Slashdot Mirror
Children Arrested, DNA Tested for Playing in a Tree?
skelator2821 wrote in with another account of a police action gone way overboard. From the article: "To the 12-year-old friends planning to build themselves a den, the cherry tree seemed an inviting source of material. But the afternoon adventure turned into a frightening ordeal for Sam Cannon, Amy Higgins and Katy Smith after they climbed into the 20ft tree - then found themselves hauled into a police station and locked into cells for up to two hours." skelator2821's basic question in all of this: "What is this World coming to? Do you think they went to far?" Well? Do you?
"What is this World coming to? Do you think they went to far?"
No, I think they came from far and went to ridiculous.
'West Midlands Police deals robustly with anti-social behaviour. By targeting what may seem relatively low-level crime we aim to prevent it developing into more serious matters.'
First off, how is this "anti-social"? I'd say that unless you believe in tree feelings, this has nothing to do with any kind of society damaging behaviour.
I am sick of the idea of dealing harshly with small crimes (does this even constitute a crime?) to prevent big crimes. I don't have the statistics, but i'd be willing to bet that the police in this town didn't do much research that confirms that playing in trees as a child develops often into society destroying behaviour in adulthood.
I honestly thought that this could be some kind of joke... I'd laugh, if I wasn't worried that neighborhood kids are going to be getting jailed for playing. Get inside kids, and no video games either. It will be sesame street and brocolli, and noone gets hurt. Pathetic.
You take it, I don't want it...
Dirty, nasty newspaper, overblown story. Kids snap branches in nice tree, get told off by police, go home. What is this doing in ./?