Is this /s? I didn't read anything about a crime or kids with criminal intent, just a dad being told that the park was for <5 year olds to play in (which is ridiculous but a different issue).
That's a weird article. It's weird how one-sided the story is: because clearly law enforcement would tell a different narrative if they had been asked for comment. It is strange how the father claims that the issue was the football.
But it is strange that, if the park rules say that only children up to Age Five are allowed, why the father thinks this is so unjust and so horrible. It certainly makes sense to me, that keeping small children safe could involve restricting the age group. So many things are restricted to narrow age-groups for children. Because of different maturity and physique and needs.
If these parents deliberately chose an Age Five park to go play in [and they knew exactly what its name is before they even arrived], then they should've made themselves aware of the Park Rules (which are not too far away to read if you walk up to the sign. Park Rules are usually posted near every entrance and every main walkway!) And they have no right to be angry that the police intervened and had a chat with them, even if the "football toss" was an extreme red herring.
I don't see anything wrong in a community wanting parents to know and abide by those rules. They aren't difficult or obscure or unjust.
No, the children are not criminals. A minor is subject to their parents' responsibility, and the parents are the ones who placed their children into the park, and they are responsible for their children being there. Any liability or criminality is going to fall on the responsible adults.
Calling on the cops because one person in an undercrowded park, toss a ball? The cops actually acting on that report?
Maybe if the police had different narrative, they would have answered; from the article mentioned: "I reached out to the township and the superintendent of the Lower Merion Police Department on Monday and heard back from neither."
So it was likely a ludicrous report, and a ludicrous reaction for the local police department, that doesn't stand the light of a local newspaper.