New Jersey father's outrage after a homeowner called the POLICE on him for taking his two children to an empty park to play

A New Jersey father has shared his outrage after being confronted by a police officer while in an empty park where he'd taken his two young children to play. 

Josh Duvall took his children, aged five and two, to the park to play in Cherry Hill on Sunday, but a homeowner nearby reported them to cops claiming they could make people sick.

He said they were the only ones there but were approached by a cop who told them that a homeowner nearby had called the police, claiming the family was putting lives at risk by going there.

In a video he posted on Facebook, Duvall fumed: 'Is there anybody here? No. I pay $8,000 a year in property taxes. My kids want to play in the park, they want to play on this hill.

'The police officer was super nice, he said he had to come out and do a report, but this is nonsense.

'This is Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and you've got people calling the police on a dad and two kids because they want to play outside?

'Who's going to get sick? There's nobody here!'

He later told NJ.com: 'You are telling me I can go down to Ocean City and go on to the boardwalk and go on the beach, or I can stand in line at Home Depot with 100 people around the building, which I had to do two weeks ago. That is fine.

'But to be in a park by yourself with literally nobody there - it is just madness.

New Jersey is partially reopening by allowing people to enjoy open spaces again, including parks.

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Unlock the young

All the worry about this pandemic has focused on older people. Understandably. They are most vulnerable to the virus.

What isn’t being talked about are the young.

An entire generation, at the most critical time in their lives – a time to discover who they are, what career they want, what lifestyle they want to lead – have had it all put on hold. At a time in our lives when we’re meant to experience, get out in the world, and grow, we can’t. Lockdown is stunting our growth. It has to end.

Now, of course, lockdown is easy for no one. No one enjoys isolation and not for one second do I think young people have it worst. I am no whining millennial – a stereotype I loathe and which has unfortunately become a stain on our generation.

Lockdown has put everything and everyone on pause. Businesses are on the brink of collapse, partners and families are separated indefinitely, and people have lost their jobs. It’s hard to be optimistic at the moment.

One silver lining for some people that are already on their way in life is that this makeshift curfew can act as a bit of a break. They can at least spend more time with the family in the living room and maybe have the odd sunbathe in the garden – a much-needed pause in an otherwise busy world.

But for the young, a pause is our worst nightmare. We were just getting started. With life just about to launch, the lockdown has thrown us into an indefinite delay.

A pause for us is a unique experience. Just as all those with limited means, we don’t have much money, meaning we are condemned to living in small, overpriced rented rooms, in flats with no living rooms, let alone gardens. But hey, we’re young. Extortionate rents for Harry Potter cupboard-under-the-stairs living conditions is what young people have to take on the chin – that’s fine.

The saving grace to that has always been our freedom and drive to get out of bed and spend our time away from all of that, either at work or, better yet, at the pub with our friends, doing what young people are supposed to do. But all of that’s now gone. Lockdown has us on house arrest… if only we had something the size of a house to be arrested in.

The young have been forgotten. At an age when we’re supposed to be the social extroverts we want to be, we’re instead forced to be social recluses.

So to save ourselves from completely losing it and starting to draw faces on footballs, we go for a walk in the park, and immediately get judged and tutted at by the people living in the big houses with the big gardens overlooking the big park.

Think of those at the beginning of their careers. Those who were on the verge of that first promotion, or those interviewing for their dream job. We’ve now found ourselves on the dreaded furlough, or our dream jobs have entirely disappeared.

Younger still, there are students accruing debts for lectures they’ll never be able to attend.

And going even younger, what about those sixth-formers suffering the injustice of having their life chances reduced to ‘predicted grades’? I’d have never got into university based on grades decided by what teachers thought of me. I, like most procrastinating last-minute exam-crammers, managed to pull an unexpected B out of the hat.

Our careers, education and lives have been delayed by a year, a year we will never get back. People say ‘well, lockdown will be over soon!’. Well, Karen, lockdown may be over soon, but our lives will never be the same again.

Even if we did lift lockdown now – which we must do, at least for the young – the legacy of lockdown will linger.

It’s not as if we can rush back to the cafés, bars and clubs straight away. So many of our favourite hangout spots are collapsing, which makes it even more important that lockdown is lifted – we might not be able to save everything, but if we don’t do something now I fear there may be little left to enjoy when this is all over.

Who knows what this new world will look like? Maybe the one good thing to come of all of this is the fact that companies who are stuck in the past will be forced to embrace new technology and new ways of working. Just last week I called my phone company and the automated machine told me ‘our call-centre staff are now working from home, so if you hear children or pets in the background please bear with us’.

Which is one of the best things I’ve heard in a long time. As if someone whose job is to answer a phone, use a computer and offer help, couldn’t have done that job from home before all this happened? If these companies have any sense, and an ounce of real care for the lives and fulfilment of their employees, they’ll keep this going long-term.

So maybe the world will become a better place after all this. Who knows? But one thing is for sure: this will have the biggest impact on the lives of young people.

Lockdown has stunted young people’s growth. So let’s end lockdown now.

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Washington Gov. Inslee retracts authoritarian order

Washington state has walked back its requirement that restaurants keep a “daily log” of customers when they reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, less than a week after Gov. Jay Inslee issued the controversial order.

Inslee’s office released a statement Friday “to clarify” that customers would no longer be required to provide restaurants with their contact information as part of the state’s Phase 2 plan for reopening.

Instead, customers may voluntarily give their information for the business’ log.

"We are asking visitors to voluntarily provide contact information in case of COVID-19 exposure,” Inslee said in a statement. “We only need information for one person per household. If we learn you may have been exposed to COVID-19 during your visit, the information will only be shared with public health officials."

“They will contact you to explain the risk, answer questions and provide resources,” he continued. “This information will not be used for any other purpose, including sales or marketing. If this list is not used within 30 days, it will be destroyed.”

While the initial guideline stated the requirement to log the name, contact information, and time of the visit of each guest who entered the business was to aid in contact tracing, the data collection method drew fierce criticism.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington called the method a risk “to people’s fundamental rights to privacy and association,” while some restaurant owners worried that customers may refuse to provide information and become belligerent if their data is logged, the Seattle Times reported.

Washington’s restaurant industry resumed service in a limited capacity last week as part of Phase 2 of the state’s “Safe Start” plan. Restrictions included no more than five guests per table, at least 6 feet of distance between tables, and 50 percent reduced occupancy indoors.

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Judge blocks North Carolina Gov. Cooper’s rule limiting indoor religious service amid coronavirus

A federal judge in North Carolina has blocked Gov. Roy Cooper’s executive order that limits indoor religious services to just 10 people during the coronavirus outbreak, ruling that there is “no pandemic exception” to the U.S. Constitution.

Judge James C. Dever III’s ruling on Saturday highlighted that Cooper’s “stay-at-home” did not set the same standard for other entities such as businesses, which are limited to 50 percent capacity, and funeral services that are allowed to hold up to 50 people, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

“The record, at this admittedly early stage of the case, reveals that the governor appears to trust citizens to perform non-religious activities indoors (such as shopping or working or selling merchandise) but does not trust them to do the same when they worship together indoors,” the judge’s ruling states.

Dever ruled that Cooper’s order was unlikely to hold up in court due to First Amendment rights.

“There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution of the United States or the free exercise clause of the First Amendment,” Dever said in court documents obtained by the paper.

Ford Porter, Cooper’s spokesman, said in a statement that while the governor’s office disagrees with the judge’s ruling, they will not appeal. Porter instead urged houses of worship to voluntarily follow public health guidance to keep their members safe.

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 
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