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They Called the Police on Me Because of COVID-19 Restrictions
On Sunday, I went to the town transfer station (the dump) to dispose of some old boards that I had loaded into my trailer. The station’s supervisor called the police on me. I do not appreciate being treated like a criminal for going to the transfer station.
I drove into the transfer station and waited for the supervisor to come over to my car, and I asked him where I should put the boards, most of which were half rotten. He said they were not taking construction debris (“CD”) anymore. I asked if I should put the boards in the household trash compactor in that case. He said no, I would have to go home. I suggested that since my debris was all natural wood I could dispose of it in the brush pile. He grew exasperated and asked me, “why do you have to be like this?” And told me I could not leave the boards anywhere. I was also exasperated, and hyperbolically said I wasn’t leaving without putting the boards in either the open CD containers, the compactor, or the brush pile, and asked what was he going to do about it. He called the police.
I stayed and waited for the police officer to arrive because I didn’t want him to think, or me to feel like, I had “fled the scene.” To be honest, I don’t think anyone has ever called the police on me before and I was confused how to act, especially because I don’t view going to the transfer station as nefarious.
To be clear, my grievance is not with the supervisor or the police officer. And I told that to them both and I believe that we were OK by the time I left.
My problem is with the town’s board of selectmen. The board has arbitrarily and capriciously ordered that the transfer station not take CD. The reason the supervisor gave me for this decision was, to paraphrase slightly, “to maintain distancing and protect us [the employees] and you [the townspeople] from infection.”
This makes no logical sense. The CD containers are outside and there’s no reason to come within 50 feet of another person when unloading your trailer. It’s the compactor for household trash where you’re much more likely to come close to another person. Yet the household trash compactors (also outdoors) remain open for use. In fact, while I was speaking to the supervisor and the police officer I observed numerous town residents coming in close proximity with each other and with transfer station employees. I pointed this out and the police officer told me that the distancing guidelines are optional. So the guidelines are optional at the compactor but not the CD containers? This is maddening.
Do we really want to live in a society where you have the police called on you for going to the transfer station? (Even if you get angry and say something slightly bombastic but don’t actually start chucking wood off your trailer in the middle of the parking lot?) It wasn’t exactly fun to stand there being confronted by an armed police officer while countless fellow town residents drove by, assuming who knows what about the reasons I appeared to be under interrogation. The police officer is very professional, but let’s be honest: When the police are called, the threat of arrest (loss of liberty) is always present. We have all seen the videos from across the nation of people being arrested for no good reason: for paddle-boarding alone in the ocean, for letting their children play on a playground, for playing catch with their daughter in a park, for sitting on the beach.
It’s time to fully reopen the transfer station, the rest of the town, our states, and our country.
Published in General
This was yesterday?!? It’s almost May and you still have SNOW in your backyard?!?! New Hampshire is waaaaay too far north for this southern girl’s comfort – at least in the winter and (apparently) some of spring. Just out of curiosity, when does it usually start snowing up where you are?
Just to be clear, do you support the idea of calling the police on people who are either petty or grumpy?
It’s a town-run facility. And why? Why is it any muddier?
Except, as I stated in my post, the construction debris (CD) containers are far away from any other station and there’s no reason to come in close proximity to anyone when unloading a trailer. As for transactions, they could easily send my an invoice later, or I could put a check in a box. Or, God forbid, they could join the 21st century and I could pay them through a mobile app. Gasp! Not to mention that I already pay property taxes so why should I have to pay more at all?
The important thing is that there’s no reason for the employees to have to be near me in order for me to pay the extra fee. But as to that, why not? We’re still going in the grocery stores and paying them. For some reason all the cashiers haven’t dropped dead. Weird.
Fact is the CD has been controversial in town for a few years and the muckities took the opportunity to not let a crisis go to waste and such down the CD containers and also the “Swap shop,” which is at the transfer station. The swap shop is pretty self-explanatory from the name. We drop off things that we don’t want/need any more but that are still useful. Other people pick them up if they want them. The station supervisor tried to such it down last summer because he doesn’t like it. There was a huge backlash in town and they had to re-open it. Well, now it’s closed again because COVID.
It just snowed a little overnight. ;-) 60F today…
Usually get a first snowfall at the end of October. It doesn’t last, but then a few weeks later there will be a bigger snow that sticks.
Why is this woman harassing these poor officers of the law. They don’t make the rules, they’re just trying to enforce them. She should take her complaint to the city council.
I watched that yesterday, and I have . . . questions. It’s not really clear what this confrontation was about, so I’m not ready to call them Nazi Cosplayers yet.
Now the lady who was hauled away in handcuffs by the cops for doing dog grooming in her home (a day before the governor decided that dog grooming would now be allowed) . . . that one kind of steams me.
Because nobody elected you to make that decision. Your business is your own.
re ‘shut downs’ – they want fewer people out and about, so have fewer options open. Arguing the logic of that is a separate issue.
If only.
Some people get authoritarian systems and traditions confused with our American system and traditions.
LOL! I love how things are so different from one area of our country to another. That “little” snow would be freaking people out around here. But it does sound like New Hampshire and North Texas weather have something in common this time of year – unpredictability. The joke around here, especially in the spring, is: Don’t like the weather? Wait a few hours; something else will come around.
But the deputy literally says the reason they’re yelling at her is that she let her kid play at somebody else’s house.
I felt like there was more to it. Something that was missing. It’s a long video, and I just got the sense that it’s not being presented 100% honestly.
Yeah but he did say that……and that they were going to put her down on some “uncooperative list”. I would have been marked down on the “citizen told us to get the @#$ off his property without a warrent” list.
I’ve always wanted to get a “welcome mat” that says “Come Back With a Warrant”, but my wife won’t let me.
I wonder if it’s bad to be on the “uncooperative list.” At least she wouldn’t be on the “cooperative list.”
Current data for NH: 66 deaths over 33 days averages to 2 per day, divided into current active caseload of 1008 (=.00198 deaths per active case) is well within the average. It can look occasionally worse than average because you see days of zero deaths alternating with 6 (yesterday) with zero (there have been days 0f 8, 7, 7 reported on individual days), indicating they are semi-aggregating their reporting, which likely indicates the locals are supporting this not full time, but there are conceivably political reasons for aggregating, (to get the numbers up maybe?). Their active cases include 107 hospitalizations, and the COVID health data site says they have 1019 beds available. They might be past their worst, and definitely are showing excess capacity in their hospitals. They no longer appear to be justified in locking down their state for the sole purpose of preserving emergent hospital demand as was the original justification for the lockdowns, and this is also the case for most states at this point. I would say you have a case for relaxing restrictions.
Still not worthy of handcuffs. Oh brother.
Here’s our transfer station. As you can see, the CD containers are very far away from anywhere else. There is no reason for anyone to come within 50 feet of anyone else.
I have requested a police investigation into the town’s violation of RSA 149-M, which specifically requires towns to accept construction and demolition debris.
On Monday I asked the selectmen to reopen the transfer station but they have not:
Neat how it is laid out on a hill. You drop stuff into the bins and rigs hauling off the bins aren’t around citizens. Everything here is on level ground so I have to hoist stuff up and I to the bins.