Unsanctioned pruning at Oak Cliff park drew complaints, but 67-year-old's arrest makes neighbors une

[The Straight Story]

Unsanctioned pruning at Oak Cliff park drew complaints, but 67-year-old's arrest makes neighbors uneasy


After she was patted down and handcuffed, Sandra McFeeley was hauled from her Oak Cliff home to jail.

"I met some neat people," she said of her nine hours at Lew Sterrett Justice Center. "I'd never been in a perp walk before. It was cool."

What's not so cool, the 67-year-old attorney said, was being accused of felony criminal mischief – for thinning thickets in a city park near her home.

"She was going out to this greenbelt area and trimming it as she saw fit," said Joe Ries, a city park maintenance manager. "We asked her to stop," he said, because she didn't have a work agreement with the city.

Finally, Dallas police moved in, an act that has troubled some residents of the Wynnewood North neighborhood.

"It's hard enough to keep that neighborhood nice without having the police haul people off for felonious gardening," said Mary Ann Jenkins.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/042010dnmetmcfeeley.3b35092.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Well, if the city and residents want the area to be simply a tangle of

overgrown brush and vines, I guess that's that. I sympathize with the lady, I'd have to fight the urge to trim and prune, too.

[NoNothing]

5. Thing is it sounds like the neighborhood supported her

This has come up a few times before, where there is some public property being neglected, but anyone who tries to do anything is cracked down upon. My understanding is that a lot of it stems from union politics - the union doesn't want people doing for free what union workers have bargained for the right to do, even if that means it ends up not getting done.

[WolverineDG]

10. didn't sound like it to me

sounded more like they wanted her to stop pruning, & didn't want her to be arrested...one even called out to her & told her to stop it while she was being interviewed for the story.

dg

[TwilightGardener]

12. Some of them supported her, some of them didn't. The lady who told her to stop

sounds like a busybody with nothing better to do. The city overreacted by having her arrested.

[WolverineDG]

15. A "busy body with nothing better to do"

:eyes:

So you're okay with someone going into a protected area, ignoring signs that say pruning/weeding is prohibited. What's your stance on drilling in ANWAR, then?

Because, yes, they are the same thing.

dg

[TwilightGardener]

16. I can understand the impulse to want to keep a nearby park area

from looking overgrown and neglected (it IS a park--it is referred to as a park--only the neighbors who didn't like her efforts are calling it "wild"). She removed dead tree limbs and trash, too. She should have stopped when the parks dept. told her to stop, but her efforts at beautification, misguided or not, are in no way comparable to drilling for oil in a wildlife refuge--I mean, WTF?

[frylock]

17. yellowstone is also a park..

just sayin.

[TwilightGardener]

18. Right--but there is a difference between residential areas

and national parks. Just sayin. I'm not saying this lady was right to do what she did, just that I understand the impulse to not want the place where you live and walk your dogs to be choked with kudzu and brush and dead limbs. Things get overgrown in a hurry in the South.

[frylock]

21. some horseback riders mangaged to get the tunnel trails closed due to unauthorized pruning..

the mountain bike riders and the horseback riders have been at odds forever around here at los penasquitos, but some dumbass horse person had to take it upon themselves to prune back some of the tunnels so they could fit their horses in them. now nobody is able to use them. i guess i'm a little sensitive when it comes to these matters.

[WolverineDG]

20. It's not just a park, it's a green belt

and there were signs posted stating that what she was doing was illegal.

dg

[TexasObserver]

2. felonious gardening

[snooper2]

3. The part of the story that isn't mentioned above....

"There, about four miles from downtown, several yards have signs that urge: Protect the Greenbelt...Keep It Wild...It's the law!

The signs cite Section 32-3 of the city code, which states: "It shall be unlawful for any person to cut, break, deface or in any way injure the trees, shrubs, plants, grass, turf, fountains, seats, fences, structures, improvements, ornaments or monuments or property, within or upon any of the public parks."

Standing in the greenbelt with her dogs Rascal and Samantha, McFeeley pointed out a cluster of brownish-gray briars. "It's things like this hanging down," she said. "It looks crappy, and I'm not interested in walking into a face full of this when I go in after my dogs."

She grabbed a piece of briar to demonstrate her work. Seconds later, Suzanne O'Brien called out from across the street: "You can't do that."

Asked why not, she said, "It's a protected, wild area." And briars, she said, are "part of the ecosystem. We have all kinds of wild creatures living here."


On Edit, I don't think anything will happen to this old lady. She shouldn't have been hauled in but at least she had fun with it :P

[Javaman]

6. So in other words...

the woman doing the pruning was an anal retentive ass.

She deserves a fine, not jail. But then again if she acted like an ass to the police (don't know)then jail it is.

[WolverineDG]

9. Even the park service said they didn't want her arrested

they just wanted her to stop cutting down the vegetation in the green belt.

dg

[WolverineDG]

7. Funny how that got left out of the OP's story

that green belt is there for a reason.

dg

[The Straight Story]

11. I can only quote so much here, which is why there is a link.... (nt)

[Xithras]

14. Sounds like she deserved to be arrested.

You can't just start hacking away at a wildlife greenbelt because you don't like "the way it looks". If it bothers you, don't buy a home near a greenbelt!

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. Seems that she was very defiant of the law

[Cronus Protagonist]

4. I hope she demands a jury trial

I don't think she need worry.

[EFerrari]

8. People seem to mistake natural order for disorder all the time. n/t

[EC]

13. I'm sure it was more about liability problems

This happened here where a man downed a little tree because it blocked his view of the lake, but the tree was on park property. The city cited insurance liability if he or anyone else got hurt would have created many problems.

[tammywammy]

19. It's not like they wanted to arrest her

They told her to stop her "pruning." It's a protected area. Also, she metions going in after her dogs, is she walking her dogs without a leash?