86-yr-old man choking on leaf spat it out but two local 'enforcers' fined him $335 citing weird rule
Responsible and fair enforcement of rules is essential to ensure that citizens follow them out of respect, not fear. So when an 86-year-old man was fined $300 for littering after he spat out a leaf that got stuck in his mouth, he had to stand up for himself. The man, Roy Marsh, was walking across the South Parade Car Park when the leaf blew into his mouth. Two enforcement officers walked up to him and asked him to pay a hefty fine, per the BBC.
"As I was sitting there, a gale blew a big reed into my mouth. I spat it out and just as I got up to walk away, two enforcement officers came up to me," Marsh recounted. The officers charged him with 250 euros ($335.27) and said that he was spitting on the floor. "It was all unnecessary and all out of proportion." The man eventually put out an appeal that reduced his fine to 150 euros ($201.16). He paid that amount in the end. However, other similar incidents had sparked anger among residents in the community, according to Adrian Findley, a county councillor. "They are taking it too far. If I came here on holiday and was given a £250 fine, I wouldn't want to risk coming back."
"There needs to be discretion about how they issue fines. We can't expect elderly people to chase crisp packets down the road if it's windy," Findley went on. "If it looks like a genuine accident, then give people the opportunity to apologise and pick it up." Marsh's daughter, Jane Marsh Fitzpatrick, shared her surprise at the incident through a Facebook post. "Recently, Dad, who has walking difficulties but does his best to walk every day around the boating lake, inhaled a small leaf that made him choke. Dad has severe asthma and a heart condition; he managed to cough up the leaf and spit it out." The man had just spat out just the leaf and tried to explain the same to the officers, according to his daughter.
"He was immediately approached by the local enforcement officer, who was incredibly rude to him, told him he had violated the law by spitting and fined him!" Jane explained that her dad tried to reason with the officers, but to no avail. The old man also showed the officers the leaf he had spat out, with no spit on it. However, the officers were not ready to let it go. "On another walk a week or so later, Dad stopped to wipe his nose and took a Hankey out of his pocket." The officers approached him for a tissue that was still in his hand. The woman explained that the officers were regularly approaching older people and not giving them a chance to pick up after themselves. They were just fining them.
"While it is important to keep our town clean and yes, I absolutely agree, the beach is often left in a disgusting state, these officers are unreasonably harassing and terrorising older people and it is a total disgrace," Jane expressed. "Mum and dad now regularly watch these officers and have seen them many times victimising older people, even if anything small drops accidentally out of their pocket, they do not give the person a chance to pick it up, they just fine them!"