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Brookline: They shoot turkeys and they arrest leaf blowers


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They contribute to noise pollution. Not only is it especially inconsiderate to use one so early on a Saturday morning, the crew should have known the law. If the police don't enforce it the "landscapers" will just continue to blow.

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Yes, I agree that leaf blowers are obnoxious, but so is big government.

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It's not big government, it's local government. Moreover, it's something that negatively effects other people. I'm sure you wouldn't like it if your neighbor blared a foghorn at sunrise everymorning because his individual rights trump yours because.

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SpongeBob episodes again, eh.

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Learn to read before you comment; we're talking about a leaf blower, NOT a foghorn. Foghorns don't serve a purpose outside of their nautical environmental. There's a big difference between a household appliance and a device used to warn ships about impending danger(s).

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Since when is a leaf blower a household appliance?

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This happened at Brigham and Women's on Route 9. You could probably barely hear the leaf blower over traffic. The cop should've maybe talked to the supervisor of the landscaping crew at the hospital?

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Leaf blowers are obnoxious. College kids are obnoxious. Motorcycles are obnoxious. The list goes on. That's life in the city. At least the leaf blowing is done within 20 minutes whereas a loud AC is an annoyance all summer long.

Why don't people try asking their neighbors if they wouldn't mind waiting until later in the day to use these things. If the neighbors retort that it's their yard and they want it cleaned in the morning then invest in some earplugs or move to a place with more separation between you and your neighbors. (Or close the windows.)

2am leaf blowing isn't cool. But just because you want to have breakfast in quite with the windows open doesn't mean your neighbor should have to curtail something they want to do.

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"Why don't people try asking their neighbors if they wouldn't mind waiting until later in the day to use these things."

Because people like you think you should be able to do whatever you want and others should "deal with it", so you'll scream "Go fuhk yhaself, I'll clean my fuhkin yhad when I wanna, yha fuhkin pussay yuppay."

Seriously, we have a lot of turnover in our workplace - people from elsewhere in the world and US. Everyone comments about how Bostonians are so bipolar; they're pretty nice in most circumstances, will in most cases gladly give you directions or converse about how the bus is late, etc...until they're doing something obnoxious and you (even very politely) ask them not to. Then they fly into a profanity-laden screaming rage both about how "RUDE" you were to suggest/ask nicely that they stop doing _____, even if it's illegal, or clearly obnoxious, etc., how you need to "mind your own business" even if, say, your "business" (like trying to sleep) is prevented by something they're doing...and you're a step away from getting punched in the face...or in a week or two finding your tires slashed, or a brick through your window.

The end result is that people call the police instead, because they don't want to end up in the ER getting a tooth or two put back their mouth.

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If the people using leaf blowers were considerate they would ask their neighbors if they minded the use of the infernal machines so blisteringly early in the morning.

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So you agree that 2am isn't cool, how about 3am? 5am? Brookline has a law that explicitly lays out when it is cool and not cool so that's the standard everyone there has to abide by. And it wasn't the neighbors exercising control over their own yard, it was a landscaping company who we can reasonably expect to make it their business to know that the rules are.

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Brookline has a sound ordinance, which is reasonable. Violate that and get into trouble. Don't violate it and you should be free to mind your own business. I take issue with the banning of one specific item because some people believe that other people should be raking leaves by hand or because some people don't like the sight of landscapers.

And why ban leaf blowing for only half the year? If it is too noisy shouldn't it always be banned? Or is noise in other times of the year OK? Why not ban snowblowers too? They make lots of noise and people use them early in the morning as well.

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This is a well thought-out bylaw. The season when one is most likely to have open windows is the summer when the machines are banned. It's not year-round because that would be too restrictive. This is what's called a compromise.

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The idea of restricting use between May 15 and Sept. 15 was to prohibit use during most of "open window season" but to allow for the use of leaf blowers during spring and fall cleanup season. There was no reason to ban over the winter for obvious reasons.

Snowblowers were not viewed in the same light because they are typically used when windows are closed, and they are not used nearly as frequently as leaf blowers in their respective seasons.

The notion that this has anything to do with anyone not liking the sight of landscapers nonsense.

Similarly, the idea that the arrest was precipitated by use of the leaf blower alone defies common sense. How many cops do you know who would want to go through the paper work for that? My guess is that when the guy refused to identify himself after being told that he was going to be issued a civil citation for using the blower, that peaked the cop's attention (and perhaps pissed him/her off) which resulted in the arrest.

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There is a sound ordinance. Anything which violates that should remain banned.

If they want to lower the threshold of noise during "open window season" that's fine but keep in mind lawn mowers, power washers, and a bunch of other things people like to use will also be above the threshold and therefor get banned. But if the idea is to ensure peace and quite in the town that's OK, right?

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I agree asking a neighbor to be considerate if they are acting in an egregiously disruptive way. I had a neighbor who employed a relative to use a jackhammer on their (well the city) sidewalk early on a Saturday morning. I asked the guy to not do that at 9:00 AM. The fellow stopped. If he finished the work it wasn't until a weekday.

But there are always folks who take the attitude that their home is the castle and choose to pretend that nothing they do affects anyone and if anyone is bothered then that person should move. Where noise is concerned the reasoning usually is, "It's a city, cities are noisy, deal with it."

I see two problems with reasoning. One is in the charge to "deal with it." What does that mean? There are plenty of ways of dealing with a conflict. Gang bangers deal with conflicts with guns. Is that what deal with it means? Or does deal with it mean "Suck it up, roll over, play dead, disappear, you have no right to complain because my right to make noise is more important than your right to enjoy peace and quiet?"

Or a person could say, "It's a city, cities always have plenty of trash on the street. Why waste money on street cleaners when more trash just shows up. It's a city, stop wasting money on cleaning. Deal with it."

Or dog feces. The more dogs the more dog feces that will be on the sidewalk. Should we just "deal with it" when people leave their dog's feces on the sidewalk?

Deal with it sounds like Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No." Instead of a solution just an arrogant high handed dismissal.

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I believe it was a particular neighborhood in the very wealthy town of Greenwich, CT that "solved" the noise issue by having the lawnmowing/leafblowing folks all come on the same designated day of the week (e.g. Tuesdays) so that the noise would only be heard for that one day. But that was in Greenwich. I'm guessing you'd be the odd person out who took care of their own property grounds there although that's only a very unresearched hypothesis on my part. It also doesn't address the issue of why leafblowers are needed in the first place.

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In case anyone cares what the country folk think of our rules: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/off-top...

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Accordingly to the Globe, the police were going to write the fellow a ticket but he refused to identify himself. So they didn't have much of a choice.

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Such as:

"Hey guys, can you knock it off until 9 AM?"

Or

"I know this a commercial area and all, but please keep in mind going forward we have a noise ordinance. Have a good day."

Instead, the cop chose the "respect my authoritah!" route and whipped out his ticket book.

Total hero!

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He asked the cops why they needed his ID. When told why, he still chose not to give it to them.

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He stood up for himself and told Officer Fife to find something better to do than hassle a landscape crew at a commercial property.

The technical term for his offense was Contempt of Cop.

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that applies here is "acting like a self entitled whiny dumbass" (the landscaper, not the cop).

There are established ways to react to a citation that may have been issued in error. Giving Officer Fife an attitude is not one of them.

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Cops are dicks. But I'd rather they be dicks to guys with leaf blowers at 9am on a Saturday morning than a guy who turned at the wrong place or a kid walking down the street wearing a hoodie.

There's absolutely no reason why loud work needs to be performed in the early AM (or late night) hours. Now if we can just do something about jackhammers at 7am when the job site is as quiet as a monastery by 10am.

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generalizing that "cops are dicks" is almost as bad as generalizing that "people that post bigoted comments anonymously on Universal Hub are dicks."

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They arrested him for refusing to identify himself, not leaf blowing. He was being ticketed for leaf blowing and refused to identify himself.

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Did the noise polluter refuse to identify himself because he was in the country illegally? Did police check? Will the town?

I wonder if Tom Brady and Giselle Buendchen will be out raking their 5 acres. Welcome to Brookline!

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I live in Watertown, right at the edge of a business park. Yeah, I know, my fault for deciding to live here. But anyway... every Saturday morning at 7, we're woken up by a chorus of lawnmowers and blowers, courtesy of landscapers at New England Flag and Banner and United Electric Controls. God, they suck.

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