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Governments Gone Wild Archive

Sunday

3

May 2009

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Governments Gone Wild Pt. 2

Written by , Posted in General/Misc.

Governmental members even turn their abusive powers on other members of government:

The mayor of Duncanville, Texas had a member of the city council arrested last Tuesday for speaking out against the use of red light cameras during an official meeting. The incident took place during the discussion of whether the city should spend $59,000 to make street repairs. Mayor David Green recognized Councilman Paul Ford to speak on the contract item.

“Thank you,” Ford said. “I want to let you know that earlier this evening during briefing, Mayor Green threatened me that if he told me to stop talking and I didn’t, he’d have me arrested, and I want to let you know what I told Mayor Green.”

Green became outraged and shouted, “Mr Ford, you are out of order. You are not recognized Mr Ford. You need to cease right now.”

…Before he had a chance to explain that the city could find the money for those necessary street repairs by cutting the city manager’s salary from $179,000 to $160,000 and reducing payments to local chambers of commerce by $40,000, Police Chief Robert Brown grabbed Ford. Ford repeated several times the statement: “Chief Brown, I will not leave voluntarily, but if you believe I am violating the law by discussing this agenda item, I will submit to arrest.”

Brown did not respond. Mayor Green had the audio of the city council video tape turned off as Brown dragged the councilman out of the chamber. Ford ended up hospitalized from injuries sustained during the arrest.

Governments are so crazy!

Wednesday

29

April 2009

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COMMENTS

Governments Gone Wild

Written by , Posted in Waste & Government Reform

Washington D.C. tickets people for parking in their own driveways:

D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) says he’s been getting lots of complaints.

“For the first time in anyone’s memory,” Wells says. “People are starting to get ticketed in their own driveways. This is ridiculous and we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

…So what does the law say?

“Any area between the property line and the building restriction line shall be considered as private property set aside and treated as public space under the care and maintenance of the property owner.”

Basically what that means is most property owners in the District don’t own the land between their front door and the sidewalk, but they are responsible for taking care of it. It’s why you can get a ticket for drinking beer on your front porch in the Nation’s Capital. You’re technically on public space. It’s also why the city can ticket you for parking in your own driveway if you don’t pull your car deep enough into the driveway beyond the façade of your house or building.

To be clear, we’re not talking about people who park in shallow driveways and let the rear of their cars block the sidewalk. The cars are off the road, off the sidewalk and in the driveway – just not far enough back for the city.

“This is ludicrous,” Anderson says, “We were three feet away from the sidewalk. People have parked here for thirty years.”

When Anderson complained to a supervisor at DPW she was told that she could lease the property from the District and avoid future tickets. Anderson, who uses the house as a place of business to see clients and regularly has several cars in her large three car driveway, scoffs at that idea. “The city is not going to extort money out of me,” she says.

What a town.