Today's talker: Permit laws can sanction harassment of 8-year-olds After a woman allegedly called the police on a child who was selling water on the street, it highlighted the problem with government permits.

USA TODAY

A woman named Alison Ettel said she was calling the police on an 8-year-old girl who was selling water bottles in San Francisco. The child's mother, Erin Austin, posted the video on her Instagram account and told All the Moms her daughter was trying to raise money because she wanted to go to Disneyland.

Question the law, not the child

Erin Austin, who recently lost her job, was trying to teach her daughter, Jordan, a valuable lesson about entrepreneurship. Instead, their neighbor called the police.

Austin had agreed to take Jordan on the trip they had planned to Disneyland if she could raise enough money. Jordan decided to sell cold water bottles outside her San Francisco apartment — which sits across from AT&T Stadium — on game day.

As Jordan sold water to thirsty passersby, she was approached by neighbor Alison Ettel. Ettel asked the girl whether she had a permit, which she didn’t. A heated exchange between Austin and Ettel took place before Ettel threatened to call the police. In a video that has since gone viral, Ettel appears to be on the phone with police, charging that the little girl was “illegally selling water without a permit.”

“An 8-year-old selling water in front of her apartment building where she’s lived her whole life is NOT a reason to call the police,” Austin posted on Instagram.

So my little cousin was selling water and didn't have a permit so this lady decided to call the cops on an 8 year old. #PermitPatty pic.twitter.com/SiL61pnAgl — Raj 🌹 (@_ethiopiangold) June 23, 2018

Indeed, threatening a girl and her mother for selling water is beyond parody. Ettel complained that the girl was loud but, as Ettel and Austin both reside across the street from a large stadium, this is a questionable excuse.

Many have suggested that Ettel’s actions were racist in nature. Indeed, last year, African-American teens were handcuffed in Washington, D.C., for selling water on the National Mall without a permit.

There is also a broader legal side to this issue. Across the country, police are shutting down children’s lemonade stands. Most recently, officers shut down one in Colorado due to a lack of permit; the kids were raising money for charity. When people think to call police on children selling drinks, we ought to question our laws and the mindset they create.

The problem transcends age. Various cities prohibit food trucks from operating within a certain radius of restaurants — as much as 500 feet. Adults cannot become florists, hair-braiders, taxi drivers or even fortunetellers without government permission.

One in four Americans now needs a license in order to work. In the 1950s, that number was one in 20. Too many of these regulations have nothing to do with health and safety and everything to do with protecting industry insiders.

“There ought to be a law!” shouts the noble community leader to the crowd. Someone should ask him, “Ought there?”

Shoshana Weissmann is a policy analyst and the digital media specialist at the R Street Institute. You can follow her on Twitter: @senatorshoshana.

What our readers are saying

You don’t call the police, you talk to the people. You let the little girl know that her “screaming” is making it hard for you to work. You ask whether she can be a bit quieter. You maybe even buy a water or two. That’ll go a long way in showing you wish her well but need a bit of quiet. You maybe even let her know you have a few more hours of work left but will be done soon.

It’s not a police matter.

I get why there are permit laws. They can come in handy if there’s a dangerous situation, like someone selling tainted food or trying to do business everyday on the street and in the way. But a kid selling bottled water? No health concern there. It’s just not necessary to take it that far. How does this grown woman just not know how to talk to a child and ask her to be a bit quieter?

— Janice Holladay

Right on! Let's go after those lemonade stands next! These 8-year-olds think they can get away with anything. We'll teach them a lesson. Meanwhile, we have a man in the White House who is using the office for profit in a way never seen before, but that's probably OK.

— Clint Murray

Austin (the mother) sounds like a piece of work. Foul and disrespectful of the rights of others to quiet enjoyment of their home.

— Ed Montvidas

This actually could have been a good time for a learning experience of communicating and cooperating with each other. Explaining that the loud hollering of selling water on a constant basis was a nuisance to Ettel, as well as others close by, and politely explaining how she could still sell bottles by being less vocal could very well have gone a long way in the child's future.

— Tina Brunner Englehart

What others are saying

I’m a middle-aged white woman who saw numerous people of color selling water without a permit today and I did not call the police. IT’S NOT HARD. #permitpatti — Evil E (@EvilERUReady) June 23, 2018

Translation: #permitpatti & crew, aka White folks, still uncomfortable with us Negroes (or negro kids) in what they think is their space. Despite 101 ways to keep us segregated, we persist. So now their only hope is calling their guard-dogs aka the po-po to separate us again https://t.co/3ep9iwPq56 — Dr Asha (@DoctorAsha) June 23, 2018

The bigger issue is that #permitpatti may be correct: that an eight year old needs a license to sell water. It’s a symptom of the regulatory state. — Jay M. Wolman, CIPP/US (@wolmanj) June 24, 2018

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