Seems as if the town of Clover, SC, wants to keep its streets and yards tidy and clean.\u00a0 No real problem with that, I suppose.<\/p>\n
Even if it means a 79-year old Korean War vet living on a fixed income has to go to jail.<\/p>\n
I wish I was kidding.\u00a0 But I’m not.<\/p>\n
His original crime?\u00a0 Apparently it was not cleaning up his yard to the satisfaction of the town code enforcement officer<\/a>.\u00a0 No one else complained.<\/em><\/p>\n So what if he collects items in order to supplement his income so he can pay for medicine for his disabled wife?\u00a0 After all, he did violate the law – at least in the eyes of one local bureaucrat.\u00a0 And he did fail to pay the $500 fine he was later assessed for not cleaning up his yard.<\/p>\n He started serving 30 days in jail, on weekends<\/a>, yesterday evening.<\/p>\n Two millenia ago Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote:\u00a0 “I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog.” \u00a0<\/em> If I didn’t know better perhaps I’d wonder when Cicero visited Clover and met their code enforcement officer, or the town judge.<\/p>\n Or maybe both.<\/p>\n Contact information for Clover’s mayor and town council can be found at this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"