Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for April 10, 2022

what, old folks, can’t teenagers have a ball game? (good job, cops, in tagging along in the teens’ game)

People waking up every day to be miserable cannot stand kids having fun. Someone always has to be a funsucker.

What is Spanish for “Karen”?

It’s a shame that a nice name like Karen and a lot of nice people had to be hurt because some political backstabbers wanted a name to hang an attitude on. It is also a shame that so many idiots are carrying that attitude around with them.

MYOB!

That little cloud over the heads of the two people who called the cops on the kids in the last panel is a nice touch.

GET OFF MY LAWN!

Sadly, in far too many cases, the police chase off the kids or — as we’ve seen from countless videos online now (one good thing in the age where everyone has a video recorder), rough them up or arrest them. Fortunately, there are also cops who see the meanness and absurdity of such calls and DO hang with the kids. Would love to see more of that.

It is a public park they have every right to be there, unfortunately since 2017 we’ve seen a number of “call the police” when people not like them are doing nothing illegal

Wow

My late father used to work a company that had a company recreational place and I remember one time walking across a field where 3 or 4 young guys were drinking beer (Drinking age back then was 18) and playing Frisbee. Little George, the foreman of the place, comes driving up gets out of his truck and I when I seen this thought for sure they were going to get kicked out of the place. I should note that I was around 10-years-old at the time. Nope, the only thing Little George said was “You were strong enough to carry the bottles out to the field, so I expect you to be strong enough to carry them back”. I will never forget that.

If you can’t have fun in a park, where can you?

even the adults wanted to join. :D

Yeah, yeah, white people are horrible, old people are horrible. We get it. In our neighborhood, it’s an old biddy from south of a border who wants to grouch at anybody leaving their own homes.

Having grown up around cops, due to having several in my family, I can affirm that most of them are cool like this.

Hey, hey, ha, ha, ha, hey!!!

Far too often, the station receives calls from people about others being in their subdivision’s private park. “I know the rules and they are not supposed to be there, I’ve never seen them before” is usually how the story goes. The caller doesn’t like it when told to take it up with their property owner’s association. In most cases, it is another resident or the people are with a resident of the subdivision.

I love it!

Positive policing is much more common than the media portray

Excellent peace officering

Well played!

Grumpy old man here, it seems in the first panel the old couple were there first and just relaxing under the tree-the entire park seem open so the group could have chosen anywhere to have their game. The couple could have been rightly afraid to get hit by a stray ball or knocked over by an over enthusiastic young kid?

I have several family members who are cops. Thank you for modeling the way and providing the real image that most cops are good people doing their best to navigate complex situations. To be clear, there are a few very bad cops and sadly it is very necessary to make their poor behavior public. Artwork/comics like this do help provide balance. Again, thank you.

What did the old guy say that would make the cops come with the siren on? They wouldn’t come to break up kids playing. He must have said they were doing criminal activity.

If only all of those calls ended that way.

If only!

How dare those kids use a public park for fun?

One person’s joy can be another person’s irritant

The point of parks is to play and have fun

That happens to cops more than you might think. I had an old lady call in disturbance complaint. When l arrived, the complaint was that a 5 year old little girl was riding her bicycle on the sidewalk in front of the old lady’s house ringing her bell. I told the girl to have fun….

it is a public park. if the couple doesn’t like the noise, go somewhere else.

Where is Cruz’s hat??!

Amen amen amen! <3

Cops like these are the best.

Totally Unrealistic. The Cops didn’t beat up or shoot Anyone.

There is one other side to this that isn’t depicted here.

In many American cities with significant Hispanic/Latino immigrant populations, the situation has arisen where large groups of said demographics, go to a city/county/state park and set up a group picnic in a corner of the park or a cluster of pavilions and grills. An extended family reunion, a church picnic, a company picnic, whatever. At the extreme, I’ve seen multiple food trucks and DJs with sound systems show up.

We’re not talking a dozen or so people. We’re talking hundreds, or even multiple hundreds—sometimes as many as four figures.

Without pavilion reservations. Without notifying park officials in advance. This literally crowds out other unsuspecting users. All the parking is taken up, crowding into adjoining neighborhoods. The words “hijacking” and “invasion” get used.

This is, very simply, a culture clash. Apparently this is an incredibly common occurrence in Mexico and Central America. It just happens. It’s accepted. But here, city regulations exist saying pavilions must be reserved for large group, and events over a certain size must be registered in advance. I’ve seen African-American groups do this, too, but on a smaller and obviously well-planned manner—churches, fraternity/sorority reunions, etc.—and it’s obvious they obeyed the reservation systems and rules.

I have witnessed, many times in Baltimore and other cities and in state parks, police or rangers having to approach such parties and explain the regulations to them, after calls by annoyed neighbors or other park-goers. Once several hundred people are grilling, swimming, playing softball, or whatever, it’s kind of hard, and offensive-looking, to break up such a party. In central Maryland the “authorities” reportedly started getting really good at sweeping in to check the reservations (or lack thereof) of a gathering party before it got overwhelmingly crowded, and dealing with said issues diplomatically (as seen in this comic!).

Six kids playing in the park is a joyous thing!❤️

There are way too many cases of people making way too much noise in consideration of people nearby, BUT complaining about the loud sounds of teens having good, clean, healthy fun in a public park? Oh my.

I don’t know what I love more: The fact these miserable old dodders didn’t get what they want or that the police are joining teenagers in a game (what I consider the true symbol of peace). Either way, the last panel is such a win!