“Elderly litter picker who voluntarily cleans up local area fined for forgetting walking stick”, the Telegraph reports.
An elderly volunteer litter picker has been handed a fine for accidentally leaving his walking stick by the roadside.
Alan Davies was “shocked, angry and upset” to be penalised by Walsall Council when he forgot his cane in Aldridge, West Midlands, on Sept 6.
Mr Davies and his friends had been on their daily litter pick along Longwood Lane and Hayhead Wood.
The grandfather said he drove off, forgetting to pick up his walking stick and a bag with his cushion inside, which he had placed by the roadside.
Mr Davies claims Walsall Council tracked him down after trawling through local CCTV footage.
He said council officers found his address by using his car’s number plate and sent him the fine last week.
And this is typical:
Mr Davies’s neighbour Ann said: “£150 is a lot of money for a pensioner. You cannot speak to the council on the phone, it has to be [by] email. Not everyone has the internet. Hopefully when people realise what Alan is being put through the council will back down.”
In the end Walsall Council did rescind the fine, although the story does not say whether Mr Davies ever got his walking stick back.
Some aspects of this story reminded me of the raid a few days ago by multiple agents of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on Mark and Daniela Longo’s home, which ended with the authorities killing a pet squirrel and raccoon. Why have officials in English-speaking countries become so sluggish in pursuing criminals but so dogged in the pursuit of harmless people? There has always been some incentive for cops and officials to go after someone who will not resist in preference to going after a criminal who might stab them, but why has it got so much worse in recent years? Perhaps it is because the number of bureaucrats has so multiplied that responsibility for a process is always divided.
The appeal of low hanging fruit never goes away, but the fruit seems to have grown more tasty than before.
“why has it got so much worse in recent years?” Largely because many a cop who fought back effectively against a violent criminal has been arrested and charged and all too often convicted. Most cops don’t want to take the chance of ending up in jail so they go after soft targets. Ditto government bureaucrats.
It is called anarcho-tyranny.
Bureaucracy has strangled all levels of government – elected politicians have very limited influence on what is happening.
In theory Parliament could repeal the statutes that give officials such power over the lives of ordinary people – but Parliament wants to be “practical” i.e. accept rule by officials and “experts”.
It is much the same in many Western countries – not just the United Kingdom.
Will President Trump be able tot restore democracy (for he is not a “threat to democracy” on the contrary President Trump is the last hope to restore some democracy against the rule of officials and “experts”) – I-do-not-know, but he first has to be elected.
If President Trump is NOT elected – then we can, basically, give up talking about politics – as the rule of officials and “experts” (on an international basis – international governance) will proceed unchallenged, at least till society falls apart.
Snorri – yes “anarcho-tyranny” is a good term.
Criminals, shop thieves, muggers and so on, NOT punished – but ordinary people terrorized by the state.
An inversion of what governance is supposed to be.
Cities such as Chicago show where this is heading.
Muggers fight back. Squirrels don’t. What surprises me is the raccoon – they can be dangerous. Amazed they didn’t shoot him immediately on sight and arrest the couple for harboring a dangerous animal.
Paul (and readers in general): as most of you are probably aware, ‘anarcho-tyranny’ is not a term that i coined. Sam Francis coined it.
According to Wikipedia, Sam Francis was a “white supremacist”. Whether or not that is true, is something that i cannot be bothered to research. The fact is that the concept of ‘anarcho-tyranny’ is essential to understanding some social trends, no matter where it comes from.
Mr Davies’s neighbour Ann said: “£150 is a lot of money for a pensioner.
An unimportant point but the car Mr. Davies drives off in is a newish Mercedes coupe. The fine is still wrong but I am not sure that this pensioner cannot afford it.
FWIW, it is not the function (in England) of the local council to go after muggers, but they do have the jurisdiction to pursue littering. Of course, as Mark Steyn put it ‘Everything is policed, except crime.‘.
Regarding Sam Francis, it was curious to note that tech entrepreneur Marc Andreessen recently shared Francis’ classic essay on Anarcho-Tyranny from Chronicles Magazine.
Given Francis died in relative obscurity in 2005, and Andreessen was a 2016 Hillary supporter, I have to find this something to be optimistic about.
You can also read Francis’ Beautiful Losers: Essays on the Failure of American Conservatism for free here. In particular I’d recommend the essay ‘The Cult of Dr King’ in it.
I’d bet the walking stick caused no problems, but that “bag with his cushion inside” is what triggered the trouble.
A stick! If the Longos were suspected of having a stick there would have been a lot more than 10 enforcers and they would have come with their guns at the ready. Sticks are even more dangerous than squirrels. Pensioners with sticks! (Shudders)
Sorry but this is just the conservative version of “if it bleeds it leads.” Was it ridiculous that the fined this man? Of course. Local governments are stupid and petty. But the implication that you are more likely to be prosecuted for forgetting your walking stick than you are for mugging someone is plainly ridiculous. Of course the police do a horrible job closing out muggings and other “minor” felonies (though I doubt it feels minor when it happens to you), but to suggest there is a rampant increase in prosecutions of walking stick forgetfulness or local governments are full of squirrel killers is not true at all.
In Britain there is a disturbing amount of police resources redirected toward hate speech enforcement or a disturbing consideration of DEI when it comes to police or prosecutorial discretion. But shit happens, I feel bad for this guy, but I think a focus on such ephemera just buries the lede. It gives the opponents of freedom something to fuss about so that they don’t have to address fundamental questions of why the police are so utterly failing to enforce the laws against substantive crimes. Right now, today, in California there is a ballot initiative TODAY to try to make property crimes have a more serious punishment, rather than the current situation of “steal up to $1000 and we will leave you alone.” Kamala Harris, who used to be DA of California, refused to take a position on this.
I mean seriously, if you can legally steal $1000 worth of goods maybe a couple of times a day, discounting for 50% fee to your fence, that is probably a $200k income, most likely tax free. That seems like a pretty good job opportunity if it is free from risk of criminal prosecution. And these gangs know exactly what they are doing. They steal exactly up to the limit — FFS you can see them with calculators. They know what to steal, perfume, razor blades, electronics, because they are easily sellable. They know exactly how to handle the loss prevention officers, who are more scared of an assault charge than of seeing their stores’ shrink rates skyrocket. This isn’t some homeless guy nicking a sandwich and a bottle of Pepsi because he is hungry.
Snorri – I know you did not coin the term “anarcho-tyranny”, but you were still the first to use it on this thread.
And I thank you for your accurate description of what is happening in so many places – and not just in the United States.
Criminals are allowed to plunder and murder – and honest citizens are savagely persecuted and sent to prison.
Just the other day a lady (indeed a “lady-of-color” as the lady happened to be black) was sent to prison for three years in the United States.
Her “crime” was standing near a baby killing facility.
The lady did not enter the facility – just standing near it, on a public street, got her three years in prison. So much for the 1st Amendment – the vicious scum who make up the “Justice” Department and “Progressive” judges, have already undermined it – and would have utterly destroyed the 1st Amendment (and the rest of the Bill of Rights) had President Trump not won.
Meanwhile the killers (the killers of babies – and the killers of adults in attacks) will not be punished at all in “Progressive” cities.
“Why have officials in English-speaking countries become so sluggish in pursuing criminals but so dogged in the pursuit of harmless people?”
Anarcho-tyranny
RobinGoodfellow.
Yes indeed Sir – Anarcho-tyranny is what the Progressives want.
I was interested in the phrase “responsibility divided”. Some years ago, as a private contractor, I was directing a public sector project. I explained that it was important to allocate individual responsibilities, but the Civil Servants wanted two people to be responsible for each issue: “that way it’s twice as likely to be done”. I had to explain that when I was running a large payroll I improved submission accuracy by 80% by abolishing checking: that way, everyone was responsible for their own input and couldn’t blame someone else for not noticing their mistakes.