Playing at the Park, Pot, and Police > Rexroad.com

the kids. My strategy from the moment they woke up was to wear them out, feed them well, long naps, and play music all day.
So at around 9am we head to City Park. We walk down there...the long way. Then I turn them loose. Lord help the people of Woodland. Abbie goes down the slide at least twenty times, Adam chews on sticks....life is great.

Two park employees come by and pick up the trash in the park. They do a great job.

Then five teenage kids start hanging out on the swings. Still no worries. Adam is trying to climb up the slide the wrong way and Abbie is building a sand castle for some new princess. I am informed the castle even has an elevator or some such thing.

Then the kids on the swing start dropping F-bombs. I get up and say, "Please watch the language around my kids." I thought that would solve the problem. A little command presence. A little deep voice. Marine Matt is awaking.

Then these kids start throwing a bottle back and forth. No big deal until they direct it at Abbie. I have now had enough and start to stand up. I call Abbie over to me and grab Adam. I am planning to make it perfectly clear that I am not going to tolerate this in the park when my kids are there.

Before I can head over there two more kids arrive smoking pot in the play area. The one kid enters the play area by saying F*** You. I can barely see straight now but instead of saying anything I just start taking pictures with my camera. That gets their attention. A couple of the kids turn their backs to me, a couple then figure out I am dead serious about ruining their day and take off. I just click away until I have pictures of all of them. A couple of them are smart enough to hide their faces...that was ok.

Meanwhile, Abbie is standing there saying "Those girls are bad." Very subtle.

Then I call the police. When the teenagers hear that, they all take off. The two girls get half way across the park and then turn around and come back. They ask "Sir, did you take a picture of us?" I told them I sure did and that I was looking forward to showing their parents. They were in a complete panic.

They wanted to know if I would be ok if they picked up the broken bottle. I told them that would be nice but it really was going to depend on what happened when the police arrived. To their credit they did pick up the bottle.

Two Woodland Police officers arrived a short time later. Abbie was very impressed by the female officer. I actually was happy a female officer responded too. It is a good role model for Abbie. The cops did a very professional job. They talked to the girls and called their parents. When Mom arrived it was pretty clear that some major punishment was going to be doled out at home -- a far better outcome in my mind.

The sad part is that the girls refused to identify the boys that were there and the primary source of the problem. This anti-snitching thing is really causing a problem for law enforcement.

I'm just trying to spend a Saturday morning playing the park with my kids. In my opinion it is reasonable to expect that Abbie and Adam not to be subject to foul language, dangerous stunts with glass objects, and exposure to illegal drugs.

If my kids are ever behaving like that I hope all of you will call me right away and let me know. I am not going to publish the pictures of the kids but I will be looking for them the next time I am in the park.

Both kids are sleeping now. Abbie actually fell asleep eating lunch...that is a first. We will continue the madness as soon as they get up.

Comments

By yolocowboy @ Saturday, August 25, 2007 2:29 PM

Good for you Matt. I try to remember back when I was unruly teenager but I can't remember dropping the f-bomb in a public place especially with young kids around. I wasn't a choir boy, but smoking pot and being a disrespectful jackass was outside my norm by a long way. My parents would have.... well lets just say I would have learned that lesson well.

I have also found that a digital camera solves a lot little problems. Taking a photo of a person's car license plate when they are trespassing makes for much nicer conversation about what will happen next if I catch them again. I try not go anywhere without it in the car.

The last time I left it home was Wednesday when I stopped by Hollywood video to return a movie. In the parking lot in front the liquor store was a black tour bus for some tequila company. They had dancers and a singer doing a routine in the parking lot in the afternoon sun. Quite a scene, and me with no camera.

By yolovoter @ Saturday, August 25, 2007 2:31 PM

Why not just ask them (magnanimously) to go hang out on the other side of the park? Would have prevented the entire problem.

By yolovoter @ Saturday, August 25, 2007 5:58 PM

Further, I think it's honorable that (whoever) didn't snitch on their friends. Real Americans don't tell on each other.

Here's what it reminded me of... http://youtube.com/watch?v=dH4p9BQ3V9o

By YoloCalVet @ Sunday, August 26, 2007 8:04 AM

What a nice wake up call to ramp up Neighborhood watch for Mayor Flory and Chief Sullivan. If we allow our "community standards" to disintigrate then we deserve every bit of what we get. Also, the underlying problem with an advesion to "snitching" is our illegal alien population in Woodland are fearful of "snitching" on the ever growing "gangs", the gangmembers know that and people are victimized "at will". Before you know it Wooland is nothing more than a mirror of South Central Los Angeles.

By sharla @ Monday, August 27, 2007 3:36 PM

Just a bunch of kids feeling unsupervised. I bet you really surprised them by saying anything at all. Most people these days would gather their kids and flee. The solution is more "supervision," specifically more people going to the park to play, add an off leash dog walking area nearby, etc. Make it really really busy with people willing to step up to monitor their behavior around families and kids. However, teens do swear when they talk to each other, no way to correct that. They think it is cool. Apparently these kids had their family radar turned off - possibly caused by the stuff they were smoking.

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