Midwest Chick's Place

(A.K.A. Non-Original Rants)

–Co-opting good stuff from all over the ‘Net and maybe some original thoughts—ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I was on this one like stink on shit until I read the details

There is a story in Not the Bee about two Pennsylvania girls who got hauled into criminal court because they were twisting a swing around on a playground and it broke. And the local gendarme charged them with criminal mischief.

Having learned the hard way to read beyond the headlines, I went to the original story. Because I was hot. And there it was…

There were five kids who were playing when the chain broke on the swing. The city charged the parents $59 a piece to fix the damage. Three of the parents paid up to repair the swing.

The fourth parent, didn’t.

Because in a sane world, if your kids break something, even by accident, you pay for it and the situation goes away. But no…

Katie demanded more information:

“Show me the evidence my daughters did this on purpose and show me the swing was even inspected prior to this occuring.”

She didn’t pay and so her 10 and 12-year-old daughters were CHARGED WITH A CRIME.

Did the city take the situation to the next stupid level? Yes it did. They could have just taken her to civil court first and not traumatized the girls.

Was the mother a stupid bint who could have avoided this by just paying up? Yep.

Shit happens, accidents happen. Back in the day, there wouldn’t have been a question. You break it, you buy it, accident or no.

Midwest Chick's avatar

Posted by:

Midwest Chick

18 responses to “I was on this one like stink on shit until I read the details”

  1. Jerrold Kazynski Avatar
    Jerrold Kazynski

    Used to be hymen were covered by that law, also.

    Like

    Reply
  2. Gerry Avatar
    Gerry

    At least mom didn’t use the hormonal defense.

    Like

    Reply
  3. Pergelator Avatar
    Pergelator

    I want to know the condition of the swing before this happened, and I want to know if the girls or the parents inspected the swing. Of course, that’s meaningless. They may not have the necessary mechanical aptitude to evaluate the swing. It’s in a public park, it should be good. The problem with this story is we don’t know who the jackass is. Is it mom? Or is it the coppers?

    Like

    Reply
    1. Unferth Avatar
      Unferth

      Why choose?

      We live too much in a binary world where we deem one person must be 100% at fault and the other 100% guilty. I disagree. I think it is very possible for both sides to be idiots. On rare occasion, both sides are innocent, but that seldom happens.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  4. TRoy Avatar
    TRoy

    If your kids break stuff because they are acting stupid, yes you are liable. The taxpayers have already paid for the equipment once. Making a parent pay for damage that is due to careless and unreasonable use is definitely reasonable. Charging a kid with a crime for breaking a chain on a swing is absurd to the maximum regardless of any action or inaction on the part of the parent. If the city wanted to make their point- bill the parent and the turn it over to collections if they don’t pay. This whole idea of charging kids with crimes for minor violations is retarded.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  5. TRoy Avatar
    TRoy

    I think if it was my kid- I would be inclined to just send the parks department a piece of chain.

    Like

    Reply
  6. SilliestString Avatar
    SilliestString

    I get the whole, ‘you break, you buy it,” but they still haven’t allowed the mom to see the surveillance video that proves her daughters were there and involved.
    1st question – why is there surveillance video in the first place?
    2nd question – why won’t they allow the mom to view it?
    3rd question – who amongst us never twisted the swing chains around and then rode the swing as it untwisted? I can remember doing that even into my teens.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  7. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    Haha my mother would have told them the same thing. It’s public property just fix it & gone on. Shit breaks.

    Like

    Reply
  8. chicken thief Avatar
    chicken thief

    This would not have happened if the government agency did not procure substandard equipment.

    Like

    Reply
  9. BURTON Avatar
    BURTON

    Different story if the kids got hurt….
    Then it all hell damnation, and news Broadcasts…..
    BLAH BLAH BLAH Infinity

    Like

    Reply
  10. Bob Avatar
    Bob

    $295 for 10 feet of swing chain seems excessive. I would expect 10 feet of chain to be in the order of $30. If they had to replace both sides because the chain didn’t match, then $60. The labor to install it is park overhead! It would take an ordinary person about 15 minutes to do the job, and park employees are usually sitting on their duffs scrolling on their phones.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    1. Unferth Avatar
      Unferth

      Those are normal costs. Now do government costs.

      As a contractor to a government contractor, decades ago, I witnessed the $513 power strip. The one you’d pick up from Radio Shack for $13. The rest was bureaucratic overhead.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  11. Chris McDermott Avatar
    Chris McDermott

    Am I the only one amazed that it takes $295 to replace a single swing today.
    I really didn’t think I was that old. Of course I also looked on YouTube this weekend on how to replace the mechanism in my casement window that is failing, and several 5 year old DIY video’s agreed that the price for the replacement part was about $50 dollars. When I searched for it on the internet it was $315.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. thexrayboy Avatar
    thexrayboy

    There’s a long history of using criminal charges to extort money from reluctant taxpayers….

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  13. KurtP Avatar
    KurtP

    On the other hand.
    The swing chains I remember seemed to be about 3/8 maybe a 1/4″.
    We chained down 10 ton backhoes with four of them.

    Even a 1/4″ chain shouldn’t fail due to someone twisting them and riding the untwist.
    Unless-
    The girls were she-Hulks
    Or the chain was already damaged.

    Like

    Reply
  14. B Avatar
    B

    One might as was the swing underengineered or was it poorly maintained?

    Kids have been twisting the chain or rope up to spin on swings forever, so the chains and rings should be able to handle that…or was it so badly rusted that it broke?

    I’m with the mom on this one though. If there is surveillance evidence (why is there a camera in the park???) then show it.

    Or just fix the goddammned swing so it can’t be broken by 10 year olds….like it should be made in the first place.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  15. Nemo Avatar
    Nemo

    @ Bob above,

    The $295 isn’t for the chain and one to fix it. It’s for the other ten ten municipal employees, who each arrived to the park in their own truck, to stand around doing nothing watching the guy fixing the swing chain,

    Like

    Reply
  16. Bjorn Frei Avatar
    Bjorn Frei

    Alleged is the mother was a stupid bint.
    Standing on principal is stupid?
    Standing for innocent until proven guilty is stupid?

    What is stupid is capitulating to paying the fine because government tells you to although providing nothing to warrant payment.
    Effing cretinous cowards do that. Without thought, they bend to the abuse because it is convenient.
    Then they call stupid them who insist upon evidence to substantiate the claim.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *