Garbage man jailed for 30 days because he came to work too EARLY and annoyed wealthy residents

[Liberal_in_LA]

Kevin McGill, 48, violated ordinance banning trash collection before 7am
He will spend this weekend and the next 13 in jail after receiving 30 days
McGill had no lawyer when he went to Sandy Springs, Georgia, courthouse
'Company representative accompanied him' and expected up to $1000 fine
Father of two and new attorney have filed motion to withdraw guilty plea
Residents called 9-1-1 when they heard early garbage pickup services
Suburb has privatized almost all of its services, including court system


owever, the Court Chief Solicitor Bill Riley asked for a 30 day sentence for the offense of picking up trash around 5am in the suburb and the judge granted the stiff penalty.
He was sentenced on February 20th at the local courthouse, the running of which has been handed over to private contractors by the city.
There were no real negotiations between her client and Mr Riley when he was sentenced, Ms Bandoh told Daily Mail Online, adding that the solicitor had claimed the offense meant 'automatic jail time'.
Mr Riley has stood by the request for jail and says that 'fines don't seem to work' and 'The only thing that seems to stop the activity is actually going to jail.'
The solicitor said that residents of Sandy Springs, which include professional athletes and executives for Delta Air Lines, begin calling 9-1-1 when they hear early garbage men, according to WSPA.
He said it was the right decision to punish McGill, who had only been on the route for three months, rather than his company, which the city has contracted to pick up its residents' trash.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984054/Garbage-man-thrown-jail-30-days-getting-work-early-annoying-residents-wealthy-Atlanta-suburb-houses-professional-athletes-rap-star.html#ixzz3TjdXMKQs

[marym625]

1. jesus christ

Disgusting

[yeoman6987]

28. Ok 30 days is ridiculous, but so is 5 am

I am sorry but banging trash cans at 5 am when he knows he is not supposed to until 7 is ridiculous too. 30 days is too much, but if he does it again....maybe.

[marym625]

34. wow

Privatized court system, automatic jail time for noise and you're OK with this in any way? Sorry, absolutely fucking ridiculous. Any jail time. She fire the guy or the company. That's how you deal with people doing their job badly

[yeoman6987]

47. Fire the guy? That's worse. ID rather 30 days on weekend

Then your desire to fire him. Wow. Judy wow! I thought I heard it all. You stunned me.

[marym625]

49. You think a prison record is OK?

Shame on you. I don't think he should have been anything but reprimanded. I think it even going to court is horrible. I think that a privatized judicial system is bullshit. I think anything more than a ticket is outrageous.

I would rather lose my job than spend a minute in jail. And you saying that jail for starting his job early and bothering some rich asswipes is more than shocking to me.

[yeoman6987]

51. Oh please. He pled guilty. I wouldn't have.

I would have gone to court. Chances are he would have been found not guilty by a jury.

[marym625]

53. Did you read the article?

Where in there do you get that he would have gotten a not guilty verdict?

Oh please yourself. It's is overreach beyond anything even resembling reasonable.

[Ruby the Liberal]

45. Maybe I am just used to it

But my trash is always gone by 5:15-5:30a on pickup days. Of course, I live in a city where we put our trash between the sidewalk and street, not in a gated community, but whatever. Doesn't bother me in the least!

[yeoman6987]

48. Ours is picked up at noon. It is kinda nice.

We are not allowed to put it out at night. Only morning after 7. HOA rule.

[Ruby the Liberal]

52. I have missed pickup a few times

where I didn't get it out in time. Because of the schedule - we are instructed to put the garbage out the evening before pickup. I kinda miss living in an apartment. There, we had dumpsters and could take out the trash whenever we were in the mood to gather it. Now, it has to go out on a specific day because of curb pickup at my house.

[sabbat hunter]

60. what if

you go to work early in the AM and aren't home in the morning after 7am to put the garbage out?

[SMC22307]

62. Yeah, those rules seem pretty restrictive.

My former HOA policy was not earlier than noon the day before pickup, and removed by noon the day after pickup.

[yeoman6987]

72. The neighbors help out. A few have my garage door code

That is a nice part of having good neighbors. I help them with different things like baking or cooking a meal.

[Kablooie]

71. The company should have been punished and if the worker disobeyed orders,

the company should be the one to discipline him, (or whoever made the decision not to follow city laws)

[Hoyt]

2. Sandy Springs is one of those areas where racists voted to incorporate separately from Atlanta,

Fulton County. It's a disgusting trend in Atlanta area.

[Wella]

11. You know for a fact that they're racists? Or is being white enough?

Be careful here. I think the case in the OP is ludicrous, but your prejudice is unwarranted.

[Hoyt]

16. Grew up among similar folks. It's quite clear what they are up to.

A lot of them don't think they are racist.

[Wella]

18. I have no basis on which to judge your experience or veracity, so a personal opinion from you and

$3 only get me a latte at Starbucks.

[Hoyt]

19. This guy was from that area. He said he wasn't a racist either. White flight is obvious.

[Wella]

73. Cheap shot, kid. And completely unconvincing.

Remember, when you have to bring up the "devils" of history, it means you lost the argument.

[Hoyt]

77. No it means you are blind to facts of white suburbs segregating themselves from the city.

[Wella]

78. You lost the argument, kid.

When you have actual facts and stats, you can post them.

[Hoyt]

79. I have actual facts including it is an overwhelming white, Republican area segregating

itself from City of Atlanta. I suspect I'm the one who should be referring to you as" kid. "

[TeamPooka]

25. not if you know the area. nt

[Hoyt]

27. +1

[Marxizm]

32. There is really no way to "prove for a fact" somebody is a racist

This whole concept that you have to "prove" as a "fact" that somebody is racist before calling them racist is absolutely ridiculous and a right-wing propaganda trick. Not saying you are doing it intentionally, but you most certainly fell for it. Cliven Bundy said blacks were better off picking cotton because at least they had jobs, people called him racist and he got mad saying hes NOT racist, can you prove that he is racist? Maybe he is really just that dumb and really thinks blacks would be better off picking cotton? You cannot prove it either way, psychology is far too complex to prove somebodies belief on anything. Regardless, its safe to say he is racist, and its safe to say this incident is also racist.

[marym625]

54. Thank you!

Rec if I could

[uppityperson]

59. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

[PoliticAverse]

3. WSBTV story on the issue...

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/national/sanitation-worker-sent-jail-picking-too-early/nkNYR/

Video story with interview of McGill:
http://www.wsbtv.com/videos/news/sanitation-worker-receives-jail-time-for-picking/vDJXs4/

[Liberal_in_LA]

4. thanks.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Better writing at the following link...I dislike the Daily Mail...

http://www.vice.com/read/this-man-got-sentenced-to-30-days-in-jail-for-picking-up-trash-too-early-306

[Liberal_in_LA]

7. thanks. from your link:

American society has long placed a special value on rising early for a hard day's work. But this is apparently not always the case in the Atlanta suburb of Sandy Springs, where a sanitation worker was sentenced to 30 days in jail for picking up the town's garbage before 7:00 AM and thus violating a local ordinance.

Last month, Kevin McGill thought he was simply going into court to pay a fine for his early-morning trash collecting. But he was soon face to face with a prosecutor and he quickly took a plea deal to prevent his case from going to trial. Before he knew it, a Sandy Springs judge had given McGill an entire month behind bars.

No other charge factored into the sentence—just the violation of a rule aimed at keeping garbage trucks from disturbing the morning peace

!---
Bill Riley, the city prosecutor, emphasizes that McGill took a plea deal and both acknowledged his guilt and understood the harshness of the potential sentence.

the fool prosecutor
"This was a negotiated plea," he said. "It was ultimately the judge's decision as to whether that was an appropriate sentence... I just made a recommendation, he didn't have to take it."

[marym625]

56. I'm so angry I can't even put it into words probably

Where the hell do they get off privatizing the judicial system? How is this allowed to happen?

Thank you so much for the OP and this.

Just so very angry!

[csziggy]

6. People called 911 for a garbage man making noise?

"The solicitor said that residents of Sandy Springs, which include professional athletes and executives for Delta Air Lines, begin calling 9-1-1 when they hear early garbage men, according to WSPA." Why haven't they been charged with abuse of the emergency telephone system? That is as stupid as calling 911 when you don't get the order you want at a fast food drive through!

I can see complaining about 5 AM trash pick up - those trucks are noisy - but not calling an emergency phone number and certainly NOT jailing someone for it. Call the company to complain, not the police! Oh - if the company knows that it is illegal to pick up trash that early, do they let their employees know? Why do they allow their trucks out on the roads in that town that early? Why isn't the COMPANY held liable?

I bet this is the key:

The worker was also sentenced to six months of probation, when he will pay fees to Sandy Springs, according to Vice.

The suburb has privatized almost all of its city services, including its municipal courts, its communications, parks, economic development and call center operations.

Its website states that 'this business model fosters a proactive, responsive and efficient approach to providing city services.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984054/Garbage-man-thrown-jail-30-days-getting-work-early-annoying-residents-wealthy-Atlanta-suburb-houses-professional-athletes-rap-star.html#ixzz3Tjhkbxk2

So McGill will not only have to spend time in jail, he will also have to pay fees for his probation, probably court costs and fees, and thereby struggle to stay solvent.

This SUCKS.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. rich people do. and prosecutor bill riley does their bidding

[Marr]

13. And the police RESPONDED. I doubt they'd have snapped to it so obediently

if the call had come from some working class or-- god forbid-- poor neighborhood.

[crazylikafox]

9. Cruel and unusual punishment....

where's the ACLU??

[devils chaplain]

10. Pesky peasants. n/t

[Wella]

12. The punishment is ludicrous: but there is an ordinance and his company should have sent another

employee. Unless the guy is in business for himself, this is something you go after the company for, not the employee.

[Wella]

14. This is an odd story: the man works for a company, Waste Management Inc, which accompanied him to

the courthouse:

A representative for the company went to the courthouse with McGill, who expected to be ordered to pay up to a $1000 fine, Ms Bandoh said.

...Ms Prince added that Waste Management, which operates throughout the US and reported $14billion in revenue in 2014, would coordinate with its employee about his work schedule and jail time.

Waste Management is responsible for the employee's behavior and had ALREADY racked up a lot of fines with this city:

Sharon Kraun, a spokesman for Sandy Springs, told Daily Mail Online that McGill's citation stemmed from an incident where his truck had been photographed by a resident.

The city had seen a previous case where a garbage man was given jail time several years ago and that while no similar cases had happened since, the collectors had 'fair warning', Ms Kraun said.

She said that Waste Management, which had amassed thousands of dollars in fines with the municipality in the last year, suspended McGill for violating its policies before he went to court.

Waste Management could not answer questions about McGill's employment history with the company as of Saturday morning and said it was 'currently still investigating all the facts in the case'.

They also seem to have suspended the employee, although that's not clear.

Instead of putting the employee in prison (ludicrous!) the town should fire Waste Management Inc. and find another company. Maybe these outsourcing government officials are beginning to find out how outsourcing puts you at the mercy of a corporation that ignores your laws, your fines, your wishes as a customer.

[mercuryblues]

15. uhm no

when the contract is up and bids for a new one every single trash collecting company should add 5 million to collect in their little enclave.
Create a fund to pay the fines. Hire more collectors so they do not have to start their route so early to complete it. They can pay the employees more per hour.

[Wella]

17. Um yes--the facts are all correct. They came from the article.

.

[mercuryblues]

20. uhm no

the company should not have suspended him. It was most likely a manager who told him to start that route at that time.


They should not be able to contract out to the lowest bidder then keep having the employees thrown in jail and fined at will. Every company that bids on that contract should add millions to offset that.

[Aerows]

26. Every other rational group of folks

that call themselves a city would hire him, because that's what time the garbage runs - gets out of the way of kids going to school so it isn't on the curb, people going to work since the can are all empty, and doesn't aggregate animals sniffing in said garbage.

[mercuryblues]

40. not to

mention this is Georgia. It gets mighty hot there in the summer. If you start the route at 6AM chances are it can be finished before the temp hits 90+ degrees. Start it later and the people are still out there in the hottest part of the day. These people don't care, as long as they get their sleep. I feel bad for them. It can not be fun collecting garbage in 100 degree weather and 95% humidity.

I hope when they ask for new bids, no company submits one. Then they get gouged for their unreasonable demands.

[Wella]

65. Um YES the facts were correct.

Please stop lying.

[mercuryblues]

69. I'll

stop "lying" when you stop being stooped. Deal?

I didn't dispute your facts. Not one single bit. As a matter of fact, I didn't even address the article, itself. I find it reprehensible that this little enclave is so full of itself that they think putting a trash collector in prison for picking up their trash too early is a good thing. -That is what I addressed and if you weren't so eager to pick a fight you might have taken a breath and realized that. Other posters realized that.

[CTyankee]

21. We used to have a very early trash pickup from our city. Five am would wake lots of

folks in our very modest neighborhood in New Haven. We're seniors and we could often just get back to sleep but I can see some of our working neighbors needing maybe that extra hour or so of sleep...we have lots of city workers in our immediate neighborhood. I feel proud that we have unionized folks picking up the refuse.

The pickup is now later and recycles and garbage are picked up separately. Fortunately, our recycle pickup doesn't require separating bottles and cans from paper and cardboard and the bins are supplied by the city. It's just a bit of a challenge getting them to the curb in the snow each week...

[Aerows]

24. I have no conception of how

5-5:30am is *NOT* normal trash pickup time.

In the city, you have to move your car at that time of the morning for the streetsweepers to come by, and I've never seen anyone complain since they want the streets clean.

There are reasons. Collections of trash aggregate scavenger animals. Do you want your kids getting on the bus being interfered with by that, or you when you are getting in your car for the commute?

It makes sense to do it early.

[CTyankee]

35. But the reality is that other workers (not the wealthy) were wakened so early and

had no time to get back to sleep when the pickup was a 5 am.

My city, New Haven, is heavily unionized, and our city workers are union workers. It is not Us v. Them. Please understand that.

[Aerows]

38. It isn't an "Us vs. Them" scenario

Garbage pickup has been at that time for many practical reasons. I understand that waste disposal is a pitied upon science by many, but it is one of the foundations of urban life.

I'm not arguing with you so much as I am asking you to understand how later pickup could impact you.

You are a student of Art History, and you are a student of History. I invite you to look through the archives of waste pickup in successful societies, and unsuccessful societies.

There is a science to urban life, my friend.

[CTyankee]

39. I'm sorry, I have no knowledge base of waste pickup history...not my area of expertise...

however, I am open to learning always...so I'd appreciate some links to info to help me....thanks!

[Aerows]

41. You opened a can of worms, as it were :D

That was a pun, but looking towards better waste management is something that is integral to the life on our planet.

Composting, mulch, rejuvination of soil ... I could take up so much of your time that it would bore you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_management

[CTyankee]

67. thanks. that was fascinating. I learned some new things.

Also, I do get your point about the wisdom of early pickup of garbage. We have actually had scavenging animals (there are some woods nearby...yes, in the city of New Haven! and Yale's parkland golf course 3 blocks from my house). And for a while a man used to come by the houses early on pick up day and rummage through bins for cans and bottles he could recycle for money.

I guess like snow removal garbage pickup is also an urban political issue. But as you point out it is "evergreen" as such...

[Aerows]

74. Indeed it is.

There really is a reason for the systems to run the way they run, inconvenient though it may be.

Thanks for listening and being willing to alter your view point.

[CTyankee]

80. My philosophy is if you don't listen you don't learn.

Somehow this has all been worked out to everyone's satisfaction here in New Haven. I credit our newish mayor, Toni Harp. She is the first female mayor of New Haven! and she is also African American. AND she lives in our neighborhood! Yay!

She is such a breath of fresh air in our city! She listens and responds intelligently and calmly. She gets sh*t done, period. Even those who were doubters earlier now think she's great.

So that is an inspiration for those of us who are leaning towards listening and not responding angrily. Our former mayor was always confrontational. We got sick of him. He's gone and she's here and I'm glad. Peace abides.

I used to walk on the Yale Golf Course in the winter and early spring, before the golfers came and I loved the quiet and calm. It was beautiful. But I got very scared at one point and thought "I'm all alone here and what if I'm attacked?" I couldn't get back home fast enough...

[Aerows]

81. I'm fairly certain

that as a smart citizen that also happens to be the mayor, she will look out for the interests of all the citizens in her district .

[Downwinder]

22. Let them haul their own garbage.

[ND-Dem]

30. Let them wallow in it.

[KansDem]

76. Let garbage pickup commence around 8 a.m.--in time for the morning rush of traffic.

See how long before the pampered rich ****s bitch and moan about not being able to get anywhere with those big, nasty-smelling trucks on their pristine streets! Perhaps they'll find themselves sitting in their limousines waiting while their drivers inch their way precariously through a maze of trash trucks.

[Aerows]

23. We'd gripe in my area

if they showed up later than 5:30am.

[ND-Dem]

29. they privatized their *courts*? GFC.

[LiberalElite]

31. He should have been warned it's a No-Go Zone nt

[Trillo]

43. I was thinking along a similar line of thought.

You summarize it so much better!

[ND-Dem]

33. Waste Management = Wayne Huizenga's fiefdom.

Of all the myths that Wayne Huizenga -Wayne as a self made man, champion of the little guy, and savior of South Florida -none does so much in accounting for the Wayne who presented himself to Thomas Millwood on October 11, 1960...

Millwood opened the front door of his Pompano Beach home that Tuesday to a man of moderate height and build...The visitor was a salesman of sorts. He proposed that Millwood switch garbage-collection services to the firm he represented...

At age 22, Harry Wayne Huizenga, Jr., was at what can be characterized as a crisis point in his young career. While his classmates from nearby Pine Crest High School were earning their diplomas from elite colleges and slipping into comfortable jobs, Huizenga had done little but wander in the five years since graduating high school, drifting from low-wage jobs...

The heir to a once-prosperous family whose economic fortunes had gone bust in Florida, Huizenga came back to Fort Lauderdale in 1960 with a newlywed wife. Seething with ambition but without much in the way of prospects, he took a job selling trash-hauling services door-to-door.

Thomas Millwood, however, was not swayed by the sales pitch, a rejection that evidently caused something in young Huizenga to snap...Huizenga refused to vacate the premises. "After using abusive and profane language to both Millwood and his wife, the defendant Huizenga attacked Millwood in a fit of anger and without provocation..."

The matter went to trail, where Huizenga claimed Millwood had instigated the violence. The jury believed Millwood and awarded him $1000 in damages... But Huizenga learned a vital lesson from the incident, one that would serve him well. Namely: When met with resistance, don't get caught grabbing the opposition by the balls- have someone else do it...

The embarrassing scuffle in Thomas Millwood's front yard, of course, has long since been erased from Huizenga's official mythos, as has the dark underside of his corporate legacy. Today, the 56-year-old Huizenga is known chiefly as the straight-shooting owner of South Florida's beloved sports teams. Paid toadies and awestruck reporters paint him as a model of corporate benevolence, a self-made tycoon. At sporting events, fathers point to Huizenga as proof of the adage "The American dream can come true for anyone."

In fact, his life is far better testament to the prevailing law of American aristocracy: Make enough money and people quit asking how...

http://www.corporations.org/wmi/huizenga.html


Dirty as shit.

[underpants]

37. Great post

[shanti]

36. Insanity!

Ours comes at 6am, but i don't really care what time they come, as long as they come! If he'd had a lawyer, he wouldn't be in jail, IMO.

[Trillo]

44. Kind of interesting to wonder if all laborers in the future will need attorneys

to represent them. If so, "minimum" wage needs to rise significantly.

[yeoman6987]

50. All these stories that have been kinda crazy lately

Is because they plead out. I think that should be known. He picked the punishment. I wouldn't have but he did.

[Trillo]

42. This does present an interesting legal aspect.

City trash collection services serve people by picking up thier trash on the curb, in other words on public property. If I'm understanding this story correctly (which I may not be), even the streets are privatized, so he was on private property at the time. Just following normal customs, when you are on someone else's property, the same set of laws do not necessarily apply. For example, a business owner has the right to refuse service fairly broadly, though there are exceptions. You can be kicked out of a person's home for using profanity, while in public, it is protected speech. Different laws seem to apply.

I'm no lawyer, but I find this aspect intriguing.

This conviction is reminiscent of slavery, getting punished for doing your work reasonably well.

[Dawson Leery]

46. Let these rich residents wallow in their own trash.

[jpak]

55. If I called 911 about garbage pick-up - I would expect to spend time in the local jail

the 1% - not so much

yup

[Warpy]

57. It would be justice if their trash didn't get picked up for those 30 days.

Poor sap probably had to start that early to complete his route.

This is so wrong.

[WillowTree]

58. To a point, I do understand.

As a matter of fact, I registered a complaint with our property management company just this morning about this very type of thing.

Our condo association has a contact with the waste removal company and contractually they are not to show up here before 7:00 on Monday and Wednesday or before 8:00 on Saturdays when people tend to sleep later. And I didn't appreciate having them rolling out the dumpsters right under my bedroom window, clattering all the way across the courtyard, just before 7 AM.

That being said, the responsibility should lie with the company, and the penalty should be a fine (to the employer), not jailing the individual employee for Heaven's sake. If the employee has been instructed about the hours of collection and repeatedly violates the terms of the contract, then what happens to him is between him and his employer.

[Takket]

61. How can this be allowed?

First off, the plea deal... sounds like he had the plea deal sprung on him and panic. did he have any kind of competent council? Because I can't believe that if he did, he would have gone for this....

second... has anyone noticed that this BLOWS the 8th amendment out of the water??????????? We are going to jail a person and take their freedom away because they made too much noise????????? Fine the guy, fire the guy if he broke company rules, talk to Waste Management about him and get him transferred... something, they has to be a better way than depriving someone of their FREEDOM because they woke some people up!!!!!!!!!!

[forsaken mortal]

63. wasting the time of 911 operators

because the garbage man/woman is doing their job should incur jailtime.

[Faryn Balyncd]

64. If corporatizing the courts does not meet Mussolini's definition of corporatism/fascism, what does?

Applying for a business license? Speak to a woman with Severn Trent, a multinational company based in Coventry, England. Want to build a new deck on your house? Chat with an employee of the Collaborative, a consulting firm based in Boston. Need a word with people who oversee trash collection? That would be the URS Corporation, based in San Francisco.

Even the city’s court, which is in session on this May afternoon, next to the revenue division, is handled by a private company, the Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, Calif. The company’s staff is in charge of all administrative work, though the judge, Lawrence Young, is essentially a legal temp, paid a flat rate of $100 an hour....


...After an election in 2004, both houses of Georgia’s legislature were controlled by Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction. “It was like a dog that’s been chasing a train for years and finally catches it,” Mr. Porter says. “The question was, What do I do with it now?” . . . As a fan of Ronald Reagan and the economist Friedrich Hayek, Mr. Porter came naturally to the notion that Sandy Springs could push “the model” to its nth degree. His philosophical inclinations were formed by a life spent in private enterprise, and cemented by a visit to Weston, Fla., a town that had begun as a series of gated communities.


http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/24/business/a-georgia-town-takes-the-peoples-business-private.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all&_r=0

and now they're jailing garbage men.

[JonLP24]

66. Nothing was as noisy as the landscapers

In Arizona during the summertime, you got to start early. Only neighborhood dogs barking like hell at the dump truck was the only thing that alerted me they were there. Also the HOA tore down the playground and took the rim & backboard off the pole because of the kids playing at night making too much noise, those were multilayer brick homes. They should try the thin walls I got now.

[Vinca]

68. The horror of it all! A commoner wanting to do his job early!

Are these the same a-holes who won't allow the little cancer-stricken girl to have a playhouse in her back yard? It makes you want to go and terrorize them with wet clothes hanging on a clothesline.

[99Forever]

70. Any doubt left as to why rich people don't deserve our respect?

Fucking assholes.

[e-cigdub]

75. This is why

i cant fucken stand rich poeple. they lose there damn humanity. Fine you called 9-11 when you were awoken up at 5 am. but when the people of this neighboorhood find out this poor man is going to jail for 30 days. they do nothing? if i lived there i would have gone and spoken up for this man. jail is not a walk in the park. this mans entire life could be ruined over this. and fuck the bastard that called 9-11