Woman sues city for garden destruction

[Bear]

A Tulsa woman is suing the city for civil rights violations after code enforcement came to her home and forcibly removed over 100 varieties of edible and medicinal plants. The woman had followed city code to the letter and was told by officials that "they didn't care". She called the cops so that a ticket would be issued and the matter could be resolved in court, but the very next day city officials stripped every single plant and tree from her yard. Here is a story about it. I hope that she wins her case as the city was clearly in the wrong.

 

[Miller]

I would think it only fair to give her notice so she could harvest or remove plants that could be salvaged. Knowing the people who work in our city, however, I'm not surprised at all by these know-it-all bozos who think they have rights to do whatever they please.

 

[Timothy]

I would be so ENRAGED if something like this happened to me! What right does the city have to step in and cut down EDIBLE plants just because the next door neighbors don't like the way her yard looks?! If you don't like the way the yard looks, STOP LOOKING AT IT!! I hope she wins the lawsuit. She read up on city ordinances, dotted all her I's and crossed all her T's, so it sounds like an open-and-shut case to me.

 

[polamalu43]

Wow! That is crazy! If she followed the rules and laws why did they rip them out? I can't believe anyone would come onto her property and rip out anything. I would sue them!!

 

[Bear]

Yeah this just makes me sick! I hope the city of Tulsa has a lot of spare cash laying around because she has very good odds of winning. There is a petition about it on Change.org with over 50,000 signatures demanding that the city replace every single plant and tree they removed. I think the city "officials" are really shocked that there has been such an uproar over this. To me it's like the old saying about how if you don't step up and say that something is wrong when you see it happening to someone else there won't be anybody to stand up and speak out when they come after you.

 

[Regis]

Was it attracting bugs? Did neighbors complain? It sounds like she has history with these guys but it's still awful. They should have given her time to dig them up.

 

[Bear]

Supposedly a neighbor complained and she followed the letter of the law and the ordinances. The garden was very well maintained prior to being ripped out. Now her yard looks like a disaster zone and is much more of an eyesore than it ever could have been as a garden.

 

[HappyDad]

The outrage to me is that she followed the law but the city worker didn't care. If that's the case, why follow the city ordinance to begin with? Hope she wins her case and the worker is fired.

 

[Bear]

Me too! Even if she doesn't win the civil rights lawsuit I hope that she wins some kind of settlement from the city. Since the police were involved and a court date was assigned I would think the judge could levy fines against the city for doing anything before the hearing.

 

[BigPapa]

I hope she wins her case as well, but the city does have nuisance laws about keeping your yard neat. My city will fine you if you put your trash out to the road too early. We can also get fined if we don't keep our lawn mowed.

 

[ghanashyam]

Although, much has been talked by local government in all countries, trees on roads and highways are cut or destroyed to make the way for new and wider roads. In my state, a highway to Gandhinagar at least 1000 trees were cut down to make the way for wider highway. It is such a sad thing.

 

[R. Paradon]

How many more of of rights are going to be destroyed before the country is forced into a type of anarchy just so we can survive. A very sad story and I hope she wins.