Arrested Development!
 

Yesterday outside a suburban school, a mother double parked her car while waiting to pick up her children. When asked to move along by police officers, she refused and was then arrested and handcuffed right there in front of the school.

The debate now is about whether the police acted impulsively and/or in an overly heavy handed manner.

It's easy to see both sides of the story, but if you bring the law back to the basic reason for its existance, people are not supposed to double park because it endangers lives. Is it unreasonable to think that, on a street outside a school ground would be the place where most parents would be particularly concerned about the lives of their children and their safety? Is it so difficult for a mother to understand that if she parks there in order to aid her children, she might be placing someone else's child at risk?

I believe that in this modern society where everyone seems to be 'in it for themselves', the police acted appropriately and I think there's a lesson here for all those 'car pool cowgirls'!

(Shakes head, takes mental note never to behave this way.)

I'm glad they arrested the dingbat. She needs to find a parking spot and walk to where her child can meet her and walk her back to the car.

When people do that it forces everyone behind them to swerve into the oncoming lane. They usually drive a little faster when they do this for several reasons - they are upset with the double parker, they want to hurry up and get back onto their own lane, etc. If a kid is walking in front of the DP car, there is a good chance that a car swerving around can't see them - an accident waiting to happen.

Stopping for a moment when your kid is six feet away and getting in the car and buckling up is one thing. Parking in the middle of the road because someone is too lazy and too selfish to park and walk is something else. An example has been set and everyone will be safer and calmer as a result.

I don't see anything unjust about addressing an injustice. Take the soccer mom downtown, run her through the mill and let her go. Chances are she won't do it again and neither will anyone else.

Mom must have flipped out as part of her refusal to move the vehicle.

Without any further information, it's tough to say if the officer did the right thing, but he was certainly within procedure to take her into custody.

Especially if it involved impounding her car.

Seems a bit over the top to me. Mostly for the reason of how disturbing it would be for the kid walking out of school and seeing his mum being cuffed and manhandled by the police. As the police WERE present anyway it seems they arent very organised in controlling the environment directly outside the school.

Schools in my area have a few volunteer parents, they wear officila little bright green TRAFFIC WARDEN jackets, place temporary barriers within a radius of the school gates and another volunteers oversees the out of radius traffic.. Seems to work well even though they have no official police related power.

She is of course an idiot, there are a lot of them around, they also operate outside of school boundries on a 24/7 basis. Another excellent reason to teach kids to be responsible pedestrians and NOT run out of anywhere when cars are around. Lesson one should be there wont ALWAYS be a policeman around to protect them.

Right, he should have shot her in the knee and called for backup. :lol:

In Philadelphia, the crazed soccer moms drive their minivans straight through the doors of the school. There's a reason to be careful around them.

7-11s and WaWas too. :eek:

NotAn...we have those ladies (and sometimes gentlemen here too). We call them lollipop ladies/blokes. They're usually at the crossings though, and not directly outside the school.

I agree that it would have been traumatic for the child to see his mother handcuffed, and as I'm not a psychologist, I can't really say what the repercussions of that trauma might be, however, his mother might be the sort that always disregards the rules, in which case, it may have been a good lesson in consequences. On the other hand, maybe she was just stupid, in which case, maybe the child can benefit from knowing that too.

That's why they have those hitching post looking things in front of the entrances nowadays.

We're not close enough to Lancaster to need anything to tie the horses to.

Well I'll be damned.........I've been using them for hitching posts. :blush:

Wolf, maybe the Long Range Amish. :cool: They do have to scout far and far afield to find arable land these days... (Kinda like the Close-Order Amish, but not so well drilled. :rolleyes: )

Though seriously, the Amish are moving more and more to mercantile and light manufacture and out of agriculture. That's just economics.

Certainly it doesn't apply in EVERY city, but people have to realize that this business of double parking, or even leaving your car in the street while you run to the curbside to complete an errand, is no longer above suspicion after 9-11. You cannot double park at the airport loading zones anywhere now, and if you give the officer some lip when you are asked to move on, you WILL be subject to forceful handling or arrest. We have known for some time that a public school with several thousand students is every bit a target of opportunity as any government installation, so are hospitals, theaters, and theme parks.

I'm not saying that this incident had anything to do with terrorist-prevention instructions given to the cops on duty at this particular school, but it's time for people to get off this ego trip of having THEIR convenience every time they go anywhere or do anything. If the traffic is that bad at the school, you KNOW it is going to be bad by now so figure out how to deal with it another way. Every single kid in the school does not have to have to be delivered right to the front door and picked up the same, they will not suffer from having to walk around the corner to help mom or dad out. It's really unfortunate that the world has changed so much that kids aren't safe walking or biking to school by themselves anymore like we geezers did (even in the pouring rain and with six feet of snow on the ground, uphill both ways), but I really do understand that is not an option nowdays. Neither are paper routes or selling Girl Scout Cookies door to door :(

Every day I see people double parked with nobody parked at the curb. Yes, an open spot at the curb and they're still too lazy to pull into that spot, so they stop in the street. Some of them leave the drivers door open too. :rar:

Here's a bit more info for those of you who are interested. :)

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117....html?from=rss

It seems the 'lady' in question was a bit put out about being arrested for breaking the law.