Garbage man sentenced to 30 days in jail for waking up rich man

[Indy Texas]

This is absurd and yet another example of jails and prisons overcrowded with nonviolent offenders whose wrongs really don't merit incarceration to begin with.

I seriously doubt McGill, of his own volition, went in to work extra early, fired up a garbage truck and went out during a restricted time. Some supervisor probably overlooked the restriction and sent this man out earlier than authorized. The article says he was a "new" employee which means he likely wouldn't have known better and certainly wouldn't have been in a position to contradict his managers. The company should be getting fined. And if the vengeful people of Georgia absolutely must throw someone in jail, why not the man's supervisor or whoever is highest up on the chain of command?

Furthermore, the fact that an upscale neighborhood won't allow trash collection before 7 am because they don't want to be woken up just feeds into the stereotypes about Southerners - including rich Southerners - being lazy. If you're an adult in a professional or managerial job and you're still in bed at 7 am, you probably don't deserve whatever salary you're being paid. The hedge fund managers in Manhattan have been up since before 6. How fitting that the descendants of slaveowners down in Dixie are taking a cue from their ancestors and sleeping in while the darkies outside do all the work.

[Indy Texas]

Clearly someone needs to figure out what the ZIP code for this neighborhood is and look up their phone numbers. Some middle-of-the-night phone calls and we'll see how much they like their precious sleep.

Maybe this guy could get the community on his side if he positioned himself as, "a small businessman who was just doing his job only to be ensnared in pointless, unnecessary government regulation."

[Indy Texas]

This is absurd and yet another example of jails and prisons overcrowded with nonviolent offenders whose wrongs really don't merit incarceration to begin with.

I seriously doubt McGill, of his own volition, went in to work extra early, fired up a garbage truck and went out during a restricted time. Some supervisor probably overlooked the restriction and sent this man out earlier than authorized. The article says he was a "new" employee which means he likely wouldn't have known better and certainly wouldn't have been in a position to contradict his managers. The company should be getting fined. And if the vengeful people of Georgia absolutely must throw someone in jail, why not the man's supervisor or whoever is highest up on the chain of command?

Furthermore, the fact that an upscale neighborhood won't allow trash collection before 7 am because they don't want to be woken up just feeds into the stereotypes about Southerners - including rich Southerners - being lazy. If you're an adult in a professional or managerial job and you're still in bed at 7 am, you probably don't deserve whatever salary you're being paid. The hedge fund managers in Manhattan have been up since before 6. How fitting that the descendants of slaveowners down in Dixie are taking a cue from their ancestors and sleeping in while the darkies outside do all the work.

If he was ordered to go out and work earlier than was legally allowed, his first move would have been to offer to sell his employers down the river.

Noise ordinances aren't unreasonable, and I doubt the neighborhood cared what his skin tone was when they called the police for waking them up earlier than he was allowed to. This isn't their fault at all. It's the fault of the prosecutor, who seems like a grandstanding asshole by going for the max.  You're absolutely right that this sums up the problem with clogging up our jails with non-violent offenders. There's no way a first-time noise ordinance violation should result in anything but a fine.

You don't think when these fine homeowners looked out the window that they took into account he is a black in suburban Atlanta?  Yea, the prosecutor is a total POS, but who the hell calls 911 or the cops on the trash guy?!

You're assuming that they were fast enough looking out the window after just being woken up to observe the driver rather than the back of his truck as they drove away.

If I was upset that the trash man came earlier than he was supposed to, I would call the trash collection company to complain. I wouldn't call the frickin' police or get the local district attorney involved.

[Indy Texas]

I looked it up on the municipal website, and it appears that you are right:

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This is totally ridiculous and I would have never considered the idea that an incorporated municipality in a metro area would not provide garbage pickup, but there you are.

Lo and behold the consequences of uber-privatized exurban life where there is little to no coordination between municipal government and the patchwork quilt of subdivisions and gated communities who all have their own outsourced "public" services.

Part of the problem may be that this particular development's management company (the people the residents pay their homeowner's association dues to) has some ulterior motive for keeping this contractor on garbage duty, such as kickbacks or some kind of investment in the business. Property management firms can be incredibly shady and most people who live in a community managed by one aren't even aware of it - they assume their checks are going to some little old lady who is volunteering to be the neighborhood treasurer or something.