Teens Handcuffed for Selling Bottled Water on National Mall Offered Jobs.
WASHINGTON — D.C.’s delegate to Congress said she met with U.S. Park Police over the handcuffing of three teens who were trying to make a buck selling bottled water to passers-by on the National Mall during this hot mid-Atlantic summer.
Two 17-year-old boys and one 16-year-old boy were detained June 22 at 12th Street and Jefferson Drive NW shortly after 5 p.m. Sgt.
"And I don’t believe the image of young African-American men handcuffed on the ground for selling bottled water is a reflection of my city."
The teens were released to their guardians with a verbal warning, police said.
Del.
"Chief MacLean said he and others in the chain of command will remind his officers at roll call that they have great discretion when dealing with juveniles and others who are caught vending illegally on the Mall.
Of course, we both want to protect the National Mall from degradation by unlicensed vending, but it is critical the Park Police uses appropriate action to confront it and prevent what happened last week from occurring again."
Norton said the Park Police’s invaluable service "mitigating crime around parks" in the District, "not the incident of June 22," should "define the Park Police."
"Chief MacLean wants to use that incident to further inform their juvenile policy and improve their encounters with young people in the District," she added.

The images of the teens, who are between 16 and 17 years old, with their hands handcuffed behind their backs sparked outrage on social media, after an onlooker snapped several photos of the incident and posted it online.
According to the AtlantaBlackStar, critics saw the action of the officers who were in plainclothes as excessive and likely racially motivated.
U.S. Park Police Spokesperson Sgt.
Anna Rose maintains the teens did not have the proper permits required to sell goods on the mall, adding that the three of them were placed in handcuffs “for the safety of the officers and the individuals.” Park authorities added in a statement that the teenagers were let off with a warning about vending without a proper permit and released with no charges.
D.C. Council member Charles Allen questioned the methods employed by the arresting officers, though.
In a letter addressed to police authorities, Allen noted that the teens posed no risk: I do not understand why the enforcement cannot take place with uniformed personnel and actions less severe than handcuffing individuals suspected of the sales.
I can’t help but think how the reaction by these same officers might have varied if different children had set up a quaint hand-painted lemonade stand in the same spot.
I observe any number of lemonade stands in these areas by neighborhood children.
Mr. Bell has offered to equip two of the teenagers with useful IT skills, including training them to become iPhone screen technicians.
“I’m an entrepreneur myself, and I love seeing young people having an interest in working for themselves,” Bell told WJLA.

Consider: Less than 25% of the 50 billion plastic bottles used each year in the U.S. are recycled.
The demand for recycled plastic has dropped: Lower oil costs mean manufacturers can buy virgin plastic cheaper than recycled plastics.
In light of all this, Sustainable Tallahassee wants to reduce the use of throw-away plastic bottles.
Thus, the 50,000-plus festival goers would have no choice but to purchase unsustainable bottled water.
Dave researched several options then decided to make the Water Wagon himself.
To our knowledge there are no other cities in Florida, and only a few other cities in the entire country, that have a municipality-owned mobile water wagon.
For giving our community this plastic-reducing “gift”, the Water Wagon was awarded a 2017 “Energy Innovator” award by ReThink Energy Florida (http://www.rethinkenergyflorida.org/).
Every step we take as individuals and as a community to reduce the demand for single-use plastics is a step forward for sustainability.
Thanks to Dave Roberts and Paul Hurst, the Water Wagon is an important acknowledgment of what can be accomplished locally.
So, bring your refillable water bottle to the next city sponsored event and let’s Take Back the Tap.

The notice had been in effect since Sunday morning after a routine water sample from one of the city’s water sources tested positive for E. Coli bacteria.
The all-clear signal was first given when the City activated the Code Red automated phone alert system to inform residents that the “City of Mount Shasta in conjunction with the State Water Resources Control Board, and the Siskiyou County Environmental Health Division, has determined that, through investigation of the springs and comprehensive testing of the water, your water is safe to drink.
Shasta drinking water system were affected by the notice; the notice did not state that it was unsafe to use the water for bathing; Mt.
They posted they were using bottled water for food preparation and purchased pre-washed bagged produce and bagged ice from an out-of-town source.
A sample was also collected from the Cold Springs water source which tested positive for E. coli (one part per 100 ml), according to Lieutenant Joe Restine.
They contacted the State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water, which instructed them to notify customers about the contamination within 24 hours.
One of the common questions the City answered on its website was, “Why did it take two days for customers to be notified?” “The sample that was positive for E. coli was collected and analyzed on Friday,” according to the City.
Mount Shasta City Public Works director Rod Bryan said the State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water re-tested the Cold Springs water source on Sunday, and the samples were negative for E. coli.
The city does not routinely chlorinate the water, said Bryan.
The order only affected residents within the city or people using city water.

Plastic bottles could be worse than climate change.
Should you ever travel to one of the many uninhabited islands that dot the most remote reaches of Earth’s oceans, chances are you’ll find plastic bottles littering the shore.
“[Without change], the ocean is expected to contain one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish [by weight].” Even if recycled, the sheer number of them being produced means conservation efforts are struggling to keep up.
Figures show that 480 billion plastic bottles were produced globally in 2016 and less than half of those were recycled.
Modal Trigger “When littered they often end up in the sea where they break up in small pieces, killing marine life that mistakes them for food.” The organization reports that of all the waste collected by its volunteers, 10 percent of items are plastic bottles.
“By avoiding bottled water and refilling your own bottle you can help conserve virgin resources and protect our pristine nature,” it said.
The irony is that producing one liter of bottled water typically requires three liters of water, so the impact of our on-the-go drinking obsession goes beyond the end waste.
Experts in the United States say the crude oil required in meeting the country’s manufacturing demand for bottles is the same as the fuel required to power 1.3 million cars for a year.
Part of the blame for the surge in usage lies in China and other developing Asian nations, where education about water sanitation has seen the population move towards bottled water.
Modal Trigger And awareness in the West about the health impacts of reusing plastic bottles has also grown recently.

Quite a splash: Cincinnati native artist drinks in exposure from LifeWTR bottle design.
CINCINNATI — It could have been that watercolor she made in eighth grade, the one that hung in the Ohio governor’s mansion for a year.
It could have been the 100 percent support she received from her mother in her pursuit of art.
Or it could just be her raw talent and passionate drive.
No matter what instigated it, Adrienne Gaither, 29, who grew up in Cincinnati, was thrilled to find out last fall that her art was chosen to be the label for Pepsi’s new line of purified water, LifeWTR.
"I was told that LifeWTR found me because they were searching for emerging artists," she said.
The theme of the product, which debuted in February, is, "Inspiration is as essential to life as water."
"Consumers are hungry for creativity and searching for inspiration," said Alison Lefleur, associate manager of brand communications.
"We hope this encourages them to hydrate, too."
As a WCPO Insider, you can learn how many bottles Gaither’s work will adorn and which "guilty pleasures" keep her coming back to Cincinnati.

It was found in the water supply in the area along LaPlaisance Road south of Hull Road to the south end of Bolles Harbor on June 28.
This in that area are recommended to boil water, according to the city which expects to resolve the problem in the next 48 hours.
The bacteria can make you sick, and are a particular concern for people with weakened immune systems.
The city released the following statement: DO NOT DRINK THE WATER WITHOUT BOILING IT FIRST.
Boiling kills bacteria and other organisms in the water.
Continue using boiled or bottled water until further notice.
The symptoms above are not caused only by organisms in drinking water.
People at increased risk should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers.
For more information, please contact City of Monroe Water System at 734-384-9150, 734-384-9152, or 734-241-5947 (24 hours).
This notice is being sent to you by the City of Monroe Water System.

1 Million Plastic Bottles Bought Every Minute, That’s Nearly 20,000 Every Second.
A new report highlights the astounding amount of plastic bottles humans go through and the environmental havoc it wreaks.
In the U.S., Americans went through about 50 billion plastic water bottles last year with a dismal 23 percent recycling rate.
A North American study last year found that 22 million pounds of plastic goes into the waters of the Great Lakes each year.
The researchers from Rochester Institute of Technology said that Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland and Detroit are the worst contributors to plastic pollution.
Not only that, researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia and Imperial College London found that 99 percent of seabirds will swallow plastic by 2050.
But Annie Leonard, the executive director of Greenpeace USA notes that’s not necessarily true and is a wasteful way to spend our dollars.
"A four-year review of the bottled water industry in the U.S. and the safety standards that govern it, including independent testing of over 1,000 bottles of water found that there is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.
In fact tap water is tested more frequently than bottled water," Leonard wrote.
"In fact, a lot of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is just treated water from our municipal water systems; the same place our tap water comes from."

Nestle is prioritizing coffee, pets, and bottled water and that says a lot about the world today.
This week the food and drink company said it would buy back around $20.8 billion worth of its shares over a three-year period, amid growing pressure from New York-based hedge fund Third Point, owner of 1% of Nestle stock.
Coffee We live in a world of workaholics.
Pet care We might be better connected, but we are also lonelier than ever.
Western folk are also choosing to work longer and settle down with kids later.
More people means more food, but simply consuming calories is no longer good enough.
Food has to be of the right sort to make a difference to a child’s growth and development.
Bottled water In an age of wellness, sugar is now the enemy.
But living longer also means staying healthier for longer.
And in the world of wellness, margarine and butter don’t stand a chance.

Handcuffed because they were selling water?
Each of those incidents bothered me, still bothers me, but for some reason none has rent my soul as much as the incident in Washington, D.C., last week – an incident that didn’t even result in a death.
Dwight Pettiford, former U.S. Park Police chief and a former high-ranking Durham cop, told me Wednesday, “After all my years in law enforcement, I understand why they handcuffed them initially, but after you handcuff them, you’ve obviously patted them down and realize there’s no threat.
They were selling water!
Rather than apologize, Rose immediately attempted to justify their actions by saying the teens were handcuffed for the “safety of the officers and of the individuals.” The boys, she said, were given a verbal warning and released to their guardians.
Why couldn’t they have done that without handcuffing and detaining them and forcing them to be gawked at by visitors from all over the world who no doubt thought and still think they were three dangerous criminals?
[These teens were selling water on the National Mall.
Do you think all of those people have permits?” No.
Barry Saunders Ethan Hyman ehyman@newsobserver.com That won’t happen, though, because it might serve to make those kids feel they’re important, that they matter, that they, too, are America.
To those people, I say – nothing.