When I have to mow my lawn, I typically wait until 8:00 a.m.  I guess that’s the polite thing to do in case someone in the neighborhood is still sleeping.  My mom doesn’t have to worry about that.  She lives in the middle of nowhere.  She can mow at 4:30 a.m. if she wants to — but this man in Oklahoma can’t.  He was mowing at 4:30 in the morning and was arrested.  He wasn’t just asked to stop or given a warning, he was arrested.

While it’s not necessarily very neighborly, here are some troubles I see with this arrest:

• He happened to also be mowing his neighbor’s lawn.  It probably wasn’t the neighbor who called to complain, but the fact remains that he was doing a good deed when he was arrested.
• He claims to have been mowing at that hour for 10 years.  Why was he never warned before being suddenly arrested after all of that time?
• Why can’t the neighbors come out and ask him to stop rather than calling the police?  Are we that scared of confrontation?  If so, it generally causes more confrontation when the police have to show up.
• If the issue is the noise ordinance (which it most certainly is), why don’t people get arrested for riding motorcycles down the street at late hours?
• If someone in your neighborhood works nights, when should they mow their lawns?  If they don’t mow at all, they would get cited for that, too.
• We seem pretty concerned with safety in this day and age.  Plus, it’s been very hot in Oklahoma this year.  One of the reasons he gave for mowing so early is the excessive heat.  He really does have a point, there.

Related posts:

1. Expose Them Early, Let Them Get Used to It
2. HOAs Stink, Basically