I personally don't understand what makes a person see a news story, immediately assume that what the MEDIA is reporting are all true and complete facts, and take it upon themselves to call and unleash their fury on the first person who answers the phone. Seriously, folks. You calling me at the PD and ranting and raving about our incompetent, evil officers does little to boast your intelligence or deepen any respect I may have had for you as a general human being. (for the record, she was NOT arrested for not watering her lawn. She was arrested for failing to comply with an officer)
That being said, I do understand that the media has portrayed this story in such a skewed fashion that it is not too surprising that the public has been outraged. HOWEVER...that does not give you permission to call and scream profanity-laced ranting at us. It just doesn't. I have absolutely nothing to do with the whole situation and I don't deserve it.
On that note, may I direct your attention to Mr. Robert Kirby, columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune. In this article he tells the whole story, and frankly publicly announces what some of us have been wanting to scream back at every jerk who calls about it.
"The oldest person I ever arrested when I was a cop was probably in his 80s. I stopped Bill one afternoon on suspicion of driving under the influence.
When I asked Bill for his driver license, he picked blearily through his wallet, then handed me a Polaroid of his genitals.
I told Bill to get out of the car. Realizing his mistake - and that I was now going to want to know who he really was - Bill tried to drive away instead. An incident ensued during which Bill got a small ding in the head.
Passers-by didn't see that Bill was drunk, that he had given me a picture of his doodle or that he tried to drag me onto the highway while I leaned in the window and grabbed his keys. All they saw was a mean cop roughing up somebody's grandpa.
Fortunately, celebrity attorney and legal showboat Gloria Allred didn't find out about that. Orem Officer James Flygare isn't so lucky. Allred came to town last week to save kindly Grandma Betty Perry from Flygare and the forces of darkness.
In July, Perry allegedly became disorderly and interfered with Flygare as he attempted to issue her a citation for deliberately violating the city's landscaping ordinances. She was arrested and taken to jail.
The arrest of an elderly woman for simply failing to water her lawn horrified everyone, including Orem City, which immediately rolled onto its back and tinkled a public apology into the air.
At a press conference after Perry's appearance in court Tuesday, Allred held aloft a set of 19th-century leg irons and asked how many Orem residents would "like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood, and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?"
That's one way of asking it. Another way would be to say, "How many of you would like to see a cranky old woman get what she's had coming for a long time?"
It's a fair question. With even a little digging, Perry no more resembles the average lilac-scented grandmother than a real pirate resembles Captain Morgan.
Perry wasn't arrested for failing to water her lawn. She was only going to get a ticket for that. She got arrested because she deliberately pushed it to the next level and wouldn't let Flygare write the ticket.
I suppose it's possible Jim screwed up. He's been through a lot. In 2002 he was wounded by a burglary suspect, whom he then shot and killed. He also shot it out fatally with a bank robber in 2005.
Maybe he's decided to cut back and just beat up old ladies.
But I'm betting the problem is more a matter of perception. What the public doesn't see is that Perry has long history of confrontational behavior with Orem City, her neighbors, clerks and anyone else who gets in her way.
Thanks to the media, Allred and even Orem City, the public sees Perry as a nice old lady who can't afford to water her lawn, or is too infirm or maybe just forgets. Orem City gets nasty e-mail from all over the world from people who think they know what happened.
The truth is that Perry lives comfortably enough on a retirement plan. She has an older Mercedes in her driveway, and an RV that she drives to Florida. She has a sprinkling system.
Although she can afford it, she asked to have her water shut off nearly a year ago. She just doesn't want to water her lawn, and she's said so to lots of people. Her lawn has been reseeded and had new sod put down by a local church. It was dead a month later. She became angry when someone trimmed the waist-high weeds in her backyard.
When Flygare tried to let her know about the law, she told him that she didn't care, she wasn't going to water her lawn, and moreover, she was leaving town. Then she refused to tell him who she was.
So she got arrested. It's fair. Why should age, gender or race make someone exempt from the law? If it did, you can be sure I'd use "old, fat and stupid" as a defense the next time the UHP stopped me for driving like a lunatic."
Bravo, Mr. Kirby!!
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