Monday, April 23, 2007

Oh Monroe


I found this article in the Monroe Evening News this afternoon:


These days, 14-year-old Joel Keely of Monroe is working odd jobs to pay off an $85 ticket issued by police earlier this month.


His crime? Riding his skateboard on a downtown Monroe sidewalk.




Sometimes I wonder why society cares about some things and not others. The mother of the kid that was fined brought up a good point in the article. She mentioned that the kids were out for exercise and they got ticketed. This made me think. Why don't we ticket kids that stay in front of the TV for excessive hours? I was surprised to read that they will even be ticketing people on their bikes or on Rollerblades. At first I thought this might just be some sort of discrimination, thinking that kids on skateboards must be bad kids, but when I read that they will be ticketing people on bikes and Rollerblades I just had to chuckle. With all the problems in the world, in the country, in Monroe, we are cracking down on people exercising too close to business doors? It isn't even like they were being rowdy and doing tricks near cars, they were using their skateboard as a mode of transportation. The excuse was that the sidewalks weren't 'made for that' - then WHAT WERE THEY MADE FOR? Some things still amaze me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comment about Joel. I can honestly say he's a good kid.. And now famous for checking in with his Mom. (He's a Momma's boy j/j) Joel did raise all the money need for his ticket. After the stuff in the paper it was changed to a warning.. Joel was able to keep the money.. He used for something useful a new board, that he skates now.. If your wondering who I am I'm his Mom Christie..