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
I'm trying to figure our how everyone knows the officer was a male?? I see no reference to that and with the name Stacy it could be either or. They should have warned her and asked her to clean it. I wouldn't realize there was anything wrong, and 50 hrs is harsh for an innocent infraction. And mouthing off to a cop could be as simple as saying "this is bull Sh!t".
These rules should have exceptions. They have no wiggle room for common sense. booooooooo to the officer. They must live in a boringly safe community for the officer to have time to pay attention to that nonsense.
I disagree, and stand by the town! There are a few factors, A. Your teaching your child it's OK to deface public property. Let them draw on the walkway at home. Would you let them draw on the neighbors walkway? NO! Why, cause it's NOT YOUR Property! If it doesn't rain for 3 weeks, the chalk would remain. B. Talking like a maniac to any officer is not only stupid on your part, but poor parenting skills. I think she deserved it! Get your kid a coloring book lady!
Wow so glad I dont live in va anymore. I think this is a stupid thing. It wasnt a fallis or a gang sign it was flowers flowers. People need to ease up on kids they are kids and mom had every right to be mad.
She mouthed off? No sympathy for her. Was she planning to wash it off, or did she just think everyone should be thrilled to see what her little darling had done? I am an apartment manager and am constantly having to clean the sidewalks off because children have drawn all over them. As a great-grandmother, I'm not bothered by them BUT I am bothered by the parents, who don't mind watching me clean them off in order to have the apartments "show" nicely. I don't honestly care whether the cop was inittially rude to her, or not. Her belief that the rest of the world should be thrilled with whatever she does is something that should be nipped in the bud.
And to many of you here, you seem to not notice that it is not what the CHILD was doing, that was the problem. It is that the parent thinks whatever her little one does, should be okay. And this parent was teaching her child to do what she wants even if something doesn't belong to her. Then, when the cop told her this wasn't acceptable, she taught her child that you should mouth off to anyone who tells you that something is not okay.
My opinion is that this mother doesn't need any of you to stand up for her. She already figures that she should be allowed to do whatever she wants, and that no one has the right to tell her otherwise. She's got that. And she's doing her best to teach it to her kid. Thanks for telling her how right she is. But guess what? She doesn't care. The only person whose opinion she listens to, is her own.
"Sure it may have been a "crime" to chalk on the sidewalk but maybe it's the officer that was acting out." If it was a 'crime'...case closed. No argument. Who did you expect to pay for the cleanup, the taxpayers? There has to be ONE law for all not one for toddlers, one for teens, one for moms, one for dads, etc etc to the point of stupidity.
Who did you expect to pay for the cleanup, the taxpayers?
LMAO The "cleanup?" Mother nature will take care of the cleanup, or do you not know what chalk is and how it works? At the very least, the cop could have had the basic human decency to say "hey, could you get some water and clean this up?"