A nanny was threatened with arrest in Prospect Park yesterday after some of her charges peed in front of the bushes rather than behind them, according to a Park Slope Parents email. The little ones–ages two to six–were playing soccer and had to go. A Parks Dept. cop saw the public urination. Words with the adult ensued. Before it was over he was threatening to arrest her and caused a lot of children to cry. Here are the sordid details of the incident we’re going to call Yellow Watergate:
This afternoon I went to the Nethermead with three other mothers, a sitter and a large group of children all between the ages of two and six to practice soccer. Some of the kids had to pee and since I have often found the Boathouse closed I instructed the nanny and the kids to use the bushes that are at the edge of the meadow and overlook the Lullwater trail. Apparently some of the kids dropped trou in front of the bushes as opposed to behind them. At this point a Park ranger came
over, demanded identification from the sitter – she had none and then threatened to “arrest her and take her away”. The children with her became very upset, crying uncontrollably and very afraid that their lifelong sitter was going to be taken away from them. I came over at this point, another mother took the children to a different point in the field and I spoke to the ranger.
He was rude, dismissive to the sitter, and told me that she was belligerent. I demanded he take off his sunglasses before I spoke any further to him and that I wanted to know why he was threatening to arrest her and on what grounds. He said for “failure to comply” and for “failure to produce identification” citing both as misdemeanors. If I didn’t believe him I could “look it up.” He left but not before telling the sitter that the next time she was uncooperative with a ranger, on a bad day, that she would be arrested. I made a point of telling him that it was me who had told the children to use the bushes. Please note that he didn’t ask me for identification. I wasn’t carrying anything either so I suppose I would have been arrested too.
It took awhile for the children to calm down. And I am quite certain that they will remember this for awhile and that their unsullied viewpoint of rangers and people in uniform has now been altered tremendously. I will report this incident to the Park Office. The ranger’s entire attitude was simmering with racism, classism, and a huge degree of immaturity and callousness in regards to the children. I feel badly for the sitter and the children. The ranger’s actions were shameful and unnecessary.
One early response says that even if the Parks Dept. dude was rude, Slopers would be very upset if it was an adult taking a whiz rather than children. Wonder if it was the same guy that singled out a young woman whose dog was off the leash and threatened to arrest her is she didn’t have ID?
8 responses so far ↓
1 rah // Sep 12, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Cops are generally a-holes. But then again, so are entitled PS parents who teach their kids that urination on public property is ok, so I rate this one a firm neutral on the outrage-o-meter.
2 reason // Sep 12, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Often found the Boathouse closed? Or just too lazy to walk to the bathroom? If the bathroom s are not open that is something that should be reported to the Park Office, not this feeble attempt at self-justification.
3 Anonymous // Sep 12, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Lucky it wasn’t the creepy Nazi ranger at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
4 b // Sep 13, 2008 at 12:24 am
a. No cops involved here. Parks Department employees are “peace officers.”
b. If this is truly how it happened, then it’s pretty messed up. Neither of the things he allegedly cited as criminal actually are. If someone doesn’t have ID, and they’re already getting a ticket, it’s true that they can be detained in order to verify their identity… but failing to have ID is not in and of itself a criminal charge, as far as I know, nor is it a legitimate reason to detain someone unless they have committed another crime.
c. For the above reasons, I wonder whether there is some information missing here.
d. I am not a lawyer.
e. Don’t let your kids piss in public. Just please don’t. This is one side of the story, but believe it or not, the parks dept. officer may have been speaking up for other people in the area who don’t find your kids urine as cute as you do.
5 Daisy // Sep 13, 2008 at 3:48 pm
What on earth is so rude about public urination? Dogs do it 3 million times a day in this city every day. Queen Victoria died in 1902, for goodness sake!
6 Dave // Sep 14, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Yeah, wow, I feel really “entitled” when I’m stuck spending my Saturday afternoon hanging out in a playground with my two midgets. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and all. But “entitled” is what I was when I was single and kidless like all you above posters.
If you’re playing in, say, the 3rd Street playground in Prospect Park and your 4-year-old needs to take a piss and you’ve got a 1.5-year-old hanging out in the sandbox, as happened to me yesterday, you’re not going to pack everyone up into the stroller and walk to the Boathouse or the Starbucks on 7th Ave or go home. That’s ridiculous. You’re going to walk with your kid over to the nearest bush and he’s going to squirt 4 ounces of piss into it and that’s it. It’s done. It’s harmless and a complete non-issue.
Park Slope non-parents level of hostility and judgmentalness on this stuff is just f’ing stunning. And clueless.
7 Prodigal // Oct 1, 2008 at 10:39 am
Please stop letting your kids pee in parks. It’s gross. It’s a blight. Nobody wants to play in your dog’s pee either, for that matter – your dogs should be curbed and your kids should be taken to a bathroom. Sorry having kids is hard, we all know it’s hard so stop using that as an excuse to not do it properly.
8 World View // Oct 10, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I don’t get why Americans are so hung up on bodily functions? I grew up in Germany and no one would think twice about a child, or even an adult, for that matter, peeing in a park. Pre-school and kindergarten children in Germany are taken to city parks, playgrounds and nature areas regularly and they are expected (even praised) for being able to take care of their needs outdoors. It considered a necessary life skill. My two daughters (6 and 9) learned at an early age to pee have no problem with finding a convenient spot to squat. We don’t have all these hang ups about bodily functions in europe and kids can just be kids. It’s absolutely ridiculous that the ranger did this and I wish I were there to tell him so.