Editor, In response to “Attempted citizen’s arrest leads to a ticket”:
It is all too typical today for parents to blame everyone but the person responsible, in this case themselves, for endangering their children.
Last week, a white pickup is accused of “attempted murder” when it passed a school bus that was slowing down to pick up kids. But is it acceptable when George Whitlock III turns vigilante and tries to “chase him down” through the neighborhood full of other people’s children waiting for the bus?
Thankfully, the police didn’t think so. The police are then accused of “letting the other guy go.” But it seems to me that the only one “caught red-handed” was George Whitlock III. The other guy was never let go because he was never in police custody.
Whitlock himself admits to using his cell phone to report unsafe drivers in the past and letting the police do their job, and encourages people to report reckless drivers.
These children were under the supervision of their mom, but still had to “jump back” out of the street to keep from getting “run down” by the white truck that passed the bus. Parents ought to know that they should never allow their kids to cross a road until the bus comes to a complete stop with the red stoplights flashing, and after they look both ways. While the driver of the white truck was definitely reckless, it was the parents who endangered not only their own children but all the children who were waiting for the bus that morning.
In my mind, the hero of this story is not the vigilante dad who went tearing down the road endangering the other neighborhood children, but this bus driver and thousands like him who transport our children to and from school every day, without incident, in spite of the abuse heaped upon them by inconsiderate drivers and parents alike. This bus driver could have thrown on his red lights which would have caused the driver of the white truck to be illegal instead of just reckless, but it would have also signaled to the children that it was safe to cross the street.
Thank you to every bus driver out there who takes their job seriously and works hard to protect our children, and thank you to all of the law enforcement officers who protect us from irresponsible and reckless drivers who speed past school buses and the parents who chase them down.
It is all too typical today for parents to blame everyone but the person responsible, in this case themselves, for endangering their children.
Last week, a white pickup is accused of “attempted murder” when it passed a school bus that was slowing down to pick up kids. But is it acceptable when George Whitlock III turns vigilante and tries to “chase him down” through the neighborhood full of other people’s children waiting for the bus?
Thankfully, the police didn’t think so. The police are then accused of “letting the other guy go.” But it seems to me that the only one “caught red-handed” was George Whitlock III. The other guy was never let go because he was never in police custody.
Whitlock himself admits to using his cell phone to report unsafe drivers in the past and letting the police do their job, and encourages people to report reckless drivers.
These children were under the supervision of their mom, but still had to “jump back” out of the street to keep from getting “run down” by the white truck that passed the bus. Parents ought to know that they should never allow their kids to cross a road until the bus comes to a complete stop with the red stoplights flashing, and after they look both ways. While the driver of the white truck was definitely reckless, it was the parents who endangered not only their own children but all the children who were waiting for the bus that morning.
In my mind, the hero of this story is not the vigilante dad who went tearing down the road endangering the other neighborhood children, but this bus driver and thousands like him who transport our children to and from school every day, without incident, in spite of the abuse heaped upon them by inconsiderate drivers and parents alike. This bus driver could have thrown on his red lights which would have caused the driver of the white truck to be illegal instead of just reckless, but it would have also signaled to the children that it was safe to cross the street.
Thank you to every bus driver out there who takes their job seriously and works hard to protect our children, and thank you to all of the law enforcement officers who protect us from irresponsible and reckless drivers who speed past school buses and the parents who chase them down.
Cheryl Pierce