Thanks to the intrepid action of swift-footed (and even swifter-brained) British bobbies in High Harrington, Cumbria, a dastardly mother-daughter duo was arrested and taken off the streets for several hours, time enough in the clink for cooler heels (and heads) to prevail.
The duo’s crime? Feeding pigeons. Monica and Janet McIntosh had a horrid habit of casting crumbs to Patagioenas panhandleria. Neighbors say the sky would blacken when the birds swooped to get their handouts. People couldn’t leave their homes when the critters came. It was like being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Fed up with the feeding, Cumbrians called the cops. The Telegraph’s news story doesn’t report whether anybody first tried to speak to the McIntoshes. In any case, though, it’s what the police then did that’s really egregious here.
Officers phoned the women to say they’d be coming over to discuss the matter. And, presumably, a simple chat over tea and scones could have fixed the problem without any more feathers being ruffled. Instead, four officers arrested the pair. Not only that, they “seized house keys, bank statements and cheque books.” Huh? Let’s just say it ain’t Mayberry over there.
The women were let out on bail. Eventually, they were informed that no further action against them would be taken.
So this is what the world is coming to. You can feed pigeons, and apparently not be sent away for life. Can the sceptered isle ever be safe again?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “For the Birds”
I read in (Waste Age Magazine) that one city in Spain requires dog owners to submit their pooches DNA. This is so that the Dog Poop Police can trace any turds left behind to the perpetrator.
If they were in California, they’d have been released in no time, since California is subjecting folks to incarceration that is bothe cruel AND unusual, per the Supremes. As opposed to cruel OR unusual.
No word on how California did compared to the standards of 1778, since the Consitution was written to apply to what was going on then, which I believe meant stuff like the rack, the iron maiden, burning alive, and other sundry cruel AND unusual punishments. Since allof California seems to be doing this, as well as many other states, it seems ususal, rather than UNususal.
We are doing no better than the bobbies with the increasingly onerous regulation of evrything that moves here. Expect that they just hadn’t realized that they could be fining people for bird brunches here.
Of course this misses the point that the 8th amendment, like the rest of the Consititution, was a limit on the authority of the federal government, not the states.
But that would mean that California would have to tell the Supremes to go take a hike, seeing as that they do not have the authority, even if they are trying to usurp that authority. In our country, Sam Adams had said we have a population of 3 Ts. The Tories, the timid, and the true blue. The state of California has a definite dearth of the latter. Hard to tell Sugar Daddy to go take a hike when you are 20 to 30 billion in the red.
Ah, the constant struggle between individual liberty and community peace. How to resolve this struggle was a central preoccupation of those who founded this nation.
Certainly there ought to be, as one author has called it, a “presumption of liberty”. Or, as another has said, “Freedom should be the default position.” Any restriction on freedom would therefore have a high hurdle to vault.
High, but not impossible. There is, after all, justification for restrictions against “disorderly conduct”, for instance, or “disturbing the peace”. Those who have little concern for the peace and order of the community can become a problem, and the community is justified in restraining disturbances.
I’m reminded of the Greek practice of ostracism, whereby the community could, by unanimous vote, banish someone who, though not guilty of any crime, was becoming a source of trouble and discord.
Police actions all over have been getting more and more excessive as to avoid any possibility of danger to officers and liability to cities. People are run over and rights are ignored and left for citizens to sue in the courts. Cept most citizens won’t sue because they can’t afford a top notch lawyer. Therefore the city and the police are safe.
All this being said feeding pigeons is like giving out welfare no questions asked. It generates lousy behaviors, in this case the birds. Pigeons destroy AC equipment, ducts, roofs, and are a more than just a nuisance, they are a plague. Pigeon feeding ladies are usually indignant if you ask them to stop. Like telling code pink ladies that snuggling up to dictators and terrorists is bad for humanity. The pigeon ladies think they are saving the earth and it’s animal kingdom. I can understand a city coming down hard on them. Just wish the city and its police would stay within reasonable legal limits. car keys and bank statements seem way beyond that. I hope this story is accurate because often these pigeon ladies are a couple of seeds short of a full bag of sunflower seeds. If the police have issued their orders and made the cities law known and still these ladies ignored them, then other measures could have legally been issued. Unless you have dealt with this save the birds type people you can’t understand how insistent they are in doing “God’s” work. Again think Code Pink. I suspect there is more to this story.
During the last depression, pigeons and rabbits disappeared from much of the east coast.
Recipe time?
Wow, just when you think we’ve hit rock-bottom …
[…] For the Birds Thanks to the intrepid action of swift-footed (and even swifter-brained) British bobbies in High Harrington, Cumbria, a dastardly mother-daughter duo was arrested and taken off the streets for several hours, time enough in the clink for cooler heels (and heads) to prevail…. https://thisiscommonsense.org////?p=6410 […]