An 8-year-old girl selling lemonade near an Ohio food festival had her operation shut down by police after the organizer of the festival complained to police.
Police actually marched up to the little girl’s stand & ordered her to close because they said she didn’t have the required permit.
Ah yes, because if you want to make money in this country the government has got to get paid first.
Asa Baker was selling lemonade in an alley outside the business where her father works near the Alliance, Ohio Rib and Food Festival when she said a cop came & shut her down.
“…she says she saw a police officer coming toward her thinking he was going to buy some lemonade. Instead, he asked her to shut it down.
“Well, they were really sad that they had to shut me down but they gave me $20 to try and pay for it,” said Asa, who said that the $20 was intended to be used to buy a permit which she didn’t have.
“I could definitely tell he did not want to shut her down, but, I mean, you get a call, he has to do it. He definitely did the right thing, you know, in the situation he was put in,” said Katrina Moore, Asa’s mother.
“We looked it up and it was pretty much anywhere in Ohio. You have to have a license and I’ve never heard of that,” said Kyle Clark, Asa’s Dad.
He is right. In 2019, FOX 8 reported that there are only 14 states in which a permit or license is not required to sell lemonade at a lemonade stand.
Although police, with rare exception, are not going to enforce it, Ohio is not one of those states.
Alliance Police Lieutenant Don Wensel says the city is not out targeting kids running lemonade stands, but in this case, there was a complaint from the festival organizers who seemed incredibly torn themselves about filing the complaint.”
How about the TV station stick a camera in front of the face of the festival organizer and force them to answer questions about shutting this little girl’s stand down.