OT: Out of jail, new lawn

[Norminn]

St. Pete Times this morning has good news, here:

One interesting note in the story is that the picture of the home, in the first article about this owner's jailing, shows the home to be obviously well maintained. I have lots of negative feelings about HOA and condo boards because too many people leave the work to "someone else" and board members can have major headaches from those who do nothing but complain. There would have been a much better way to handle this, including having repairs made and just putting a lien on the property if the issue was serious enough.

I ran across a message board yesterday with question from a fellow who has put down a deposit on a condo in Florida - it was a large condo assn. and HALF of the units were in foreclosure. Ohmygosh!

[HeyBub]

Outstanding! Bless the people with compassion in their heart and the selfless toil and treasure committed to correcting this grievous wrong. The folks who pitched in have earned a "Well Done" sticker in God's own roll book!

Still, it would have been a lot less fuss to have the HOA's president whacked.

[dpb]

Hell, the yard isn't even all _that_ "brown"...

Whichever jurisdiction this is needs to be sure to remove whatever a-hole judge that would think this an appropriate use of his/her power...

--

[The Daring Dufas]

Americans Are The Best

Could this happen in any other country? It probably could but I rarely hear of anything like it occurring anywhere except here in the good old USA. An American will see something that makes him/her mad and decides to do something about it. It's amazing what we Americans can accomplish when we get riled up. Perhaps we all should get mad more often.

TDD

[aemeijers]

The folks in that neighborhood need to get together, take over the association (all within the published bylaws, of course), and legally dissolve it. Then make the local unit of government do their own damn code enforcement. (Hint- a brown lawn is seldom a major concern for them.)

-- aem sends...

[HeyBub]

Are you kidding? Other places are more nanny-state than here. Just last week in the UK a pensioner was fined for putting barbed wire around his garden to discourage thieves. It wasn't because he violated HOA rules, the local constabulary was worried a law-breaker might get hurt.

[Charlie]

Under the Florida Statutes, Any member with enough support can institute the dismissal of one or all of the Board of Directors (citation on request). Then elect some peple to the board that are not anal. At that time they can either ignore rules and regs they don't like or even better amend the controlling documents.

Charlie

[Dick Adams]

Who said anything about anyone with legitimate business?

An hour with an axe is a terribly inefficient way to break into any building. A decent alarm system would provide you with ample protection.

Even possessing a Claymore Mine is a federal felony. But if you just got out of the slammer, it would be your return ticket to be with your old friends.

[The Daring Dufas]

Except for civilian government agents. It's interesting that our servants can have weapons of war to point at us but we the citizens can't have the same sort of weapons to use to defend ourselves against the servants? Hummm, we are no longer citizens, we have become subjects. THANK YOU LIBERAL WACKO LEGISLATORS! Bend over America, there's more of the same on the way. No, I'm not a Republican.

TDD

[HeyBub]

Uh, no. No police agency may possess a weapon unavailable to the general public. True, law enforcement has to jump through fewer hoops, but an ordinary citizen may own a machine gun, armored personnel carrier, or aircraft carrier.

[The Daring Dufas]

Yea, right. I'll go buy a half a dozen. My law enforcement friends carry military sidearms and have M-16 or AR-15 full auto assault rifles in the trunk. The SWAT team has even more toys. When The United States was founded, the farmers usually had better rifles than the Colonial Soldiers. Not today, one of my law enforcement friends told me something very interesting that the district attorney told him. "If you kill someone who points pepper spray at you, you will not be prosecuted." This is immunity for government agents. Most folks don't understand that it's the district attorney who determines whether or not criminal charges will be brought against an individual. This makes the activities of the good old boy network quite interesting at times.

TDD

[HeyBub]

Military sidearms are junk Berretas (Marines may carry Colt 1911s). I, myself, own several Glocks. I don't own an M16 (though some of my friends do), but I do own a full-auto Uzi. You can buy a half-dozen fully automatic rifles. There is a federal transfer tax on each weapon, but it's just a small add-on to the purchase price.

It's not immunity - it's "prosectorial discretion." Further, the district attorney is not responsible for the decision in the case of a homicide. In my jurisdiction, at least, all homicides must be referred to a Grand Jury; they make the decision. Of course a grand jury seldom goes against the wishes of the district attorney...

[The Daring Dufas]

How many boxes of ammo can you go through in a trip to the range with the Uzi?

TDD

[HeyBub]

I dunno. The only time I fired it full auto, I burnt up three thirty-round magazines licket-split. Then I roasted marshmellows on the barrel. Then we had free beer and barbecue.

I figure I don't need much practice with the thing - it's only for spray-and-pray applications (or to scare the bejeesus out of the torches-and-pitchfork crowd).

[The Daring Dufas]

It's my understanding that people are trained to fire short bursts, reacquire the target then fire another burst. I've fired semi auto assault rifles and I have to say that my favorites are the HK-91 and HK-93. I've never fired a full auto firearm before. It's on my to do list or what is it, "The Bucket List". *snicker*

TDD

[HeyBub]

Right. If you notice in the movie "Blood Diamond" DeCaprio gets involved in a gun fight with about 200 goblins. Everybod is armed with an AK-47. DeCaprio's character is firing semi-auto, one shot at a time, and killing somebody with every shot. The squints are all in full-auto mode. They killed several houses, a truck or two, each other by accident, many fish, several piles of dirt, lots of pottery, and lots of inanimate objects. Didn't lay a smidgen

[aemeijers]

(snip)

. Not today, one

Well, in theory, at least, the State AG can always take the case away from the county guy, and file the charges against the local LEO. As can any one of a dozen federal enforcement agencies, if they find a federal law that also happened to be violated. Does it happen often? No, but it HAS happened, usually when some newspaper or TV station makes it so embarrassing that the other enforcement agency has no choice. Thin Blue Line solidarity only goes so far. This is not a new thing- that is one of many historical reasons why most US cities have 3 local (and somewhat competing) enforcement agencies with jurisdiction- local, county, and state. It keeps everybody a little more honest, and reduces the chances of a Boss Hogg building up too much power. (Even though all the duplication wastes a lot of money...)

-- aem sends...

[HeyBub]

Many years ago, somebody tallied thirty-two police jurisdictions in my county (this did not count the federal folks). The list not only included various cities, but ancillary organizations such as game wardens, alcoholic beverage inspectors, medical examiner investigators, and, of course, our one Texas Ranger (there's one for each county). Since then the number has increased what with university cops, transit cops, school cops, and lord-knows what else.

[The Daring Dufas]

I laugh at the old westerns where the hero's six shooter will fire 30 times before he runs out of ammo.

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I've given up reporting crimes committed by government agents. Me and my brother went to The FBI with information on a deputy who was accessing the national crime information system and giving the information to a private individual. He was running background checks for his buddy sort of like a PI. The FBI did their job, the agents investigated, they found criminal activity by the deputy and when the FBI agents turned the case over to The US Attorney. The US Attorney's response was "We don't consider this a serious enough crime so we're not going to prosecute." A felony committed by a law enforcement officer is not serious enough to prosecute? I asked the FBI agents for a list of federal crimes that were not considered serious enough to prosecute people for. Of course they declined. I can't blame the agents because they did their job and they did it well. Funny thing though, The US Attorney prosecuted a sheriff for the same thing when the sheriff dared to investigate voter fraud. The sheriff was a member of a different political party than The US Attorney. I'm sure if I had naked pictures of children on my computer, The US Attorney would be all over me. GEEZ!

TDD