NANNY STATE AT IT'S FINEST

NEALZ NUZE ^ | 1 August 2008 | NEAL BOORTZ

[Turret Gunner A20]

A man in Minneapolis by the name of Tom Kleven is training for a triathlon. You know ... the bike, swim, run ... an exhausting physical accomplishment. So on Tuesday night Tom goes to Lake Nokomis to go for a swim.

When he returned to shore, there are Minneapolis Park Police waiting for him. They are waiting because they wanted to cite Tom with a violation for "swimming too far."

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S529469.shtml?cat=1 p>

Tom was attempting to swim shore to shore, but when he got half way across the lake, a lifeguard ordered him to turn around. When he returned, the officers cited him for a misdemeanor for an unauthorized beach-swim. He now faces a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

In the future, if Kevin wants to swim across the lake, he has to go to the government to obtain a $115 permit. Then when he wants to swim, he must be escorted by a lifeguard and a boat while he swims across the lake.

Unbelievable.

[JTHomes]

Open water swimming alone doesn’t leave much room for error, but people should be allowed to assume their own risks.

[djsherin]

What?! How can the government seriously look a citizen in the eye and say this is “good”?

Oh! It’s for my safety! I get it now! How stupid and foolish of me to assume I can look after myself.

[PGR88]

Are we still a free-country?

[MrB]

Flip it -

the left doesn’t want to ALLOW you to be responsible for yourself.

[From The Deer Stand]

So much for “Minnesota Nice.” Minneapolis, the same city that gives their police officers awards for raiding the wrong home and terrorizing an innocent family.

[rockabyebaby]

Hmmmmmmmm, what communist country did this happen in????

[HighlyOpinionated]

Are they now citing people who jump to their deaths from bridges, too? I can see the headline now: Family cited in suicide's death due to unauthorized jump from bridge. The article contends that the suicide failed to file the appropriate papers with the DOT/Bridge Division or pay the $500 cost for the permit. Therefore the entire family must spend 90 days in jail or do 250 hours of community service picking up litter along the roadway near said bridge or pay a fine of $5000 (for the rescue of the body), or all three. MAROONS all of them, MAROONS!

[rhema]

Nice to see Minnesota in the news again. With the misadventures of Jesse the Self-Promoter, Keith Ellison, and Al Franken constantly on display, what’s a little more ignominy?

[mrs. a]

“Tom was attempting to swim shore to shore, but when he got half way across the lake, a lifeguard ordered him to turn around.”

Waitaminnit...

He was HALFWAY across and they made him turn around because it was unsafe for him to swim the entire distance?

Makes sense to me ;-/

[Dead Corpse]

The Peoples Republik of Minnesnowta.

My home, Nanny State, home...

[Melpomene]

I know this is contrary to popular sentiment, but every year, there are stories of idiot campers getting lost in the mountains in the middle of some blizzard because they were either too incompetent to check the weather, or too incompetent to recognize their own limitations. So taxpayers spend who know how much money and resources trying to save their sorry behinds from their own stupidity. So I’m not totally against the idea of the state requiring some sort of permit before engaging in dangerous activity, especially if the state is fronting the bill for a rescue mission.

[Joe 6-pack]

Damn....I thought swimming in Louisiana was dangerous.

[olivia3boys]

Its finest, not it’s finest.

[SatinDoll]

I live in the Pacific Northwest. Yes, people should be allowed to do stupid and risky things, but not when it costs big bucks and the lives of others to bring back survivors or the dead.

There have been so many rescues of climbers, dead or alive, during inclement weather off of Mt.Hood, that the families of the dead or rescued are being charged with the tens of thousands of dollars many of those multi-day & night rescues have cost. There was a spectacular helicopter accident that would have been totally unnecessary if the “adventurous” and “experienced” climbers had gone climbing elsewhere, rather than tackling a mountain known to have rapidly changeable weather and treacherous glaciers.

[rockabyebaby]

Geez, if I hadn’t read the article I would swear this was happening in MA, they tax, fine, add a fee to anything and everything possible here!

[READINABLUESTATE]

Minneapolis is money hungry. 20 months ago the city council quietly changed the rules for the city inspections department.
If your property is cited for anything they wait a month if you comply, but don’t tell anybody they send you an administrative citation for $200. Then a month later it doubles, (with late fees) into $440.
They used to give you several months and then they would only send you a summons for court.
In the last 20 months they have raked in over 3.5 million dollars from poor and low income homeowners, who of course can’t pay the fine so it is assessed to their already too high property taxes which drives up peoples mortgage payments and for some into foreclosure.
A neighbor of mine was cited because his garage door wouldn’t close all the way. He was too old/poor to fix it and the fines eventually ran up to near $10,000. It is now an abandoned eyesore house and due for demolition.

They have become ruthless A—H-—’s and so this story about the swimmer is not very surprising to me.

[Freedom4US]

A couple states skim off a bit of camping and climbing, backcountry permits for the SAR guys kitty.

Oddly enough apparently it’s the SAR guys who don’t want to charge the folks getting lost or in over their heads. At least, some of them. The reason being psychological - “Keep going little Jenny - you can make it! (no shoes, -10 below, snowdrifts) because they are trying to save face or money.

What would torque me off, now that cell-phones are everywhere the number of calls has had to skyrocket. “I’m tired, come and get me”. lol.

[fr_freak]

There have been so many rescues of climbers, dead or alive, during inclement weather off of Mt.Hood, that the families of the dead or rescued are being charged with the tens of thousands of dollars many of those multi-day & night rescues have cost.

OK, so what's the problem? If the people that do risky things and have to be rescued, then pay the costs for the rescue, I don't see where we have a problem. It would both discourage risky behavior without outlawing it, and would prevent taxpayers from being on the hook (for all of it). Sounds like a win-win.

Frankly, even if we had to pay for all of these rescues, I would still rather be free. The pattern that has occurred since the welfare state began is this: First, we exist in a state of almost complete freedom, but there are potential consequences. Second, some government busybody decides that consequences are bad, mmmkay, and so we should implement welfare plans, financial bailouts, "free" medical care, etc. Third, the plans that have been implemented in order to remove consequences are now used as an excuse to curtail or end the freedoms that prompted the plans in the first place. Fourth, now we can't do squat without a government permit and "supervision", which means we are all a bunch of kids with government as mommy and daddy.

I would rather just pay the money and be free.

[SatinDoll]

That is what the article quoted basically said. You can’t swim across that body of water until you paid up front and someone was there to rescue you if you had a problem.