Posted on 02/08/2005 10:58:03 AM PST by FlyLow
I have to agree with you on this one. Knocking on people's back door at 10:30pm isn't normal anywhere I've lived.
Normal is not the standard that allows one to sue another. The actions have to be beyond all bounds of social decency. Giving a gift is not.
I really take issue with the news slant on this story.
I really think the girls did something very foolhardy.
I really don't blame the lady who went to court over it. She was greatly inconvenienced, if nothing else. If I were her, I'd have let the sheriff handle it, though, and let him press charges.
And my rural friends here in the Ozarks (granted, we are all a bunch of dumb hillbillies, not smart like y'all) think the girls were lucky not to get 1)arrested and 2) shot.
Same here.
Going into someone's back yard at 10:30pm is though. Banging on a door late at night (lots of people think 10:30pm is late, not everyone lives in New York), is.
Banging on someone's door to give a gift late at night is beyond all bounds of social decency? What if someone left a box full of cash - say $1 mill. You think the woman would have sued over that, she still sould have been scared and would have still suffered alleged damages. The girls actions may have been stupid, and they may have been lucky that they didn't get shot or arrested, but suing after the fact is pathetic. Wanita clearly discovered the girls were not attempting to scare her, but were instead giving a gift, and she still sued.
People from Baton Rouge must be real jumpy about visitors. I seem to recall a case a few years ago about a Japanese exchange student who was dressed as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever and was shot to death as he went to the wrong house for a Halloween night party. He was left bleeding to death in the driveway, as I recall.
Remind me not to move to your neighborhood.
You know, you're such a nice person on many other threads, and so reasonable, I wouldn't have thought you'd post something like that.
I do live where not too many other people do--in my whole rural county, the second largest in size in Missouri, there are less than 8000 population.
We have our share of rural meth labs, dope raisers and runners, and criminals of all kinds. I'm a retired nurse, and my hub is 15 years in law enforcement. The property we bought was built by a really great old man and his wife, now deceased. They moved into town, and a dope dealer rented the place and near destroyed it. Long after he went to prison people would come to our house at all hours, looking for him...we found illegal drugs just off our property on State Forest land...it pretty much quit after a couple of years...
We've rebuilt the place, and it's beautiful, isolated, and quiet. We have wild animals of all kinds and sizes here, and we love our home, there's a lot of our blood in it. The kids and grandkids love it. We have really decent neighbors, the nearest house is over a half-mile, nice family people. Our kids went to college together.
You don't want to live anywhere near me? Fine. We don't want to live near anyone. That's why we're here. There is a code around here, I wouldn't dream of disturbing our neighbors late at night, and they wouldn't dream of disturbing us. We all get along just fine, and would give one another the shirt off our backs, no questions asked. There are young teens in the neighborhood, when they are hunting, they give us a call. When we take extra eggs to the neighbors, we call first. We all go to different churches.
This is a very nice, law-abiding section of the county, mostly because no one would DREAM of going to someone else's house at 10:30 p.m., banging on the back door, refusing to identify themselves, and running off. Our one neighbor is a Viet vet, and works for the government now.
We're all armed, mostly because of bears and mountain lions, but a decade ago, it was because we were running drug dealers out.
Just thought you'd like to know about a place where you don't want to live...
I should've made my post clearer, I'm sorry.
I meant that I wouldn't want to live anywhere where I'd get shot at just for knocking on a door late at night. Answer the door with a gun? Sure - heck, I do that myself. But from your posts before, it seemed like you were saying that if I were to come to your door at 10:30pm, I'd better be careful lest I get shot.
Again, my apologies. I certainly didn't intend to give offense.
None taken, no apology necessary. I like your posts.
Some people on this thread have apparently chosen to completely misunderstand my position on this, because I stuck up for the lady after learning the facts of this case. Frankly, I'll repeat it again: Folks around here think the girls were lucky not to be 1) arrested or 2) shot.
I didn't trust the mainstream media reporting on the case in the beginning, and now, after the facts are clear (and they're on this thread) and after seeing the lady on FoxNews giving her side of it, I'm glad I didn't.
See you around, FRiend.
:)
Good... I'm glad we're still FRiends.
It seems to me that the girls were a bit thoughtless and foolish, to be sure. It also seems to me that the lady went a bit overboard in taking it to court.
I'm glad you got the drug dealers out of your part of the country. Just remember the 3 S's: Shoot, Shovel, and SHUT UP. :)
There must be more to this story. What lawyer would take a case where he only got a cut of $930.78?
It's refreshing to know that America's good-ole fashioned rural values are still in tact. NOT!
You make it sound like you and your neighbors are a bunch of raving nuts. The rural America I know is far more likely to welcome strangers, answer their door with a smile, and appreciate a little human kindness.
The fact that these two girls are being made to pay for this old woman's fear, paranoia, and simply irrational response (leaving town over a box of cookies at the doorstep?) is silly.
If your version of rural America has become the norm, then I must live in some foreign country.
What, did your buddies ping you over here to yank my chain?
I've already explained my position multiple times on this thread. I don't intend to do it again. Why don't you ping somebody else here who agrees with me, and post something equally rude?
Note that these girls weren't available when the door was answered; they had knocked, then run off. Likewise, they chose a backdoor, not the front. Also, it was a bit late for casual visitors.
A lot of people have no idea of the true meaning of that old cliché "An armed society is a polite society".
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