Posted
Worried parents told security guards that a man was sitting in the water park at Carowinds on Sunday, exposing himself. He was fondling himself, a little girl was sitting on his knee, and the witnesses wanted authorities to do something. By the end of the day, the accused man was in the hospital and one family said they would never go to the theme park again. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police say park officials should have gotten in touch with them sooner – the delay makes it harder for them to investigate.
Read more from The Charlotte Observer.
Why in a crowded water park is a man allegedly exposing himself and fondling himself seen only by members of one family? Since when is not liking the way one person looks at someone else grounds for charging them with a crime? I think someone intent on molesting someone would be overly friendly, not menacing looking.
If the park brings in police and haul the guy off and it turns out he wasn't doing what he was accused of, the park faces a lawsuit for harassment along with damages for embarrassing the guy. As it stands now, that Rikard guy might be facing a lawsuit.
It was incredibly one-sided. The way the local news told the story, you'd think that Carowinds condoned and encourage public masturbation in the water park.
What seemed like really happened if you looked past the drama, was that one guy claims he saw the man exposed withhis daughter on his lap, told officials, and then when they couldn't prove it, the guy waited at the gate and clocked the man.
I'm all for kicking the living crap out of people who do stuff to or around kids, but even I was saying, "I'm not so sure..." the night we saw this on the news.
(As a side note, if they ever do offer a public masturbation day at Carowinds, we should make it a club event. Maybe get some EMT.)
Talk about major paranoia. If criminals are lurking at every corner, then why do people go to water parks?
Also, the article doesn't say anything about the girl being the man's daughter. It only mentions that she might have been a relative.
There are definately a lot of details missing from the story but some of those details might not be able to be released.
Reminds me of a news article I read yesterday of a man in England who took his two kids to an inflatable slide in a park and was taking pictures of his own kids. The operator of the slide and another patron alerted the police, suspecting this man as a pedofile (spelling). For once common sense won out over "Zero Tolerance" when the police questioned him and he showed them the innocent pictures of his kids having fun on the slide. The police agreed with him that "the world is going crazy" when they saw that it was over reaction by the paranoid others.
*** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/17/2008 11:19:16 AM ****** This post was edited by SLFAKE 7/17/2008 11:20:30 AM ***
Don't you miss the days, when stories were investigated, and researched before they are made available to the public?Corporate media sucks.It sounds like some guy was trying to adjust his swimsuit, and happened to catch the eye of some guy who wanted to be a hero. Crazy.
*** This post was edited by El Gato Coastro 7/17/2008 12:24:07 PM ***
Sounds like I need a new part-time job.
Now if the complainant had said the guy was doing this for 15 minutes, I'd say yeah there's an issue. But all it says it that they saw him exposing himself and fondling himself.
I guess we'll have to go back to the days when people went to the beach covered from neck to ankles in the name of good taste. What next-- guys in men's rooms and changing rooms are exposing themselves?
matt, when you get that job, make sure somebody doesn't have a problem with the way you look at anybody.
People today are very parinoid and call the police or whoever way too many times for stupid things. Things have become so odd in this country. Everyone is affriad of everything. People are affraid of strangers to the point they call the cops on them and authorities are affraid to take action sometimes because of all the lawsuits. People want to sue everyone and everything for millions if the police simply come up to them and ask them some questions in public. I really don't know where we will be as a whole in 10 years.
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