Communists overwhelm Florida’s defenses

[Mrleft8]

land of the fee..... 

FTFY

 

[Rain Man]

It used to be everything.... <_< ....all the time......in the 50’s, at least............bedfellows.......under rocks..........in Studio 54..........

It still is, on RWNJ Gab.com....

 

[AJ Oliver]

a plastic flamingo in the front yard 

Ya gotta draw the line somewhere . .  

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

There was a YUGE spike in agricultural activity on Thursday.

(The fun kinds of fireworks are mostly banned here, unless you sign a form swearing that you're just scaring birds for agricultural reasons.)

Update on this: FL has changed our laws to allow fireworks on July 4 and on New Years Eve and New Years Day. I haven't seen any numbers on it, but expect that this caused a large reduction in agricultural activities across the state.

Meanwhile, for those who may think banning gardening is just a FL thing,

Local Laws Ban Front Yard Food Gardens in Cities Across the US

I hope Illinois joins FL in preventing such bans via state law changes, but from the article it seems many other states could use such reform as well.

 

[Fat Point Jack]

Update on this: FL has changed our laws to allow fireworks on July 4 and on New Years Eve and New Years Day. I haven't seen any numbers on it, but expect that this caused a large reduction in agricultural activities across the state.

Meanwhile, for those who may think banning gardening is just a FL thing,

Local Laws Ban Front Yard Food Gardens in Cities Across the US

I hope Illinois joins FL in preventing such bans via state law changes, but from the article it seems many other states could use such reform as well.

Did you get a permit for your chickens?

No, you don't have to with AG zoning

The City of Fat Point allows without a permit.

The rest of Charlotte County requires a permit.

$440.00 buys a bunch of eggs.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

Did you get a permit for your chickens?

No, you don't have to with AG zoning

The City of Fat Point allows without a permit.

The rest of Charlotte County requires a permit.

$440.00 buys a bunch of eggs.

It's $35 now.

With the new ordinance, you cannot keep roosters, and the number of hens is restricted depending on your lot size. You must have an entirely enclosed coop for them, plus, you must install a 6-foot opaque fence in the area around the coop.
The commission removed a $440 application fee, but Commissioner Christopher Constance Tuesday added back a $35 fee.
Residents must register with the county, take a course with the state extension service and submit to county inspection if necessary.

Also, take it to Bird Town Anarchy.

 

[Amati]

Ya gotta draw the line somewhere . .  

Wha.....?  I’ll tell the herd guarding the front yard that...

 

[AJ Oliver]

Wha.....?  I’ll tell the herd guarding the front yard that...

Do they keep the pythons at bay ?? 

Actual flamingos are way cool . . 

Humor alert - my ol' hood in Ohio was mocked for its plastic flamingos 

 

[Amati]

Do they keep the pythons at bay ?? 

Actual flamingos are way cool . . 

Humor alert - my ol' hood in Ohio was mocked for its plastic flamingos 

They guard the septic system treatment works.  Little known fact!  Very modern.  The company rep claimed one could drink the water after treatment.  Until we gave him a glass..... :lol:   the pink metal flamingos laughed and laughed....or was that raindrops splatting on their plumage?  

 

[Chris in Santa Cruz CA]

I grew up there and he's not kidding. The Tacky Police in the Gables regulate what colors you can paint the INSIDE of your home.

As I often do, I support the nutjob libertarians at ij.org. I've mentioned my communist/libertarian proclivities on this case in other threads. Specifically,

And earlier this year, when we went with the Bork approach...

You win the convoluted ugly post of the day award for sure. I didn't read it in protest. Correction I checked the date. You won the award on July 4th 2019 ✌

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

In other FL code enforcement news, Pasco's Predictive Policing drew the predicted lawsuit.

Pasco County, Florida’s future policing program is as dystopian as it is unconstitutional. Under the guise of “predictive policing,” for the last 10 years the Pasco County sheriff’s department has used a crude computer algorithm to identify and target supposed “future criminals.” Once identified, these supposed “prolific offenders”—many of whom are minors—are relentlessly surveilled and harassed. As a Tampa Bay Times in-depth investigation uncovered, police regularly show up at their homes unannounced and demand entry. If they or their parents don’t cooperate, police write tickets for petty violations, like missing house numbers or having grass that is too tall. As one former Pasco County deputy put it, they were under orders to “make their lives miserable until they move or sue.”

Or move out and sue...
 

...

Robert Jones, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, knows the cruelties of Pasco’s program firsthand. In 2015, Robert’s teenage son had a number of run-ins with the law. That landed his son on Pasco’s “prolific offender” list. Shortly thereafter deputies started to conduct “prolific offender checks.” These warrantless “checks” involved repeated, unannounced visits to Robert’s home at all hours of the day. Robert grew tired of the harassment and stopped cooperating with police. That only made matters worse.

Code enforcement is a common tactic to compel cooperation. One deputy said they would “literally go out there and take a tape measure and measure the grass if somebody didn’t want to cooperate with us.” In Robert’s case, deputies cited him for tall grass, but failed to notify him of the citation. Then, when he failed to appear for a hearing that he was never told was happening, they arrested him for failure to appear.

All told, Robert was arrested five times by Pasco deputies. Although the bogus charges never stuck—they were all dropped—the harassment accomplished its goal: Robert ultimately moved his family out of Pasco County to escape the constant harassment from the Sheriff’s Office.

“I lived through a living hell because a computer program said my family didn’t belong in Pasco,” said Robert Jones. “I only thought this kind of thing happened in movies, not in America. We’ve got rights. And I’m going to stand up for them and shut this program down.”

Predictive policing gained prominence in the late 2000s as a way for police to use data to better allocate resources. Cities including Los Angeles and Chicago experimented with predictive policing but have subsequently scrapped their programs because of civil rights and effectiveness concerns. In most cases, police departments used data to identify geographic areas in need of additional resources. But Pasco took it one step further by using data to target specific individuals.

“Pasco defends its program as a crime fighting tool,” said Institute for Justice Nutjob Robert Johnson. “But in America, there is no such thing as ‘innocent until predicted guilty.’ The government cannot harass people at their homes just because it thinks they might commit some unspecified future crime.”

...

County officials all around FL are very busy worrying about mowing grass. It results in excessive fines and fees in some places and, as here, is a police harassment tool used to make lives miserable.

There was about half an inch of rain here with the last cold front last weekend. That's a lot for this time of year. That will probably be the last one of the year and the next rain will be a summer thunderstorm, likely in late May or early June. So the grass doesn't grow at this time of year, but somehow the weeds still do. Having one stick up above the legal height would be almost impossible.

In summer, I see a direct correlation of 1:1 between how much rain falls and how much my grass grows. Half an inch of rain in today's thunderstorm means half an inch of growth. The next day's storm drops 2" and that will mean 2" of growth. So again, having some grass or weed stick up above the legal height would be almost impossible.

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

In code enforcement news,

Communists Overwhelm California Supreme Court
 

Four years ago, Norco homeowner Ron Mugar dared to defend his property in court, and he won. Yet for doing so Ron was nonetheless punished. Norco’s for-profit code enforcement prosecutors—lawyers with Dapeer, Rosenblit & Litvak LLP—charged Ron over $60,000 for what they called “obstructive tactics.” It is illegal and brazen for a law firm to seek attorneys’ fees for a case it lost, but so goes the perverse incentives of a code-enforcement system motivated by profit rather than public safety. Ron fought back with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to challenge the constitutionality of being punished for successfully defending himself in court. Unfortunately, Ron’s journey came to an end Thursday when the California Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal.

“Ron made sure his home was up to code and then he won in court. But he is still being punished with an outrageous charge for exercising his constitutional right to defend himself,” said IJ Nutjob Joshua House. “California property owners everywhere should be gravely concerned that having your house up to code won’t stop for-profit prosecutors from robbing you of your savings or your home. We will never stop fighting for property rights in California.”

...

 

[nota]

just have a boat were the pigs can see it is a crime here in miami dade county

must be behind the building line no front yard parking even by a little bit

coral gables is way worse pickups and jeeps are banned unless hidden in a garage

 

[Raz'r]

In code enforcement news,

Communists Overwhelm California Supreme Court
 

So a guys home is so fucked that the City has to start receivership proceedings to get the owner to bring it up to code. Why shouldn’t the homeowner be on the hook to pay the cities costs? FYI yes, $60k seems unreasonable. I doubt the firm had 100+ hours of billable. But that’s a different lawsuit.

 

[Mrleft8]

Some people call it "weedy, and unkempt", other people call it a "wild flower meadow, or suburban prairie". Our neighbor in England never tended their "garden". We did, mostly because we'd never lived in such a small space, and also we were renting from the local Anglican priest, who took great pride in his espaliered pears, and his miniature apple orchard (6 trees). I will say that his asparagus bed was an unexpected, and very welcomed bit.

 The neighbors across the street, and the ones two doors down used to complain constantly about the "weedy patch".... I kind of liked it. There were box turtles, and song birds, and all sorts of trouble for a young boy to get in to, if he could get over the fence w/o being seen by his sister, or mother, or prying eyed neighbors...

 

[Pertinacious Tom]

So a guys home is so fucked that the City has to start receivership proceedings to get the owner to bring it up to code. Why shouldn’t the homeowner be on the hook to pay the cities costs? FYI yes, $60k seems unreasonable. I doubt the firm had 100+ hours of billable. But that’s a different lawsuit.

Did you read the article? It was a private, for-profit law firm (endowed by govt with a perverse incentive structure) who was getting paid, not the city.

“Receiverships should be a last resort, because when cities use receiverships, they’re taking away someone’s home and likely all of their equity. The stakes are huge,” said IJ Nutjob Jeffrey Redfern. “For-profit prosecutors like Norco’s have a financial incentive to get paid for bringing receivership actions. That is not what code enforcement or receiverships should be about.”

It strikes me as similar to the incentive structure we have set up for civil asset forfeitures. An economic stake in enforcement actions that seems wrong to me. Does it seem right to you that the law firm has this kind of incentive?

 

[Raz'r]

Did you read the article? It was a private, for-profit law firm (endowed by govt with a perverse incentive structure) who was getting paid, not the city.

It strikes me as similar to the incentive structure we have set up for civil asset forfeitures. An economic stake in enforcement actions that seems wrong to me. Does it seem right to you that the law firm has this kind of incentive?

Which the city retained to deal with a scofflaw. And he remedied the situation after being sued. There is some cost there. As I said, the amount doesn’t seem reasonable but the scofflaw, by forcing the city to take action, owes some reimbursement. Maybe if he sued over the amount he’d have a better shot at relief.

 

[Cal20sailor]

So, FL doesn't like vegetable gardens in the front yard.  I can live with that as long as they don't go after old refrigerators or pick-up trucks sitting on blocks.  

 

[Ishmael]

So, FL doesn't like vegetable gardens in the front yard.  I can live with that as long as they don't go after old refrigerators or pick-up trucks sitting on blocks.  

I read it as more like FL doesn't like vegetable gardens in the front room. Anything with a motor of some sort is exempt.

 

[SloopJonB]

Put a rusty pickup on blocks in the front yard and grow your veggies in the bed.