New York Bureaucrats Try To Outlaw Childhood

Why? Because it might cause a risk of injury:

State bureaucrats have identified a potentially deadly hazard facing our children this summer - freeze tag.

That's right, officials have decided the age-old street game - along with Wiffle Ball, kickball and dodgeball - poses a "significant risk of injury."

And classics like Capture the Flag, Steal the Bacon and Red Rover are also deemed dangerous in new state regulations for day camps.

"It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside," said state Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-St. Lawrence County).

"I don't think Wiffle Ball is a dangerous sport."

The Health Department created a list of supposedly risky recreational activities - which also includes more perilous pursuits like archery, scuba and horseback riding - in response to a state law passed in 2009.

The law sought to close a loophole that legislators said allowed too many indoor camp programs to operate without oversight.

Under the new rules, any program that offers two or more organized recreational activities - with at least one of them on the risky list - is deemed a summer camp and subject to state regulation.

Ritchie said the regulations could cripple small recreational programs, forcing them to pay a $200 fee to register as a summer camp and provide medical staff.

Being a kid causes a risk of injury. That's life. Kids do things that sometimes cause injury, but they also go to camp to have fun and based on the new regulations in New York, they'd be better off playing football in the middle of the street at home.  Dodging cars is good exercise and you don't have some bureaucrat with a stick up his butt getting in your way.