Posted on 06/19/2012 4:41:21 PM PDT by JohnKinAK
A woman from Tulsa, Oklahoma is suing the city’s code enforcement teams after they illegally cut down her entire survival garden. Denise Morrison, who started the garden after becoming unemployed, had over 100 medicinal and edible plants in her front and back yard.
She told local Tulsa reporters that she started her garden, after becoming unemployed, as a way to feed herself and treat a variety of medical issues. Instead of relying on government handouts, this woman took matters into her own hands and decided to become self sufficient. She filled her yard with things like, fruit trees, berries, nut trees, and a wide variety of edible and medicinal herbs. She used these herbs to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure and arthritis.
Is the Self-Reliant Lifestyle Now a Crime in America?
All her hard work ended when the local code enforcement team showed up to her house and forcibly removed her entire survival garden. Morrison says that she tried to explain how everything in her yard followed the local code enforcement rules. You see, she had problems with these people in the past and this time she was determined to do things by the book.
She obtained the local ordinances and followed every rule to the tee. She made sure that everything in her garden had a purpose, and that her garden looked its best at all times. Local ordinances stated that no plant could be over 12-inches tall unless they were being used for human consumption.
Morrison made sure every plant in her garden could be eaten, but that didn’t matter to the city. They could care less about what the law actually said, they were determined to take out her garden. “Every word out of their mouth was, ‘we don’t care,’” Morrison said.
Over 100 plant varieties were removed by the code enforcement team leaving her with no way to feed or medicate herself. They took almost everything, including a number of her fruit and nut trees. She told local reporters in Tulsa, “I came back three days later, sat in my driveway, cried and left.”
Government Crack Down on Liberty
While this case is extremely sad, it’s also becoming more and more common throughout the country. From “nuisance abatement teams” that have been forcing Off-Griders in California to hook back into the grid, to the heartbreaking story of Andrew Wordes who took his life after code enforcement teams seized his home, this country is making it harder and harder for self-reliant people to live on their own land.
While some dismiss these cases as localized issues, I believe they’re part of a larger movement to control anyone who dares to live a self-reliant lifestyle. I think evidence of this can be seen in the federal governments attempts to regulate small farms out of existence, their use of the EPA to seize private land, the formation of the Department of Homeland Security’s Green Police Force, their attempts to seize control of the Great Lakes, oceans, and waterways, and their use of organizations like The National League of Cities to take control of local governments.
“”I thought Oklahoman’s were a well-grounded and sane bunch.””
8 people shot in Oklahoma City following NBA playoff series win
Including a pregnant woman who was injured when she was punched and kicked in the crowded streets
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2886806/posts?page=30;q=1#30
The pictures are cropped shots designed to elicit emotional outcry’s in her favor.
The real shots should have been wide and even from the other side of the street to show what a mess the place really looked like.
It seems overgrown due to the density of the forest she created and as I recall from living in Tulsa, the city takes care to ensure neighborhoods are free of blight and unsightly properties(North and East Tulsa excluded).
Her story is a bunch of bunk and I’ll be any of the neighbors, as well the city, have better pictures of her “herb” garden.
Is this a street view of her home?
https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=7703+W+Parkway+Blvd+Tulsa,+OK+74127&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87b6c031eef7574b:0xf442df5b44ff996,7703+West+Parkway+Blvd+N,+Tulsa,+OK+74127&gl=us&ei=akXhT7WyN-rW2wWQnaWpCw&sqi=2&ved=0CAoQ8gEwAA
Buh Loan Knee....
I hate to be the one to break .it to you, but your commentary is vastly overpriced and overrated. You might want to reconsider, as it is HER property, not the city’s. She has every right to do as SHE wants, as long as no fumes, waste or pests migrate to her neighbors.
His opinion is overpriced as is mine but, the neighbors are entitled to live in a neighborhood free of blight and if you look at the street view of her home it ain’t purdy.
She is likely a slob and should move to a slob neighborhood or the countryside where no one cares.
“I hope she files a lawsuit and collects tens...”
...of millions...
And perhaps the ‘code enforcers’ should have to pay from their own assets and then do prison time...
Tulsa apparently is not in sync with most of the rest of Oklahoma.
“This should’ve been met with a Colt .45. Code enforcement my ass.”
Yes, that would do for starters, and a 12 ga with alternating ‘00’ and slugs to finish the job...
...dead men seize less and destroy little...
Where does the “right” to “ live in a neighborhood free of blight” come from?
If there were such aright, the everyone would be obligated to prevent blight everywhere.
Since you don’t live next to me to see if my yard is in fact a rat infested mess, I decline.
Hope my ‘neighbor’ moves in next to you.... then we could both be happy
and I agree.
But whoever moves in next to you after your neighbor leaves will have to deal with a NAZI. Then you’ll have to get him to move here, then another, then another, and so on... No one wants to live next to an authoritarian tattletale.
No vegetables, no unapproved plants. Make it purdy, make it conform or the well dressed ruling class government types shows up with official looking documents they printed themselves, threats, guns and tractors.
are you two years old? Seriously?
Look at her property in the news story, in the pic I posted above this post and in the various online aerial and street view photos.
Her house looks like crap and unkempt compared to any other yard in that neighborhood.
Yes, BTW, it is apparently a right to have blight removed. Witness the numerous lawsuits across the nation where cities, counties and even neighborhoods sued Banks for the condition their REO’s were being left in and what the effect was on their property values.
I know about it as we manage REO’s for banks and keep properties cleaned inside and out as well we maintain the property.
All it takes is one complaint from anyone in the neighborhood and we are out at the property within 24 hours to assess the complaint and remedy.
Banks are happy as the homes move faster off their books because they are in show able condition and the neighbors are happy because they don’t have this POS on their block looking abandoned.
Conform or else.
Are you the one who decides what is pretty and what conforms?
>> “She is likely a slob and should move to a slob neighborhood” <<
.
And you are a snob and a hypocrite, and should move to a neighborhood of mindless statist thugs that hate everything that lives, so that they can put you where you belong.
(and I’ve yet to see a REO that wasn’t an unsalable pile of grief)
I’m not into the gubmint and their obtrusiveness but there is a line.
The condition of the property is completely out of line with the neighborhood and from Google Street View it doesn’t jive with the other homes on the street.
If she wanted to have abandoned cars on her property and it didn’t look like a junkyard “Whudduh I care?”
If she wants to grow a garden and it adds beauty to the neighborhood “Whudduh I care?”
What she did here was follow the letter of the law in a very self serving manner. Yes her plants meet the specific height requirements but then if she had a warren of hens in the backyard for her own eggs and consumption it wouldn’t be appropriate either.
It’s funny how the pictures are cropped just so and the size is difficult on the eyes, as well the angle of the shots.
I’m sure it’s no accident when in this day and age any smart phone will take better pictures than we have been presented with so far.
I say this as one who has had to face a few fraudsters in the past couple of years. They would take pictures at odd angles and only specifically of areas they wanted to claim I made defective.
When we look at my pictures from the same day and they are full shots one can clearly see where our work ended(beautifully) and some other idiot who didn’t know what he was doing started.
I even had one guy claim I cut out a really large section of drywall and then attempted to cover it up with crappy stucko.
Too bad we take photo’s everyday, with a newspaper and then post them to our vendors.
In each case the setup shots are the same. Weird angles, obviously cropped, degraded quality and some crap that is clearly not our quality and after our work.
This story is a bunch of bunk.
Now, now, no need to divert and redefine the point I was making. I wasn't defending what those regulations are or that they are appropriate or what have you.
Unfortunately codes exist in good part because there are always people who "need a law" for what most consider to be basic good manners and decency. From the careful crafting of the article and photos, it appears that the complete picture is something other than what is painted.
Some folks can go ahead beat their chests and insist that they have a right to create eyesores on their own properties, in full view of the neighborhood, but those who abide by a higher law prefer to love their neighbors as themselves.
The World to Come will be populated by a gracious and considerate people who don't "need a law." That's exactly why it will be a paradise.
You are silly beyond belief. Keep trying though.... at least you make me laugh out loud
Well said
I think you should find a real job.
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