of my rental properties, the city sidewalk had a huge tree root tearing it up. The impossible situation was: 1. If my tenants complain and subsequently get hurt, I am liable. 2. If I attempt to fix the sidewalk and damage the tree I am liable. 3. When I called the city, I was informed it was my responsibility to maintain. 4. If I attempted to maintain it, it would require permitting, and plans, including an environmental impact study for the old tree.

So, I decided to rope off the area and limit access in order to limit liability. This was also met with a citation and threat of fine. It was not my sidewalk to limit access to. Luckily, I had a friend in a wheel chair who was able to file ADA complaints and force the city to fix the sidewalk on their dime, and without all the permitting!

Moral of story. Rules, fines, statutes, and definitions are written fluidly so as to be interpreted for whatever suits the governments needs and your only hope is to find a higher echelon of government to pull rank.

Without trying to make a 1 line post...


*sigh* Is it time to hold a revolution yet? When are people going to say 'enough' and start stringing these morons from trees?

Im gonna lmfao if this guy gets 30 days and 400 hours of community service, and is forced to cut the same lawns he was cutting in the first place. Its the american way everyone gets paid. Stimulus plan in action!

Thats pretty ridiculous. He was nice enought to mow the lawn and gets taken to jail for it. They should let him go AND pay him money for what he did. Even though he didnt ask for any money. He deserves it.

He mows it because he can. Or, he mows it because it's there. ...zzzzz...

Next time you are thinking about not throwing trash out the window of your car, think again. Jobs are depending on you being messy... Around here, for one thing, you'll be getting in the way of the community service hours of the juvenile delinquent squads, or whatever....

How silly is that. I was contemplating using a similar mower to catch up on the fire hazard that's forming around our community bike trail. Of course, it's a mile from my house and no one around it is doing anything... not now, tho. I think I'll call first.

I like efficiency.. I believe that paying for a lawn service to cut your lawn while paying for a health club membership to get exercise is evidence of madness.

I had surgery recently, and I am supposed to walk 3 times a day. I find walking pleasant enough but would prefer to accomplish something of worth instead of just walking, so I began to take a picker-upper and a garbage bag to the park to pick up the garbage that those who believe they are the only ones that exist in the entire universe leave behind.

It was a pleasant, and relaxing thing to do... now this thread has added a wee bit of worry to each lovely day...(sigh)

wow.... just wow......

what has this country i love come to?

its now against the law to try and make things nicer for everyone, for free, out of the kindness of your heart?


i am sure i will get a ticket the next time i stop to help a elderly woman change a tire on the side of the road, cause hey technically i could be hindering official business, and we wouldn't want common sense or human decency to get in the way of government bureaucracy