Only In New York City...

I thought that you'd find this story amusing:

"It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.

The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child.

Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail.

The city parks department says the rule is designed to keep pedophiles out of city parks, but a parks spokesman told the Daily News that the department hoped police would use some common sense when enforcing the rule.

The spokesman told the paper that ticketing a woman in the park in the middle of the day is not the way you want to enforce the rule."

OK, I've got some questions here.

First, why have a "no un-accompanied adults" rule and the associated signs in the first place if the NYPD is going to spend time lurking around the parks writing tickets to unsuspecting pedestrians? Is writing tickets the goal, or is protecting kids their purpose?

After all, aren't the members of the NYPD capable of defending kids from perverts? Seems to me the problem would be moot if the cops were looking for perverts and pervert behavior rather than profiling adults without the company of kids.

Next, IF I am a pervert and I kidnap a kid and bring them with me to the park, might the NYPD allow me to ride the teeter toter , sit on the see-saw, and dig cat turds in the sandbox WITHOUT writing me a ticket?

Also, if perverts lurking around in parks and playgrounds are really a problem, is a $1,000 fine and 90 days jail time a strict enough sentence? Can this actually be considered an effective deterrent to prevent true perverts from stalking their potential victims in public parks?

I say that this is a typical government knee-jerk reaction to what is actually a serious concern. Pedophilia is a horrible crime, but you can't by default define every adult found sitting around a park in the presence of kids as a pervert.

As usual, the govenment places the burden of proof on law abiding citizens rather than doing their job and attacking the criminals.