Arrogant Jerk

I was reasonably appalled today to learn that the police in my town, Orem, Utah, arrested a 70 year old woman for not watering her lawn.

What’s more, she was assaulted, handcuffed, and spent a couple hours in jail. Really.

Let’s review some facts as reported by my local news:

• Betty Perry is a frail widow who has done nothing in more than 70 years to cross the law. How many of us can say that?
• Betty, admittedly, hasn’t watered her lawn for a while. Apparently this ‘could’ be construed as a violation of our local nuisance ordinance against neglected yards. Bare in mind that the humble community of Orem exists in a high desert region susceptible to draught, and that we are often placed under watering restrictions that prohibit us from watering our lawns. Under penalty of law, by the way.
• An unnamed Arrogant Jerk Orem Officer decided to award her with a ticket for not watering her lawn in our drought-stricken community, apparently offended by the brownness of her lawn. Please take notice that our state is currently suffering the most severe firestorm ever recorded, with water in short supply and almost every natural environment exhibiting a crispy brown color.
• When said Arrogant Jerk Orem Officer asked for her name, the terrified elderly woman retreated into her home to contact her son about what she should do. She was frightened, and wanted to gain some clarity on what to do from a familiar and trusted source.
• Our man, the Arrogant Jerk Officer, apparently deemed this behavior aggressive and confrontational, and opted to force the woman to the ground and handcuff her. In the process he smashed the woman’s face on her door and front steps, relieving her of enough blood to have stained her shirt and spotted up her sidewalk.
• Next, in an apparent move to squelch this dangerous criminal threat, the Arrogant Jerk Officer threw Betty into the clink and booked her.
• 70 year old Betty Perry remained in an isolated jail cell for a couple of hours, until reasonable officers got word of the story and had a ‘what the hell did we just do?’ moment.
• Betty was freed, and apparently apologized to. I hope the apology is accompanied by a check in the amount of whatever it takes to buy Betty some Astroturf.
• The offending Arrogant Jerk Officer was given paid administrative leave. Do you think they’ll give me the day off with pay the next time I beat the hell out of an old lady? Give me a break; I say we cuff that Arrogant Jerk and let Betty enact some ‘keep your nose out of my business’ with a tire iron.

Wow. I can’t believe it, either. Well, actually I can; cops seem to do this sort of stuff often, and it is always unbelievable.

I was thinking about writing this up from the moment I heard the story. I actually committed to writing it as I drove home this evening and passed a new business at the entrance to my neighborhood; it is a hideous eyesore that deserves to be mentioned because it is exemplary of a greater problem we have here in Orem; Ugly Businesses. This new place literally has tens of used vacuums chained together around the circumference of their parking lot. Yeah; that’ll raise my property value. Betty’s dead lawn doesn’t hold a candle to this ugliness.

Why is this relevant? Here you go: While Mr. Arrogant Jerk Officer was roughing up the frail old lady down the block for not keeping her yard to standard, there are a hundred-and-one ugly businesses strewn across my town, polluting one of the most beautiful vista’s on our planet with yellow and purple paint jobs, ugly vinyl signage, and parking lots full of used vacuum cleaners.

This is a serious problem, and our local law enforcement apparently cannot see the forest for the trees. My town is growing uglier by the minute, and the police are roughing up old ladies instead of protecting, serving, and cleaning up the real offenders; ugly businesses.

The Orem Police Department: What a bunch of Arrogant Jerks.

UPDATE: This story has now been upgraded to the national interest. Look Here to see the front page story on www.foxnews.com, and check out The Drudge Report, where the story was featured on Matt’s news page.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 2:46 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.