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Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

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Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#41

Post by CodeMage »

pavon wrote: post #11
kurisufag wrote: post #3

>A woman one block away had called the cops to report a boy walking outside alone. That lady had actually asked Aiden where he lived, verified that it was just down the street, and proceeded to call nonetheless. The cops picked up Aiden on his own block. this is the real problem here. who in their right mind calls the cops on a kid walking around his own neighborhood?

There will always be people who overreact and call the police for inappropriate reasons. That isn't the problem. The problem is that the police, and then the DA, chose to make this a criminal matter. Either of them could and should have dismissed the issue after verifying that the child was not being put into a harmful environment.

> There will always be people who overreact and call the police for inappropriate reasons. That isn't the problem.

It's not the problem, but it is a problem. There's no reason we shouldn't try to work on both.

> The problem is that the police, and then the DA, chose to make this a criminal matter. Either of them could and should have dismissed the issue after verifying that the child was not being put into a harmful environment.

Yes, but what's their incentive to do so? The more I look at the society in this country, the more I see that the incentives for LEOs are perfectly aligned with corruption and abuse of power.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#42

Post by no_wizard »

Maximus9000 wrote: post #6

> Waco, Texas What? If this draconian policy is happening in Texas, the land of the free, can I assume it's even worse in the rest of North America? I hope Texans are up-in-arms about this government overreach.

I don't think Texas or any other conservative state that touts "small government" in practice really practice this in any substantial way, especially as you start looking more locally.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#43

Post by kelseyfrog »

kurisufag wrote: post #3

>A woman one block away had called the cops to report a boy walking outside alone. That lady had actually asked Aiden where he lived, verified that it was just down the street, and proceeded to call nonetheless. The cops picked up Aiden on his own block. this is the real problem here. who in their right mind calls the cops on a kid walking around his own neighborhood?

> who in their right mind calls the cops on a kid walking around his own neighborhood?

I wish I knew. My children have had the cops called on them for playing in our front yard. I wish they could spend their afternoons climbing trees and playing in the grass like I did growing up, but there's a group of people who see children playing outside of direct parent supervision as a categorically dangerous activity.

I'm always struck when I take my kids to school and see the high schoolers gathered around waiting for their bus to pick them up. You wouldn't even know they exist otherwise - there's no other signs of their existence, no groups of them playing at the park, no sounds of games in the streets, no hoots or hollers from down the block - just nothing, silence. Each house is an island and each teen a castaway from 4pm when they get home to 7am when they leave for school, severed from the neighborhood and each other while the same folks say, "How come kids don't play outside anymore?"

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#44

Post by BitwiseFool »

DwnVoteHoneyPot wrote: post #29
pavon wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be people who overreact and call the police for inappropriate reasons. That isn't the problem. The problem is that the police, and then the DA, chose to make this a criminal matter. Either of them could and should have dismissed the issue after verifying that the child was not being put into a harmful environment.

Don't forget about the child safety services/social workers - they should have to be reasonable too.

I suspect child services / social workers are punished far more severely for false negatives than false positives. I think it is safe to say the outrage of failing to save a child would outweigh the embarrassment of a false positive such as this. I could easily see major news outlets and local politicians raising hell for failing to stop abuse but raising far less hell for something like this.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#46

Post by giarc »

rlkf wrote: post #25

In my twice-the-size European city, kids walk twice that distance to school and back home again, alone. Every. Single. Day. If this place isn't safe enough for kids to walk by themselves, maybe the question should be raised whether the police and municipal government really is doing their job the way they're supposed to.

The irony is one of the officers claimed the boy could have been kidnapped or taken into a sex trafficking ring. And their solution is to arrest the mom, not to take care of the kidnapping or sex trafficking.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#47

Post by hedora »

ldh0011 wrote: post #2

This is ridiculous, kids can (and should) be a little bit independent. It was in his own neighborhood. And 20 years in prison as a maximum punishment?

If the kid is going to spend 30 minutes unsupervised anyway, why not bump it up to 20 years?

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#48

Post by josefresco »

mox1 wrote: post #27
bradlys wrote: post #19

Police just power tripping as usual. I wonder why they don't name and shame the officers - clearly these are the people doing wrong and should be removed from their positions.

The local DA is the person to look to here. Cops don't persecute cases. Clearly the cops started this stupid ball rolling, but anyone at the local attorneys office could have just chosen not to persecute. Instead they offered the plea deal.

Current DA looks to be Barry Johnson: https://www.co.mclennan.tx.us/282/District-Attorney

Not sure if he was the DA for this case.

*Yes I'm fully comfortable publishing a public link for a public official.

Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile

#49

Post by beaned »

SirensOfTitan wrote: post #14

Vaguely relevant, from Peter Grey's book "Free to Learn": > In our culture today, parents and other adults overprotect children from possible dangers in play. We seriously underestimate children’s ability to take care of themselves and make good judgments [...] Our underestimation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy—by depriving children of freedom, we deprive them of the opportunities they need to learn how to take c…

Nobody wants to be the one parent out of a thousand who has their kid scooped up off the street because they were letting their kid explore and be free.

Edit: Not sure why I'm being downvoted, this comment isn't a judgment on anyone or promoting any type of child-rearing philosophy. It's just an obvious truth. Nobody wants to be that parent, and that obviously influences behavior.

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