Just got reported to police for breaching lockdown. WIBU?!

[saylor]

For context: I have 2 toddler DC (tiny age gap!), we live in a flat and we have thus far abided by all lockdown rules, and it's been fucking hard!

This morning, at 9am (!!!!), I took DC to the park across the road and let them play in a sandpit which forms part of an un-gated playground. All the play equipment is roped off with police and hazard tape and we didn't go on the equipment, just played in the sand with buckets and spades. First time in 9 weeks and no one else was there.

After literally only being there for 5 minutes a police van pulls up and tells me I'm breaching lockdown rules, took my details, and gave me a warning. She stopped short of fining me. I apologised and started packing up the buckets and spades and older toddler had an absolute meltdown that we had to leave. The police woman took pity on me and said she was sorry she had to move us on but because someone reported me, it was her job.

So someone saw a mother and her two young children playing in the sand and decided to call the police at 9am and tell me off. This is after a bank holiday weekend of huge groups of people socialising all over the park and no one told off.

I'm livid. AIBU? Or WIBU to take my DC to the sandpit after 9 weeks of lockdown hell?

Two weeks ago, I would have said you were being unreasonable but after the shit show we've just witnessed I'd have told her to fine me and then I'd have taken my story to the press. It beggars belief that a small child isn't allowed to play in a sandpit alone and yet Cummings gets away with what he did. You should have told the police officer you were using your instincts as a mother.

@Everlandia

He and his colleagues would far rather spend the time connecting up a lonely old man’s television and getting some food for his empty fridge than dealing with petty neighbour reports but no one reports that! Boils my blood!

Well I don't disagree with you, but equally your comment as to what you want him doing underpins where the police service has gone wrong. Sorting out issues such as elderly people is for social services. Our police should be arresting criminals and reducing crime by getting them to court.

So when responding to a concern call about the man, they should have left him without food and in a house where his Carers hadn’t even plugged his TV in. They had the time and it made them feel a little better about what often feels like a thankless job. Good to know you think they should just have left him. Of course they could set the wheels in motion to report the Carers or refer him again to already overstretched social services but for the 10-15 minutes it took, they were happy to do it. Next time, I’ll tell him to just make sure he’s breathing and report to their next curtain twitcher instead. Give me strength!

Everlandia, Normalmum is right looking after elderly / vulnerable people is a social services role.
Why did the Carers leave the man without his TV plugged in and no food? If the man is that incapable should he really be living at home alone?

We aren't saying they should have left the man to it, in a "not my job" kind of a way. But covering up the fuckups of SS / Carers isn't really a police role.

They didn’t cover it up. During the pandemic they could appreciate things were stretched with staff absence and just wanted to make sure he was ok. He’d had a meals on wheels delivered but no milk for a cup of tea in his fridge etc. He said his TV wasn’t plugged in as they were in a rush and didn’t want to bother anyone. It was noted and passed on as all concern calls are but in the moment they were able to help so they did. As I said, they would far rather be attending calls which matter to people than petty sniping about sandpits but the law has been passed to them to enforce and enforce it they must. In this case, the officer responded to the complaint and sent the OP on her way. They get knocked when they don’t respond to calls and get knocked now when they do.

It might seem petty sniping but seriously if you were a mum constantly getting it in the ear because your kids want to go to the out of bounds sand pit and they can see other kids in it, it would probably drive you nuts too.
A local mum asked on FB for people to stop using the play park as her kids we asking to go and play too. I can well imagine if people continued to ignore she'd have turned to the police.

This proves my point exactly:

OP: but it was 9am and it’s sand and no one else is about.

Mumsnet Armchair Army: Don’t you have rapists/murderers to catch?

Complainer: my kids want to go play in the sand and I’m stressed so tell her over there to sling their hook. It’s the law and I pay your wages. Oh and you took three weeks to come out when my Great Auntie Betty had her garden gnome nicked off her doorstep (and you never brought any forensic people either!) so hurry up or I’ll lodge a complaint and waste even more of your time on paperwork justifying your actions.