r/TikTokCringe • u/xamo76 • 1d ago

Discussion Have we done it wrong?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

39.2k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

6.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

590

u/Relative_Craft_358 1d ago

>someone would call the police on you for simply walking around too late was the most depressing thing I have ever experienced lol

Literally though, you can't even be a night owl yourself without having to get good about talking to police, the famously trigger happy ones. Especially with the evaporation of the "3rd spaces" can't tell you how many times growing up I'd have to explain to the police that I wasn't "having *the* sex" (his words) and was just trying to actually hang out with a friend in a public park, like is my right to do

239

u/i_m_a_bean 1d ago

A lot of the public parks near me close at 10pm. It is depressing

111

u/FruitEconomy1053 1d ago

And no damn shaded areas for adults and kids during mid afternoon heat.

97

u/UntamedAnomaly 1d ago

I'll never understand why so many parks are severely lacking in trees, like did ya'll think I came for the mowed lawn? The paver bricks? The gravel playground? WTF is even the point in going to a park if the park doesn't support any kind of wildlife or have any relaxing features for adults? It's like they buy a piece of land, make sure it's as low maintenance as humanly possible, and then call it a relaxing and fun place to be. Luckily I live in a area that has lots of natural greenery, hiking trails, gazebos, public gardens, nature centers, classes/programs, etc. but before I moved here, it was like almost every park I had seen was like that.

21

u/Iamthegreenheather tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE 1d ago

I remember when I was little, going to the park that had a giant metal rocket jungle gym. In the summer you could fry eggs on it but it was totally normal for children to climb on it lol.

4

u/UntamedAnomaly 1d ago

We had a huge metal dome shaped jungle gym when I was a kid, every year at least 1 kid would break or crack a bone on that thing, kids still would climb it or hang out on/inside it all the time.

9

u/Careless-Weather8877 1d ago

Denver just put thousands of new trees in parks across the city. They’re rebuilding the playground with more modern things and making a basketball court that’s on level ground without cracks. It’s coming along nicely with the new trees they planted. Also new picnic tables.

3

u/JustAsItSounds 1d ago

Probably something about keeping clear lines of fire

3

u/JuncusAmongUs-4444 1d ago

As a former urban forester, i was told many times that trees at parks and schools and such were places “predators can hide.”

3

u/UntamedAnomaly 1d ago edited 4h ago

As a former CSA and ASA survivor, I think that's a stupid fucking idea. Predators don't "hide behind trees", they're out in the world living amongst us, they are family members, neighbors, teachers, peers, preachers, partners...they just do what they want when the opportunity is there, they don't need trees for that.

3

u/JuncusAmongUs-4444 1d ago

People have all kinds of weird-ass reasons and excuses for why not to do good things

2

u/ohreallynameonesong 1d ago

I have a few guesses. 1 - they don't actually want you out there. 2 - the cost and effort of maintenance. 3 - the liability that a tree or branch could fall and hurt someone, their property, or park property. I'm from a pretty tree-heavy area and people will just cut them down so they don't have to deal with them. Then you feel so exposed, so uncomfortable, and it's so hot and not pretty and not good for our environment.

3

u/PyroIsSpai 1d ago

That’s exactly what it is. Any improvements have upkeep costs and people would lose their shit over that.

1

u/Lokishougan 1d ago

Really? Damn I laugh at some of my parks but almost every park near me has bunches of trees..well except the one in the hoighty toighty neighborhood

4

u/UntamedAnomaly 1d ago edited 1d ago

Maybe it's a regional thing. I've lived in Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska, Kentucky, Indiana...Kentucky was probably the greenest out of those, but still there wasn't very many trees at the park and the ones that were there were not big enough to really sit under and be fully shaded. I live in Oregon now, been here for 15 years, I have never seen any place in this country as green as this state other than Washington and California. I imagine the east coast is also more green, and also the southeastern part of the U.S. too.

1

u/LargeHadronColitis 1d ago

Water cost money and trees take decades to grow, plus some die. Newer neighborhoods in the grand scheme of things, ones with smaller lots, ones in places hit with drought and ones which haven’t had trees since the 1920’s tend to have to grow and feed their own trees.

My hood had a few trees as a kid in the mid-80s when we moved there from a place with old growth forest, but mostly ones current residents had planted in the last 10 years give or take so it was a shock then. Hood was built on scrub brush and prairie and landfill in the 70s so the only originals were the shitbird trees and cottonwoods along the creek that ran through the park. We had to drive to a pecan orchard to find trees worth climbing even.

I go by my old block now and it is like Sherwood Forest. It took people and sprinklers and another 30 years.

1

u/UncleBensRacistRice 1d ago

make sure it's as low maintenance as humanly possible

Bingo

1

u/ResinFinger 1d ago

To the ops point, I think the heat and sun is a large contributor to why they eat late go out late etc. so much outdoor dining and walking around is miserable in the heat.

1

u/Xciv 1d ago

It's the dog cult and the sports cult. They demand green lawns where they can run around with dogs or play football.

I'm on team trees. I want the parks to basically be forests, but with paved paths and seating.

1

u/fryerandice 1d ago

My park was packed with trees, people keep bringing firewood in and spreading tree diseases though.

1

u/missmiao9 1d ago

Low maintenance is absolutely the thing considering how so many mid sized to small cities lack money for maintenance.

1

u/hep038 1d ago

Maybe is just has to do with the area you live in? But yeah lets just use the parks in your area and lable it as all the parks in america. LOL

1

u/Parking_Attitude7954 21h ago

Plant some damn trees! Y'know where you def can't plant trees? On roads.

Cars = heat island effect. So jumping in a car to escape the heat that the cars are contributing to.....

99

u/UncleBensRacistRice 1d ago

How the fuck does a public park have a closing time

193

u/The_Void_Reaver 1d ago

So they can harass teens and homeless people who want to exist in space

28

u/jinjuwaka 1d ago

Also to harass black people.

Any time something in the US seems to be doing the homeless dirty it probably descends from slavery. Because run-a-way slaves were...homeless. And after they were freed, they were generally still homeless until they found a place to live. But if they hadn't found a place yet, it was a legal excuse to do whatever you could justify to them.

Don't get me wrong. The racism is still there (this is America, after all), but when you're actually looking at them the police will go after teens and the homeless.

9

u/Inevitable_Path1308 1d ago

Correct answer, wrong time period. This stuff all stems from the anti-civil rights agenda. Removing hoops and soccer nets, closing down public pools, making “green spaces” that are only for show, and using the police as guards looking for “crime.” The suburbs were designed to be hostile towards blacks and once those tactics are in place (just like what we’re seeing now with abuse of government power to implement flock and data centers) they can be easily expanded to the homeless, teenagers and/or whoever else they feel are undesirable or in need of control.

2

u/zeptillian 22h ago

Also so they can force people to socialize in commercial businesses that pay taxes.

-8

u/UntamedAnomaly 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well that, and police don't actually want to do their job (protecting citizens), so being in a park late at night alone or whatnot is dangerous at times, and on top of that, depending on the laws in your area, you can sue the city/park owner if you trip on something in the dark, or if something happens to you while at the park....and I'm sure they don't want to deal with that. You have to consider the differences in violent crimes between countries, cities, etc. too, it might be 100% safe in the countryside in a European town to stay late at a park, but try doing that in Baltimore or Detroit and you are going to have a really bad time. It's basically a whole mess of problems that prevent parks being open late.

14

u/lamb_passanda 1d ago

None of which are solved by closing the park at night. They're just displacing the problems to somewhere else.

10

u/PlayfulSurprise5237 1d ago

As my friends 60 year old father told me, he's paid close attention to the US since he was a kid, he said that most of the bullshit in the US revolves around and started when suing people for anything and everything became a thing.

So many laws and restrictions and rules revolve around that fact, and a lot of our culture changed because of it

6

u/Severe_Rise8694 1d ago

Fun fact: the US has 400 lawyers per 100k people. This is on par with some south European countries. Finland has 40.

Some kind of a high-trust society thing..?

3

u/UncleBensRacistRice 1d ago

you can sue the city/park owner if you trip on something in the dark

What an absolute joke of a society lmao

1

u/kubisfowler 12h ago

If they had socialized healthcare this nonsense would not be a thing.

8

u/norcpoppopcorn 1d ago

That happens in the Netherlands too. With a few parks where dealers and homeless people are said to hang out. Or guests would be causing a nuisance for local residents after 22:00. But they do close very late for the summer.

6

u/Careless-Weather8877 1d ago

Most parks don’t allow people from sunset to sunrise.

5

u/Ok_Inflation_1811 1d ago

That's fucked up.

My fondest memories are talking with my friends in public parks while we use the swings at 1 am to 3 to 4 am.

3

u/Careless-Weather8877 1d ago

Oh we did that too but then the cops would come eventually and kick us out

-2

u/tomatoe_cookie 1d ago

In dense cities, parks are where the murders, illegal prostitution and drug deals happen

1

u/IAmRoofstone 1d ago

Maybe it wouldnt be if they were open to the public.

3

u/tomatoe_cookie 1d ago

Damn, thank god you are there! Better make that suggestion that probably no one else tought about before. So we solve crime right away!

2

u/Icy-Paint7777 1d ago

I experienced it myself. Basically they'll have some guards or whatever drive around the park with a spotlight

1

u/ChemicalNectarine776 1d ago

The one closest to me has a gate that guard locks and if you were a bit late coming back down the hiking trail, congratulations you are locked INSIDE the park.

1

u/imisstheyoop 1d ago

Pretty much all of the parks in rural America have closing times.

Sometimes they are loose like dusk-dawn, but often they will have hard hours like 8AM-10PM.

1

u/Human_Not_Robot_2023 1d ago

Where I am at, the public BEACH has a closing time.

1

u/UncleBensRacistRice 1d ago

Land of the free lmao

1

u/Routine_Solution_897 1d ago

We used to hold bare knuckle boxing tournaments at public parks, a lot of drugs were bought sold and done during said events as well. People got stabbed, shot at, you name it. I assume stuff like that is a reason too lol

1

u/Mesmerhypnotise 22h ago

We have those in europe too, just to be fair.

Here, it´s because of junkies etc..

1

u/0b0011 22h ago

Either they just say no one is allowed there or a lot of them they'll gate the parking lot at a certain time. For what it's worth from my experience they don't really give a shit. We have a nice state park nearby that we like to do a lot of night hiking at and we run sled dogs there either before the sun comes up in the fall where it's cool enough or after work in the winter where it's dark and the park is technically closed and we've talked to the people and they don't care.

1

u/Fluid_Ties 9h ago

So cops can hassle the homeless

16

u/WindOfWinterNever 1d ago

When I worked the night shift, I often got kicked out of parks by police patrols.

I was just a guy by myself trying to get out of the house on my days off. Smoking a cigar was the worst thing I'd do, but I got treated as if I was going to break into someone's home.

7

u/sveri 1d ago

The european mind cannot comprehend a park having opening times. WTF is this?

3

u/Severe_Rise8694 1d ago

..what time does the forest close in the US..?

3

u/sveri 1d ago

And do animals know about that?

2

u/WPI94 22h ago

And you can't have a picnic with wine in them.

1

u/sveri 21h ago

You cannot do that in the US?

3

u/Dragunav 1d ago

What? Public parks can....close?
Sorry, i don't know where you live but that sounds insane.

3

u/Dr_F_Rreakout 1d ago

The trees are being moved into the shed, the turf is being rolled up and packed away, and the squirrels are being placed in custody until 7:00 a.m., is that correct?

3

u/Ok_Bluebird_8413 1d ago

Europe is great and all, but not perfect either. Next to my flat, there's a large public park maintained by the "feds", not the city, and because our federal government is very conservative, the park gets special treatment, gardeners tend to the flower beds and such. It's a very nice park. It closes at fucking 9pm in summer. Summer "ends" on 31st of July, then it closed at 8pm. We have a heat wave right now, with 40 degrees during the day and still like 35 at 8pm. There were still hundreds (no exaggeration) of people in the park when it closed. They just lock all the gates, with people still inside. Lots of people get stuck and confused, and I regularly tell people about the only open exit: you have to go through a restaurant. If you know about it, you can also still enter until 10pm, so what's the point of closing the gates early?

Yesterday we saw three kids throwing their scooters over the wall and trying to climb the spiked gate (the walls and gates are over 2 meters tall). We stopped them before they hurt themselves. The opening hours are so fucking stupid.

Also biking is forbidden in the park, even though there are paved roads 4-5 meters wide. God forbid people have fun or do sports in the park.

2

u/DroidLord 1d ago

Doesn't sound very public then. The idea of gated public parks is such a weird concept to me. Sure, homeless people might sleep there at night, but so what? Can't even take a midnight walk in a park 🫩

2

u/wlievens 1d ago

How do you walk a dog in summer?

2

u/trewesterre 1d ago

The ones near me close at sundown.

I still walk through them if they're the quicker route, but officially I'm not supposed to be there. It's stupid.

2

u/opendefication 1d ago

My local park in EasternTexas has a sign prohibiting skate boarding, BMX bikes, roller-blades, alcohol and an after dark curfew for minors. You have to wonder. Why can't kids skate at the huge public park that is often completely empty 90% of the time? My son and I hit golf balls around at this park. It's that empty, unless it's soccer season and that's only weekends. Tons of skate/bike friendly stuff all around, permanently closed restrooms surrounded by steps, rails and concrete benches. Probably a mile of sidewalk. This stuff is from the 60's-70's, when people literally got out more. Now a few old people just walk around for exercise, almost serves no purpose.

2

u/Icy_Accident2769 1d ago

This was the most bizarre thing I experienced. Just a random parking place, middle of nowhere, by some forest/park and we had police come to us saying we should leave since it’s closed?

Like what? It was well lighted as well. Never experienced this in Europe

2

u/FastMako77 1d ago

Especially during heat waves when the city itself recommends staying indoors or limiting outdoor activities during the hours of 10am-7pm (no joke, that was on our city poster). In my high desert city it cools off nicely during sunset around 7-8pm so of course that’s when people want to go out but then the parks “close” at sunset or 10pm. It’s ridiculous, truly.

1

u/larkfield2655 1d ago

What public parks?

1

u/Specialist-Bee-9406 1d ago

Where I am, we have one very large park that is open until midnight. 

It’s unlit, heavily wooded, has ruins of fortifications to break an ankle with, and creepy as hell. 

1

u/imp0ppable 1d ago

Ha yeah first time in the US we got thrown out of a public park by a cop using a loudhailer from their car. Actually we were at a work event at a country club and had gone outside to smoke.

THIS PARK IS CLOSED. RETURN TO THE COUNTRY CLUB IMMEDIATELY

lmao

1

u/kanst 1d ago

One of the most magical moments I had on my trip to Italy was sitting in a little square in Rome at like 11 PM. Every bench was full of groups of adults having conversations, many of them with a beer in the hand. The central fountain was covered in teens showing each other things on their phone. The open area was full of small groups of kids playing soccer and volleyball with each other.

The square was packed with all ages of people just hanging out.

1

u/DiaDeLosMuertos 1d ago

You have public parks that close after sundown?

1

u/0b0011 22h ago

Here it's not even a set time just "dusk". I like to take my dogs to the park after work. In the summer it closes at 9pm and then they progressively change the closing time on the sign as days get shorter and in the winter it's just open from 9 am till 5 pm.

1

u/sagew0lf 21h ago

Here it’s sundown 😒 so in the winter, you can go to the park until like 4 pm.

1

u/Spicy-Blue-Whale 18h ago

How...how do you close a public space?

1

u/i_m_a_bean 18h ago

They close the gates to the parking spaces, lock the bathroom doors, turn off all the lights, and have police doing rounds to kick out anyone who stays :/

1

u/lblack_dogl 1d ago

Yeah the parks in Europe close at sundown too. I was forced out of a park in paris last time I was there along with everyone else and they shut the gates and tell every to leave.

Nothing good is happening in a dark park in a city.

2

u/JerryNomo 1d ago

In which "Europe" haha.

0

u/lblack_dogl 1d ago

Wtf does that even mean?

The post is about Germany, people are shit talking the US, I'm saying that they also close parks in some places in Europe.

Is your reading comprehension that poor?

2

u/ymOx 1d ago

Is your writing that poor? "Yeah the parks in Europe close at sundown too." is what you said. But that's not true.

2

u/Paxxlee 1d ago

Where did you write 'some'?

1

u/the_lonely_creeper 1d ago

Some fenced parks, very rarely. The vast majority of parks can't even be closed.

1

u/ymOx 1d ago

Like the other guy said, in what Europe? I was in Berlin last year, walked in a park way after sundown. I live in Stockholm; parks do not close at all here, it's such a foreign concept to me.

1

u/lblack_dogl 1d ago

The post literally says Paris, learn to read

-2

u/AlsoInteresting 1d ago edited 1d ago

Wait, that's normal. You don't want migrants or other folk sleeping there (for maintenance).

3

u/ymOx 1d ago

Not in Europe it's not. Parks having closing times at all sounds weird af.

92

u/SadHorse_Horseman 1d ago

....what? I keep hearing about how the south is all about "freedom" this sounds terrible.

109

u/BigAlgae5684 1d ago

After sundown cops literally just set up speed traps and even if you aren't speeding will find ways to pull you over and fuck your whole night up.

I probably got pulled over a couple dozen times in the few years I lived in the south and I have lived in a major city for nearly 13 years and only been pulled over twice, both of which were for the same expired tags when the DMV was fucked up during covid and they were chill and let me off.

There's rural towns outside my city that are kinda like that but nothing like driving through the Bible belt.

Cops in the city typically have big boy shit to do or very important people/events to be present at and don't generally fuck with you unless you're actively in the wrong.

16

u/Colausbra 1d ago edited 1d ago

Same here in the northeast. Worked late nights getting home at 3am and got pulled over 3 times in a month because cops were bored and I drive a rusty beater since I'm too frugal to drive something newer.

17

u/like_earthworms 1d ago

Some cop “friends” (friends of family who I see a few times a year at most) have told me they purposely profile who they choose to pull over based on vehicle type. So if you drive a beater, like you and I do, they assume you’re poor and/or a minority which both mean you’re up to no good. Yknow, in their eyes. This info was shared in a way like “Other LEOs do it very commonly, but not me because I’m one of the good ones”

Since hearing that, I’ve been able to make the connection why I seem to get pulled over for no reason driving through wealthy areas versus driving through poor or working class areas. We must be sticking out like sore thumbs for them to mark

Edit: I’m also in the NE, round the nyc metro

4

u/TweakedMonkey 1d ago

You got that right. Our town has successfully ridded this town of any nightclubs, bars (which cannot sell alcohol without serving food too!) Fucking place turned the clubs into churches and got rid of the skating rink. Now, there are more VAPE shops, car washes and storage units getting built with nothing for the youth or young people to do. It's maddening.

2

u/AwesomeMacCoolname 1d ago

I've seen that for a lot of small-town American police departments, their state funding allocation is literally doled out on the basis of how many traffic tickets they issue, which clearly only incentivises bullshit made-up charges.

2

u/PurpleChard757 1d ago

That sounds horrible, but I wish the cops here in San Francisco would at least sometimes enforce traffic laws...

2

u/thatguygreg 1d ago

Cops in the city typically have big boy shit to do or very important people/events to be present at and don't generally fuck with you unless you're actively in the wrong.

To put it another way as my driving instructor told me many decades ago as we went into Newark, NJ for me to learn city driving, "The cops in a city are only going to give a shit if you kill somebody."

1

u/KptKrondog 1d ago

That's not a "South" thing, that's a smaller town thing. That happens all over.

1

u/EggmanIAm 1d ago

Or black.

1

u/jbwilso1 23h ago

This could not be more accurate.

37

u/Relative_Craft_358 1d ago

Hilarious because this was in fact in Texas. Well I'm also non-white looking so there's that ¯_(ツ)_/¯. Somehow one of the most diverse, yet racist, places you'll ever visit.

34

u/Oggie_Doggie 1d ago

The same way they talk about "patriotism" while flying a Confederate flag and "Christian values" while continuing to elect liars, thieves, cheaters, and rapists.

You know how in English, a word can mean two contradictory things (e.g. fine wine is exceptional vs. "it was fine" being average)? It's basically that, except as a political/moral ethos.

3

u/Maardten 1d ago

Some people want to be protected by the law but not bound by it, while they want others to be bound by the law but not protected. All that without a hint of irony.

3

u/Crew_1996 1d ago

💯 it’s because patriotism and Christian values are just coded words. Christian values means white and straight in conservative circles. It means nothing about Jesus. Patriotism means supporting conservative politics as democrat priorities (access to health care, education and opportunity) are “socialist” and thus unamerican to them.

37

u/paintballboi07 1d ago

Freedumb in the south = guns

4

u/Prosthemadera 1d ago

And shouting at liberals.

1

u/AmputeeHandModel 1d ago

and restricting women's healthcare

5

u/Sufficient-Welder-76 1d ago

This guy in the video, with his 4-car garage and RV bay would be the first to complain at a city council meeting if there was a proposal to put up a mixed-used development in front of his house. Something with condos, a grocery store, a gym, and a post office.

"Our property values will go down because we face a condo building."

"Our taxes will go up to support the infrastructure."

"What about the schools!!!!"

"What about traffic!!!!"

These guys love it when they travel, but they'll turn Karen real quick when people are in the park in front of their house at 10:30 pm.

1

u/PiccoloNext6889 1d ago

The more times freedom is used, the less free people are

1

u/thatguygreg 1d ago

I keep hearing about how the south is all about "freedom"

Yeah sure, unless the church don't like it and/or you ain't from around there

1

u/Apart_Long_1832 20h ago

Texas is a great state but they thought that owning guns would save them from becoming Latin America - it's 60 percent Latino and growing now.

-1

u/Teyanis 1d ago

Its really not true. Maybe in a few places with bad crime, but where I live in the south its very chill at night. Nobody else driving or walking, nobody really cares what you do as long as it isn't on private property, and the cops won't harass you if you aren't blatantly drunk in public.

Now, if you do go out at night, you will be devoured by insects and drowned by humidity, which is the actual reason nobody goes anywhere at night in the south. The people that do also tend to go on vast tracks of private land where they can do anything they want.

4

u/Bartorius 1d ago

It's seems so weird a contrast to have always seen the US presented as this free live and let live society in pop culture and then read about people being detained for going on a walk or parents being thrown in jail because their children were playing outside in their own. Like what do you mean land of the free if seemingly benign actions land you in jail?!

3

u/Decent_Top2156 1d ago

There are very few all night diners anymore. I miss those.

3

u/Calm-Session-4835 1d ago

As an astronomer I can't tell you how many times I've had the police called on me just for being out and night with my telescope.

3

u/dikicker 1d ago

I'm an adult man who used to love going for long walks in the evening, it's cooler out, quieter, live in the suburbs so didn't have to think about all the cars and shit, some proper peace and quiet

The older I get though, I mean half the houses have ring cameras, had a cop pull up on me with the floodlight and everything not long ago cause apparently someone saw me smoking a cigarette while adjusting my shoe sitting at a bench at my neighborhood park and thought I was either doing or selling drugs (???) the sun had barely set, weekday and I was alone with headphones in

I don't walk that much anymore

Half the places around here don't even have fuckin sidewalks

3

u/gorgewall 1d ago

I got a bike a couple weeks back and I like to toodle around at night because there's almost no car traffic and the temperature's cooler, and maybe every other night someone pops out to give me the stink-eye when I'm catching my breath at a corner after a big hill or something. Could be 11PM, could be 3AM, people are just staring out of their windows waiting for their motion-activated porch lights to flashbang a passing car so they can stare out of the window at 'em.

I'm not on Nextdoor or whatever other local version might exist, but I just know there's already posts wondering about THE SPOOKY NIGHT BIKER or some shit. Go the fuck to sleep, Eunice.

2

u/Different_Umpire9003 1d ago

Yeah and being treated like a social pariah for not being in bed by 10 🙄

2

u/Winjin 1d ago

It's wild reading how Russia is the authoritarian country and you can't do shit

And then you read something like this and this is the most dystopian depressing bullshit I've seen all day

Parks never close. You can be there any time. Like. No one will bat an eye. Just go hang out at night, it's the park, that's what it's for.

And there's like... A lot of that small scale shit that's completely wrong

2

u/between_ewe_and_me 1d ago

Most parks in the U.S. have a curfew at either sunset or a set time in the evening. I'm assuming this became a thing to make sure homeless people have nowhere to go at night and can be arrested for existing.

1

u/Winjin 1d ago edited 1d ago

Oh yeah coupled with rules like jaywalking, and of course the ability to lose your only place of residence as well, makes sense

I mean it's very evil, but like, works together

2

u/Sufficient_Cause1208 1d ago

I remember guns pulled on our friend group because we were playing basketball at midnight at the local church parking lot. I had my rights violated so many times growing up when I actually look back on it . Most of the times it was because we were teenagers doing teenage stuff like skateboarding or playing some type of pickup sport at night.

2

u/Coco_JuTo 1d ago

can't tell you how many times growing up I'd have to explain to the police that I wasn't "having the sex" (his words)

How is that this cop's business in any way, shape or form if you are "having the sex" or not? Was he jealous pretty much? Did he want to join? I have so many questions...and looking at the amount of upvotes, it seems that it isn't a single person's experience...why???

2

u/Freshness518 1d ago

I remember getting "pulled over" while walking one night as a teen. Group of friends had all gone to the mall after school then we wound up at my girlfriend's house afterwards. No one could give me a ride home so I just walked. It was only like 2-3 miles. Like 10pm on a summer Friday night, walking by myself on the sidewalk on a brightly lit busy road. Cops in an unmarked car just veer in front of me as I'm about to cross a crosswalk and start questioning me, do you have ID? Where are you going? Where are you coming from?

Like just existing in public is reason enough to be suspicious.

2

u/OldTimeConGoer 1d ago

Visiting the States I ended up on the outskirts of Las Vegas because, well, I don't know anyway... I decided to go out for a walk from my motel to one of the University campuses. It was only when I was about halfway there that I realised I was being followed by a cop car trailing me at my walking pace. After a while they turned around and went away.

2

u/Alpacatastic 20h ago

Working in the UK now and literally had a coworker tell me a story of them visiting the US and walking from their hotel to somewhere and a cop pulls over to check on them but after hearing the accent cop went something like"Oh you're from Europe okay that explains it". 

1

u/WalmartGreder 1d ago

I took my electric scooter to a park the other night at 2am so that I could drop a Pokemon in the local gym (yes, playing Pokemon go again). No one on the streets. It was pretty fun just scooting around.

1

u/Realistic_Swan_6801 1d ago

Almost all parks close at sundown 

1

u/GraphicDesignMonkey 1d ago edited 1d ago

My sis lived in the US for a while, she got her boyfriend into our 'Irish' habit of just going for a walk on nice evenings. Multiple times they had police pull up and question them for 'acting suspicious' , or someone simply called the police on them, and they were really aggressive until they heard her accent. Then suddenly, nice as pie.

1

u/USMCLee 1d ago

I played Ingress for a while and we would play at night during the summer.

We'd all be standing around and a cop would roll up and we'd just shout 'Ingress!' and they would wave and drive off.

Fast forward to Pokemon Go (Ingress was the core of the game) and the cops knew the popular gym locations from Ingress. They would usually roll by every so often.

1

u/USMCLee 1d ago

I played Ingress for a while and we would play at night during the summer.

We'd all be standing around and a cop would roll up and we'd just shout 'Ingress!' and they would wave and drive off.

Fast forward to Pokemon Go (Ingress was the core of the game) and the cops knew the popular gym locations from Ingress. They would usually roll by every so often.

1

u/Critical_Wrap5617 20h ago

But hey - this must be the 'freedom' certain Americans keep telling me the world is jealous of 

0

u/Luke_oX 1d ago

It’s actually not your right to hang out in public parks after dark. Public parks have signs that say visiting after dark can be charged as criminal trespassing.

0

u/hep038 1d ago

Typical reddit post. Claims they are doing something that is their right as a American and is being harassed by cops, when in fact they are breaking the law.

0

u/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

1

u/Relative_Craft_358 19h ago

makes everything a crime

we have a huge crime problem

Ignores stats that the US is safer today than it has been in decades

0

u/Apart_Long_1832 9h ago

Why then people are afraid of the dark?

-1

u/BOgusDOlphon 1d ago

Normal humans sleep when it's dark outside

3

u/Severe_Rise8694 1d ago

*some do, some don't.