Saturday, February 25, 2017

COVE REPORT - Property Owner at 1840 Mason Mill Jailed Over Signage

Property Owner at 1840 Mason Mill Jailed Over Signage

January 22, 2017 – Reposted from the Mason Mill Civic Association

The judge found the property owner at 1840 Mason Mill guilty on 10 code violations.

He sentenced the property owner to one week in the County jail, starting immediately.

Upon returning to his property the owner is on probation for 60 months. As a special condition of his probation, he is not to violate the code ordinance dealing with signage in any way (including content). If he does, he will be put in jail again, and each time he is returned to jail, the amount of time will be increased, so that after spending 4 months in jail, the property owner will have to serve the remainder of the 60 months in jail. He also assessed a $10,000 fine to be paid over 60 months. This fine will be suspended $1,000 for every 6-month period the owner remains in compliance. (This is based on notes taken at the trial. We hope to obtain a written order from the Court soon.)

We have included below the neighborhood statement presented during the sentencing phase of the trial. Many thanks to the 20+ residents who showed up in the courtroom. We appreciate your support.

Testimony:
I believe the solicitor has provided you with Victim Impact Statements from the neighborhood civic association and property owners near Mr. Avery.

As you consider sentencing Mr. Avery, I hope you will review those statements and consider that our neighborhood has endured his signage and disrespectful behavior for the past six years. Through his signage, behaviors, emails and blogs he has shown us contempt, vilified our leaders and threatened our neighborhood. We do not come before you in a capricious or light-hearted manner, but with a heavy heart. We can no longer deal with our neighbor by ourselves. We need your help. And so does he.

Since this is a code violation trial, our view is this:
When people choose to become property owners in DeKalb County, they inherently assume the responsibility of living within the rules and regulations of the county, as expressed in the DeKalb Code of Ordinances.

This code sets forth just the minimum standards that we as property owners are expected to follow for property use and health and safety issues, and the minimum standards that we expect our neighbors to follow. Even if, as in the case of Mr. Avery, we become angry at county government, community institutions such as churches and academic institutions, or our neighbors, we are expected to adhere to these ordinances and conduct our behavior accordingly.

For the past six years, Mr. Avery has violated the code continuously, to the detriment of our neighborhood. His signage and behaviors have had a negative impact on our residents’ property values and our emotional health, as described in the impact statements. Moreover, he has flaunted his complete disregard for our neighborhood and the justice system of this county by continually mounting an excessive number of signs and inflatables on a daily basis, in spite of receiving numerous citations.

His blog and emails suggest that he finds all of this humorous and that he is “playing” a game with us. Well, we do not view his sadistic and antagonistic behavior as a game; nor do we find it humorous.
We ask that the Court sentence Mr. Avery in such a manner that will ensure his adherence to the code and protect our neighborhood. We also ask for a sentence that will guarantee his facing more serious consequences if he continues to violate the code and threaten our residents.

***

The earliest versions of this rhyme published differ significantly in their wording. The first recorded version in Christmas Box, published in London in 1798, has wording similar to that in Mother Goose's Quarto or Melodies Complete, published in Boston, Massachusetts around 1825. The latter ran:

Hey! rub-a-dub, ho! rub-a-dub, three maids in a tub,

And who do you think were there?

The butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker,

And all of them gone to the fair.

This led Iona and Peter Opie to conclude that they were three respectable townsfolk "watching a dubious sideshow at a local fair".

In the original version as it appeared both in England and in the USA (Boston) the song was talking about three maids instead of three men. Later research, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) suggests that the lyrics are illustrating a scene of three reputable men watching on the sly a less decent moment.

By around 1830 the reference to maids was being removed from the versions printed in nursery books. In 1842 James Orchard Halliwell collected the following version:

Rub a dub dub,

Three fools in a tub,

And who do you think they be?

The butcher, the baker,

The candlestick maker.

Turn them out, knaves all three.