This is no laughing matter!
Atlanta (WAOK)– A trial date has been set for a 20-year-old single mother who was arrested after her son made laughing noises while in a Decatur library.
Donnetta Foster was thrown out of the library after she said her 14-month-old son, Savon, made a laughing noise while looking at an animal flash card in October 2010. Ms. Foster was a full-time student at Georgia Perimeter studying Business Administration when the incident happened. She told police she was at the Decatur branch of the DeKalb County library using the computers to look for employment when her son began laughing. Police were called and she was asked to leave.
Police arrested Foster across the street from the library while she was waiting for a police sergeant to arrive at the scene.
Ms. Foster faces charges of obstruction for what she says was a request for the police officer to take a report from her regarding how she was inappropriately treated by library staff. Foster could face jail time if she is found guilty at her trial.
The trial date has been set for September 13, 2011 before Dekalb County State Court Judge Janis Gordon.
(Story ends here, my comments follow.)
This sounds like stupid piled on top of asinine. Tossing someone out because their 14 month old child laughed? I could maybe see if the kiddo was crying at the top of their lungs, but laughter from a small child is natural music (yeah, I'm softhearted. Deal with it.)
Then the cops top it off by arresting "Mom" for wanting to file a report? WTF?
Believe it or not, I've run into this sort of stupidity up in Connecticut. My oldest son resided in Wallingford with the ex and I used to visit him. Sometimes I'd go to the local library just to kill an hour or so while waiting for them to get home. The library had a very prominent sign outside the restroom doors warning that there was only a five minute allowance for anyone using the facilities.
I often wondered if they'd call the Potty Police, Crap Cops, Poop Patrol or Fecal Fuzz for anyone staying past the allotted time. Maybe it's a good thing I never put it to the test. It'd been difficult to explain to my naval superiors how I came to be busted for excessive time in a public toilet.
SHEEESH! This really is a Bizarro Universe! Where's the worm hole back out of here?
5 comments:
Remember this--if it's good for the family, the law will strike it down, and if it weakens the family, the police will be the ones to enforce it. It's ugly, but the government pays their checks.
time limit ..good grief~!
MRG, IMO it seems cops and other formerly reliable authority figures now just do what they have to in order to get their paycheck. I can kind of understand it, since the 60's the police as a whole have been vilified, denigrated, constantly harassed to the point where anyone doing that job has to have a seige mentality. Just my opinion.
IR, what you say ties into my response to Most Rev. Gregori. The cops just do what they have to and the hell with any other consideration. Kind of inevitable considering how they've been a target of opportunity for any and all malcontents since the 60's. But stupidity fueled by arrogance is still unacceptable.
WHT, yep 5 whole minutes. That whole town was just a bit strange. I once showed up at City Hall in my khaki uniform to pay the property tax on my auto. I never got so many hostile/confused stares in my entire career. Maybe they were all divorced from military members, I dunno. But like I said, a strange town.
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