Some people . . . .

I'm not a big fan of the way that people are starting to treat each other. I've always been the butt of most of the jokes growing up, so maybe that has changed or carved my opinion of things. But today, I really had to hold my tongue because of some idiot person at the end of a parade.

So, I was with my garrison doing a parade in Bountiful to help us get into the parade season and get ready for the big Provo Freedom Parade. I didn't have my costume finished so I was a spotter. Spotters are there to help the helmeted characters with everything and anything that they need before, during, and after the parade; that includes crowd control at times. So we had finished the 2 miles route and I really needed to get all the characters' helmets off and get them water and start cooling down. Well, this pack of young kids ran up and swarmed one of the troopers. Normally it's okay for the kids to do that for a minute, but these kids started pulling at the costume and tried taking away the blaster. The guy in the costume pulled it away and thats when I came over and told everyone that I had to take the trooper away and started steering him towards our break area. A few of the kids started yelling "steal him! take his gun!" and ran after us. One younger kid grabbed the blaster, started pulling on it rather forcefully, then started pulling on the trooper's arm (which tends to cut into the arm or hand) so I did what I normally do: I gently grabbed the kid's wrist and pulled his hand off the blaster and off the trooper and told him "No! Don't do that!" and I started leading the trooper away. The kid was looking up at me with this smirk, kind of laughing. Some guy started yelling at me telling me that I had no right to 'slap' that kid's hand away, that the kid wasn't causing any harm. I turned and told him, rather calmly actually, that I hadn't slapped his hand, that I had removed it and that the kid was in the wrong. The guy continued to yell at me, and I mean yell.

I couldn't believe it and it still irks me a bit that people aren't willing to discipline their kids enough to know that you don't do that; or when someone actually goes to put the kid in line, someone starts calling "foul!" or "child abuser". There was nothing different that I could have done because I think it wouldn't have mattered. If I would have told the kid to let go, I'm pretty sure that the guy would have told me that I had no right to "shout" at the kid. I think that guy has a problem and that he is the one that needs help. A person like that shouldn't be around kids.