The call came in at 7:06 p.m. Juveniles, seven of them, on a quiet residential street, selling an uncontrolled substance: lemonade. A neighbor had dimed them out, and a Haverford Township police officer responded in a hurry. When he arrived at the two-story brick house on Maryland Avenue, he dutifully informed Dana Kleinschmidt, mother of four of the reputed offenders, who included 5-year-old triplets, that they were violating the law. They were selling lemonade without a permit.
Kleinschmidt was nonplussed. She told the children to cease and desist, but the law was news to her – and evidently to the rest of the township’s police department.
“We all sold lemonade when we were kids,” said John F. Viola, the deputy chief of police. “We all went, like, who calls [police] on kids?” As it turns out, according to Viola, the officer’s visit was a misunderstanding that finally was left to Sgt. Joe Hagan to straighten out.
For 12 years, Hagan acknowledged, he has patrolled the streets of Haverford buying lemonade, paying the kids a buck and surreptitiously not drinking it. It never occurred to him that he was aiding and abetting law-breakers. Legality became an issue on July 10, when William Nickerson called to complain that neighborhood children were peddling the stuff. Nickerson said they were going house-to-house ringing doorbells, and he didn’t think they were being properly supervised by adults. “I’m not being Scrooge,” he said.
The responding officer – who was unavailable, whom Viola would not identify, and whose name and badge number were blacked out of the police report – invoked a township ordinance against vending without a permit. What the officer didn’t realize, Viola said, is that the law doesn’t apply to anyone younger than 16.
“The police officer would have no way of knowing this on the street,” Viola said. “He acts on information he has available.”
There is just no shortage of “stupid” in this country.
When the law is so complicated that you have no reasonable expectation of knowing what it is, everyone is a criminal.
The flip side is that when the laws are so complicated that the cops cant keep them straight, they just assume you are a criminal an expect you to bow to their authority.
Neither situation is acceptable in a free society.
“You can’t fix stupid.”
Ron White
Maybe if Nickerson was concerned about the kids going to people’s houses then maybe he should have got off his ass and walked down the street and talked with the parents.
That’s what grownups do.
What a crock, That will teach Kids to trust Authority! Lucky they were not Tazed!!!! What happened to common sense? America Aint what she used to be.
What kind of idiot would call the police about a children’s lemonade stand in the first place?
They (police?) released the name of the complaining citizen for everyone to know…but not the responding officer?
Is this a subtle way of telling everyone in town – Don’t be a tattletale?
Eliminate 90% of the laws off the books and you’ll have a better society.
Eliminate 90% of society, and You will have better laws..
Sure the cop who responded was/is a DA but I have to figure those protecting his behind are DA and stupid as well. This, it seems, is how many state and federal functions work. Pathetic and we wonder why we’re in such a bad state.
What? No tasers?
“What the officer didn’t realize is that the law doesn’t apply to anyone younger than 16.
The police officer would have no way of knowing this on the street.”
A police officer who doesn’t know the law has no business enforcing it.
These kids are a threat to the sales at Whole Foods and the other grocery stores. If they want to sell, tell them to get a permit. That should reduce the number of competitors for the big players, and keep the market stable.
understand something strange.
UNDER 16 you have NO RIGHTS.
As a person with NO RIGHTS, most laws do not apply. the person incharge of you, is RESPONSIBLE..
For those groups TRYING to give children RIGHTS, I say to them, TAKE them, they are yours to raise. Once she gets 6-8 kids and trys to raise them and WORK, I will call the State on them ALSO..
Oh, SUE the neighbor and the COPS.
#13 is right BTW!
Miss-understanding, should never be mistaken as ignorance.
Wow, half a penny per glass. Their parents must work for Verizon.
The police Dept may not have released the officer’s name but every person in the dept knows who it is. It will be a long time before his fellow officers let him forget this.
I think this “noname” cop should be rewarded for showing more restraint then you average cop for not tazering these underage lawbreakers.
Why isn’t the responding officer’s name/number on the public record?
Surely it would HAVE to be available for people too see unless the officer’s safety may be compromised.
Aniby,
My thoughts, exactly. The kids should just be happy they didn’t get tasered and restrained with choke holds
#23, well of course his safety would be in danger. The neighborhood would lynch him!
I would never drink anything prepared by a 5 year old anyway.
#10 That is the lamest turn around I think I have ever heard of. How dare you tarnish Einstein’s name with such stupidity.
#14 Do you know every rule about your job? have you never made a mistake in your business or slipped up? No one in their right minds knows all the laws and how they should be applied. gimme a break.
Police officers certainly have an insanely bad rap on this site. I think it is amazing at how much respect we give to our soldiers in the military (many of which were the same people your parents told you not to hang out with). Yet the people who watch our streets and who are here for us are spit on. People make mistakes in their places of business. Police officer’s jobs are a lot more public and have a lot higher stakes then most. My hats off to the men and women who serve on our streets.
This is coming from a guy serving in the US Army.
#27 Zanax is your friend
Wow everyone seems to be taking the kids side. If they were running wild going around ringing doorbells and annoying the crap out of everyone, lock em up, rotten kids!
It’s interesting how everyone ignores the law when they want to “for the kids”. The law to have permit completely applies to the parents who are completely responsible. If we allow one stand then we have to allow other stands, and where does it end? Stands on front lawns, stands on corners, stands in front of post offices, stands in front of wal-mart, everyone putting up and taking stands on selling lemonade wherever they please when others have to jump through so many hoops just to open their doors to open up a lemonade stand in a retail storefront? If the kids can do that, they can sell everything else anywhere they want without permits. And what about the drugs sold under the table. No one suspects a thing!
#1 “When the law is so complicated that you have no reasonable expectation of knowing what it is, everyone is a criminal.”
Well there is a reason for that:
“There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government
has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t
enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a
crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws.”
— Ayn Rand, “Atlas Shrugged”
The neighbor who had concerns thought first of calling the authorities. Acting like an adult doesn’t occur to him, he runs crying to mommy.
And the cop, his first reaction is to shut it down. It doesn’t even occur to him to tell the cry baby who called to mind his own business and stop wasting other peoples time.
And the kids get their first real lesson about America. All that stuff they told you about freedom … well it’s right up there with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
lemonade today, crack tomorrow and there goes the neigbourhood
I think the cop had it right. Even if the kids were immune to needing a license, the home owner would need the permit if the stand was on their property.
BUT, …
What kind of dick head calls the police because kids go door to door informing the neighbors they have a lemonade stand? Oh, right. The old coot that has the “No Trespassing” signs out and generally hates everyone. The guy no one gets along with. The one who wishes Cheney had been President.