My Kids' Encounters With Police: John

My youngest son John  had his first encounter with the police while he was  in junior high. Technically it was not the police but the security guards at Disney World. He was excited to be there for his first visit. Two of the three friends with him were visitors from Sweden. The mother of one of his companions was along as their chaperone. The four boys had just enjoyed a ride on one of the big Ferris wheels and were looking for their next ride when they were stopped by Disney police. One of the officers grabbed John, held him firmly and said, “Young man, we are arresting you for throwing pyrotechnics.” John expressed his innocence and amazement and told them he didn’t even know what pyrotechnics were. His three friends all vouched for his innocence. Then one of the officers had a near-by  teenager identify John  saying, “That’s the guy, I guess he threw away the cap he was wearing.”   

” I haven’t been wearing a cap. I threw  nothing,” John insisted..

Then Mrs. Blackistone arrived She explained she was with the boys, asked about the exact time the incident supposedly occurred and then verified that the boys were with her getting a soft drink at the exact time of the alleged incident.  Their protestations did not prevail. John was held for an hour in isolation and then they were kicked out of the park. Our two Swedish young friends could not believe this could happen in the USA. When I wrote a letter of protest to the Disney authorities, they never even responded

It was only a year later when John was stopped again. This time John was not only confronted but actually had handcuffs placed on him and was  forced into a police car. This was all a couple blocks from Redeemer Lutheran Church in San Diego at the very time I was preaching for the second service. That morning. John had gone with me, worshipped at the early service and then while waiting for me to preach at the second service had decided to just walk  around the neighborhood. The  police had stopped John, put handcuffs on him, brought him to the church property. A member of the congregation had called the police and now identified John as the person  he’d seen earlier enter a car in the church parking lot and take something from  that car.

While all this was going on a member of Redeemer arrived back at his car and asked what the police action was all about. He then explained that he earlier had forgotten something he wanted to take into the church with him and so he was the one who had taken something from his own car. Then the “accuser” recognized his error. He admitted it, apologized to John and then looked for me so he could also explain to me all that had happened.

After that John chose not to go with me when I preached at Redeemer.