Rick Yoes turned himself into the county jail last night in compliance with a warrant issued for his arrest after receiving a fine of $1,700 for having an overgrown lawn in September of last year. Unable to pay the fine Rick took every vacation day he accrued, made arrangements for a replacement, and surrendered himself to jail.
Rick is the South east campus electrician for Tarrant County College, he is a hard and dedicated worker often times offering to help outside of the description of his job or volunteering for extra curricular activities. In 2012 he dressed up in 1776 style regalia and read a copy of the U.S. Constitution to the student body. Because of his dedication he is loved by faculty, and students. His collection of beautiful seashells is also on display at the campus.
“Rick Yoes reads a copy of the US Constitution”
The incident happened last year in Grand Prairie, Tx, while Rick, and his daughter Angel were working from before sun up, until after dark. During this time the lawn was neglected, and it grew over the 6 inch regulatory code. The city sent them a reminder to cut the lawn, and within 2 weeks Angel had cut the lawn to regulation height. She said that they have been keeping the lawn “buzzed” ever since.
I did some research, and found a regulation for Grand Prairie that said lawns can be up to 12 inches in height. Rick’s daughter Angel said this new regulation wasn’t familiar to her. Mr. Yoes may be locked up for nothing, and this may come as a surprise to some but more often than you would care to think people are incarcerated under false pretenses.
Angel said “Yes, we should have been more on top of it, but we were so busy with work, and when we got a warning from the city we handled it.” Neither of them thought about it again, until a postcard came in the mail a couple weeks ago from the city. It said that there was a warrant for Rick’s arrest, as well as a fine of $1,700. Angel told me the sum of the fine is the equivalent of 3 mortgage payments.
There are many silly aspects of this crime. The fact that an overgrown lawn can land someone in jail for 17 days is absurd. The fact that a small group of people are able to claim arbitrary authority over your property, and dictate how long you can grow your grass is completely void of any measure of liberty. Long gone are the days when incarceration was for violent offenders like murderers and rapist. Now the land of the free is home to over a quarter of the worlds prison population, and many of them are non violent offenders just like Rick.
In an official statement to the Fresno Peoples Media his daughter Angel expressed disappointment in the local government for squandering tax dollars on dangerous grass growers.
“I’m seriously disappointed with the way Grand Prairie is handling this situation. I think there are better ways to spend tax payer money than locking up dangerous grass growers“
Reblogged this on Brian David Sumner and commented:
My Latest for the Fresno Peoples Media.
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Don’t worry, they are just following orders. What happens when they determine your religion or lifestyle is deamed offensive to society? Cops will arrest you, beat you, murder you.
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My advice to you then is to never call the cops-under any circumstances. Have a nice life.
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This sounds like an out-growth of a Homeowners’ Association. You know, when I was growing up, if a neighbor had a problem (i.e. not enough time to cut the lawn because of a work schedule) their neighbors would help out. Anybody volunteer to cut his lawn for him?
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It is unknown if any neighbors volunteered to help him with his lawn. People aren’t as close with their neighbors as they used to be.
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This does not sound right to me. No one gets thrown in jail for not cutting their grass. If this person cut his grass within 2 weeks what was the fine for? I smell a rat somewhere in this article. If a HOA got him they would have had to sue him and that sure as heck does not happen in 2 weeks. I can assure you the City of Grand Prairie code enforcement does not operate that fast-and they give multiple citations before the city pays someone to cut the grass. If a person goes through the court system and gets a fine it is their choice to pay it or serve the amount out at the rate of $100 per day. $1700=17 days. Grand Prairie was in a severe drought all of last summer and the grass did not grow unless it was watered. I doubt that this man watered his lawn. My guess is it grew tall in the spring and then everything died except the weeds. Take note the yard was not cut until September. If it waddles like a duck, quacks, and has webbed feet it is probably a duck.
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I also got one of those warrants for the grass not being cut. But the only difference was i didn’t own the home it was for and didn’t live there for a year before hand. They assumed that because i was the last person to have water turned on there i should have to pay the fines. I had to go to court to have it thrown out. But i had to pay $320 before they would let set a court date. They then refunded me my $320 when it was found they were in the wrong. I despise grams prairie. They don’t do their homework before giving tickets.
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