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Torn up Tulsa garden results in civil rights lawsuit
A greenthumbed Tulsa resident sues the city after code enforcement officials, acting without cause, send workers to destroy the extensive edible garden in her front yard.
Mon, Jun 18 2012 at 6:28 PM
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While some stories of front yard gardeners battling against the local brass to keep their edible plots have happy endings — Ron Finley’s parking strip garden in South Los Angeles and Adam Guerrero’s veggie-heavy urban greenspace in Memphis being two recent examples — that sadly isn’t the case with Denise Morrison, a greenthumbed Tulsa, Okla., resident whose extensive edible garden was largely cleared away by authorities while she was awaiting a court date to work out a citation stemming from a complaint.
The story — hat tip to TreeHugger — is equally aggravating as it is sad. Once upon a time, Morrison’s front and backyards were filled with more than 100 plant varieties — KOTV lists flowers, apple trees, pecan trees, grapes, lemons, stevia, strawberries and several types of mint as constituting just a small part of the garden— that Morrison used not only for food, but for medicinal purposes as well to help treat her diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis.
In August of last year, Morrison received a letter saying that the city had received a complaint about her garden. Morrison took the initiative to meet with city inspectors to see what could be done, but those meetings turned out to be, well, fruitless. They ordered her to promptly remove everything from her garden (including a junked car sitting in her driveway) even though, according to city code, plants more than 12 inches tall can indeed be grown on one’s property provided that they’re edible. With that, Morrison called the police so that a citation could be issued — that way, the conflict could be worked out in court between the city and Morrison. On Aug. 15, Morrison appeared in court, but the judge delayed the case until October.
The very next day, the city — in apparent violation of court order — sent a team of workers to Morrison's home to clear out the garden. The workers removed nearly every matter of plant life including Morrison’s flower beds and fruit trees. As you can see from the before and after photos published by KOTV, the damage done by the city is dramatic. So much for self-sufficiency, eh?
"I came back three days later, sat in my driveway, cried and left,” Morrison told KOTV. “Not only are the plants my livelihood, they're my food and I was unemployed at the time and had no food left, no medicine left, and I didn't have insurance. They took away my life and livelihood."
Just last week, Morrison finally appeared in court regarding the initial citation issued last August. The garden portion of the citation was dismissed by the judge — talk about too little, too late — while Morrison plead no contest to having an operable vehicle in her driveway. Morrison has now filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city. In it, she claims that code enforcement officers, swooping in before the scheduled court day, acted without cause.
Needless to say, only good vibes to Morrison as she continues with her lawsuit against the city. The code enforcement department should be downright ashamed of itself and, in my opinion, forced to help Morrison replant her garden. And it looks like some other folks feel the exact same way.
Via [NewsOn6.com] via [TreeHugger]
Video screenshot: KOTV
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Unless Code Enforcement has absolutly gone crazy, I dont buy this story at all. The procedure for nuciance violations (high weeds and grass) is as follows:
City receives a complaint, inspector is sent out, if in violation, notice to clean up is given, after 30 days, reinspection, if still (or again) in violation of ordinance, contractor is sent out to clean up, cost of contractor is enforced by a lein filed against property by city.
This poor woman-what kind of city doesn't want to you to have "plants" that aren't over 12 inches. I could understand if it was weeds and uncut grass, but it was flower, veggies and herbs. Her before photos don't look bad, but it looked horrible after the city whacked everything down. I do agree about the truck, but the rest I don't understand. Hope she wins her lawsuit.
Don't get mad.. get even. Rub poison ivy all over the complainers doorknobs and stair rails and car handles. Be sure to wear rubber gloves. Put a possum in the trashcan. When they open the lid to put trash in, it will be smiling at them. They destroyed nature let nature have the last laugh!
That's all well and good, until your actions kill someone with a severe allergy to poison ivy. Don't be like this,
it's a shame when this country proves over and over that this isn't Land of the Free when it comes to mundane things such as this.
How many that think this is a good thing feel the same about government intervention in their own lives?
It's funny that the people who want the most control over others want others to have the least control over them.
Exactly!
Someone needs to round up the complainers yard
Medicinal purposes? She's growing hemp?
You know the ols saying "You cn't judge a bkk by its cover". The video shows portions of her property to put her in good light and make you feel sorry foe her. Why doen't the media do a 360 degree walk-around so we can get the same picture as he neighbors?
It doesn't matter what it looked like as long as it was within Code, which is was.
Next we'll probably read she will be required to paint the upper trim on her house and lose a few pounds.
Fire the Chief of Police! Irresponsible bigots have got to go! 200 years of slavery is quite enough! Stop defending white racists gangsters with guns.
Code enforcement falls under urban development, not the TPD
What does bigotry have to do with laziness? If she cleaned up her property so her neighbors were not ticked off at here, this article would not appear here.
The city wants her to have a wastful front lawn of grass. Times are changing and we need to change some of these outdated zoning laws. I wouldn't mind a growers bill of rights or something.
Retribution for being black in America. I hope justice comes down on tulsa Police Dept. Shame.
At a guess, I'd say that the complaint came from a Code Enforcement Dept inspector. I've seen stuff like that happen here too. Self-important officials imposing their attitudes on citizens who have little or no means of fighting back.
Somehow just complaining on a forum isnt satisfying enough for me. There are no words to express how it makes me feel when someone else tells me how to live my life. This nation is seriously ******!
The person who complained about her garden is self serving. She is trying to do something GOOD and HEALTHY.
>Comment deleted by moderation team for repeated comment on another thread<
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