In what is called “a buffer to protect our children,” the city of Las Vegas has drafted a proposal for an ordinance to make it illegal for anyone over the age of 12 to “enter and remain” within 100 feet of playgrounds in city parks. We can only imagine some of the entirely plausible scenarios should this idea become law:
• A child who just turned 13 sits on the fringes of the park, lonely and bored, as his friends, six months younger than he, have a blast on the swing set.
• City Marshals stand at the playground’s entrance, demanding two forms of valid identification from any child wishing to enter.
• Fake IDs that actually lower one’s age hit the black market.
• A grown couple swept up in a youthful love are approached by a City Marshal, who orders through his megaphone that if they step away from the seesaw with their hands up, no one will get hurt.