My personal anti litter campaign

[Stinky The Clown]

There is a new paper in town. Its been here for maybe a year. A right wing tabloid that looks for all the world so nice and small-towny and balanced. It isn't. It is pure right wing fish wrapper.

When it first started publishing, it found its way to our front lawn each morning, free of charge.

I called their circulation department and asked that they 'stop littering my lawn' with their rag.

No change.

Two weeks later I made another call.

They stopped dropping it on my lawn.

None of my neighbors subscribe to it and they finally gave up and stopped sending their delivery guy to our little street (7 houses).

Fast forward to about three weeks ago.

They start dropping it again. There are unopened, uncollected copies of it all over our court. We've taken turns putting them directly from the street to our weekly recycling.

Today I was about to call and use my 'littering' line again. But I had a second thought.

If this was handled right, maybe it really IS litter and maybe they're actually breaking the law.

So I heigh my ass off to the county office building and go to the Public Works office. A nice lady helped me. She told me they get lots of complaints and all they can do is call them and ask them to stop dropping the papers. So I ask her if anyone ever thought to look at this as littering and not a more indeterminant 'annoyance'. No, she said ..... no one had. I asked who might be able to say of this was breaking the law or not.

The County Executive, she says.

So I go up another floor and knock on the door. County Exec and his two sidekicks are out doing the people's bidniss someplace. So I leave my name and number.

I'm waiting for the call back. I know these guys. They're Democrats and they're young and ambitious. They'll call.

I am less confident about the outcome.

But who knows? :shrug:

[Ian David]

1. Oh, please let me know how it works out! I hope you nail the bastards. n/t

[hobbit709]

2. I love it. Great idea.

[kestrel91316]

3. Under the circumstances, It IS littering IMHO. I say prosecute to the

fullest extent of the law.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. That's the answer I'm hoping for.

I fear it isn't the one I'll get.

[kestrel91316]

9. Somebody will probably decide it's a matter of "free speech".

[Stinky The Clown]

10. Curiously, I **did** learn that newspaper sales boxes are somehow possessed of special 'rights'.

They can be located where lots of other stuff cannot and they're immune from certain citizen complaints.

At least that's the way it is in the county in which I live.

[MADem]

5. It sure sounds like littering to me. They're tossing paper on people's property.

And the people didn't ask for it.

No different than a crumpled McDonald's coffee cup, except maybe the cup once contained a more pleasing content...

[madinmaryland]

6. I am assuming you are refering to the new Baltimore rag?

They were littering everyone's front yard here for a few months. Haven't seen it around much the last year or so.

We do have the weekly local town paper piled up by our mailbox, but most everyone picks one up within a day or two.

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Yup, that would be the one!

[Warpy]

7. If your neighbors are complaining, make sure you bring letters

when you meet with the guy. Pictures of the "litter" the day before you all go around and scoop it into the recycling bin would also be a help.

Also send the offending right wing assholes, er publishers a letter of complaint. Make sure there is a paper trail saying you have tried to get them to stop.

By that time either they will have gotten a nasty phone call and stopped, or you'll have enough of a paper trail to press charges for vandalism.

There's always a way to stop this trash.

(obviously the paper has a sugar daddy somewhere since most papers can't publish without subscribers. It would be interesting to find out who he is.)