Man fined for sitting on bench[Germany-you can't sit at playground w/o being accompanied by a child]

Ananova ^ | 07:49 Friday 8th August 2003

[yonif]

A court in Germany has ordered a man to pay 75 euro for sitting on a park bench.

The man was sitting on the bench in the Botanical Garden in Munich when he was approached by police.

They told him he couldn't sit on the bench, next to a playground, unless he was accompanied by a child.

He later received a letter telling him to pay a 150 euro fine, but went to court.

The court heard the regulation had been established to protect playing children against drug addicts and prostitutes, who frequently come to the garden.

But the man said his only interest in the playground was to see whether it would be a nice place to take his daughter to on a planned weekend visit.

The judge offered to end the court case if the man paid 75 euro to a charity, which he accepted.

But he was still stunned at paying such a high price to sit down, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reports.

"There weren't even any children around," he told the paper.

[Rebelbase]

Open your eyes to the world we live in. A soliatary senior citizen would not draw my attention were he to be at a children's playground. But a young or middle-aged man, alone, watching kids play is going to get my attention. In today's society, a grown man should have more sense than to hang around, alone, at a children's playground.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

I am not that old, and I have enjoyed watching children play. I don't hang around long, eventually one of them crys or behaves badly at which point I leave.

[SaveTheChief]

You know, I was just thinking of something else about this that bothers me.

If the police can be around to ticket innocent people who did nothing more than sit on a park bench, why can't they be there when real perverts show up?

If the police are patrolling the park regularly anyway, they should be providing enough security to assure that children are safe.

Does that make too much sense?

[Rebelbase]

"I don't hang around long, eventually one of them crys "

You need to stop scaring them.

[jjbrouwer]

Damn! I was going to say that!

[Tabi Katz]

I completely agree.

[Rebelbase]

LOL!

[petitfour]

It depends on how big the park is. When children are in public, parents should be the ones protecting them. Some children's parks are huge. And loaded with people. I have no idea about the park in the article. When we go to a park, we have a buddy system for the bigger children. And the little ones must be watched at all times. I don't expect the police to walk around watching folks to see if they are accompanied by at least one child.

[SaveTheChief]

Parents watching their own children? Older children using the buddy system?

That makes too much sense, and requires no government intervention! It will never work!