The Dobbs Wire: Pushback against fear-mongering — 'stranger danger'

As 2016 winds down, a Los Angeles city councilman has a proposal concerning parks in that city.  The Los Angeles Times editorial board takes a swing at it.  And so does the indomitable Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids, with a New York perspective.  Have a look!   –Bill Dobbs   

Los Angeles Times | Dec. 27, 2016

EDITORIAL:  Los Angeles’s proposed ban on single adults near playgrounds is fear-based policy making at its worst

By The Times Editorial Board

Excerpts:  In an attempt to make Los Angeles parks seem super safe, City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell has proposed barring adults unaccompanied by children from entering playgrounds. It’s an effort, he said, to keep city parks “free of creepy activity.”  It would bar any adult from sitting on a bench, exercising or otherwise enjoying public space near playground unless he or she brought a child along.

O’Farrell argues that we can’t assume every adult who wanders into a children’s play area is benign. But why should the city assume that every adult without a child is a pedophile? That makes a childless adult a criminal just for being in a particular public space, which is an overreach that can lead to foolish enforcement — like ticketing people for sitting on a bench eating donuts.  Surely there are smarter ways to deal with legitimate problems in public parks. MORE:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-playground-ban-20161227-story.html

Free Range Kids | Dec. 28, 2016

Bill Would Ban Adults Without Kids from Playgrounds

By Lenore Skenazy

A City Councilman in Los Angeles, Mitch O’Farrell, has proposed a bill to keep playgrounds “free of creepy activity” by not allowing anyone unaccompanied by kids to enter one.  Shamefully, that is already the rule here in my burg, New York City. This has led to the arrest of two women who dared to eat donuts on a playground bench in Brooklyn…

Kudos, then, to the Los Angeles Times for objecting to this grandstanding law. O’Farrell argues that we can’t assume every adult who wanders into a children’s play area is benign. But why should the city assume that every adult without a child is a pedophile?  Why indeed?

Because we have been that taught worst-first thinking is prudent and wise…And we simply cannot stop fixating on stranger danger, even though the vast, vast majority of child abuse is at the hands of someone the child knows and the family trusts.  Not someone eating donuts on the playground park bench.  MORE:

http://www.freerangekids.com/bill-would-ban-adults-without-kids-from-playgrounds/