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View Full Version : A Winter Wonderland Of Fear: US Cities To Ban Unregulated Sledding




DamianTV
01-09-2015, 08:34 PM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-08/winter-wonderland-fear-us-cities-ban-unregulated-sledding
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/01/risk-and-litigation?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/homeoftheunbrave (related article quoted in excerpt)


Shutting down sledding hills is inspired by the same sort of simpering caution that keeps Americans shoeless in airport security lines and, closer to home, keeps parents from letting their kids walk a few blocks to school alone, despite the fact that America today is as safe as the longed-for “Leave It to Beaver” golden age.

– From The Economist article: Home of the Unbrave (http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/01/risk-and-litigation?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/homeoftheunbrave)


It’s winter in the northern hemisphere, which means that countless hordes of children and their parents are excited to engage in that timeless pursuit of youthful seasonal pleasure: sledding. Many of us who grew up in colder climates have gone sledding at least once or twice. Yes it can be dangerous at times, but so are many of the other activities young rambunctious kids partake in. That’s part of being a child. Indeed, it’s part of life in general unless you want to stay cooped up in your cubicle or home 24/7.

As crazy as it may sound, many cities across the U.S. are actually moving to ban sledding within their municipalities. The Associated Press reported the following earlier this week:

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As anyone who has grown up around snow knows, part of the fun of sledding is the risk of soaring off a jump or careening around a tree.

But faced with the potential bill from sledding injuries, some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.

No one tracks how many cities have banned or limited sledding, but the list grows every year. One of the latest is in Dubuque, Iowa, where the City Council is moving ahead with a plan to ban sledding in all but two of its 50 parks.

“We have all kinds of parks that have hills on them,” said Marie Ware, Dubuque’s leisure services manager. “We can’t manage the risk at all of those places.”

In Omaha, the city banned sledding at a popular hill as a test one winter after losing a lawsuit, but decided to allow it again after most people ignored the restriction.

“It wasn’t practical,” assistant city attorney Tom Mumgaard said. “People wouldn’t abide by the ban.”

Instead, the city has posted signs warning of sledding risks and workers at the site of the failed ban put pads around posts and hay bales around trees. Mumgaard said courts in Nebraska have decided cities must protect people, even if they make poor choices.


(Full Article on Link at top)

Just outlaw freedom to keep everyone safe from everything. Then enslave them all.

presence
01-09-2015, 08:46 PM
Golf courses FTW :D

Dr.3D
01-09-2015, 08:52 PM
Why can't people just be responsible for the injuries they inflict upon themselves?

Why does it always have to be someone else who is held responsible when somebody does something stupid?

DamianTV
01-09-2015, 08:56 PM
Why can't people just be responsible for the injuries they inflict upon themselves?

Why does it always have to be someone else who is held responsible when somebody does something stupid?

Obamacare!

In more detail, its Socialized Healthcare, the fucked up US version of Socialized, which means mandatory corporatized. Basically, the great lie where everyone lives at the expense of everyone else.

In even more detail. Basically, if I cut myself shaving and you have to pay for it, then you are supposed to get angry about me costing you money, because, I am living at your expense. Well, that is the theory anyway, and how we are given these little tastes of Socialism until we finally become so addicted to it that we can no longer function as a society.

Dr.3D
01-09-2015, 09:01 PM
Obamacare!

In more detail, its Socialized Healthcare, the fucked up US version of Socialized, which means mandatory corporatized. Basically, the great lie where everyone lives at the expense of everyone else.

In even more detail. Basically, if I cut myself shaving and you have to pay for it, then you are supposed to get angry about me costing you money, because, I am living at your expense. Well, that is the theory anyway, and how we are given these little tastes of Socialism until we finally become so addicted to it that we can no longer function as a society.

:p So let their health insurance policies take care of the damages and leave the parks open for sledding. I can't see nailing the property owner as well as the insurance people. :D

willwash
01-09-2015, 09:12 PM
Sounds like a good opportunity for a very large, publicized display of civil disobedience. If thousands will openly carry a gun in defiance of illegal gun control laws, surely people will go sled illegally.


In Omaha, the city banned sledding at a popular hill as a test one winter after losing a lawsuit, but decided to allow it again after most people ignored the restriction.

“It wasn’t practical,” assistant city attorney Tom Mumgaard said. “People wouldn’t abide by the ban.”

A viral petition might be in order:

"I will not comply with this illegal ban and herewith make my solemn public declaration that I will continue to sled to my heart's content. I will not cease sledding unless compelled to do so against my will by the immediate threat of physical force. I will, to the utmost of my ability, actively encourage as many other people as possible to violate this ban as flagrantly and as visibly as possible, as often as possible. On a more fundamental level, I recognize the municipality's authority to make decisions about risk management neither for myself nor for my children. Therefore, I also agree to accept personal responsibility for whatever happens to me or to any minor children under my immediate care while participating in these activities and will not hold liable any third party for any resulting injury."

Everyone sign and pass on!

Anti Federalist
01-09-2015, 10:50 PM
Fuck, just ban people and get it the fuck over with.

Iowa
01-09-2015, 11:17 PM
Iowa state legislators didn't add the ban for sledding, unfortunately the cities all figure a law is the answer. :rolleyes:

Iowa law protects cities from being responsible if someone gets hurt on city property while biking, skating or skateboarding, but there’s no protection should someone get hurt while sledding.

In 2013, the state legislature discussed a bill that would add sledding to those protections. That bill didn’t pass.

Read more at http://www.kcrg.com/subject/news/dubuque-sledding-ban-draws-attention-criticism-20150107#vm3Lz1UHueOHTtd4.99

osan
01-11-2015, 07:40 AM
Golf courses FTW :D

You kidding? The members tend to be like pitbulls.

I used to live in Monmouth Battlefield state park and would regularly walk or bike through, most often with the dogs. One day I was walking in an area I'd not been before. It turned out I had wandered maybe 20 yards into Battlefield Country Club and was on the edge of one of the fairways. There was a contingent playing perhaps 150 yards from me and I stood a brief moment and watched. Suddenly, one of the party starts yelling and swearing at me in that unique Joisey style that puts new meaning to terms like "low, vulgar trash", meaning he was probably a dentist. He started stomping toward me with his club held in a clearly menacing fashion, screaming threats at me in those brief moments that his cursing abated. What the poor stupid bastard did not know is that I was well armed at the moment, but I just stood there and maintained an impassive stare, giving him absolutely nothing. He stopped maybe 50 to 75 yards away and stomped off.

There is something about golf that turns presumably normal people into raving, dangerous psychotics, especially where aliens on the fairways are concerned. I would fear for my child's life... hell, I'd fear for YOUR child's life, were they to get it in their heads to sled at a golf course.

oyarde
01-11-2015, 10:12 AM
Kids will just have to buy a video game they can sled on .

tommyrp12
01-11-2015, 01:44 PM
I live next to a golf course. As a kid I used to track down all the balls in the woods and sell them back to the golfers. I eventually was asked to leave but that was after a few years of doing it. Usually when its snowing I found there to be nothing but other people sledding and no one bothered us. The hills are pretty awesome especially if you added a jump at the bottom and your already at a high rate of speed. I ended up working in the kitchen there for a little over a year.
I can see Osans depiction as being pretty accurate. There were a lot of politically connected people that thought they owned the place and had free reign. There was even a bar that they used for gambling and smoking cigars. They for some reason did not allow women down there. Not even servers. It had a cultish feel to it when you went down there. Some of the people who worked there also golfed they were younger and closer to my age so we all got along just fine.
Now the only reason I go there is for stripper fishing (catch and release) with some friends as one side of the course is next to a river. There is the occasional D-bag who hollers but it does not go beyond that.

P.S. The last time I went actually we found a dead baby dolphin. Which I have never seen this in this area before. It was all black and being eaten by maggots. I am wondering if it was naturally that color. I wish we could have gone fishing sooner maybe it would of had a chance if we got it out into the water quick enough.

Christian Liberty
01-11-2015, 02:53 PM
Golf courses FTW :D

I've done that;)

Fuck, just ban people and get it the fuck over with.

Except then the lowlives that enforce these types of laws would think they were banned to;)

Suzanimal
02-20-2015, 11:09 AM
Police Enforce Sledding Ban on Capitol Hill Grounds


There are security provisions that are obvious, and then there is the prohibition on sledding on the slopes of the United States Capitol grounds.

Implemented after the Sept. 11 attacks, the ban on sledding on the Capitol grounds ended what had for decades been a local pastime. On Tuesday, a half-dozen Capitol Police offers shooed away would-be sledders trying to take advantage of Washington’s snow day.

Jessica Zippin, a professional dog-walker who lives on Capitol Hill, was one of a few dozen would-be sledders warned by police not to slide the slopes on the southwest front of the Capitol.

“They felt bad about it so they encouraged people to try to reach their member of Congress,” said Ms. Zippin, who instead tossed snowballs with her 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. “Because a member of Congress can issue a waiver and then you’re free to sled,” she said she was told by the police.

D.C. residents don’t have full representation in Congress, though they do have an elected delegate in Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton. But her office, like the rest of the federal government Tuesday, was closed due to the 4˝ inches of snow that fell on the capital city.

There is some precedent to the Capitol grounds opening for public sledding. When Washington was socked with two feet of snow in February 2010 – the event known locally as Snowmageddon – Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) arranged for the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to allow for sledding during the Presidents Day weekend. Mr. Dodd’s wife wrote a celebratory email to a Capitol Hill neighborhood listserv. Mr. Dodd, who is now the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, wasn’t available for an interview, an MPAA aide said. His wife didn’t respond to emails.

Capitol Police Officer Shennell Antrobus said sledding isn’t allowed on the grounds and said he wasn’t aware that individual members of Congress could petition for a temporary reprieve. “The only thing I know is that in our regulations, sledding is not allowed on the Capitol grounds,” he said.

And despite the crackdown, some sledders did get time on the slope, before the police intervened.

Ms. Zippin said she has no hard feelings toward the Capitol Police officers relegated to stopping sledders.

“They were all very nice and they felt bad about it,” she said. “They were encouraging everybody to find somebody to call in for this waiver because they felt it was all a bit ridiculous.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/02/17/police-enforce-sledding-ban-on-capitol-hill-grounds/

AuH20
02-20-2015, 12:14 PM
Why can't people just be responsible for the injuries they inflict upon themselves?

Why does it always have to be someone else who is held responsible when somebody does something stupid?

Tell that to the American Bar Association.

Dr.3D
02-20-2015, 12:17 PM
Tell that to the American Bar Association.
I never could understand that either. What does going to the bar have to do with anything?
Maybe if they accepted getting drunk was part of their problem, they could accept responsibility for the injuries they inflict upon themselves.





:p

Anti Federalist
02-20-2015, 12:23 PM
You kidding? The members tend to be like pitbulls.

I used to live in Monmouth Battlefield state park and would regularly walk or bike through, most often with the dogs. One day I was walking in an area I'd not been before. It turned out I had wandered maybe 20 yards into Battlefield Country Club and was on the edge of one of the fairways. There was a contingent playing perhaps 150 yards from me and I stood a brief moment and watched. Suddenly, one of the party starts yelling and swearing at me in that unique Joisey style that puts new meaning to terms like "low, vulgar trash", meaning he was probably a dentist. He started stomping toward me with his club held in a clearly menacing fashion, screaming threats at me in those brief moments that his cursing abated. What the poor stupid bastard did not know is that I was well armed at the moment, but I just stood there and maintained an impassive stare, giving him absolutely nothing. He stopped maybe 50 to 75 yards away and stomped off.

There is something about golf that turns presumably normal people into raving, dangerous psychotics, especially where aliens on the fairways are concerned. I would fear for my child's life... hell, I'd fear for YOUR child's life, were they to get it in their heads to sled at a golf course.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E73RM9gS7bU

nobody's_hero
02-20-2015, 12:33 PM
I think fear of litigation has done almost as much damage to freedom as politicians themselves. "Liability" has become the catch-all term for justifying restrictions of freedom.

Spikender
02-20-2015, 12:34 PM
It's been a privilege serving as part of the Generation Without Balls or Common Sense, now when can I retire and get my fucking benefits check?

AuH20
02-20-2015, 12:40 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E73RM9gS7bU

Such a great film. William Foster.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8b3963VRW4

muh_roads
02-20-2015, 01:26 PM
some cities have opted to close hills rather than risk large liability claims.

Most liability claims are probably coming from the entitlement class. The type of stay-at-home welfare women that watch court shows all day.

Suzanimal
01-24-2016, 11:10 AM
Sledding's legal.

How very kind of them.


Last year in the nation’s capital, Americans stood against the Capitol Hill police officers enforcing the law that made it illegal to sled on the snow-covered hill outside the United States Capitol building.

But on Saturday, the sledders returned only to find that it is now legal to slide down the southwest lawn of where Congress does their business.

..
The omnibus spending package, while heavily-criticized by the conservative wing of congressional Republicans for its other content, at least made a bunch of children and adults in Washington very happy.
http://ij.com/2016/01/521787-legalize-it/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=Partners&utm_term=PRM7&utm_campaign=

Anti Federalist
01-24-2016, 12:16 PM
Unban AuH2O

rg17
01-24-2016, 12:25 PM
Unban AuH2O

Why?

Danke
01-24-2016, 01:44 PM
But on Saturday, the sledders returned only to find that it is now legal to slide down the southwest lawn of where Congress does their business.

http://ij.com/2016/01/521787-legalize-it/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=Partners&utm_term=PRM7&utm_campaign=


Eeuwww

Danke
01-24-2016, 01:45 PM
Unban AuH2O

It is only a temporary ban...

ZENemy
01-24-2016, 03:42 PM
But who will build the shackles that keep us safe?

Mani
01-25-2016, 12:12 AM
I hairline fractured my wrist sledding when I was in my HS/College days. One of my BIG friends came plowing down while I was sledding and plowed right over me and I rolled over my wrist. HA. Good times. Hurt like a bitch but didn't want to stop the fun and kept going.

Weeks later was lifting a bunch of stuff super heavy and my wrist hurt like crazy for a couple days and had no clue why. It didn't go away so eventually went to the dr and he said there was a fracture. LOL. Still had a ton of fun, never thought to sue anyone. Why the fuck would I even think to, I'm the idiot who was sledding down the hill having fun.




...Ms. Zippin, who instead tossed snowballs...

For a second I thought it was going to say she tossed snowballs at the Capital police officers, but then I realized she wouldn't be alive to be interviewed if that were the case.

presence
01-25-2016, 07:44 AM
You kidding? The members tend to be like pitbulls.

[]

There is something about golf that turns presumably normal people into raving, dangerous psychotics, especially where aliens on the fairways are concerned. I would fear for my child's life... hell, I'd fear for YOUR child's life, were they to get it in their heads to sled at a golf course.

Trust me... not too many golfers present when 18" of fresh powder is on the fairway :D

presence
01-25-2016, 07:47 AM
I've done that;)

Yes! But have you done it in a hard shell suitcase from grandma's attic?

http://www.metaldetectingworld.com/05_photo_gallery/05_equipment/gear/hard_case-1.jpg