Posted on 07/08/2009 11:23:21 AM PDT by BGHater
Indianapolis - A call to the city's SWAT team was the final move against one property owner who let his grass grow higher than a foot.
Specially trained officers were called out to the 9000 block of Harrison Run Drive as city crews tried to groom one unruly yard on the northeast side.
Harrison Run is a neighborhood well cared for. At home after home in this subdivision near 71st and Fall Creek Road, neighbors tend to their yards. That's why one in particular stood out - or in this case, stood up.
"We're talking about a foot and half tall," said Luis Araoz, neighbor.
But the high grass produced more than just dandelions. Monday morning, it called out Metro's SWAT team.
"This is a first for something I had to run up against," said Lt. Jeff Duhamell, IMPD.
The city's Office of Code of Enforcement responded after a notice of high grass and weeds went unheeded for at least five days. So it showed up with a mowing crew to do the job. But police say when contractor Dominique Thompson climbed up on the riding mower, he noticed the homeowner pointing a shotgun directly at him.
"I was kind of shocked. This man pulled a gun on me, and I'm out here doing a job. There was a lot going on in my mind at that point," said Thompson.
Police say the man on the other side of the weapon was 32-year-old Christopher Rhymes. He touched off a standoff that lasted three hours.
"They attempted to negotiate with him by audio means, loud speakers. They tried to call him with no answer, finally they made a limited penetration into the house. They heard him inside and subsequently he gave up," said Duhamell.
This wasn't the first time for residents of Harrison Run. They say it had become a summertime tradition. While they'd be busy manicuring their lawns, Rhymes was busy digging his heels into his.
"He doesn't want to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood," said Kevin Marrs, neighbor.
The homeowners association says it took Rhymes to small claims court to force him to cut his grass, a ritual that repeated itself over the years.
"There's one in every neighborhood," said Marrs. "I happen to live a couple doors away from it."
At the end of the day, SWAT did its job and a misdemeanor charge was leveled against Rhymes and the grass got cut.
Dominique Thompson
Christopher Rhymes
Dollars to donuts, gravel and dirt are both banned.
The guy shouldn’t have pulled a gun. You do that and the local authorities are going to have to respond whether it’s a swat team or not.
What these ordinances do mean though, is that in the end lethal force will be used to make you comply if you don’t do it willingly.
Is grass (weed) length really something we want to execute people for? Evidently the city thinks so.
We can say the swat team came out because he leveled a gun at someone, and that is true. What it all boils down to though, is this guy didn’t want his grass cut. He sought to keep it from being cut. The city fielded a paramilitary force to make sure the grass was cut.
Just damn... Sure hope they don’t ban Freeping.
Remember folks,your property is not yours.You only think you own it.
yer fast........ LOL, good comeback too.
Don’t look for any of those Code Enforcement jackboots to get the ax due to budget problems. That’s the second most lucrative hidden profit center after local speed traps.
So calling out the military in order to cut grass IS sane?
I suppose that he was silly enough to think that he owned the property since he paid the taxes pn it and his name was probably on the deed.
One thing for sure is that he was eucated real quick.
“Tall grass is NOT worth dying for.’
No its not, is freedom?
LOL perfect
No one wants to live next door to some nutbag slob who lets his yard go. We have that problem with foriegners here. Some cultures don’t believe in cutting grass. The first time they get a bill for $200, they figure out how to fix the problem.
Maybe he didn’t want the man on his property.
Put me on the jury. Not guilty. He was protecting his property and I don't see a problem with him utilizing a weapon to chase off a trespassing agent of the government who had no right to be on his property in the first place.
On my commute to and from work every day, I travel though the beautiful leftist haven of Kensington, MD in Montgomery County. The County let the grass in the median strips along Connecticut Avenue grow ridiculously long. Finally, a crew came to mow it. The result was a ton of matted down grass clippings in the middle of the street which posed quite the traffic hazard during a thunderstorm when it all got wet. Maybe SWAT needs to be called in on the County. Of course, the fine, manual labor-averse citizens of Kensington couldn’t be bothered to take some initiative and keep the median strips mowed on their own.
BTT!
That is certainly the case. Condominium style ownership makes more home available to some, at the cost of mutual ownership of some part of the property.
For the owner in the article, it was particularly unsuitable for him to have possession of an exterior part of the property and to be responsible to maintain it to suit some standard other than his own.
Years ago I ran afoul of a city ordinance regarding the same issue. I was an absentee owner, through financial circumstances, and couldn't maintain the yard to the city's standards. I think they billed me twice for services they determined to be warranted.
He lost that right when he agreed to living in an HOA. Were this normal property, I'd be right with you, and him. He lost in court, too.
There’s lots of places to live where you don’t have to cut your grass. He could move to one of those places. And it works our great for him because not cutting your own grass lowers your neighbors’ property values much more than your own.
I don’t buy that nonsense at all.
Leave the man alone. Like tall grass is harming anyone.
I doubt very much that just any citizen has the authority to mow the grass on public property. And if they did, there would be little reason to believe that they wouldn't also find a way to create an unsafe situation or a nuisance of some sort.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.