To have reported the shouty self-appointed piano police to the actual police?

[PeppermintCrayon]

I am half-expecting to be told I'm being U for posting a thread of the "please validate this thing I already did!" variety...

Recently I was at St Pancras Station. There are several pianos for public use there. They're a bit knackered; one of them has a few keys that don't work.

Some kids were playing one of the pianos, about eight or nine maybe. They were having a fun trying to play different tunes. They were banging the keys quite hard. A man of maybe 55, 60, suddenly appeared and started yelling: "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU NEVER BANG A PIANO."

I went over and said I didn't think yelling at children was very nice and that these kids probably didn't have a piano at home and did he want to put them off music? He started huffing and puffing about how the pianos had to be tuned because of people messing about. I said perhaps he could have said: "Look, this is how you play a piano," and explained nicely instead of yelling. He then started yelling at me.

He then went back to sitting at a nearby cafe table glowering at anyone who went near the pianos, so I went and found a transport policeman and told him this man had been shouting at children for playing the piano and he went to have a word.

I don't think I was being U, but...

Shouting at random kids isn't illegal so Yabu to report it to the police who have better things to do. Being a curmudegeon is legal, bollocking kids is legal, being a grumpy old man is legal.
You wasted police time.

There are a lot of people on this thread expressing strong opinions without (seemingly) having much understanding of the 'Play Me, I'm Yours' initiative, which the St Pancras piano is part of.

The clue's in the name people, but here's some more specific information from the wiki entry:

Artist Luke Jerram installs street pianos in various cities. The project is intended to challenge the prohibition of playing music in public places without special arrangement. It prompts members of the public to use the piano, regardless of skill and popularity.

I reckon Luke Jerram would have backed the OP in this particular instance.

The pianos are tuned & kept up by management in St Pancras by the way, so a certain amount of wear & tear seems to be expected and built in.

I'd've more likely approached the police about unattended kids at the station. It's not a great place in a not great part of town.

Heels, technically what the man did could well have been illegal - screaming in a child's face could come within the definition of threatening behaviour. It could also come within the parameters of conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace, which I think isn't necessarily illegal; but clearly it is in the interests of everyone if the police nip it in the bud.

I really don't think we have to start getting over-excited about unattended children. OP doesn't suggest she is sure the parents weren't around, they may simply not have been in evidence because they were queuing for coffee at a stall or something. If we're suppose to dash off to the police every time we see children who are not within a couple of metres of their parents, the unfortunate police would never have time to deal with anything else. Given that there haven't been any news reports about two 8 year olds going missing from St Pancras, I think we can take it that these children were safe.

Have you seen the people who hang about the station? I'm a londener and we have bolts in our office door as we have regular 'scarey blokes' who wander in off the street.

Sure I have, I was there only a few days ago. But are you really suggesting we should call the police every time we see a couple of 8 or 9 year olds in a large and crowded station and aren't immediately sure whether their parents are in the vicinity or not?

Oh no, only if they were really on their own - out on a wander as kids sometimes do. I would keep an eye on them in case they get unwanted attention. We've had training at work and everything (some people get first aid or computing courses, we get personal safety).

The point though Icimoi, is that if I was going to go to the bother of getting the police, I would think the topic of 8 yr olds being left on their own would become the real issue, not the piano playing.