🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 29 Aug 1999 11:01:47 -0000, "Alan Earle" <ALEARLE@prodigy.net>
wrote:

>fatelvis wrote in message ...
>I found something interesting last week. The group Zero Population
>Growth (ZPG) had rated cities as to being Kid Friendly.

Gee, all the best places have no minorities eh? How unhandy for the
minorities. The one that got me...as being #10 on the "kid friendly"
places to live was Portland Maine:

>10.  Portland ME A-
>Cumberland county
>Total population = 251,664
>
>Total White =  244,481
>Percent White =  97.1%
>
>Total Black = 1,856
>Percent Black = 0.7%

This one grabbed me mostly because I also found te following online
which seems to prove Portland ME a less than friendly place to be a
kid, even if you are a good kid:

- - Curbing Curfew - -

      Portland (Maine) is one of several cites in recent years which
has rushed to adopt a curfew for teenagers. The justification has been
that such an ordinance gives police the authority to send young people
home before they do something stupid like get in a fight, use drugs,
or clean up a public space.

      Yes, two Portland teens, Joel Duncan, 15, and Aaron Paulsen, 16,
were charged with criminal trespass for breaking the city's Old Port
Post Office Park's 10 p.m.curfew. They were caught red-handed picking
up trash in the park.

      The pair is just the type to make trouble--Joel, is one merit
badge away from Eagle Scout and  Aaron is the son of a former mayor.
Neither had been in trouble with the law before.

      But it was just a matter of time.

      http://www.portland.com/wenews/nemitz0811.shtml:


And we wonder why, after adults treat them like criminals merely
because of their age.... good kids suddenly go bad .... I know when 
I was 15, if I got accused of something often enough I delivered it to
my accuser out of spite. So this time it was cleaning up  trash thrown
about by thoughtless adults and such...  next time it might be exactly
the criminal acts adults expect them to deliver....  kids do so hate
disappointing the adults they are told to respect you know....

If Portland ME is such a kid friendly place, why didn;t these two boys
get honored at a vity dinner for their service to their community,
instead of hauled into a police station?
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