Rand Paul's neighbor may have attacked him because he cut his grass too short

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

published 20 November 2017

It has been 17 days since Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was tackled by his neighbor, Rene Boucher, in an incident that has upset the (normally) peaceful gated community of Rivergreen in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Paul reportedly sustained five broken ribs after Boucher ran him down while he was mowing his lawn.

What prompted Boucher's attack is still unclear — if you ask the neighbors, they'll tell you it was a landscaping dispute, although Paul himself has said his libertarian politics provoked his "socialist" neighbor, GQ reports. The real story, though, might be much shorter than that.

Like most everyone else in the Rivergreen development, [Bowling Green resident Bill Goodwin] told me, Boucher pays in the ballpark of $150 a month for professional landscaping, while Paul insists on maintaining his yard himself. Goodwin said that part of what nagged at Boucher was the difference in grass length between his lawn and that of his libertarian neighbor's. "He had his yard sitting at a beautiful two-and-a-half, three inches thick, where Rand cuts it to the nub," Goodwin said. [GQ]

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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