Cops Called on Dad for Playing Catch with 14-Year-Old Son at Park
"What is the end game here? Can you write a citation? Can you take me to jail?"
A few weeks ago, Adam Washington was tossing a football with his son, age 14, at a park in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Not too far away—but far enough to avoid being bonked by a ball—his wife was pushing their toddler in the swings.
And then two Lower Merion Township Police Department cop cars pulled up.
"I said to my wife, 'I think they're going to come down and give us a hard time,'" Washington tells Reason. "And she said, 'For what?' And I said, 'For throwing this ball in the park.'"
Washington was right. The cops, a man and a woman, got out and approached him. They informed him that someone had called the police to report "two men" playing catch. The male cop asked Washington for his name and birth date.
Interestingly, the female cop already knew his name, because Washington owns a boxing gym in town and he's also a local real estate agent. He had ducked out to the park—which is about 150 feet from his home—for a rare moment of family time between his two jobs.
But that particular park, the cops told Washington, is the "tot lot" and only for kids ages two to five. They pointed to a sign listing the rules; older kids were clambering over the equipment as they did so. Two of the other local parks—which are not only for tots—were undergoing renovation.
"So I can't play at the park with my family?" Washington asked. After all, many families have one child younger than five and another child who is older.
The cops said that being there, playing catch, near little kids, was against the rules. They also indicated that the caller had thought there were two "men" playing in the park, not a dad and son.
Once they left, Washington called the precinct.
"I told them I was the guy who someone had just called the cops on for tossing around a football with my son and I told them I read the rules and there was nothing on them about playing with balls in the park," Washington told Philadelphia magazine, which first reported the story. "And eventually they told me that it's not the ball that's the problem, it's that only kids up to age five are supposed to play in the park. In other words, I'm supposedly not allowed to hang out in the park with my family, since one of my kids is past the age limit."
The police said they were too busy to talk, Washington tells Reason. And yet, they weren't "too busy to send two cop cars to the park."
So he called the township and arranged to speak at their next meeting.
At that meeting, which took place about a week ago, Washington got up to say he didn't think the police should be showing up to enforce park rules. After all, playground rules "aren't laws."
The township said they would discuss the matter, and Washington hopes they do. If not, "I'm going to reactivate the issue," he says, "Because what is the end game here? Can you write a citation? Can you take me to jail?"
His son chuckled at the experience, but Washington maintains he is not done fighting for the freedom to play ball in a park.
