http://thefw.com/mom-arrested-kids-playing/

LAPORTE, TX -- A stay-home mom was arrested for letting her children ride their scooters in a cul-du-sac in front of their home. Police say Tammy Cooper was endangering the children because her lawn chair wasn't close enough to where they were playing. She was handcuffed, put in an orange jumpsuit, and thrown in jail for 18 hours. She has already spent $7,000 trying to defend her case. The children were taken to Child Protective Services and interrogated.




Tammy Cooper and her husband moved to their house on a cul-de-sac in a quiet La Porte, Texas neighborhood so they would have a safe place for their nine and six-year-old children to grow up.

And Cooper thought she was reaping the benefits of her suburban lifestyle as she sat on her lawn and watched her children play on their scooters. But this tranquility was interrupted when a police car pulled in front of her home and the officer approached her. Cooper asked him what he was here for. “We’re here for you,” he responded.
What had happened is that Cooper’s neighbor had called the cops and said that Cooper was allowing her  children to play in the cul-de-sac unsupervised.

Cooper was arrested for child endangerment, and spent the next 18 hours in prison.

The charges were eventually dropped against Cooper, who says she was watching her children from the lawn the whole time. Now Cooper is suing the La Porte Police Department, the officer and the busybody neighbor for the humiliating experience.

Speaking through a spokesperson, the La Porte Police Department said they are “confident of the known actions of the officers on the scene that evening.” For her part, the nosy neighbor has yet to comment.

Is this the kind of lawsuit you can get behind?



How's that? How many of you, especially the older folk (nicest way possible) played outside of your parent or guardian's supervision?
I know I did.


--Steve

When I was around 14 the local cops impounded (literally) my skateboard and small ramp for skateboarding in the neighborhood street with my friends in a nice, quiet south GA town. Needless to say, my dad went down there and raised hell and they said I would get it back after the judge decided later that week if I would be charged with anything.  My dad got up against the counter in the cop's face and told him we could be doing drugs, stealing, vandalizing, etc. but we were being healthy teenagers, and he was either leaving the police station with my skateboard (worth $100) and ramp or he was whipping $100 worth of ass right then and there.

We left with my skateboard and ramp and they never bothered us again.

Thanks dad!

stewmills wrote on 10/04/12 at 22:23:52:


See. I tried saying it in another thread. Cops love it when you stand up to them.


--Steve

When I was 5 my best friend and I got into an altercation, and he was chasing me around the neighborhood with a big stick. We had stopped on his front lawn and he was swinging the stick menacingly in my direction. Two rookies in a paddy wagon pulled over and told us if we didn't stop they would throw us in jail for the rest of our lives. I ran home (peeing my pants) and hid under my bed until my dad came home from work. He called a Sargent Fred Bruce who came out to talk to me. As soon as I saw his car I hid under the bed again, and wouldn't come out. In those days they used to have police as crossing guards at schools and the next day, as soon as I saw that cop I ran home and hid under the bed again. My dad came home from work and called Sargent Bruce again, who came out to the house, sat on the floor in my room and after an hour or so coaxed me out from under the bed with the promise that I could hold his gun. He explained to me that the rookies had made a mistake, that police were there to help me, and he would have them apologize to me in person. They did, and Bruce had them reprimanded.
To this day I am uncomfortable around cops.
Sargent Fred Bruce went on to become a much liked and respected Chief of Police here in London.