Read this account of a recent ticketing after eating a donut with a friend in a NYC playground.
Follow up story here. I guess playgrounds get considerably less safe with non-child raising adults around. Cops are well aware when they're racking up easy ones, and no greater opportunity for a bunch of easy ones are a few donut eating couples sitting on a playground bench.
Enforcement of the law requires discernment, not bluntly wielded objectivity. If I am breaking rules, unknowingly, it is up to the police officer to discern my intent. If I look like a drug dealer, pedophile, ask me for my ID. If I look like an ignorant donut eater, tell me to scram.
We pay for parks and playgrounds as part of our tax dollars. Why should we have to scram at all?
ReplyDeleteThis is another example of a law with an ostensibly good intent and some serious problems in practice.