Of Kickball, Cops and Child Abuse

What happens on a summer's eve when a couple dozen kids and parents spill into the street for a neighborhood game of kickball?

On a well-manicured street in Colorado Springs, Colorado, last week, according to an amazingly thorough and blood-pressure-raising piece in the Colorado Springs Indy, this occasioned three cop cars, eight officers and a citation for "obstructing passage or assembly."

The crime? Frolicking. More specifically: playing in the street without a permit.

The perpetrators, Ed Snyder and Joe Coleman, were clearly hard-boiled recidivists. For four summers now, these men have organized weekly, 90-minute kickball games that bring out neighbors of all ages. If that's not brazen goodwill-building, I'll eat my Popsicle!

Until recently, the games were not deemed a threat to public safety. But then, apparently, a neighbor complained, and that was enough for the Colorado Springs Police Department to spring into action.

Some of the gaggle of officers arriving on the scene were new recruits, Commander Tish Olszewski told Indy reporter Heidi Beedle. And as newbies, the commander added, "One of the things they have to learn is community engagement."

In response, Coleman reportedly quipped: "I wouldn't say this experience for most of the people here is community building."

The cops told the kickball players they needed a permit to play in the street. But three weeks earlier, when the authorities first got involved, Snyder had actually tried to get a permit. This involved a two-week waiting period and signatures from every person on the block, every single game day — plus a $300 fee for official traffic barriers.

Somewhat of a damper.

OK, said the cops: An alternative solution is for you to go play in the local park.

But the group enjoyed the block party feel.

The alternative to that alternative?

"We have tried to reasonably come to a conclusion on how to settle this," said Olszewski. "The next step, after tickets, it goes to child abuse." That is, the cops would get child abuse charges filed against the perps. "We have really tried to work with all of you. We don't want it to come to this."

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Most likely, no one wanted it to come to this. The simplest thing seems like it would be for the cops to allow or erect a barricade once a week and let the game — a local tradition by now — continue. Alternatively, with a park close by, it doesn't seem like a crazy request that the group play there.

What is crazy is the amount of red tape involved in getting permission to play on your own street. It shouldn't be that tough to give city space back to people, not cars, for an hour or two a week.

Crazier still is that without a nearly impossible-to-procure permit, the government has the power to slam people with the most heinous of charges. Child abuse charges are not rubber bullets to be deployed when the cops can't control a crowd. They're atom bombs.

However outrageous a street game may be to some, let's save the charge of child abuse for people who actually abuse children, not for people who organize summer games that bring the community together.