http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110325/NEWS/110325011/Woman-s-pole-top-protest-stalls-hoops-removal-DelDOT-returns-take-it?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
DelDOT, police remove basketball hoops but woman's protest sends them away
But in the end, the highway crews return and cart off pole
4:25 PM, Mar. 25, 2011 | 415Comments
DelDOT removes basketball hoop: DelDOT crews escorted by state police tore down basketball hoops this morning in two neighborhoods in Claymont amid protests from residents who say the nets aren't harming anyone. Video includes photos by Robert Craig. (03/25/11)
TwitterFacebookShare
Del.icio.us Digg Reddit Facebook Twitter Newsvine FarkIt EmailPrintAAA
CHAD LIVENGOOD
Torn-down basketball hoops sit in the back of a DelDot dump truck on Hilldale Court in the Radnor Green development of Brandywine Hundred, waiting for the last one on the street to be removed.
Purchase Image Zoom Melissa McCafferty sits atop a basketball hoop on Hilldale Court in Claymont this morning to protest removal of hoops from the street by highway workers and state police. McCafferty saw them removing the hoops on her street when returning from an errand and climbed up to protect the hoop for her three kids that use it, right in front of her house. She stayed about an hour before police and Delaware Department. of Transportation personnel left. /
The News Journal/ROBERT CRAIGRelated Links
Man airs grievances, plans to retrieve basketball pole
Delaware Department of Transportation crews escorted by state police tore down basketball hoops this morning in two neighborhoods in Claymont amid protests from residents who say the nets aren't harming anyone.
Last fall, DelDOT sent letters to at least eight residents in the Radnor Green and Ashbourne Hills subdivisions saying their street-side basketball hoops violated the state’s Clear Zone law, which prohibits hoops, trees, shrubs and other objects from being within seven feet of the pavement's edge in subdivisions.
DelDOT told residents that if they didn’t take down the hoops that the agency would and residents would be charged for the removal and disposal costs, said Radnor Green resident John McCafferty.
DelDOT crews and state police officers abruptly stopped the operation this morning after a News Journal photographer arrived at McCafferty's house on Hilldale Court, where the man's wife had climbed up on the hoop to protest the removals.
McCafferty’s hoop was spared – for a time.
McCafferty said he was considering emergency court action to prevent DelDOT crews from returning.
Delaware State Police sent one trooper out to the neighborhoods at DelDOT’s request, said spokesman Cpl. Jeffrey Hale.
“We were simply there for support in case anything to put their safety in jeopardy happened,” Hale said.
After DelDOT crews found resident Melissa McCafferty sitting atop one of the basketball hoops that was scheduled to be torn down, the woman refused to come down.
In negotiating with the woman, a trooper asked for assistance and three additional state police troopers quickly arrived at the scene along Hilldale Court, Hale said.
“We were simply there to try to talk her into coming down off the pole,” Hale said.
After it became apparent the woman would not get down, troopers left and did not make an arrest, Hale said.
Shortly after, DelDOT workers returned.
The McCafferty’s ran outside to protest, a chaotic scene recorded by a News Journal videographer, but it was too late.
“I hope you all sleep well tonight,” John McCafferty said as the pole came out of the ground.
“We will,” someone is heard saying on the video.
As the hoop tumbled from the bucket of the front-end loader into a dump truck, John McCafferty chanted, “DelDOT HATES KIDS! DelDOT HATES KIDS!”
________________________
________________________
__________
Watch the video at the site I listed. The pofs cop is exactly what is wrong with this country today.
