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To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (38657)	11/17/2000 7:01:38 PM
From: pater tenebrarum	Respond to of 436258

sounds like a police state: The Associated Press WASHINGTON - A 12-year-old girl was arrested, handcuffed and fingerprinted for eating french fries in a subway station after transit officials adopted a "zero tolerance" policy toward snacking on trains. Grade 7 student Ansche Hedgepeth said she was stopped in the station in northwest Washington by an officer who barked: "Put down your fries. Put down your book bag." "I can't believe there isn't a better way to teach kids a lesson," complained the girl's mother, Tracey Hedgepeth. "The police treated her like a criminal." Barry J. McDevitt, chief of Washington's Metro Transit Police, was unapologetic. "We really do believe in zero tolerance," he said. Commuter complaints about unlawful eating on subway cars and in stations led Mr. McDevitt to mount an undercover crackdown on violators. A dozen plainclothes officers ticketed or arrested 35 people, 13 of them juveniles. Only one adult was arrested. Ansche said the Tenleytown station where she was nabbed is "just a place where a lot of kids go. There's a hot dog stand and Cafe Med, where I bought my fries." She said she took the elevator to the station with a friend. As the pair passed the station kiosk, a man stepped in front of Ansche. Ansche said that after she was told to put down her fries and her book bag, "They searched my book bag and searched me. They asked me if I have any drugs or alcohol." She said she has never been asked such questions or searched like that before. "I was embarrassed. I told my friend to call my mom, but I didn't tell anybody else." She said she never talked to the officer, although police insist she was asked whether she knew eating was against the law and that she said she did. They said anyone who does not know about the law usually is given a warning first. Signs warning that it is illegal to eat or drink on the cars and in the stations are posted in the Metro system. Ansche was taken to a detention centre, where she was checked in, fingerprinted and held for her parents to pick her up. If Ansche had been an adult, she simply would have received citations for fines up to US$300. But juveniles who commit criminal offences in the District of Columbia must be taken into custody, Mr. McDevitt said. It is department policy to handcuff anyone arrested, no matter the age, he said. Ansche is now required to perform community service and undergo counselling at the Boys and Girls Club, one of the sentences transit officials have chosen for underage snacking lawbreakers. Mr. McDevitt said the stop where the arrest occurred has had a particularly bad trash problem. "We had not only customers complaining," he said. "Train conductors were also complaining about how trashed their trains were and they were asking for more enforcement." Ms. Hedgepeth said she agrees with sticking to the rules, but wonders why the police could not issue warnings. "How do they expect kids to grow up trusting police?" she said. "My daughter will now grow up knowing she's been in handcuffs. All over a french fry."