One minute, Susan Mortensen is watching her 4-year-old daughter make lovely chalk drawings on rocks in a park. The next, she is in court getting sentenced to 50 hours of community service for vandalism. Oh the joys of parenting.
She had no idea her pint-size Picasso was committing a crime when Officer Stacy Rogers came over to confront them. Now the Richmond, Virginia mom must paint about 200 outdoor posts as her debt to society.
Now generally, I think parents are partly responsible for their children's bad behavior. Constant hitting, fighting, cursing, stealing, and things of that nature are often signs something is going on at home. But this situation is ridiculous. Chalk drawings SHOULD NOT be a crime. I would have let my child do it too. It's not spray paint. It's not even crayon. It will easily wash away.
However, according to Officer Rogers the little girl was "destroying" property. Apparently any drawing is considered graffiti, whether it's a gang sign or sunflowers. "It is all the same thing," said Ralph White, a park manager. "A couple of weeks ago, I was covering over pornographic drawings done in chalk. It doesn't matter what the medium is. It's offensive." Is it really? That logic sounds completely asinine to me.
I should mention that the cop complained that during the reprimand, Mortensen responded with "attitude and curse words." I can't blame this mom for her reaction, though. I would have been pissed off too. Don't they have real crimes to fight? I am sure there are plenty of other parents out there who need to be punished -- like the child batterers or those who use their kids to shoplift. Now those are crimes. These cops must be incredibly bored to go after a mom for her toddler’s chalk drawings. Talk about a waste of the court’s time and the taxpayers' dime.
Do you think this mom deserved to be punished?
Images via Horia Varlan/Flickr
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Comments 126
Why is it that we accept a police officer's opinion of us as a factor in our guilt or innocence? I'm sorry, but when it comes to bringing up charges against a person, it doesn't freakin' matter what the officer thinks of you or if you are rude and cursing or polite and apologetic. What matters is whether or not your actions break the law. And there is no way in hell that CHALK destroys property. It washes off with rain, for crying out loud. And to those of you who are offended or "don't want to see" chalk drawings from kids in public places, I say take a baby wipe to that sucker if you're so worried about it.
I would have gave lip too, this is ridiculous! For those of you saying she deserves the punishment because you can not talk like that to an officer is just wrong. I'm sorry but most officers I come in contact with have an attitude of their own, especially women officers. They think that since they have a higher power they can use it any way they would like. Sure it may have been a "crime" to chalk on the sidewalk but maybe it's the officer that was acting out. Maybe she should have walked up to the lady and told her politely she needs to wash it off without further consequences and maybe explain how she is breaking the law. Non the less it think is still stupid to say no chalk.... Infact chalk is the only drawling item I even let my 2 year old draw with. He has a chalk board but in case he does break away really fast and draw on something its an easy clean up! And for the lady prior to my comment saying "Seems like common sensenthat you don't let your kids do that so yeah I do agree" common you must not have a kid and if you do I feel bad for them.... you probably will not allow them to do anything. I always use to chalk on the sidewalks and my mom never had to do community service!!
It doesn't matter that she was being rude, she broke the law, and that's that.