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Title: Cops Shutdown High School Kids Trying to Earn Money by Shoveling Snow
Source:
Free Thought Project
URL Source: http://thefreethoughtproject.com/co ... ids-earn-money-shoveling-snow/
Published: Jan 28, 2015
Author: Matt Agorist
Post Date: 2015-01-29 03:10:32 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 23303
Comments: 77
In America, “Land of Opportunity,” you are free to pursue your dreams of financial freedom, provided you have filled out the proper form and been extorted by the proper bureaucrat. Two teenage boys from Bridgewater, New Jersey are getting a hard does of this statism after their pursuance of financial freedom landed them in hot water with the fuzz. Earlier this week, Matt Molinari and his friend Eric Schnepf, both seniors in High School, were going door-to-door advertising their snow shoveling services in advance of the storm. School was out, and instead of sitting inside and playing XBOX, these two young entrepreneurs felt the fire of enterprise and decided to turn their down time into an actual dime. However, Molinari and Schnepf apparently didn’t realize that in order to make a dime you have to pay a quarter — to the state. When the two boys were out trying to rustle up some business during what they saw as an opportunity, along came the uniformed agents of the state, to put this unapproved business venture out to pasture. “We weren’t looking to break the law. We just didn’t know the law,” Molinari tells Jim Smith on his WCBS 880 radio show. The cops then gave these two kids a lesson in statist economics, which consequently ended their high school snow shoveling business. “They need a permit, unpermitted solicitation is not allowed,” Molinari said, recalling what the police told them. In this particular county, anyone selling goods and services door to door must apply for a license that can cost as much as $450 for permission that is valid for only 180 days; after all freedom ain’t free. “We don’t make the laws but we have to uphold them,” Police Chief Michael Jannone said Tuesday, in true statist fashion, after reading some of the online comments about the incident. The teens’ story quickly started gaining traction in a local Bound Brook Facebook group after a resident witnessed police shaking down Schnepf after going to his door. “Are you kidding me? Our generation does nothing but complain about his generation being lazy and not working for their money,” he wrote on Bound Brook NJ Events‘ page. “Here’s a couple kids who take the time to print up flyers, walk door to door in the snow, and then shovel snow for some spending money. And someone calls the cops and they’re told to stop?” The two teens have, rightfully so, been met with loads of support. After being questioned by reporters and seeing the backlash against them, the Bound Brook police chief did some back peddling and told MyCentralJersey.com they are not cracking down on kids shoveling, but rather that it was a state of emergency and should not have been out. Unfortunately the young entrepreneurial spirit is often stomped into a sad puddle in this land of the ostensibly free. Similar bans around the country have nixed the learning stages of free enterprise by putting an end to practices such as lemonade stands and selling Girl Scouts cookies. In October of 2013, The Free Thought Project reported on the incident in Washington DC in which dozens of cops were dispatched, not because there were armed gunman threatening to kill hostages, or because of a bomb threat, or riot, but because a group of rowdy kids would dare sell lemonade, without a permit.
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#3. To: Deckard, rlk, TooConservative, GrandIsland, Palmdale, All (#0)
(Edited)
Bound Brook, like many municipalities in the state and country, has a law against unlicensed solicitors and peddlers. The spirit of the ordinance is to protect residents from gypsy activity. People will solicit door to door and target the elderly and get into their house. The enforcement of this ordinance was never called into question here. Bound Brook Police Chief Michael Jannone said his department has no interest in cracking down on kids who want to shovel sidewalks or driveways. The law was made for transient scam artists who prey on the vulnerable, he said. Jannone said the two young businessmen were not arrested or issued a ticket. He also said the fliers that the two young men were handing out had their first names and cell phone numbers. "People doing something illegal probably won't extend this much identifying information," he said. It was never a violation of the ordinance in any way. It was despite that rule, the police’s concern was someone walking through the yards at night with a hoodie. It was the police’s further concern was about them being outside during dangerous conditions. It was never that they were unlicensed. It is high time for those who condemn the police to realize the police do not make laws, but they do have to uphold them. No one should get upset at the police for enforcing laws. If anyone is unhappy about a law, they should direct their frustrations at those who made the laws. Similar bans around the country have put the kibosh on other capitalist rites of passage, such as lemonade stands and selling Girl Scouts cookies. Such laws have been challenged elsewhere on the grounds that they violate the First Amendment right to free speech. The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, for example, is suing New Brunswick over a similar law that prohibits panhandling and begging. Good on the ACLU for doing that. “Cops Shutdown High School Kids Trying to Earn Money by Shoveling Snow” published by Free Thought Project is yet another classic example of yellow journalism not presenting the truth and spinning partial facts to promote their agenda. Aren’t you glad you now know the truth about what happened to the two boys’ involvement with the police in Bound Brook? I am. Information from: mycentraljersey.com.
OMG! Wearing a "hoodie"! Run for your lives. No one should get upset at the police for enforcing laws. Yeah, they were "just doing their jobs".
But a person walking across the yards in a neighborhood at night should be approached with caution. Yes they were. And you should think of them as the thin blue line standing between us and the hordes of criminals waiting to rob us blind, rape our sisters and mothers, or murder us in our beds.
#17. To: Deckard (#15)
When we take your story and weave it into a tale of such devastating truth, that is not drama.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Two teenage boys from Bridgewater, New Jersey are getting a hard does of this statism after their pursuance of financial freedom landed them in hot water with the fuzz.
The boys were never in “hot water with the fuzz” and they did not get a "hard does of statism." … along came the uniformed agents of the state, to put this unapproved business venture out to pasture.
The police did not just come along. A resident on the street called to report “a suspicious person” with curly blond hair and a hoodie was walking through yards, a police officer was dispatched to check it out. The responding police simply told the two boys that it wasn’t safe to be out at night during a declared state of emergency, they should come back during the day. …along came the uniformed agents of the state, to put this unapproved business venture out to pasture.
No “unapproved business venture” was put out to pasture. The police had a discussion with the boys and told them they only needed permission to go door to door, and they were still allowed to shovel walkways when residents called them. The boys were in no way restricted from capitalistic pursuit. The cops then gave these two kids a lesson in statist economics, which consequently ended their high school snow shoveling business.
This never happened. The pair managed to get five jobs by early Tuesday afternoon, earning between $25 to $40 a house. "We don't really bargain," Schnepf said. "We help some people out and get whatever they're willing to pay." It was reported that the teens took the incident in stride. "The cops were nice about it. They weren't jerks. They were trying to make sure everything is OK," Molinari said Tuesday.
#6. To: Gatlin (#3)
A resident on the street called to report “a suspicious person” with curly blond hair and a hoodie
#13. To: Deckard (#6)
A resident on the street called to report “a suspicious person” with curly blond hair and a hoodie
It would not be necessary to “run.”
OMG! Wearing a "hoodie"!
Run for your lives. Geraldo Rivera: ‘The Hoodie Is As Responsible For Trayvon Martin’s Death As George Zimmerman’
No one should get upset at the police for enforcing laws. Yeah, they were "just doing their jobs".
#15. To: Gatlin (#13)
And you should think of them as the thin blue line standing between us and the hordes of criminals waiting to rob us blind, rape our sisters and mothers, or murder us in our beds.
Replies to Comment # 15. Drama Queen
End Trace Mode for Comment # 15.
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