Garbage Fascists

Even the left-wing of the U.S. have never advocating going as far as this:

A householder has told of his despair at being landed with a criminal record for putting a scrap of paper in a bin bag meant for bottles and cans.

Michael Reeves, 28, has become Britain's first recycling martyr after a court fined him £200 for disobeying rules about sorting his rubbish.

He had volunteered to take part in a recycling scheme launched by Swansea Council. But somehow a single piece of junk mail found its way into a bag designated for other rubbish. And when council workers found his name and address on it, they prosecuted.

Last night the case provoked widespread anger. Even environmentalists said that it could put people off recycling as millions of householders already struggle to make sense of bewildering rules governing how to dispose of their rubbish.

Mr Reeves told The Mail on Sunday: "I now have a criminal record and it will weigh me down like a millstone. I will have to explain myself every time I apply for a new job. And if I want to go to the United States I will have to apply for a special entry visa."

Mr Reeves, a sports writer, also spoke of his frustration at his time-consuming journey through five court hearings.

"Not satisfied with a false accusation of mixing up my rubbish, they tried to throw in an additional charge of leaving the bags out on the wrong day,' he said. "Looked at in one way it is a hilarious tale of barmy bureaucracy - but I found it no laughing matter."

It is amazing and incredibly that anybod would actually consider such a completely ridiculous idea. Even the environmental groups that support such a complicated and incredibly goofy scheme in the first place. It is even more incredible that government officials in any locality in the Western world would actually consider prosecuting any one individual on such a incredibly minute point, particularly since it seems like the evidence is somewhat flimsy on whether he even intentionally committed this "heinous violation" or not.

Do any public officials in Western Europe have any respect for individual liberty anymore?