Garden Centre

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The grass is always greener ...

And if it's not, you might get arrested!

Only in America could this happen. According to the BBC, an American woman in her seventies has been left bruised and bloody after an unexpected clash with the police who came to caution her for not watering her lawn, which comes as a fascinating contrast to all the Brits who got cautions last year for watering their lawns during the hosepipe ban!

It seems that Utah pensioner Betty Perry refused to give her name after being upbraided because her garden breached local regulations. However, Ms Perry says the officer hit her with handcuffs, cutting her on the nose, although the police department spokesman insists she slipped and fell.

Ms Perry says she was not resisting arrest, only turning away to enter her house and call her son to help her resolve the confusing dispute. "I tried to sit down and get away from him [the police officer]," she told Utah newspaper the Daily Herald. "I don't know what he's doing. I said: 'What are you doing?' And he hit me with those handcuffs in my face."

The officer in question had judged that Ms Perry's "sadly neglected and dying landscape" breached an Orem city guideline and was attempting to issue a formal caution when the incident occurred. Ms Perry was treated in a local hospital for the cut to her nose and for other bruises before being taken to jail, but she was released after police decided there were "other ways" of finding out her identity without jailing her, a police spokesman said, adding that the arresting officer would not be named but had been placed on administrative leave.

Ms Perry, who says she has never had a run-in with police in the past, has been offered help by local church leaders to clean up her garden.

Labels: garden news, garden tasks, lawn care

The All Seasons Gardener at 7:02 AM

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