OREM, Utah (AP) -- A 70-year-old woman arrested in a dispute over her brown lawn pleaded not guilty Tuesday, then stood by as a Los Angeles lawyer waved handcuffs for the cameras outside court.

Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors.

She was arrested July 6 after failing to give her name to a police officer who visited her home.

During a struggle, Perry fell and injured her nose. She spent more than an hour in a holding cell before police released her.

"I ask the citizens of Orem: How many of you would like to have your great-grandmother taken from her home with bruises and blood and placed in handcuffs for failing to water her lawn?" attorney Gloria Allred said.

"Let's bring sanity back to law enforcement," she said.

The mayor and City Council apologized, and the police department said the situation could have been handled differently. But the city attorney still is pressing charges, and Perry is due back in court next month.

A state investigation found that Officer James Flygare acted properly in arresting Perry after trying to get her to cooperate.

Perry's water had been turned off for about nine months, at her request, although she was living at the house at the time of the arrest. Orem has a shutoff policy for people who are away for extended periods.

Ever notice how they make it sound like she's "really bad" or "a repeat criminal" because she didn't just content herself with ONE crime, but committed several!

I'm talking about how they list the charges -- one of them is "resisting arrest". But at first glance, it looks like she went on a real spree of crime! It's one of those subtle impressions they create -- where the perception of reality is gently "massaged".

Of course the original charge is ridiculous, so of course it leads to the 2nd "charge" of resisting arrest. You know, whenever the cops step outside the bounds of justice, they resort to trumped-up charges like "obstruction of justice" and "resisting arrest" and I'm sure there are others.

By the way, here is a picture of the poor old lady (who, like me, doesn't worship her lawn like so many suburban bozos)
She's the one on the left, of course.

She looks like a right and wrong person, with the courage of her convictions.  I didn't read about her resisting arrest, just resisting handing out personal info, like her name.  It does take two to tango, and why would an elderly woman lay hands on a man.  An armed man, at that.

I'm going to bring this back to the scrubbing of God's laws off of people's hearts.  As Lewis so aptly pointed out, if it was done the them they would quickly say, "Unfair!"  But they can do it forever and find nothing wrong with it.  They know right from wrong, moral from immoral, WHEN it is directed at them.  

I am reminded of a couple of cases from my troubled past.  When child welfare decided my daughter was being neglected because I was home schooling, the welfare dipstick arrived at my door with a deputy in tow.  Not knowing my rights or very much about how degenerate law enforcement (esp. child welfare) was, I let her talk to my daughter alone while I went and sat on the porch.  And stewed.  In the meantime the deputy was rambling around our yard and finally came up to us on the porch.  My temper ranneth over and I said a few things about the wrongness of this and he told me to watch my mouth.  I replied that I was sitting on my own porch on my own land and I'd say what I darned well pleased.  He must have had some humanity left in him, because he actually looked ashamed of himself.  A few months later I heard that his wife and children left him.

When we went to court, the DA was all gung ho to take Toots away from me.  But we mounted a rosary crusade like no other, and when we went back to court, the judge ruled in our favor.  The DA was so upset about it she even followed the judge out of the courtroom arguing all the way.  She was ignored.  Less than a year later, she was no longer a DA, as the whole town got together and pitched her out of office.

Bottom line;  With the same measure with which you measure it, it shall be measured unto you.  And I still think Caligula is going to go the same way as Mousselini (sp).

Aye, and they don't stop at rescuing pussy cats from tree tops, if they even bother to do that anymore.  Which, by the way, is one way to tell a skunk from a cat.  To my knowledge, skunks don't climb trees and people don't rescue them.