UK Police swoop on childs' hopscotch game

[buckthesystem]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../08/nplay08.xml

Police swoop on children's hopscotch game

By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 11:56pm BST 07/04/2007

When Lisa Badland gave her five-year-old son Ryan some coloured chalks to mark out a hopscotch court outside her home, she expected him to have an afternoon of innocent fun.

Ryan Badland was told off by police for drawing 'graffiti'

Little did she imagine that he would end up in trouble with the police.

Yet that is what happened when two policemen, acting on a tip-off from a neighbour, arrived in a quiet cul-de-sac, lined up Ryan and five young friends and told them off for drawing "graffiti".

Remarkably, when the children's parents emerged from their homes to find out what was going on, the constables instructed them not to let their children play in the street or draw on the road or pavement. One mother said that she was also advised that one child was not dressed warmly enough.

Yesterday, the parents accused officers of over-reacting and frightening their children. Critics said the case was an example of police taking on "soft targets" while failing to tackle serious crimes. The incident took place on a housing estate in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, favoured by families because its peaceful streets are safe for children to play in.

advertisementMrs Badland, 30, a part-time checkout operator, said she had given Ryan the chalks because it looked likely to rain later that evening, washing away whatever he drew.

She recalled: "An hour later, my son came in saying, 'Mum, there's some policemen outside'. I went out and the officer said they'd had a complaint about the chalk on the road.

"He said it was graffiti and they're not allowed to do it on the road. My son was petrified because they had handcuffs; he asked if they were going to take him away.

"The kids just went out to play. They are sensible kids and weren't doing anything wrong. I thought the police would have better things to do. There's under-age drinking in the town, and a 13-year-old was mugged a couple of weeks ago."

The road was later washed clean by rain. Since the incident late last month the children - aged between three and 11 - have been banned by their parents from using chalk outside. Graham Coogan, 35, said his three children, Nicole, eight, Sian, six, and James, three, were all told off by the two officers.

"The police told me that my children had been chalking on the street, and it could actually be classed as graffiti," he said. "They said that they could ask me to clean it off.

"They also said they were concerned about the children being in the street. But it's a quiet street, and the reason we moved here was so the children could play out safely. The officers weren't unpleasant, and I didn't want to be confrontational, so I just went along with it."

Avon and Somerset Police said that it had received a report that up to six children aged around 14 were drawing graffiti on roads and pavements. The call was logged as alleged criminal damage.

(for rest of article go to link)

[Scarletprayers]

You have GOT to be kidding me.................................this has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Gee the cops would have gotten back-up, the kids may have threatened to cry one them.

[roselady]

That is a bit over the top. I believe in the safety of Children but to not even allow them to play and BE kids, thats just stoopid.

You have GOT to be kidding me.................................this has to be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Gee the cops would have gotten back-up, the kids may have threatened to cry one them.

[Wingwalker]

That is just way to ridiculous. I could understand graffiti if the children were using paint or spray paint. But they were using chalk, chalk that washes away with water. And what a whining neighbor who called the police. I guess every street has one. I feel fortunate that on our street the houses are owned by three different families. 18 houses, 15 are rentals. The owners have children from ages 1 1/2 to college age. The renters have children in the same age range. The children can and do play on the road, and in most yards. Chalk has colored our street before and no one ever condemned it. It seems that the children know what is acceptable behavior and what is not.

[buckthesystem]

In my opinion this is far worse than it seems. My theory is that it is not merely "taking on soft targets" as the article suggests, but that it is an example of police taking their duty to further the government's agenda very seriously indeed. Their government's agenda of "social conditioning" of all children, conditioning them so that they can expect to "be very afraid" of the man wearing the police uniform and demanding things.

This is in line with the taking of childrens' fingerprints in UK and "encouraging" them to freely hand over personal information and in fact anything at all, to the "authorities".

This can be summed up by Joseph Goebels, the minister for propaganda under the Nazi regime, long dead now but whose philosophy lives on, when he said "it is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.

It seems the idea is not only to condition little kids to be afraid of the police uniform, and believe that police really do have the power to ban chalk, but to condition kids that the police have the power to undermine their parents too, as in " one mother said that she was also advised that one child was not dressed warmly enough". Of course the worst thing is that the parents made it sound, to the children, like it was all perfectly normal, as in: "The officers weren't unpleasant, and I didn't want to be confrontational, so I just went along with it."

This makes me wonder what is wrong with parents in UK, have they been so "worn down" by incidents like this that they can no longer be bothered arguing about it? In that situation, I MOST CERTAINLY WOULD HAVE BEEN "CONFRONTATIONAL"!

[GeneV]

When I saw this I thought how pathetic, then again maybe its just safer harassing kids than going after drug dealers.

[Carol R]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../08/nplay08.xml

Police swoop on children's hopscotch game

By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 11:56pm BST 07/04/2007

When Lisa Badland gave her five-year-old son Ryan some coloured chalks to mark out a hopscotch court outside her home, she expected him to have an afternoon of innocent fun.

Ryan Badland was told off by police for drawing 'graffiti'

Little did she imagine that he would end up in trouble with the police.

Yet that is what happened when two policemen, acting on a tip-off from a neighbour, arrived in a quiet cul-de-sac, lined up Ryan and five young friends and told them off for drawing "graffiti".

Remarkably, when the children's parents emerged from their homes to find out what was going on, the constables instructed them not to let their children play in the street or draw on the road or pavement. One mother said that she was also advised that one child was not dressed warmly enough.

Yesterday, the parents accused officers of over-reacting and frightening their children. Critics said the case was an example of police taking on "soft targets" while failing to tackle serious crimes. The incident took place on a housing estate in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, favoured by families because its peaceful streets are safe for children to play in.

advertisementMrs Badland, 30, a part-time checkout operator, said she had given Ryan the chalks because it looked likely to rain later that evening, washing away whatever he drew.

She recalled: "An hour later, my son came in saying, 'Mum, there's some policemen outside'. I went out and the officer said they'd had a complaint about the chalk on the road.

"He said it was graffiti and they're not allowed to do it on the road. My son was petrified because they had handcuffs; he asked if they were going to take him away.

"The kids just went out to play. They are sensible kids and weren't doing anything wrong. I thought the police would have better things to do. There's under-age drinking in the town, and a 13-year-old was mugged a couple of weeks ago."

The road was later washed clean by rain. Since the incident late last month the children - aged between three and 11 - have been banned by their parents from using chalk outside. Graham Coogan, 35, said his three children, Nicole, eight, Sian, six, and James, three, were all told off by the two officers.

"The police told me that my children had been chalking on the street, and it could actually be classed as graffiti," he said. "They said that they could ask me to clean it off.

"They also said they were concerned about the children being in the street. But it's a quiet street, and the reason we moved here was so the children could play out safely. The officers weren't unpleasant, and I didn't want to be confrontational, so I just went along with it."

Avon and Somerset Police said that it had received a report that up to six children aged around 14 were drawing graffiti on roads and pavements. The call was logged as alleged criminal damage.

(for rest of article go to link)

Makes you wonder what fun and fresh air kids can get now. My son and his pals frequently played with chalks we just washed it away at the end of the day if it didn't rain. At least the kids weren't harrassing anyone. The neighbours should have been happy.

Carol R