10 year old girl fined $50 for lemonade stand

I sometimes wonder why we don't just make it illegal to be a child these days?


"It's a summertime tradition for kids everywhere – setting up a lemonade stand and hoping to make a few bucks off of thirsty passersby.
That is, unless you do it on city park property – as did one little girl who was ticketed for trying to serve up summer refreshment.

She and her father, Richard Lee, had only been selling lemonade and cookies for about 15 minutes when three Parks Department agents approached them.

"One of them looked at the sign and said, 'Oh yes, she's selling it,' and then they asked me right away for ID," Richard said.

To Richard's disbelief, the agents began writing them a ticket for selling food without a permit."

http://wcbstv.com/local/lemonade.stand.fine.2.1131308.html

Somehow, these types never get fired.

They want pricks like this to give government regulation a bad name. Don't let people who oppose government regulation run regulatory agencies.

"A spokesperson for the Parks Department says the agents showed poor judgment and that the ticket will be dismissed.

If and when that happens, Clementine says she will reconsider setting up another lemonade stand.

After Clementine and her dad got the ticket, they took the lemonade stand to the lobby of their building.

At the end of the day, Clementine made $19, which she plans to put in her savings account."




On the one hand, the dad perhaps should have checked to see if it'd be okay to sell lemonade at the park. But on the other hand, the agents could have just given them a warning (and a break). THREE agents to write ONE ticket? That sounds intimidating. Poor kid.

in your own neighborhood or in your own front yard.

It's amazing that the father thought he and his daughter could sell lemonade and cookies in a city park.

Edit - I agree that writing a ticket was gigantic overkill and unnecessary.

And they ended up having it in the lobby of their building. So it sounds like they live in a condo or townhouse, in which case they may not have a front yard or driveway.

I'm in a fairly dense city neighborhood, but the road itself is not a pedestrian throughway, so if I put my daughter on the sidewalk she wouldn't get much foot traffic. Should could sit there for hours and see very very few people go by. It's not like the old days when people were far more pedestrian. Now everyone stays in their homes, and when they leave they get in the cars and drive places.

Yes traditionally in front of your house is where you put it, but not everyone lives somewhere that is viable to do so. Maybe the daughter wanted to, tried doing it at her house, and got nobody to go by, and the father felt terrible about it, and came up with the idea of going somewhere there were more people.

Going to one of the city parks is something I'd never have thought of, but off the top of my head seems like a more interesting proposition as she'd see alot more "action". However I'd probably set her up on the public street just outside the park entrance, rather than in INSIDE the park.

Entrepreneurism by kids should be encouraged, but the entrenched corporate interests don't want that, they like Fascist cartelism.

We have to save the children.. it's for their sake...

Yet, there is absolutely no recourse for me to file a complaint and have the kid fulfill his contractual obligation to provide me with refreshment.

craps sake, they couldn't just let her off with a warning.

I am surprised they didn't come in with axes and sledge hammers and smash up the place like some prohibition bulls. "Selling lemonade and cookies without a permit? In my town, I don't think so, Missy!" SMASH SMASH SMASH

What could have possibly been going through that officers mind? "Boy, I sure felt like a big man, pushing that little girl around." Asshole.

But can't have that, real entrepreneurism is antithetical to Corporatism and so is crushed.

This is how one child two years ago got around some weird-ass curmudgeon calling the police on him for selling lemonade sans permit/business license: give the lemonade away, but have a tip jar. This way, no money's being exchanged in a business transaction; which is lunacy to even speak in such terms regarding a child's lemonade stand.

Seems some grown ups have far too much time and meanness on their hands. This is just straight child bullying by adults.

A lot of people were railing on yesterday about the "rule of law", and "we are a nation of laws" in a few threads. I wonder if they'll show up here to show their contempt for this young lady... :sarcasm:

Should I be allowed to set up a stand in Central Park and sell whatever I want without a permit? Is it OK to see vendors lining the sidewalks peddling their wares without a permit? Is the young lady somehow exempt because of cuteness and youth? Or because she's selling lemonade and cookies as opposed to, say, turquoise jewelry? Are people here really defending her "right" to peddle her wares in a public park without a permit? Or just that she shouldn't have gotten a ticket for it. If I was the cop I might have let her off with just a warning.

"Should I be allowed to set up a stand in Central Park and sell whatever I want without a permit?"

I imagine that a child in front of a house selling lemonade during the summer does little harm, enables few pathogenic viruses, or creates a vacuum in the free market.

I also imagine many people believe that lemonade stands are a slippery slope towards anarchy, the absence of law, and the breakdown of civilization.

I think 'twas the ticket, an overreaction IMO.

The Nanny-Statists can go screw themselves.

That must explain why it took three of them to subdue this blatant lawbreaker.



:sarcasm: <---- As if it were necessary.

But I still stop and get lemonade that kids are selling.

mikey_the_rat

:dunce:

Great Minds Think Alike.

They'll gank you every time.

Just wait till the IRS hears about this.

And it would surprise me one bit to know some freeper types have already called them.

Although if she had been, I'm sure there would be some here that would claim we should wait until all the facts are in, or that it was minimal force needed or some such bullshit.

"She got belligerent and I had no choice but to subdue her."

That employ non-thinking robots who go purely by the book and use no common sense.

tell the dad that it's not allowed in the park and they'd have to close up shop or get a special dispensation from the pope.

It's a sad fact that many people with little authority have to prove how much they have. Must be that compensating thing we hear about.

Peace

You can't let her because you are not letting everyone else.

How do you stop everyone else? Giving out tickets.
How do you stop her? Giving out tickets.