Now I’m thinking of all the references to NY’s surprisingly low crime rate I’ve come across over the last ten years…

Deputy Inspector Steven Mauriello:

“If you don’t want to work, then, you know what, just do the old go-through-the-motions and get your numbers anyway.”
“I told you guys last month: They are looking at these numbers, and people are going to get moved.”

The cop who brought you those words was thrown in a mental ward for his trouble.

TL;DR take-home for NYers: stay away from cops after the 25th of the month, plus it’ll prolly be worst at the end of each quarter.

Whoa… wait… what?

Designating a *playground* as being kids-only ( / kids with guardians ) is a Jim-Crow law?

Really?

Tell us how you feel about:
- not being able to use the opposite sex bathroom
- any institution or facility that has strict age policies e.g. kindergarten, AARP, bars (not for drinking just entering, depending on your state),etc.
- rides that have height or weight restrictions
- my blind friend in a library

In a nutshell, there are plenty of restrictions and limitations to what each one of us can and is allowed to do. Unless the effected group is a protected group your whining of infringement is just hot air.
The sooner you realize that the physical manifestations of people are different and, as such, get treated differently the easier it will be for you to go through life.

There are great parks in this part of town for the rest of us. A nice one only two blocks away, with trees, a garden, benches, the whole works.

Did you actually read what I wrote? There was once a time in NYC when parks and playgrounds were simply egalitarian. Adults and kids could share and there would be no issue. These rules you are so intent on defending are not meant to be abused by the NYPD this way. Nobody was hurting anyone, and the spirit of the law is basically “If an adult is in that park and getting in the way of children using it, then you can act…”

Also, I really don’t like the tone of “There are great parks in this part of town for the rest of us.” Baloney. This is not a quality issue. If one is a taxpayer sitting in a park paid for with taxpayer dollars one should not be harassed for simply sitting and eating a doughnut. Who are you to say “You know what, you can’t sit in a park on the edge of the projects… You need to go to the “better” park nearby.” What B.S.

And on top of that all you completely ignore the fact there is a park nicknamed “Prostitution Park” nearby the cops seemed to be fine with.

This is not an issue of rules and restrictions as much as cops abusing their authority to make a quota with an easy summons issued to hipsters instead of tackling real problems right next door.

I am a father of three and a grandfather of five. My grandchildren live 400+ miles away. I coached my youngest daughter’s soccer team for eight years, and she and I coached an under-8 boys’ team the year befor she left for UCLA. My back yard borders on a park with more than a dozen youth soccer pitches, two softball fields, a playground, a public swimming pool and next door to it an elementary school where my daughter attended. It’s a reason we chose this house.

Now that I am retired, I often hear the Saturday morning soccer matches and I grab a bottle of water and my folding chair and wander over to enjoy the games. Sometimes I like to watch the kids at the playgrounds. The joys of youth are refreshing.

I guess what I do is illegal in some places. I guess I ought to sit on my couch and watch TV.

I support the idea of a “children and caregivers only” area as long as it’s used as a general guideline with common-sense enforcement. A couple of women eating donuts don’t bother me but a skateboarder weaving through a group of two-year-olds sure does.

Thank you. A little common sense would go a long way. If we won’t trust our police to exercise some, then we may as well hire Ed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrXfh4hENKs

As a 47-year-old father of a 2-year-old, I’m really glad that I don’t live in the US anymore. I live in an country where people do not see every stranger as a pedophile just waiting for his chance to pounce, and where old men make funny faces at kids in restaurants, shop clerk aren’t afraid to pick up a lost child to help them find Mom, and bystanders will grab a child’s hand if they bolt toward a stairway or road with no fear of ending up arrested and on a sex-offender list.

i once had a librarian in s.f. tell me that i couldn’t look at the books in the children’s section of the library. when i ignored him, and continued looking through the books, he threatened to call the cops. i couldn’t believe it.

at the time, i thought, and still do, that it was the librarian who was the perv. most likely – this cop too!

In other news, the TSA is suggesting that people eating doughnuts in the airport terminal could potentially be terrorists!

- not being able to use the opposite sex bathroom
Women are routinely sexually assaulted in the U.S. and in other countries. Dividing up bathrooms makes complete sense; it’s not done to protect men. And in the case of unisex bathrooms, they are most often in bars, restaurants or other controlled areas where if something were to happen, a nice big bouncer will kick the person out the door.

- any institution or facility that has strict age policies e.g. kindergarten, AARP, bars (not for drinking just entering, depending on your state),etc.
Kindergartens are strictly for children and created explicitly as a protected environment for children. AARP is an organized group to help give a marginalized portion of society power in an increasingly youth obsessed world. And bars restrict by age because anyone less than drinking age going into a bar is not there to soak up the atmosphere.

- rides that have height or weight restrictions
Rides have mechanical requirements and if you are too tall, too small, too fat or too underweight you can put yourself at risk for injury.

- my blind friend in a library
What the heck does this mean? The blind are not barred from libraries?

Keep the list coming! We all need to hear more nonsense about how two adults eating doughnuts on a bench are a threat to children.

I see a flashmob eating donuts in this park in the near future. And a delicious future it will be.