What kind of parents buy their 7-year-old son a dirt bike in a city where dirt bikes are illegal?
If you're inclined to say "irresponsible ones" and feel tempted to put that label on Gerard Mungo Sr. and Lakisa Dinkins, read on before you do.
Mungo and Dinkins are the parents of 7-year-old Gerard Mungo Jr. Eight days ago, a city police officer arrested Gerard Jr. after confiscating his dirt bike. The officer took the boy to the Eastern District station, where Mungo Sr. and Dinkins say he spent two hours handcuffed to a bench.
If there were a Richter scale that measured outrage, this incident would have blown the needle off the thing. Mayor Sheila Dixon and Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm were quick to condemn the arrest, while stressing that dirt bikes are a no-no in this town.
"It is illegal to have a dirt bike in Baltimore City," Dixon said at a news conference Friday. Hamm added that "dirt bikes are dangerous."
Some elaboration might be in order. Dirt bikes aren't dangerous in and of themselves. They're inanimate objects. What makes them dangerous - and handguns and knives and, oh, I don't know, BB guns maybe? - is the way some people choose to use them.
It's the reckless way that Baltimore's "dirt bike hooligans" - if I may paraphrase a line from a Sun editorial of 2002 - ride them that led to the ban. That law does not preclude the possibility that some people can ride dirt bikes responsibly.
Mungo Sr. feels he's one of those people. He feels the same about Mungo Jr.
Young Gerard, Mungo Sr. said, has never ridden a dirt bike without adult supervision.
That includes the one police confiscated last week, which Mungo Sr. bought Gerard Feb. 21 when he turned 7. And it includes the smaller model that still sits in the family's residence in the 2100 block of E. Federal St. The black mini-cycle also has something hanging from the handlebars: a black helmet with motorcycle gloves inside.
The helmet and gloves might settle for many people the issue of how responsible Gerard's parents are. But for Mungo Sr. and Dinkins, this isn't about their conduct as parents. Nor is it about any money they might win in a lawsuit. It's about what they perceive as gross police misconduct.
"I'm not worried about money," Mungo Sr. said. "I'm worried about my son's well-being. I don't want him to be one of those people running around saying, `I hate the police.' And I don't want him being a racist running around saying, `I hate white people.'"
