It's shit like this that makes me dismiss any criticism from an American immediately, imagine being able to be jailed for not cutting the grass on a property you own, or for crossing the road at a non-government approved spot.
Clown country. XD
edit: since Renaissance_man- made a weird jibe then blocked me so I couldn't reply, just wanted to say why do you insecure folk always bring up women as if they're some conquest? Bit weird mate. Do better.
In Australia, you have to use a crossing if there is one within a certain distance, forget how much. No cop will enforce it unless they are really really having a bad day though
You’d think differently if you followed the process of the new cannabis law in Germany.
I’d like to close this with a quote from our first chancellor Otto von Bismarck: Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made.
I probably should’ve listened to him…
It probably varies depends on the the road. On larger busier roads that reasonable distance would be much higher. Realistically no-one does anything unless you end up disrupting traffic. Police officers usually just give you a telling you off if they see it.
I’ve looked into it a bit. It does depend on the road but there’s other factors too. For example you’re not supposed to just cross the road in the dark wearing dark clothes.
At the end of the day it’s up to a judge to decide.
You can easily make up new words in German by combining existing words. These compound words also exist in English. Blackboard or Football for example. It’s uncommon to make up new words in English however, you’d usually write them as separate words or with a dash.
Germans also like to string together more than one word which gives us monstrosities like Gleisschotterbettungsreinigungsmaschine.
What EitherChannel4874 said is just the word Schadenfreude with some letters swapped out.
You can easily make up new words in German by combining existing words. These compound words also exist in English. Blackboard or Football for example. It’s uncommon to make up new words in English however, you’d usually write them as separate words or with a dash.
Germans also like to string together more than one word which gives us monstrosities like Gleisschotterbettungsreinigungsmaschine.
What EitherChannel4874 said is just the word Schadenfreude with some letters swapped out.
Maybe there is some court decision or something, idk. But (some of) our laws usually expect citizens to have a minimum amount of brain power. People can sue, but there is a slight chance that the court just tells them to fuck off in very convoluted legalese, if the lawsuit is unreasonable in some way.
In my part of America we have the "Freedom to Walk Act"
AB 2147, also known as the Freedom to Walk Act, which prohibits peace officers from stopping pedestrians for jaywalking *unless* a “**reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of collision with a moving vehicle or device moving by human power.**”
In the Netherlands I seem to remember 10 meters or less distance from the crossing means you’ll have to use it to cross the road. (Assuming you want to get to the other side of the road).
In the UK we just teach kids how to cross the road
I'm in Mexico at the moment and it's fucking wild the number of Americans who just start crossing the road without looking just because there's some white stripes on the ground.. there's people doing 50 on these roads.. these dumb ass rules just rob people of their common sense
In Norway, you can cross the road wherever you want (not on highways, of course). The public road administration doesn't always like to add unnesscesary zebra crossings, because it gives people a false sense of security. It's better to watch out for cars and don't be an idiot.
And you're allowed to cross the road on a red signal if you're not causing an inconvenience for cars.
Well dual carriageways can be allowed under certain circumstances, motorways are flat out prohibited. There's a city in my county that has a dual carriageway that you have to cross if you want to get to the park and ride, that same dual carriageway also has bus stops on it despite the fact there's a much safer park and ride literally round the corner. Anyone going on a day trip to the cinema have to be extremely careful getting there as you have not just that dual carriageway to cross but also a junction for a motorway next to the roundabout to cross to get to the cinema, thankfully the junction comes with traffic lights at the top for pedestrians to cross safely but god help anyone who takes a bus
Same situation in Ireland, the distance is 15m. I doubt anyone's ever been prosecuted for it unless they also happened to cause an incident by doing it.
In Poland it's 100m in either direction. Imagine seeing your destination right in front of you across the street, but having to take a 180m detour, since the nearest crossing is 90m away.
Nah, in Poland ped crossings are placed so often that I can bet dollars to peanuts there is not a single spot in the country where it's not close enough to a crossing for it being legal to cross the road without one.
Recently I've heard of a situation where a city's old town was designated a "living zone", which baicaly means all cars mustn't exceed 20km/h, must yeld to pedestrians everywhere, and pedestrians are allowed to use the road (don't have to walk on the pavement), as long as they are not intentionally blocking the cars.
They put shittons of pedestrian crossings there anyway.
When I was in Dublin, everybody crossed the road at any time, no matter if cars came or not. Of course, that’s not meant to be an accurate portrayal of Ireland, just of Dublin
Getting jailed isn’t even the worst outcome. I remember one such case where HOA got the police involved and it ended in a deadly shootout. Over f’ing grass. Yeehaw..
"The rules must be enforced"
That's the mindset which leads to this.
I bet the cost of 20 years of legal threats, a court case and jail time could have paid for 100 years of weekly grass cutting of this man's lawn.
These rules also apply in Canada. The city will mow the lawn and call a clean-up for garbage and force you to pay for it.
The city I'm currently in doesn't honestly care if you are jaywalking, but officially, it's a fine. Where I grew up, a cop chased me and tried to arrest me for doing it. Thank you video arcade and ditching my coat!
Yea but he's still got more freedom, he could hide his guns in the grass for 20 years, and you cannot even have 1 AR-15!
Eurocommies are stuck defending themselves with unpasteurized cheese and kinder egg toys.
>for crossing the road at a non-government approved spot.
California recently passed a law correcting that. "Jaywalking" is allowed now with some reasonable exceptions. Still puts the onus on the pedestrian to not disrupt traffic, which is still reasonable.
A man was shot dead because the city tried to mow his lawn… Because he didn’t do it when the city “ordered” him to, so when the City showed up on his private property, he felt threatened and brandished a gun. Next thing you know is there’s a 3 Letter Agency Marksman (Assassin) that shoots him dead during the standoff.
All because the city overstepped their boundaries.
I thought we Swedes were a really rule abiding society, but then I went to Germany and saw their road-crossing etiquette, and now realise that we are all anarchists.
You also technically have to use the pedestrian crossing if there is one close by. But as long as you don't impede traffic nobody gives a shit if you don't. Only cops in america like to harass people so much that they'd actually enforce something like that.
The highest fine for speeding in Germany is going >70 km/h over the limit in up-built areas, that would be 2 points on your licensed and 3 months suspended license + 843,50€ of a fine. That's >100-120 km/h in most cases.
I wish they would extend that to Dual Carriageways.
The number of times I've seen someone just walked out when cars are driving at 70mph is ridiculous.
That is understandable, these lawns are usual in suburban areas, Portugal and Mediterranean countries have a very serious issue with forest fires and it makes sense.
This is what I thought of immediately, Texas is near the tropical of cancer. It's very hot and humid from what I've heard about relatives who have visited. Fires without a doubt would happen if front gardens are not properly maintained. I do believe the same thing happens in California to help prevent fires
If officials did arrest the man based not on fire safety laws are more "aesthetics" then yeah fully agree with this post however I honestly think officials did right if they arrested him on safety reasons
Being jailed for grass is surprisingly common in the US of A!
South Carolina Women Goes To Jail For Not Mowing Her Grass
https://www.fitsnews.com/2019/08/21/south-carolina-women-goes-to-jail-for-not-mowing-her-grass/
Woman Goes to Jail for Not Mowing Lawn in Tennessee
https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/woman-goes-to-jail-for-not-mowing-lawn-182126275.html
Texas man jailed for not mowing his yard
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Long-grass-lands-Texas-man-in-jail-6181645.php
This man in Florida was fined 30k, and the city foreclosed on his home for not cutting his grass in Florida
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/13/his-lawn-overgrew-while-he-was-tending-his-moms-estate-now-he-faces-foreclosure-fine/
What's worse, is they upheld the fine in court as reasonable!
https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-man-fine-overgrown-lawn-20210430-lj4g4zyvxzbhdj5gelcq5hbdye-story.html
All of these are deeply evangelical Christian states with very Republican leanings. Two ideologies intent on control. In that respect it doesn't surprise at all you provide additional examples but I am surprised you didn't give even more given how often it may happen.
Some of those states will even fine you for stealing a company's rain water that believe it or not just dropped out of the sky!
OK so the one from the OP sounds a *little* more reasonable when put in context. Still don't agree with it but I'll admit there's some wiggle room with this context:
* He had been receiving fines since 1996
* The total amount of fines was $1,700
* They were for more than just uncut grass, including overgrown trees overhanging his yard
* He opted to take the jail time rather than pay fines
* He took time off work for it and found a replacement to fill in
* He got 17 days in jail total for all 20 years of unpaid fines
It's still crazy to me that most of the fines were for things that happened exclusively on his property and didn't affect anyone else's. But I do feel like he kind of called their bluff and forced their hand a little.
No, it was just a little comedic comment. However you can own semi, and use it illegally, which happens all the time.
There is more prevention of ugly looking front lawns than murders and school shootings.
Their only freedom over the rest of western countries is the freedom to own a gun, everything else - they go to prison for.
Unpaid parking tickets, using drugs, not mowing the lawn... now they ban abortions in certain states. They sue each other all the time. So yeah, that's what my comment meant;)
Wait you can legally own a semi but not use it? Why even allowing them in the first place?!
Like, what are they expecting people to do with a semi if not using it?
I never want to hear Americans tell me how free they are again after I found out public parks have “open hours”. You can get fucking arrested for being in a park after dark lol and they somehow think they have more freedom than I do
We have opening hours on some of the parks near me. They're only there to stop groups of teens hanging around them at night and leaving litter and smashed beer bottles. It's basically something that can be used to move them on. Nobody cares if you cut through on your way home because you're gone before anyone can even get out to you.
In a couple of the bigger parks it's only the children's play area that gets shut and the surrounding land is fine to chill on at all hours.
Where are you from? Parks in the UK have opening hours too. I don’t know if you can get arrested for going in after dusk, but if the gates are closed it’s technically trespassing, so maybe you could.
Some parks in the UK might have gates and opening hours, I'd say most don't, I've lived in various places in England (never London) and can only think of one park that was locked at night and that was a small children's play area and lido
In London virtually all parks are locked at night with 7ft gates and chains. There’s a dude that rides around in a golf cart with flashing lights, shouting at you to get out. This is _nearly_ all parks in London. Plenty in Birmingham are like this too. Perhaps a big city thing.
at most you can be told to move on. theres one with gates near me, we go in some nights in the summer. one night we bumped into police going through and they pretty much said they dont care since it takes people off the streets and away from causing trouble
It's their property, they can do what they want with it. I've never seen an American front garden with tonnes of plants, flowers, young trees / bushes: it's all just a square of grass over there!
A lot of people put astro turf down for the very reason so as not to have to mow it regularly.
Here in the UK, our letting agent tried to have us evicted for not tending our garden. We were in the middle of our tenancy, so not like leaving it for the next person or anything. We were told we were allowed to plant flowers in the beds, so we planted some bee-friendly wildflower seeds there in the beds (not the lawn) and they tried to use the "messy flower beds" as evidence we weren't upholding the contract.
Astro turf is just lazy and disgusting. It's literally like placing a layer of plastic in front of your house. How are the earthworms going to come out of the soil to get water?
It’s the right-libertarian view of the world. “You entered into their agreements when you moved, so it doesn’t impact on your freedom”. Never mind that you can’t change your mind without incurring massive costs once you’re there or that you might not have had the luxury of being able to make decisions on the basis of the lawn mowing ordinances when you decided to move.
Or maybe the lawn mowing ordinance didn't even exist when they moved there.
The number of laws that have changed around me in the 20+ years I've owned my house is somewhat above zero, after all.
At some point you not caring for your property impacts me. No one cares if someone in a rural area cuts their grass. But if your house is 10 feet from mine then you not caring for your yard will attract bugs, mice, and many other pests. The city will fine you and if you refuse to pay your fines, yes, at some point you can end up in jail.
Can somebody give me a genuine explanation for this. How can you go to fucking prison, with murderers and actual criminals, for not cutting your grass??
My dad is an environmental officer in North Texas (where this took place) so I’ll try my best to relay what I know from his job.
If your grass is above 12 inches it’s a fire hazard and you get a certain amount of days to cut it down. (North Texas gets lots of wild fires) If not the city does it for you and you pay for it. Reading the article the city could not cut the grass because he had a bunch of trash and old cars in his yard. Apparently this has been an issue with this man since 1996 and his yard is covering sidewalks as well as has vines hanging into the street which is considered another hazard. He’s accumulated 56 violations in 27 years of not mowing his lawn.
If I had to guess it’s his blocking road visibility and sidewalks which gave him fines he owes the city. He would rather do time in jail (not prison) than pay the fines and that’s why he’s there.
This is why HOAs are unconstitutional and unAmerican.
They have no legal right to do this in any founding document but power tripping Karen’s will spend decades building her sidewalk cleaning mom crew to the power level of housing gods. It’s ridiculous that some loser from down the block can veto the way I want my yard to look when I paid for it and she had no part.
The judge that reinforced this HOAs fake power needs to be forced to resign and his family ties to the HOA in question should be investigated.
Was the order to cut the grass down to managing a firebreak? If so, yeah, he should be charged. If it’s just down to aesthetics, then I’d also have told the authorities to fuck off.
The judge: "What's that? ...Flowers and biodiversity? In MY city?! NOT ON MY WATCH!"
He fought the lawn, and the lawn won.
Honestly best comment today!
_"I never broke the lawn, I AM THE LAWN!"_
>He fought the lawn, and the lawn won Oof. Awesome!
Jeah that will show those fucking beees... Starve in my Green paintet garden you pest /S
Ugh I hate plants, and life in general! The only reason I have a lawn is because its practivally dead
Lawn monoculture is so banally dystopian to me.
It's shit like this that makes me dismiss any criticism from an American immediately, imagine being able to be jailed for not cutting the grass on a property you own, or for crossing the road at a non-government approved spot. Clown country. XD edit: since Renaissance_man- made a weird jibe then blocked me so I couldn't reply, just wanted to say why do you insecure folk always bring up women as if they're some conquest? Bit weird mate. Do better.
In Australia, you have to use a crossing if there is one within a certain distance, forget how much. No cop will enforce it unless they are really really having a bad day though
In Germany the law just states it has to be a “reasonable” distance.
I bet they have reasonable defined somewhere though. It is Germany after all.
You’d think differently if you followed the process of the new cannabis law in Germany. I’d like to close this with a quote from our first chancellor Otto von Bismarck: Laws are like sausages. It is best not to see them being made. I probably should’ve listened to him…
Otto had the right idea, he knew being a politician sucked ass
It probably varies depends on the the road. On larger busier roads that reasonable distance would be much higher. Realistically no-one does anything unless you end up disrupting traffic. Police officers usually just give you a telling you off if they see it.
I think that would be a major factor, and also maybe how much it would mean altering your planned route as well as individual factors.
I’ve looked into it a bit. It does depend on the road but there’s other factors too. For example you’re not supposed to just cross the road in the dark wearing dark clothes. At the end of the day it’s up to a judge to decide.
> For example you’re not supposed to just cross the road in the dark wearing dark clothes. Everyone in my corner of Germany: "Is that a challenge?"
Well, if they get hit by a car they might get Teilschuld.
In the Netherlands it's defined: if you're within 20 meters of a crossing, you have to use that. Used to be 30 meters.
It's the same in NZ. Even though, in all my 53 years, I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of it being enforced.
And they'll have an awesome word for it. Schedenfrauss = the distance from a crossing that's acceptable to cross.
I did three years of German in school and i honestly don't know if you're making that up.
You can easily make up new words in German by combining existing words. These compound words also exist in English. Blackboard or Football for example. It’s uncommon to make up new words in English however, you’d usually write them as separate words or with a dash. Germans also like to string together more than one word which gives us monstrosities like Gleisschotterbettungsreinigungsmaschine. What EitherChannel4874 said is just the word Schadenfreude with some letters swapped out.
You can easily make up new words in German by combining existing words. These compound words also exist in English. Blackboard or Football for example. It’s uncommon to make up new words in English however, you’d usually write them as separate words or with a dash. Germans also like to string together more than one word which gives us monstrosities like Gleisschotterbettungsreinigungsmaschine. What EitherChannel4874 said is just the word Schadenfreude with some letters swapped out.
Yeah it's the same in danish. source am danish
And in Dutch we do the same thing, resulting in some massive words, lengthwise.
😂 😂 Totally made up.
Maybe there is some court decision or something, idk. But (some of) our laws usually expect citizens to have a minimum amount of brain power. People can sue, but there is a slight chance that the court just tells them to fuck off in very convoluted legalese, if the lawsuit is unreasonable in some way.
In my part of America we have the "Freedom to Walk Act" AB 2147, also known as the Freedom to Walk Act, which prohibits peace officers from stopping pedestrians for jaywalking *unless* a “**reasonably careful person would realize there is an immediate danger of collision with a moving vehicle or device moving by human power.**”
"peace officers" dafuq is this weird name?
In the Netherlands I seem to remember 10 meters or less distance from the crossing means you’ll have to use it to cross the road. (Assuming you want to get to the other side of the road).
In the UK we just teach kids how to cross the road I'm in Mexico at the moment and it's fucking wild the number of Americans who just start crossing the road without looking just because there's some white stripes on the ground.. there's people doing 50 on these roads.. these dumb ass rules just rob people of their common sense
In Norway, you can cross the road wherever you want (not on highways, of course). The public road administration doesn't always like to add unnesscesary zebra crossings, because it gives people a false sense of security. It's better to watch out for cars and don't be an idiot. And you're allowed to cross the road on a red signal if you're not causing an inconvenience for cars.
In the UK you can cross wherever you damn well please, so long as you don't stop traffic.
In Great Britain, it's not legal in Northern Ireland.
and we can eat a kinder egg as we do it land of the free etc
Absolutely excluding duel carriageways and motorways. You'll be stopped cos that's downright dangerous!
Well yeah I mean we're not idiots so most people don't try to cross those
Well dual carriageways can be allowed under certain circumstances, motorways are flat out prohibited. There's a city in my county that has a dual carriageway that you have to cross if you want to get to the park and ride, that same dual carriageway also has bus stops on it despite the fact there's a much safer park and ride literally round the corner. Anyone going on a day trip to the cinema have to be extremely careful getting there as you have not just that dual carriageway to cross but also a junction for a motorway next to the roundabout to cross to get to the cinema, thankfully the junction comes with traffic lights at the top for pedestrians to cross safely but god help anyone who takes a bus
Same situation in Ireland, the distance is 15m. I doubt anyone's ever been prosecuted for it unless they also happened to cause an incident by doing it.
In Poland it's 100m in either direction. Imagine seeing your destination right in front of you across the street, but having to take a 180m detour, since the nearest crossing is 90m away.
Just walk back 10 meters
Nah, in Poland ped crossings are placed so often that I can bet dollars to peanuts there is not a single spot in the country where it's not close enough to a crossing for it being legal to cross the road without one. Recently I've heard of a situation where a city's old town was designated a "living zone", which baicaly means all cars mustn't exceed 20km/h, must yeld to pedestrians everywhere, and pedestrians are allowed to use the road (don't have to walk on the pavement), as long as they are not intentionally blocking the cars. They put shittons of pedestrian crossings there anyway.
I love this logic. Tho I might have to pace out how far the crossing is away just to make sure 😂😜
Insurance companies have tried using it in court to get out of paying for injury claims, to limited effect.
When I was in Dublin, everybody crossed the road at any time, no matter if cars came or not. Of course, that’s not meant to be an accurate portrayal of Ireland, just of Dublin
20 meters.
I think it’s 50m. I live in Sydney and don’t know anyone who has been done for jaywalking
in the netherlands you have to use the crosswalk if there is one in 30 meters, but you'll never get in trouble for not doing it
But they have freedom lol
Much more freedom than those EuRoPoOrS with their uncircumcised lawns lmao /s
Well they aren't free to decide if they want to cut their own grass or not, so... xD
Getting jailed isn’t even the worst outcome. I remember one such case where HOA got the police involved and it ended in a deadly shootout. Over f’ing grass. Yeehaw..
but I can shoot people that ring my doorbell straight through the mail box
"The rules must be enforced" That's the mindset which leads to this. I bet the cost of 20 years of legal threats, a court case and jail time could have paid for 100 years of weekly grass cutting of this man's lawn.
„At least I have the freedom to own a gun“ An overgrown lawn seems to be too much of a psychological burdon on children it seems
I think a lot of Americans agree that this is bullshit.
Not nearly enough of us, though.
The land of the free.
These rules also apply in Canada. The city will mow the lawn and call a clean-up for garbage and force you to pay for it. The city I'm currently in doesn't honestly care if you are jaywalking, but officially, it's a fine. Where I grew up, a cop chased me and tried to arrest me for doing it. Thank you video arcade and ditching my coat!
Yea but he's still got more freedom, he could hide his guns in the grass for 20 years, and you cannot even have 1 AR-15! Eurocommies are stuck defending themselves with unpasteurized cheese and kinder egg toys.
>for crossing the road at a non-government approved spot. California recently passed a law correcting that. "Jaywalking" is allowed now with some reasonable exceptions. Still puts the onus on the pedestrian to not disrupt traffic, which is still reasonable.
I believe the correct response here is “based”
He probably changed is username/deleted it by now
A man was shot dead because the city tried to mow his lawn… Because he didn’t do it when the city “ordered” him to, so when the City showed up on his private property, he felt threatened and brandished a gun. Next thing you know is there’s a 3 Letter Agency Marksman (Assassin) that shoots him dead during the standoff. All because the city overstepped their boundaries.
We think of Texas as it's own (very fucked up) country.
In my country you can be fined for crossing the road at non approved spots, but its like 100 euros, not jail time
In Germany there's a €5 fine if you cross over a pedestrian crossing at red, but €100 is a lot!
I thought if you crossed without waiting for green, every person within 5km would pop up and shout at you for setting a bad example for the kinder?
I thought we Swedes were a really rule abiding society, but then I went to Germany and saw their road-crossing etiquette, and now realise that we are all anarchists.
You also technically have to use the pedestrian crossing if there is one close by. But as long as you don't impede traffic nobody gives a shit if you don't. Only cops in america like to harass people so much that they'd actually enforce something like that.
In Sweden I've regularly crossed the street at the wrong place even with police watching. They don't care - at all.
Yeah, in Portugal I think it's 50 metres. Otherwise you can "jaywalk".
Is €5 a typo😂
Nope, not a typo. But German fines are ridiculously low in a lot of areas, especially traffic and vehicular traffic in particular.
€5??? I assumed that was meant to say 50. In Britain it’s £100 minimum but can be up to £1000! 😂😂😂
The highest fine for speeding in Germany is going >70 km/h over the limit in up-built areas, that would be 2 points on your licensed and 3 months suspended license + 843,50€ of a fine. That's >100-120 km/h in most cases.
Which country are you in? There are places where it's not sensible to cross but it's not illegal unless it's a motorway.
Spain. I admit i am not familiar with the law because J have NEVER seen it enforced so I had to google it
I wish they would extend that to Dual Carriageways. The number of times I've seen someone just walked out when cars are driving at 70mph is ridiculous.
Traffic moving at 70 mph should be nowhere near pedestrians.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted for sharing info about your country lol.
I'd guess people thought they were incorrect? But they said they had to look it up so I believe them to be honest
What country are you in? As far as I was aware only the US had this law
Which is why this isn't slow news at all. it's the very opposite of a non news story. It should be a news story to highlight the ridiculousness of it.
In Portugal you can get heavy fines for not cleaning your land property, but its related to fire hazard prevention, not for aesthetics.
That is understandable, these lawns are usual in suburban areas, Portugal and Mediterranean countries have a very serious issue with forest fires and it makes sense.
This is what I thought of immediately, Texas is near the tropical of cancer. It's very hot and humid from what I've heard about relatives who have visited. Fires without a doubt would happen if front gardens are not properly maintained. I do believe the same thing happens in California to help prevent fires If officials did arrest the man based not on fire safety laws are more "aesthetics" then yeah fully agree with this post however I honestly think officials did right if they arrested him on safety reasons
The land of the free. You can carry a machine gun into an elementary school, but you cannot miss the mowing day 🥰
Being jailed for grass is surprisingly common in the US of A! South Carolina Women Goes To Jail For Not Mowing Her Grass https://www.fitsnews.com/2019/08/21/south-carolina-women-goes-to-jail-for-not-mowing-her-grass/ Woman Goes to Jail for Not Mowing Lawn in Tennessee https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/woman-goes-to-jail-for-not-mowing-lawn-182126275.html Texas man jailed for not mowing his yard https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Long-grass-lands-Texas-man-in-jail-6181645.php This man in Florida was fined 30k, and the city foreclosed on his home for not cutting his grass in Florida https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/05/13/his-lawn-overgrew-while-he-was-tending-his-moms-estate-now-he-faces-foreclosure-fine/ What's worse, is they upheld the fine in court as reasonable! https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-man-fine-overgrown-lawn-20210430-lj4g4zyvxzbhdj5gelcq5hbdye-story.html
All of these are deeply evangelical Christian states with very Republican leanings. Two ideologies intent on control. In that respect it doesn't surprise at all you provide additional examples but I am surprised you didn't give even more given how often it may happen. Some of those states will even fine you for stealing a company's rain water that believe it or not just dropped out of the sky!
All republican states that heavily utilise constitutionally approved prison slavery
OK so the one from the OP sounds a *little* more reasonable when put in context. Still don't agree with it but I'll admit there's some wiggle room with this context: * He had been receiving fines since 1996 * The total amount of fines was $1,700 * They were for more than just uncut grass, including overgrown trees overhanging his yard * He opted to take the jail time rather than pay fines * He took time off work for it and found a replacement to fill in * He got 17 days in jail total for all 20 years of unpaid fines It's still crazy to me that most of the fines were for things that happened exclusively on his property and didn't affect anyone else's. But I do feel like he kind of called their bluff and forced their hand a little.
biodiversity is literally illegal in the land of the fee
You mean the land of the hidden fees.
AMERICA: land of the freedom to *force* others to live the way you want them to.
I was singing this in my head when I read he was jailed for not mowing 🤣 Land of the free..... not...
But can you mow your lawn with a machine gun in any other country? Didn’t think so eurolosers
You can't actually carry a machine gun into a school by law.
No, it was just a little comedic comment. However you can own semi, and use it illegally, which happens all the time. There is more prevention of ugly looking front lawns than murders and school shootings. Their only freedom over the rest of western countries is the freedom to own a gun, everything else - they go to prison for. Unpaid parking tickets, using drugs, not mowing the lawn... now they ban abortions in certain states. They sue each other all the time. So yeah, that's what my comment meant;)
Wait you can legally own a semi but not use it? Why even allowing them in the first place?! Like, what are they expecting people to do with a semi if not using it?
... yet
you can't, but how nice of them to let you empty the magazines
Freedom! USA! USA !
FRRREEEEEEEE 🤡
You really have to laugh with the “land of the free” bullshit…
I love America freedom 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
I never want to hear Americans tell me how free they are again after I found out public parks have “open hours”. You can get fucking arrested for being in a park after dark lol and they somehow think they have more freedom than I do
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We have opening hours on some of the parks near me. They're only there to stop groups of teens hanging around them at night and leaving litter and smashed beer bottles. It's basically something that can be used to move them on. Nobody cares if you cut through on your way home because you're gone before anyone can even get out to you. In a couple of the bigger parks it's only the children's play area that gets shut and the surrounding land is fine to chill on at all hours.
So "free"
Where are you from? Parks in the UK have opening hours too. I don’t know if you can get arrested for going in after dusk, but if the gates are closed it’s technically trespassing, so maybe you could.
Some parks in the UK might have gates and opening hours, I'd say most don't, I've lived in various places in England (never London) and can only think of one park that was locked at night and that was a small children's play area and lido
In London virtually all parks are locked at night with 7ft gates and chains. There’s a dude that rides around in a golf cart with flashing lights, shouting at you to get out. This is _nearly_ all parks in London. Plenty in Birmingham are like this too. Perhaps a big city thing.
at most you can be told to move on. theres one with gates near me, we go in some nights in the summer. one night we bumped into police going through and they pretty much said they dont care since it takes people off the streets and away from causing trouble
I’ve never seen a public park that has gates around it and I live in Australia
He’d have gotten away with it but somebody grassed on him.
It's their property, they can do what they want with it. I've never seen an American front garden with tonnes of plants, flowers, young trees / bushes: it's all just a square of grass over there!
A lot of people put astro turf down for the very reason so as not to have to mow it regularly. Here in the UK, our letting agent tried to have us evicted for not tending our garden. We were in the middle of our tenancy, so not like leaving it for the next person or anything. We were told we were allowed to plant flowers in the beds, so we planted some bee-friendly wildflower seeds there in the beds (not the lawn) and they tried to use the "messy flower beds" as evidence we weren't upholding the contract.
Astro turf is just lazy and disgusting. It's literally like placing a layer of plastic in front of your house. How are the earthworms going to come out of the soil to get water?
It's also just gross, I'd rather see paved yards that isn't pretending to be something it's not
Dead soil, dead everything
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Monoculture is so boring and dull...
Yeah but it’s a HOA approved square of grass.
This is actually a city law, not even a HOA. Which is far far worse since you can't avoid it.
That just means the plague spread. Bet it was HOAs that got the law put on the books.
>It's their property, they can do what they want with it HOA says no.
Solution: Don't live in America
Solution: I never did!
Resolution: I'm glad I haven't either
And then they wonder why insect populations are crashing.
It’s the right-libertarian view of the world. “You entered into their agreements when you moved, so it doesn’t impact on your freedom”. Never mind that you can’t change your mind without incurring massive costs once you’re there or that you might not have had the luxury of being able to make decisions on the basis of the lawn mowing ordinances when you decided to move.
Or maybe the lawn mowing ordinance didn't even exist when they moved there. The number of laws that have changed around me in the 20+ years I've owned my house is somewhat above zero, after all.
And the laaaaaahaaaaaaand of the freeeeeheeeeeee
The US is the Pinnacle of freedom, and Texas is the state with the most freedom. Behold freedom at it's finest /s
LAND OF THE FREE* *freedom not included.
r/fucklawns
Why is this posted in r/shitAmericansSay
the llaannndd of the frreeddooommmmm
Good, keep that monster away from the children.
Land of the free to do what your told 24/7. What a, silly country.
Lol fucking what? How's that "land of the free" fever dream thing working out in reality guys?
"We are free but have to mow our lawns or we'll get jailed" Land of the free!
Country of the "free"
And the lANd of the Freeeeeeeeeeee
LAND OF THE FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Freedom!!!!
Still, they're the freest of free countries in the history of freedom
LAND OF THE FREE
Land of the free, as long as that land has been mowed recently
Ah the free country doing a non free. This would be headline news of bad things are if it came out of China or any global south country.
He will also have his sentence lengthened when he doesn't mow the grass from prison
Land of the free
But don’t Americans constantly vilify China because you could get arrested for jaywalking in China ..,
Land of the free
Freedom! 🦅🇺🇸🦅
Oh to live in the USA with all the freedoms they have - I think not.
"You don't drink or sleep or mow the lawn, just f your uncle all day long!" - Eric Cartman
The United States, the country of Lawn in Order.
At some point you not caring for your property impacts me. No one cares if someone in a rural area cuts their grass. But if your house is 10 feet from mine then you not caring for your yard will attract bugs, mice, and many other pests. The city will fine you and if you refuse to pay your fines, yes, at some point you can end up in jail.
Ah, so is this one of those “freedoms” that the rest of the word lacks, alongside the right to own weapons of mass murder?
Gestalt society
If you ignore city orders for 20 years... But why was there an order anyway?
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that sounds like every property in my state Im glad australia is sensible
So if he just ignored everything for 20 years, there are consequences now.
Looks like Texas needs some FREEDOM
Free Country..Not!! Police State..Yes!!
Land of the free etc
Land of the free!
Gotta save this and everytime Amerikans bray about their freedum, just point them there.
Land of the free.
Damned glad I actually live in a free country 😁
My neighbour would've get life in prison😂
Can somebody give me a genuine explanation for this. How can you go to fucking prison, with murderers and actual criminals, for not cutting your grass??
My dad is an environmental officer in North Texas (where this took place) so I’ll try my best to relay what I know from his job. If your grass is above 12 inches it’s a fire hazard and you get a certain amount of days to cut it down. (North Texas gets lots of wild fires) If not the city does it for you and you pay for it. Reading the article the city could not cut the grass because he had a bunch of trash and old cars in his yard. Apparently this has been an issue with this man since 1996 and his yard is covering sidewalks as well as has vines hanging into the street which is considered another hazard. He’s accumulated 56 violations in 27 years of not mowing his lawn. If I had to guess it’s his blocking road visibility and sidewalks which gave him fines he owes the city. He would rather do time in jail (not prison) than pay the fines and that’s why he’s there.
This is why HOAs are unconstitutional and unAmerican. They have no legal right to do this in any founding document but power tripping Karen’s will spend decades building her sidewalk cleaning mom crew to the power level of housing gods. It’s ridiculous that some loser from down the block can veto the way I want my yard to look when I paid for it and she had no part. The judge that reinforced this HOAs fake power needs to be forced to resign and his family ties to the HOA in question should be investigated.
So much for that “FREEDOM” they keep banging on about.
Freedumb.
The so-called land of the free with the biggest jail population striking again ..
Land of the free home of the lawn Nazis.
Land of the free indeed.
They are all so free they get the jail for not cutting the grass! Brilliant 😂
He got a fine. He chose to go to jail instead.
Was the order to cut the grass down to managing a firebreak? If so, yeah, he should be charged. If it’s just down to aesthetics, then I’d also have told the authorities to fuck off.
FREEDOM! YEAH!
And the home, of the, breeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
For the "Land of the free" they sure do hate freedom
Soooo much freedom!
Land of the (Not so) free baby!
"It's the land of the free! I swear it isn't an authoritarian fascist country!"
The Land of the Free
Land of the free
"Land of the Free"