2 moms and 8 kids go to the public pool, pay and are admitted
one of the male children is determined to have unauthorized swimwear and is not allowed in the pool and thus the entire group is asked to leave.
His mom tells them not to leave, that she will drive home to get other swim trunks which she does
Meanwhile, the desk woman calls the ranger to get the kids to leave.
When the mom returns the child is not allowed back into the pool area and they say that he is not allowed to re-enter the pool area even though they have paid and everyone has official bathing gear.
The mom asks to go get the other kids then and demands a refund since they are all being asked to leave right after being admitted
the desk lady says that she cannot issue a refund and words are exchanged - the mom goes into the pool area
police arrive and start detaining the moms and kids
a random middle aged white guy steps in an personally detains one kid against the fence with no repercussions
several people are maced or pepper sprayed in the face at close range
quite a bit of physical force is used against the kids and they are handcuffed
What the heck is wrong with people!? The “problem” could be solved either by allowing the kid to put on his swim trunks and happily go on his way or by giving the family a refund for the service that you are not allowing them to use directly after paying. How is that so hard to arrive at? How is it OK to manhandle a prepubescent child like that and handcuff her kneeling on the pavement in her swim suit? I am just gobsmacked by this and it feels very visceral to me when the mom, handcuffed by her 12 year old daughter, ask for her son to be brought by her where she can see him.
It’s hard to tell exactly what happened by the video, but it does look like several people were grabbing the arms of the police as they tried to restrain the family members. Also, the woman walked right by the cop into the pool area after he told her several times not to. Sure they were mad, and maybe rightly so, but that doesn’t mean one can just disobey the police order to not re-enter the pool area.
This looks like a public pool or state park (rangers?) and there probably is no way for the person at the desk to issue a refund. There wouldn’t be at our public pools. What is an issue is why they couldn’t return to the pool after getting the new swim suit, but we don’t know how much yelling went on at the desk. There probably is a no ‘in and out’ rule, and I’ll bet the people at the pool have very little power to resolve issues, which is a problem in itself.
I knew before clicking on the link that there was no way this was going to be a white family. Sickening.
There are several views of cops with their hands/arms around CHILDREN’S necks. IN what universe is that acceptable?!
I’ve worked in pools before. I have never, ever seen a place that kicks out the entire family because one person is improperly dressed- especially if they then get the right suit.
Oh yay, we’ve gotten to a point in America where we should all just be grateful that the cops didn’t shoot a bunch of unarmed teens in bathing suits. Glory be to them!
@twoinanddone - if inappropriate grabbing is the problem why is that random civilian in swim trunks allowed to pin one of the children for a pretty extended period of time? And does it take a police officer to escort a mom to deliver swim trunks?
I go to the pool several times a week, if they couldn’t offer a refund, they certainly could have given them some sort of credit.
the whole thing sounds horribly ff’d up.
Once the boy had his swim trunks, he should have been allowed in.
As a mother of a teenage boy it is not out of the norm for a teenage boy to either forget his suit or think it might be OK to wear basketball shorts instead.
I wonder if the cops think they had done a good job? Three people cuffed on the ground and no crime committed. Again it raises the question of who called the police and why. We know last time it was a convicted animal torturer and his racist wife.
This never needed to happen and if the black women were angry and confrontational that was caused by the myopic desk clerk and their ridiculous policies.
Why call the ranger and cops? Why would you just not let the kid sit to the side and wait for his mom to come back with the trunks while the other kids swim under the supervision of the remaining adult?
Heck, there were times when I, as a female, forgot one part of my bathing suit or another. No big deal- go and grab it and they let you back in.
I had to stop at a Target on the way down to my honeymoon because I forgot bathing suit bottoms and we were going to a waterpark resort!
What do decent human beings do in this situation?
Sales person: “Oh, I’m sorry but your kid needs X to swim in this pool.”
Parent: “Ah, I’m sorry! Let me go grab that.” Gets swimsuit
Sales person: “Looks good. Have fun!”
Actually sounds like the mom gave the pool two options–let us have a refund or let us all swim with the “acceptable gear.” Sad to hear that this is heating up to be an unpleasant summer with so many bad incidents between “officials” and the public. It really shouldn’t be like this, in any universe!
The closest situation I had was when I was in an economy plus seat and asked by the flight attendant to move “for safety reasons.” I said, “Fine, but you need to find me and H another pair of seats together in economy plus OR give us a refund for our upgraded seats.” She came back a bit later and repeated her request that we move (saying additionally no refunds were permitted), and I repeated my two options. She came back a 3rd time and repeated again and I repeated again. Finally, another flight attendant went and found another couple who were willing to swap seats with me and everyone was happy. I don’t really understand why customer service is so difficult, trying to comply with reasonable options that the customer is willing to accept.
However, better trained police should be able to keep petty disputes like this one (which shouldn’t have happened anyway, agree with #7, #13, #14) from threatening the peace, rather than escalating the problem or allowing it to escalate.
@greenwitch Everyone has policies; they are there for a reason and you may not like them, but they are unavoidable. Mature people understand that and just have to respect them and roll with them. If you really don’t like them, take up the issue at a community meeting or a political meeting.
The WRONG course of action is to take it out on the poor desk clerk who doesn’t have the power to change them.
There were probably a dozen courses of action that the customer could have taken that wouldn’t have led to confrontation with the police, but she chose the other route.
It would appear, based on what we know about this that it was her uncivil behavior that led to an issue. When the police are there, you do what they say.
^^^ equally, one could say that the action of the desk clerk could have been better and prevented this tragedy.
If we show up somewhere, and our shirts aren’t tucked in, or we leave on our belt when going through the scanner, or we’re not 15 minutes early to fill out a form at the doctor’s office, should things really devolve so quickly and thoroughly so that police are called and children are handcuffed and hospitalized?