I personally think it's awesome that the police have nothing better to do

You can hate the law but that does not change the fact it is a law.

And your first amendment right does not allow for causing a public disturbance

She may well have said he could keep the pole but she changed her mind when he kept being a jerk. I think she could justify that based on his actions and reassessing the situation where she probably concluded he would just put the pole back up.

I may not like what happened but there are ways you go about trying to remedy a situation. He had several warning apparently so he should have just shut up and let the matter go thru the system such as he was trying with his state representative. I seriously doubt anybody would side with him though. Nobody would grant a waiver out of fear of an injury and subsequent lawsuit. And I do not see the law being overturned.
 
Alien Allen said:
You can hate the law but that does not change the fact it is a law.

And your first amendment right does not allow for causing a public disturbance

She may well have said he could keep the pole but she changed her mind when he kept being a jerk. I think she could justify that based on his actions and reassessing the situation where she probably concluded he would just put the pole back up.

I may not like what happened but there are ways you go about trying to remedy a situation. He had several warning apparently so he should have just shut up and let the matter go thru the system such as he was trying with his state representative. I seriously doubt anybody would side with him though. Nobody would grant a waiver out of fear of an injury and subsequent lawsuit. And I do not see the law being overturned.
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You sure talk meek, but would you really be so meek if the police rocked up one morning at stupid o' clock to take something from your property?
 
Also, what do y'all consider a public disturbance?

Some bloke with a gammy leg arguing with a two-faced bitch, or the tons of heavy truck & machinery ripping a pole out of the ground just as the sun comes up?
 
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Machinery does not incite others. The public disturbance was his child like rantings. He is lucky the cop in the background was laid back. If there had been a cop there with an attitude the guy would have been hauled off if he kept up the antics.

This all is like the videos you see where a person is pulled over for a traffic violation and they throw a hissy fit. No personal responsibility. Blame it on somebody else.

The action the city took did not come out of the blue. How many fricking notices should they give out before doing what needs to be done? In the meantime if somebody gets hurt you can bet your ass lawyers would be licking their chops as nothing had been done to remove the poles earlier.
 
Alien Allen said:
Machinery does not incite others. The public disturbance was his child like rantings. He is lucky the cop in the background was laid back. If there had been a cop there with an attitude the guy would have been hauled off if he kept up the antics.

This all is like the videos you see where a person is pulled over for a traffic violation and they throw a hissy fit. No personal responsibility. Blame it on somebody else.

The action the city took did not come out of the blue. How many fricking notices should they give out before doing what needs to be done? In the meantime if somebody gets hurt you can bet your ass lawyers would be licking their chops as nothing had been done to remove the poles earlier.
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I don't understand what you mean by "inciting", you must be using it in a context I am unfamiliar with. So I'll skip that.

But the legality of the whole incident is up in the air, since the hoop was taken under false pretence, i.e; she lied, repeatedly.

What happened to the America that didn't like governmental intrusion and power abuse?
 
Zorak said:
I don't understand what you mean by "inciting", you must be using it in a context I am unfamiliar with. So I'll skip that.

But the legality of the whole incident is up in the air, since the hoop was taken under false pretence, i.e; she lied, repeatedly.

What happened to the America that didn't like governmental intrusion and power abuse?
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When you rant and rave like that guy did it is creating a public disturbance. There are limits on free speech.

All the other poles were taken away. I do not see any issue with legality about that. So what if she said he could keep it. As I said earlier she no doubt changed her mind due to his attitude. Plus I would hazard a guess in the notices he received that it informed him that the pole would be removed.

I am about as anti govt and intrusion as anybody. However he was in violation of a law. The proper thing to do is get the law changed. If you can make a case for it. Which I doubt he could due to the safety issue concerns.
 
Alien Allen said:
You can hate the law but that does not change the fact it is a law.

And your first amendment right does not allow for causing a public disturbance

She may well have said he could keep the pole but she changed her mind when he kept being a jerk. I think she could justify that based on his actions and reassessing the situation where she probably concluded he would just put the pole back up.

I may not like what happened but there are ways you go about trying to remedy a situation. He had several warning apparently so he should have just shut up and let the matter go thru the system such as he was trying with his state representative. I seriously doubt anybody would side with him though. Nobody would grant a waiver out of fear of an injury and subsequent lawsuit. And I do not see the law being overturned.
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She flat out lied to him and claimed that she never told him he could keep it.

You do realize that, and this is probably the 3rd or 4th time that I've said this already... he was working with his representative to resolve this issue. He had also submitted letters back regarding it and had not heard a response back. It would be completely reasonable to come to the conclusion that they would not remove the damn thing unless they flat out told him that his appeal didn't matter.

edit: I hardly see how he was causing a public disturbance. He was upset, and had raised his voice. But it isn't as through he had a megaphone and was screaming, "fuck the police". He asked if he could try and get a restraining order, he was upset that he wasn't warned when this was going to take place, he was upset that she wouldn't listen to him, he was upset that they were threatening to arrest him if he didn't keep his mouth shut. The last time I checked, threatening someone with arrest unless they shut up, on their own property was an infringement on their first amendment rights. He had the right to protest action which he felt was unjust.
 
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So what if she lied? How does this have any bearing on the legality of it? Sure, he can get his panties in a twist because she said he could keep the pole, then took it anyway (which I thought was funny as hell) But none of that means squat.
At minute 2:30 you hear the officer say "The law says we are supposed to take it" So apparently the letters these guys got said that if they didn't remove them, they would be taken. :dunno

And how can you fault law enforcement here at all? They didn't decide one day to go around and collect these polls, they didn't make the law, they can't decide for themselves if it's right or not... They have one job and one job only, Enforce the law. Whether it's a shitty one or not, they must enforce it.
 
Tim said:
So what if she lied? How does this have any bearing on the legality of it? Sure, he can get his panties in a twist because she said he could keep the pole, then took it anyway (which I thought was funny as hell) But none of that means squat.
At minute 2:30 you hear the officer say "The law says we are supposed to take it" So apparently the letters these guys got said that if they didn't remove them, they would be taken. :dunno

And how can you fault law enforcement here at all? They didn't decide one day to go around and collect these polls, they didn't make the law, they can't decide for themselves if it's right or not... They have one job and one job only, Enforce the law. Whether it's a shitty one or not, they must enforce it.
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at least somebody other than Guy and myself understand

you can bet they had more than one written notice that detailed exactly what would happen if the poles were not removed.

as to being bushwhacked or surprised they would be coming that is bullshit. This guy knew exactly what would be happening. There would have been a cut off date for him to comply and once that is arrived at then it is out of his control when the next step happens.
 
retro said:
She flat out lied to him and claimed that she never told him he could keep it.

You do realize that, and this is probably the 3rd or 4th time that I've said this already... he was working with his representative to resolve this issue. He had also submitted letters back regarding it and had not heard a response back. It would be completely reasonable to come to the conclusion that they would not remove the damn thing unless they flat out told him that his appeal didn't matter.

edit: I hardly see how he was causing a public disturbance. He was upset, and had raised his voice. But it isn't as through he had a megaphone and was screaming, "fuck the police". He asked if he could try and get a restraining order, he was upset that he wasn't warned when this was going to take place, he was upset that she wouldn't listen to him, he was upset that they were threatening to arrest him if he didn't keep his mouth shut. The last time I checked, threatening someone with arrest unless they shut up, on their own property was an infringement on their first amendment rights. He had the right to protest action which he felt was unjust.
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Or he could have sat back and not caused an issue and taken it to court if it was that "illegal".

I'm just saying, there is absolutely no justification to being a douche.
 
retro said:
Police good, everyone else bad.

Got it.
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I'm not saying the cop was in the right. I'm just saying that there are laws and a legal process in place for a reason. It's not my fault if people choose not to utilize that and act out instead. If the situation is as unlawful as you claim it is, he could've had a case in court. But he chose to act childishly instead.
 
anathelia said:
I'm not saying the cop was in the right. I'm just saying that there are laws and a legal process in place for a reason. It's not my fault if people choose not to utilize that and act out instead. If the situation is as unlawful as you claim it is, he could've had a case in court. But he chose to act childishly instead.
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I don't believe anyone has said that the gentleman in question didn't handle the situation as tactfully as he might have done. Does that excuse the Officer of her wrongdoing? A blame of which I believe she is quite culpable.

I am getting the impression from a number of people in this debate that two wrongs do indeed make a right.
 
Like he said, and I'll say for the I don't know how many time... attorneys were involved to try and resolve the situation. Yet, they still decided to come out and rip the things out. Then they took them all and treated the property as through it was trash... destroying parts of these basketball hoops.
 
Since that time, the eight homeowners with basketball hoops in violation of state law were contacted multiple times via certified mail about the need to remove the obstacles from the public right-of-way zone. One resident voluntarily did so. The remainder did not. Because the basketball hoops were not removed, state law requires that DelDOT remove the goals to protect the public.
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Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/128275/20110329/deldot-mccafferty-basketball-pole.htm#ixzz1IZllnpwQ


need I say more?

This started back in September. How much more friggin time does it take for this homeowner to go to court to try to get a stay?

.
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Alien Allen said:

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/128275/20110329/deldot-mccafferty-basketball-pole.htm#ixzz1IZllnpwQ


need I say more?

This started back in September. How much more friggin time does it take for this homeowner to go to court to try to get a stay?

.
​
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Lawyers were involved... from his state representative. He stated that in the first video, and the second one that I just posted.

Honestly, when it boils down to it... I quite frankly don't give a shit about the basketball hoop. It's the principle of it as far as I'm concerned.

Everyone is going on and on about how it's a safety issue, and he should've just gotten rid of it. It wasn't a safety issue until someone complained. According to our government, we have safety issues with getting on airplanes. Therefore we have to submit ourselves to invasive security checks before we can get on an airplane. Our civil liberties are quashed because we want to travel by airplane.

Delaware brought out workers that could have been used for something actually worthwhile, like oh I don't know, fixing the roads; in order to take care of something that was ultimately a very minor issue that nobody would have known about had one person not bitched.

Every little bit of freedom and liberty that we give away on things like this, makes us all the more likely to give them up about more important things. This quote is from an article I read earlier this morning, and it captures what I'm talking about perfectly...

Liberty is not ala carte. Give up enough of it - even on the small things - and liberty won’t be there when you need it.
 
I think you are putting more stock into what this guy is saying than is justified Retro.

This has been going on since September

He was hoping the representative could intervene. He must have been fucking dreaming because the only way that intervention would work is to rewrite the law.

This is a state law and not a township ordinance. Nothing and I mean nothing can be done other than to over turn the law and I highly doubt that would happen.
 
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