Would you do this to a six yr old?

Question

Since when can't a six yr old draw a pretty flower on her stoop in NYC. I grew up in NYC and did it on the regular as a child. Then people complain that children are growing up too fast. What the hell are these people doing?
http://www.amny.com/news/local/wire/politics/ny-bc-ny-odd--chalkcrackdow1013oct13,0,1052117.story?track=rss

Answer 1

"If people call and complain, we have to follow it up," she said, but noted that the agency "does not consider a child's chalk drawing to be graffiti."


did you read it LMAO

basically they played double game. bunch of IDIOTS...leave a KID alone...let KID GROW dumbasses

Answer 2

No. It reminds me of a 70+ year old neighbour of my Nana's. He lives across the road in a run-down house - he has a car that hasn't moved for about 15 years and is covered in moss, and a fence that has huge pieces missing out of it - particularly right beside the gate (yet he still locks the gate).

If anyone plays football on the road (it's a blocked end, so it's quite safe) then he goes mad. If the ball goes in his garden he goes in his garden, that's the end of the football. Nobody dares get it back! He thinks that it is damaging his house, but the garden is an absolute state, and a window has never been smashed (God help the children if they ever did smash something).

On a couple of occasions now, he has actually called the police out. The police put an end to the game of football, but are sick of his moaning about something that is not an urgent matter.

Some people really need to stop being so ridiculous =|

Answer 3

Ridiculous! This reminds me of an elderly woman who lived in my childhood neighborhood. She use to constantly file complaints about the kids. When I was about nine years old, my dad helped me make a cute little birdhouse to hang outside my bedroom window. My dad was forced to remove it because that trifling woman complained. I truly think she hated kids. She was extremely nice and polite to most adults until they confronted her about her complaints. She complained about anything and everything. Before a playground was built, there use to be a huge field in my old neighborhood where the kids would often play sports and games. Sure, a ball would occasionally get kicked hard enough to go flying into someone's yard. But it's not like it meant the end of the world. Dammit, though, that woman would call the office every time she found a ball or heard one go thump in the street. She was eventually evicted because she caused such a huge mess. Her constant complaining caused a bunch of fighting... Angry parents confronted her (causing arguments to erupt). The children were afraid to play outside, so they would visit each other and play indoors. But their fear turned to irritation and discouragement. And they'd vent their frustration by getting into fights, which caused the parents to fight in defense of their children. (It was the old "my kid's always right" drama.) The crap even spread to the local drug dealers who interpreted the silence (the kids remaining indoors) as meaning "the parents are keeping their children inside because they know who we are and what we're doing, and they're snitching." And this led to violence (drive by shootings, beatings, and at least one stabbing that I can think of). All that SH*T over one hateful resident. People were so happy when she was evicted that some folks were yelling joyfully out of their windows as they watched the moving van drive away. And one resident actually threw a party for the neighborhood a few days afterwards.

People like that old woman really bewilder me... Not just because they're so incongruous and unreasonable, but also because many of those same people wonder why so many children direct their energies towards negative behaviors such as sex and drugs. Not all children turn to such things. But what do people think kids are going to do if their activities are restricted to the point that they have very few outlets in which to channel their energies? SHEESH!

Answer 4

six year old doesn't know the law.. and a chalk flower does not qualify as graffiti,,, she may have been the next Michael Angelo and they crushed all her future ambitions . The neighbor must have no life and needed the excitement . thank god I don't live in N.Y. because when my son gets out his chalk,,we out line our body's on the ground and add faces and clothes,, draw tree's ,, houses,,,how else are we to inspire our children into doing creative and positive things .. I could see questioning the drawing if it was of 2 junkies shooting up heroine in the alley or a lady of the night picking up john,,, but a flower,,,come on ,,,

Answer 5

No. I think this is ridiculous. The picture doesn't stay on the surface permanently, but will disappear the next time it rains. I think it's nice to let kids chalk pictures on the pavements. I would never complain about any child doing that, let alone give a fine for it!

I think it's good to fine for graffiti, but chalking pictures on the ground is not graffiti! Graffiti is vandalism, chalking is innocent fun.

Answer 6

Maybe the neighbor would be happier if the kids were throwing rocks through their windows.
There is a big difference between children playing and vandalism.
Every kid at one time or the other drew with chalk on the sidewalk.

Some people have to share their misery, trying to make everyone else as miserable as they are.

Answer 7

I read that article this morning before my son went off to school. I told him about it when he was taking out the trash and I was getting ready to walk our dog. His response to me says it all. Well I guess your going to have to pay lots of money, because of all the chalk coloring we did this weekend. Oh and mom should I erase Happy Halloween too? We are still allowed to celebrate Halloween, Right? Out of the mouth of a 12 year old. Shame on the U.S. sometimes. And damn if I don't love this country. But wow can't even play tag in school anymore. Ouch!

Answer 8

Someone complained but it's likely that they didn't really look at the drawing - at least that's what I hope happened. It would be really petty if they had seen it as a child's drawing but still reported it. As far as the city is concerned, I like this quote:
...Nor does City Councilman Peter Vallone, who spearheaded a 2005 city law that requires property owners to get rid of graffiti.
"It was never the intent of my law to capture chalk drawings on the sidewalk," he said...

Answer 9

Its pretty ridiculous really. Its like an older neighbor i have who trips if the kids touch his grass at all, and the yard is not really all that, but some people just want a reason to be unhappy about any little thing.

Answer 10

Like its JUST CHALK! Like it won't last forever. Get real. Its like the 10 year old being charged in one state for destroying habitat for picking up a rock he thought looked cool and attempting to take it home. The parents had a $5000 fine.