Any cop, even one TOLD by a citizen-homeowner to blow off or get a warrant, and then out of spite and revengeful "weight of the badge" mentality wants to push in a citizen's face a nuisance charge for a private, rural woodpile covered with a tarp to keep the wood dry, in the middle of a wooded area on two-and-a-half acres where the woodpile is not even visible to the public from public areas, is a cop who should be thrown off the force.
It is too badge-heavy to be tolerated. There are no two ways about that.
Obey the law, decently, if you take an oath and a regular paycheck to enforce the law. Do not "get even" with a citizen standing on his rights. A big part of the job is to enforce the law in a way that earns respect for the law, rather than in a way that alienates and stomps on the citizenry's rights and reasonable expectations.
Any citizen with a cop at the door saying, "I want to look in your back yard," especially one unwilling to say why, should say leave my property or show a warrant. "Where's your fricking warrant," should not be viewed by a cop as cause to retaliate. It is the law, and law enforcement that disrespects the law and the reasoning behind the warrant requirement is bad law enforcement and the individual cop doing that is a bad cop.
Any town, Ramsey especially because it is where I live, that has a "one size fits all" approach to nuisance law enforcement is an ill-run operation.
A citizen should be outraged when a local government gets overly aggressive on things that it should stay out of, woodpiles on properties outside the MUSA area (where properties are an acre or larger being but one example). A town with the advantage of having a diverse range of housing to offer people who look for different things does itself and its citizens a disfavor when it enacts laws which run contrary to the best interests of a diverse range of peaceable citizens wanting generally to be left alone except if the house catches fire.
Any Ramsey cop who is badge-heavy and abuses discretion should be forced to watch Braveheart three tmes and then be required to write a fourteen page essay on exactly why William Wallace did not like the way authorities behaved and how the government he faced might have acted better; essay to be graded by a seventh grade teacher. Essay to be rewritten unless and until that teacher deems a lesson learned, and an essay of suitable sensitivity and skill has been tendered. Fourteen pages rewritten fourteen times, should help reform bad behavior.
Lesson taught, lesson learned then. Or the individual should be unceremoniously fired from the force.
Cops with badges that get too heavy, we need them the same way we need a fatal disease.
Good government: Fix the potholes, patrol against people doing dangerous and threatening things, put out fires, and otherwise, be sensible. In no way at all is a firewood pile not visible from a public road or public place, on a two and a half acre property anybody's business except the owner's - unless in burning the wood, (especially wet wood because some idiot said keep the tarp off), is a smoke/pollution bother to the neighborhood.
One size doe not fit all. A comparable firewood pile on a front "lawn" of the lego-land apartments at Clown Center along Ramsey Blvd by the Hwy. 116 traffic light, that might be a nuisance, especially since those shared wall housing units do not have fireplaces or wood stoves.
BOTTOM LINE: ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL AND ANY TOWN GOVERNMENT UNABLE TO DEAL WITH THAT SIMPLE A REALITY, IS INEPT. ANY POLICE SUPERVISORY PERSON WHO DO NOT STAND HARD ON THOSE COPS THAT ABUSE DISCRETION IN DEALING WITH THE PEACEABLE CITIZENRY, (BECAUSE THE ON-THE-STREET COP DOES NOT LIKE TO BE TOLD TO ABIDE BY THE LAW HIMSELF), IS ILL-FITTED FOR THE JOB OF RUNNING A POLICE FORCE. ANY COP THAT IS TOLD, ABIDE BY THE LAW, GET A WARRANT OR BOOGY DOWN THE ROAD, SHOULD, WITHOUT MEANESS OR RANCOR, GET ONE OR LEAVE THE SITUATION ALONE. IT IS A JOB REQUIREMENT THAT COPS DO NOT ACT AS IF THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW. THAT IS SO SIMPLE A REALITY THAT ANY CITY THAT DECLINES TO ENFORCE SUCH A CLEARLY REASONABLE REQUIREMENT IS NEGLIGENT. ANY COP THAT SAYS, ACTUALLY OR FIGURATIVELY, "FUCK YOU," TO A PEACEABLE CITIZEN AND ENTERS A NEIGHBORING PROPERTY WITHOUT PRIOR EXPRESS PERMISSION OR INVITATION OF THAT NEIGHBOR, IN ORDER TO LOOK INTO SOMEONE'S BACK YARD AFTER A CITIZEN RELIES UPON THE WARRANT REQUIREMENT, SAYING, "WHERE'S YOUR WARRANT" SHOULD BE OFF THE FORCE YESTERDAY.
WHEN THAT BADGE GETS TOO HEAVY, IT SHOULD BE REMOVED.
__________UPDATE_________
Putting a proper perspective upon "prevailing nature and character of the neighborhood" as the defining norm in a sensible rule of law, and as a contrary notion to one-size-fits-all lockstep thinking; this "woodpile violation business" is not arising in the high-density, shared wall, Clown Center.
This is along north Ramsey Boulevard; that we are talking of. Where I rounded a bend and had to slow the auto to avoid hitting a fawn in mid day. Where the cops had to shoot a bear two years ago that was raiding backyard bird feeders in spring, hungry from hibernation.
What, answer that by telling folks that backyard bird feeders are an attractive nuisance to other wildlife besides birds, and you get written up and told to abate having those bird feeders?
Hardly.
Is it at all sane to suggest maintaining habitat is an attractive nuisance? Rodents will proliferate if you put corn in the yard for blue jays? We do not want no stinking rodents is not good thinking, when it's owl feed rodents at issue and not urban sewer rats under discussion.
Where do you draw a line? When do you NOT take in the character and attractive charm of a neighborhood as a factor? In any sane rule of law, it is understood that norms of a neighborhood define standards of behavior and as neighborhoods vary, so the standards cannot strait-jacket all as if in shared-wall Town Center. MUSA areas with quarter-acre lots are separate and different neighborhoods from one to five acre wooded neighborhoods.
There are old sayings about apples and oranges.
There is, after all, such a thing as common sense.
If that is lacking in the town government, it's time to move north to Nowthen.
