The bright orange Jersey barriers, previously known as “parklets” when they protected diners outside of restaurants who were eating in parking spots, are now protecting families with young children who play flag football, known as the Beacon Bears, from adult road rage. The games are played in a grassy field adjacent to a volunteer-run Beacon Bears building in the middle of a parking lot at Memorial Park, which houses a snack bar and is a destination for kids to sit in front of and go to the bathroom at a porta-potty outside of the building during games and practice. For years, parking on the left side of the building has been blocked off during games and practices to protect players and fans.

Adults from other sporting events such as adult baseball and softball games scheduled at the same time at Memorial Park have reportedly been annoyed at the blocked off parking in front of the building, and have been storming the cones that are placed there by Beacon Bears coaches and parents, people who have been attending the young football games for years say.

Last weekend, a white woman participating in the softball game who wanted to drive through the cones but could not, was so incensed, that she yelled at other parents protecting the blocked parking area.

Shortly after the woman’s outrage, a white mini-SUV was seen by several people to be driving through the middle of Memorial Park at high speed. The vehicle’s path was through the grass, in between additional baseball diamonds where people usually set up volleyball nets, and slightly to the right of the tot park where children play on the playground.

Some Background

Three weeks ago, a white man in a black 4-door pickup truck drove himself and his child through the blocked off area in front of the Beacon Bears building. This was while 15 flag football fans sat on the ground of the parking lot in the shade of the front of the building while the snack bar was open. The afternoon sun was very hot, and the blocked off area outside of the snack shack was the only available shade.

The man removed the cones, and drove his large truck through. At first, everyone sitting on the ground, just inches away from his wheels, thought he was in a position of authority. Spectators later learned that he was not of any authority, and was simply a person used to moving parking blockades at his own digression at that parking lot.

What Happened With The Softball Game

Last weekend, during a double header of flag football, which consists of kids ages 7-14 and the family members who come to cheer them on, including younger siblings, were rivaled by an adult women’s softball team on a nearby baseball diamond. The team consisted of mainly white women and their men-folk during what some at the event said was a Breast Cancer Awareness themed game. A tent was set up at the softball diamond, and many of the female players wore hot pink tube socks.

Parking was tight, as it usually is on the weekend during games. Cars were parked all down the base of Memorial Park hill, which is normal for a day of Saturday games. If there are several cars, any seasoned Beaconite knows not to park deep into the parking lot near the field, as many cars pile up and make their own parking choices, sometimes blocking each other in. The driveway is gravel and not marked with parking spots.

At the end of the softball game, and at the height of the kids flag football game, the softball players and fans wanted to exit. They stated that the open lane of the parking lot was blocked by a double-parked car. They wanted to drive through the official parking blockade on the opposite (left) side of the Beacon Bears building where the spectators and children stand.

Earlier, they had taken to driving over traffic cones, according to people who saw them do it. A Beacon Bears parent then moved his car to replace the cones, so that softball cars could not drive through, flattening the cones. Some female softball players were upset, and began yelling at the flag football parents who set up the car blockade. One woman yelled: “Everything was fine until the football people showed up!” Which sounded sureal and straight out of a 1970’s kids coming-of-age movie.

According to people at the scene, the softball players called the Beacon police, who arrived to asses the situation. This was after an ambulance had been called by the softball people earlier to answer someone in need. At that time, a car had double-parked in the open lane on the opposite side of the Beacon Bears building.

The police officer determined that the Beacon Bears were within their right to block the section of the driveway to protect the players and families, which had been common practice over the years. He said that the driveway opening on the other side of the building was sufficient to be used as an exit. Unless that side had a double-parked car, which would need to be moved by the people who parked it.

According to people at the scene, the police officer wrote down the license plate of the car being used as a blockade, so that he could let the rest of the police force know that if police were called for this incident again, that the car was a known vehicle, and was there to protect from aggressive adults driving through where children are playing.

The Police Decision Did Not Stop The Adult Softball Players

After the police officer left, a woman who was initially screaming about the parking situation continued to scream at the parent who owned the car being used as a protective block. Another flag football parent, Tracy Way, who is well known to the South Avenue Elementary community as the Keeper Of The Lobby at South Avenue, stepped in to answer to the screaming softball woman and to keep the parking blockade strong.

Tracy and the owner of the protective car were by themselves confronting the angry team, until the softball woman got into her vehicle. Shortly after, a white mini-SUV could be seen speeding across the grass of Memorial Park, toward Route 52 where there are even more children playing.

After the angry woman left, the softball crowd was not done. A man confronted Tracy. Towering over her small frame, the man told Tracy that her communication style was all wrong, and this never would have happened if she had said things differently. Tracy, meanwhile, had moved a metal trash can to be closer to the protective car, since a softball participant wanted to squeeze through the protective car and the bleachers - where people were sitting watching flag football.

The trash can was filled with White Claw beer cans and Twisted Tea bottles. Every now and then, as the man berated Tracy, different softball players came to put newly empty cans into the trash can.

A child reported that softball players were smoking during soccer practice days prior. This past summer, Beacon’s City Administrator Chris White proposed a smoking ban of tobacco, vape and cannabis in all city parks, to “give people more teeth” to ask neighbors stop smoking during soccer games. Beacon’s City Council voted to approve the smoking ban weeks ago. While smoking anything during soccer games had not previously been noticed as even happening, it appears that smoking tobacco does on other fields. The smoking ban was inspired by the legalization of cannabis. But it looks like tobacco is the culprit in this case.

While the man told Tracy that she was the only one putting up a fight about the parking situation, Tracy tried telling the man that the flag football coaches supported her decision, but were busy on the field coaching a game. Other women including her teenage daughter stood behind her to show support.

When the man shouted at her: “Do you own this field?” and “Why do you let children play in this parking lot anyway?” (answer: the snack shop and bleachers are right there), Tracy calmly told him that the police officer stated that the parking could be arranged this way. A second man joined the first, and tried lecturing Tracy. When she retorted to him: “Let me ask you a question…” the second man shouted: “NO!” The women around Tracy continued to support her and spoke up to let the men know that the parking block was necessary.

The first man then encouraged the second man to walk away, and the tension receded. The rest of the softball team who who was still there broke down their tent, and lingered in the parking lot, drinking from various cans and making trips to the porta-potty. One woman, upon walking to her car, shouted an obscenity against Beacon, and then spit on the parking lot.

What Happens Next?

The leaders of the Beacon Bears wrote to Beacon’s Parks and Recreation Department Director, Mark Price, who accepts scheduling for these fields. He told the Beacon Bears directors that the softball team would not be allowed to book the field again, but this remains to be seen if they are to show up again.

According to the Beacon Bears, Mark had the orange barriers sent down to be placed on either side of the building, creating safe passage for children and adults to walk between the porta-potties, snack shop, and bleachers. Cars can exit through the other lane on the other side of the building. The entire parking lot is gravel, so there are no marked spaces. The entrance of the parking lot is paved, and is completely crumbling with potholes.

In order for the orange barriers to be effective, they need to be filled with water. Otherwise, they are light orange plastic blockades that wobble. When the restaurants had them, Beacon’s Highway Department dropped them off filled with water. Restaurant owners were unable to move them very easily, as they were so heavy. It remains to be seen if the Highway Department will fill these barriers up with water to make them more difficult to move at will.