Monday, July 14, 2008

California's flavor of freedom

It was Saturday night, and it was hot. My girlfriend and I were baking in our apartment, wondering what to do at half-past-midnight. We just needed to get out, so we settled on hitting a fast food place for a midnight snack. On the way back, I opened the window and found the air to be perfect. Just short of warm, with a slight breeze.

"Tonight would be a perfect night to go to a park, and eat, and look at the stars."

Of course, no sooner had the words left my lips than I remembered that an attempt at such an activity would be illegal.

The public parks in our county close at 10 o'clock. But this is just so the cops can kick out people up to no good, right?

Does it matter?

The result is the same.

Any sweeping law or regulation that is meant to stop or block a small percentage of the population still blocks the rest. Punishing the many because of a few bad apples.

People seem to think that just because the legislation isn't pointed DIRECTLY at them, it's no big deal. Wrong. If it affects you in any way; it IS pointed directly at you.

I can't even go to a damn public park.

This sure makes for a confusing, and angering "Freedom is..." statement...

Freedom is... being able to go to a public park.

2 comments:

Fletch said...

Having lived across the street from a park, I happen to know that this IS enforced. Cops will regularly drive through a park, shining their spot light around, looking for people still in the park after 10pm.

Huntington Beach cops really have nothing better to do.

Heaven help you if you try to do it after there has been some graffiti in the area, and they've been instructed to "crack down" on vandals...

Kent McManigal said...

I, too, have been kicked out of a park because it was "too late". I was not planning anything bad or destructive; not that it mattered to the dastardly Liberty Eradication Operative (LEO) who kicked me out.