Brooklyn Kids Could be Exposed to Porn, Pot Smoking
Nobody said it was easy raising kids in the big city. In Crown Heights, Brooklynian has a thread started by a parent who found his/ her son in a cloud of marijuana smoke at the Stroud Park playground. “A row of young men (some fathers of the children playing) sat on the benches right next…
Nobody said it was easy raising kids in the big city. In Crown Heights, Brooklynian has a thread started by a parent who found his/ her son in a cloud of marijuana smoke at the Stroud Park playground. “A row of young men (some fathers of the children playing) sat on the benches right next to monkey bars, slides, etc. all smoking weed and blowing the smoke literally into the kids faces,” said the poster. “What disturbed me the most was that this did not seem to bother anyone. The moms were oblivious, they didn’t care. Everything just seemed status quo.” One person suggested calling the police, while another parent responded, “You have to face the fact that smoking pot is part of the ‘culture’ in this part of town. You don’t have to like it, but that’s where you live … sometimes we either have to make peace with things we don’t like, do something to change them, or leave.” Meanwhile, Gowanus Lounge posted a letter from a Park Slope parent appalled by two men viewing porn at the Pacific Street public library. The parent hopes to organize the “sisters and brothers of PS” in a campaign for a smut-free library. The First Amendment was discussed, and one commenter suggested creating a separate children’s library. The picture at right is of a park in Amsterdam, where it’s also part of the “culture” to smoke pot in public (not really sure about viewing porn).
Smoking weed in playground and no one cares [Brooklynian]
Internet Porn at the Public Library in Boerum Hill [Gowanus Lounge]
Photo by janvanderweel.
Sarah, I think other libraries don’t filter, so people can search STDs or, say, “breast cancer,” but they quietly go over and ask people to refrain from watching porn. Am I wrong? Does someone know more about this?
Don’t call the cops until you first have asked the adults or teenagers to stop smoking around the kids. It’s a reasonable request and one that should be agreed to by anybody.
Yes, adults smoke pot in public in NYC. It’s hypocritical to live here and complain about it, but in a PLAYGROUND?? Who can justify this? There are parks, there are park benches, there are opportunities to stroll and inhale, and, of course, there is the privacy of your own home. Why seek out a playground filled with children?
As for you, 10:30, if you do have children I certainly hope you have gotten your irresponsible self sterilized. I have two less than two years apart, and I have never nor would I ever get high around them. Wrong wrong wrong.
I’ve seen this all over Brooklyn, so I know it’s not just happening in Crown Heights.
I’m not against adults smoking pot and I think the drug laws in the U.S. are draconian and paranoid, especially when it comes to marijuana, but I think it’s wrong to do it in public, especially in front of children.
What the hell does race have to do with it?
Call the cops if it bothers you – It’s a quality of life issue.
Not to be insensitive, but I strongly doubt that they were blowing the smoke into the kids faces. I’m sure they were at one of the park and the wind blew the smoke over. This isn’t only Crown Heights…try Prospect Park, Central Park, etc. This mom needs a grip.
There are people in NYC who don’t smoke pot???
I’m being serious.
I live in Park Slope and literally don’t know anyone who doesn’t smoke.
If alcohol is legal, pot should be.
While I don’t have children, I see nothing wrong with it. If you make it seem like not a big deal (which it isn’t) then the kids won’t think it’s a big deal.
When you tell them that if they smoke pot, they will fall into the gates of hell like most parents do…guess what…they only want to smoke it more!!
I am the OP of the weed thread, and I fee I must respond to 10:23, who finds my naivete appalling. What’s appaling is people who blindly accept behaviours that are not appropriate and ridicule people who want to make the community they’ve made their home a better place for everyone, black, white, poor, rich.
We’ve been here longer than most newcommers, and are very well aware of the rythem of the neighborhood. My post was more about what seems a tolarance/embrace of behaviours that are not right (or even legal) by the community. Everyone just turns a blind eye.
10:38 I used the word “culture” somewhat jokingly, which is why I put it in quotes … just to bring up that public pot smoking is not illegal in a lot of places for a better discussion. Sorry to offend! In Vancouver you can often see even elderly people smoking joints outside. I don’t know if that falls under culture or just social norms (that it’s not as shocking in other places). Same with smoking, in most states it would be considered normal (though looked down upon by some) for parents to be smoking around their infants in a restaurant. I also have a friend whose mother used to give him small amounts of liquor when he cried as a baby. I was shocked, but I guess that’s just what they do in his “culture,” he said.
I lived in Amsterdam for many years and NO it is not part of the culture to smoke in public. Only tourist smoke in public, most Dutch people smoke in the comfort of their homes or in coffee shops.
There are the occasional youths that will smoke on a park bench, usually near their homes. So I guess that’s somewhat public but you get the point.