Grandma Arrested for Not Watering?

Yep, I knew Utah was one of those states to avoid.

Imagine this, a 70 year old grandma was roughed up and arrested for not watering her yard.

Oh, but there's more...

The officer who was going to cite the elderly lady for a city ordinance violation, claims she refused to answer questions and dragged him inside when she tried to go back in her home. The officer also claims he resisted her attempts to get away, and she slipped in the process, causing injury to her face and arms. Despite how anyone with a little common sense would view the situation, the officer decided to arrest the elderly lady, and took her, handcuffed, to jail.

The lady tried to explain that she couldn't water her lawn because her water had been turned off, how she lived on a fixed income, was having trouble making ends meet, and how she lived alone, but none of that was enough of an explanation for the arresting officer.

Now, I ask, why is it that the city takes more notice of a brown lawn, rather than taking notice of an elderly person living alone with no water and not enough money in the summer? In an interview with the mayor of the city where the incident took place, he avoided any opinion in the matter by pawning off responsibility onto the city attorney.

The arresting officer was sent home later that day and placed on "administrative leave", while the lady was released from jail. She now says she's fearful of the police, "because they'll hurt you if you don't do what they want."

How sad is that?

All I can say is, I hope there is someone who talks this lady into pressing formal charges of oppression, something needs to be done when it's the police and city agencies who take things too far over something so unimportant.

My prayers go out to the elderly woman, if I lived close by I'd help her out with her yard or at least take up a collection to help her get her water back on. I guess here's no such thing as a good neighbor in Utah. Somebody needs to do the right thing and help the lady, as well as look out for her interests as I'm sure the story will bring out more than one sharky lawyer.

May she always have an angel on her shoulder for the rest of her days.