Posted on 09/17/2012 9:51:58 AM PDT by lowbridge
A stay-at-home mom from La Porte has filed a lawsuit against the citys police department, an unknown officer and one of her neighbors.
Tammy Cooper said she was wrongly accused of endangering her children and was even forced to spend the night in jail, all because she let her kids play outside.
She said her children, ages 9 and 6, were riding their motorized scooters in the cul-de-sac where they live while she watched from a lawn chair in her front yard just a few feet away.
I was out there the entire time, Cooper said. I never left that lawn chair the entire time.
Cooper said a little while later, a La Porte police car pulled up in front of her home.
I went out there to see what he was here for and he said, Maam, were here for you. I said, Oh really? Why? He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised.
(Excerpt) Read more at libertynews.com ...
“I got busted for it back in the 70s when me and some friends were riding my minibike from our yard into the street in front of my house and back into my yard.”
I had similar happen to me in Houston. The two cops wrote up five traffic tickets for separate charges and laughed about it all the while. I had to sell my bike to pay the fines. I had been raised to respect the police up to that point; I never have again, since that day of enlightenment.
There’s got to be. My 10-yr.-old grandson rides on one of those in his neighborhood, and his friends ride scooters too. My daughter keeps close tabs on him, although she doesn’t watch him every minute. He has specific rules to follow, such as wearing a helmet, watching for cars, etc.. She’s never got in trouble for not watching him, or not supervising him!
It sounds like it was one of those battery-powered kiddie cycles/cars/whatever.
On a suburban street with little traffic.
And I detest Neighborhood Watch Nazis.
They’re a bunch of nebby self-important busybodies, just like HOA fascists.
This neighbor that called the cops on her deserves a huge lawsuit...they deserve a punch in the face, too.
You or I could easily defend ourselves against a busy body neighbor in this situation, if the accusation wasn't true.
Get wishy washy with a cop where child safety comes into play? Yeah, I think they are going to look at you a little harder. Throw in an attitude? (I’m guessing) & your day just got real crappy, real fast.
Or Saddam Hussein if he has a sore throat...
You are seriously disturbed upstairs, pal.
Wait just a minute. I used to be a CPS worker in TX. If anything, this is a CPS case, not a police case. In CPS, it would be promptly closed as unfounded, if even taken in the first place. No way should the police come anywhere near it. Dispatch should have referred the caller to CPS. If it got past dispatch, the officers should have known better. To go to the extent as to throw her in jail, I-don’t-think-so. There needs to be some serious public apologies and calling the chief on the carpet or a swift boot kick out the door if this is his policy.
OTOH, perhaps there much more to the story than what is being told here.
Then the old grouch needs to either deal with it, move, or croak.
Miserable old geezers ruin nice neighborhoods with families.
This is what retirement homes and The Villages” are for.
Another mental giant heard from
/sarc
I rode my bike around the neighborhoods when’s was six all the time. Unsupervised. Lots of cul-de-sacs, no through traffic.
Me and my buds also played in all the new houses being constructed; dirt clod fights, you name it.
Of course this was back in the 60’s and America was still America. I consider my self lucky to have grown up in that America. I pity the kids these days.
That’s what I was thinking. My Grandson has one of those little battery-operated scooters, that he got for his birthday, but he also has an older one that isn’t battery-op.d that his sister rides on. He doesn’t have a motorized one like adults use.
Who some of them are:
They're in all 57 states.
Motorized scooters are not legal on public streets, even for an adult. I live on a cul de sac and kids ride around it all day - no one complains and I doubt the police would even bother to answer a call.
I have complained about basketball hoops next to a well-traveled downhill road.
Doesn’t matter. The cops are STILL wrong. NOT sarcasm.
She’d have to be something pretty dreadful to justify an arrest.
More likely this another case of anarcho-tyranny.
When I was a kid it was the burning paper bag full of dog poop on the front porch.
Ring the doorbell and run......
You can't find a suburban or rural neighborhood in America where there aren't kids playing with things like that on cul-de-sacs or other quiet side streets.
Unless the kids were also shooting out windows with a .22 or something or drinking sixpacks of beer, I don't understand what possible charges could be made.
Or Limburger Cheese! My Mom had some hilarious stories regarding that; mostly leaving it on doorsteps on Halloween! :-O
In her complaint, Cooper says she lives on a quiet, suburban cul de sac and often allows her 6- and 9-year-old children to ride their scooters on the street while she watches from a chair in the driveway or through the large windows on the front of her house.
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