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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

#211

Post by Spoom »

lamontcg wrote: post #178
VancouverMan wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> smile politely all the way to avoid escalating. That attitude, while perhaps more comfortable in some ways, just enables the sort of behaviour you encountered, and apparently disliked, from that woman. A blunt response like, "Fuck off. Don't talk to my son.", followed by walking away from her, may have been harsher and not particularly polite, but perhaps it'd cause a person like her to avoid such meddling in the f…

> A blunt response like, "Fuck off. Don't talk to my son.", followed by walking away from her, may have been harsher and not particularly polite, but perhaps it'd cause a person like her to avoid such meddling in the future. Or it means she's definitely calling CPS next time.

Or calling them this time, immediately, and mentioning "belligerent parents" who "may be intoxicated". CPS starts up a file on you and now you have a lot of people looking into your house, kids, and family. Maybe the police see an easy arrest, or easy fines. Is it worth it to make a point here? Even at the potential cost of your or your family's freedom?

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

#212

Post by hanoz »

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.

Right in the middle of a similar sized European city, very built up, loads of traffic - the children have to walk to school, from aged 6. Parents are actually not allowed to take them in.

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

#213

Post by alexb_ »

And this is why you never, without any exception, make any sort of statement to police. It does not matter how friendly they appear, a police officer will NEVER be asking you questions for your own good. It's unfortunate we have a police force so corrupt and despicable that this needs to be our policy, but we do.

>She obtained a lawyer, who told her that if she admitted guilt, she could participate in a pretrial diversion program that would close the case.

Fuck this.

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

#214

Post by ghastmaster »

ceejayoz wrote: post #21
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?

Popehat has a good article on maximum sentences and why "faces a max of x years in jail" tends to be nothing like the actual probable consequence. https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...

He is referring to federal sentencing.

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

#215

Post by willcipriano »

wccrawford wrote: post #191
klipt wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundamentally it's the fault of the politicians who passed the law and the people who voted for them. If you don't want to be arrested for breaking a stupid law, vote for someone who will repeal it. Sure the police could in theory neglect to do their job which is enforcing the law but then they'd probably just get fired and replaced by police who did do their job.

> If you don't want to be arrested for breaking a stupid law, vote for someone who will repeal it. Easy to say, but you're voting for them for a lot more than that. If that's the only thing you care about, you can easily vote for that person. If you care about other things, it gets a lot, lot harder.

But I'm a green guy, we all know it we pull the yellow lever civilization will end!

A party that never loses an election has no incentive to do anything for the voters.

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

#216

Post by andromeduck »

Bhurn00985 wrote: post #28
commandlinefan wrote: post #17

My house was 0.99 miles (seriously) from my kid's elementary school - the cutoff for bus service was 1 mile, so my kids were classified as "walkers" to elementary school. I went ahead and drove them myself anyway, but the school seemed perfectly fine with them walking 0.99 miles each way every day.

I did the same from the age of 7 and I turned out fine you know.

I moved around around a lot as a kid, immigrant family & all, but one year we lived in a house whose back yard opened up to a big park with a small playground, 2-3 minute walk from the gate and visible from the porch which I'd sometimes occasion while my parents were busy studying or doing paperwork of some sort and couldn't take me.

It only took 2-3 weeks before some Karen called the cops on me and CPS got involved. The process was insane and honestly pretty traumatizing to both me & my parents. The people were awful. the process was stupid and traumatizing and I suspect the stress it created, and missed work/study opportunites that it resulted for my parents had quite a bit to do with their falling appart & divorce a year or two later.

I think I was around 8 at the time too.

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

#218

Post by jstarfish »

brightball wrote: post #173
kelseyfrog wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 alw…

Is there some type of penalty/law for intentionally using the police to harass people?

"Abuse of emergency services," but this isn't that.

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

#219

Post by nineplay »

bhelkey wrote: post #69
nineplay wrote: post #38

> As they stood on her porch, the officers told Wallace that her son could have been kidnapped and sex trafficked. "'You don't see much sex trafficking where you are, but where I patrol in downtown Waco, we do,'" said one of the cops, according to Wallace > "I still didn't know it was illegal and I said, 'I don't know,'" says Wallace. "That's when the cop replied, 'Okay, I'm going to have to arrest you.'" Let's quick…

> Child services had the family agree to a safety plan, which meant Wallace and her husband could not be alone with their kids for even a second. Their mothers—the children's grandmothers—had to visit and trade-off overnight stays in order to guarantee the parents were constantly supervised. After two weeks, child services closed Wallace's case, finding the complaint was unfounded. This is the fault of the nosey neig…

When I write software, I know that users will do dumb things and it is my responsibility to write my code in such a way that they can cause no damage.

The legal system should have similar responsibilities. If citizens can report crimes, some citizens will incorrectly report non-crimes. If the legal system can't handle that, the that is entirely the fault of the legal system.

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

#220

Post by wil421 »

dsego wrote: post #68
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.

I walked 2km every to and from school, albeit in a small rural european town. Sometimes when the weather was bad parents would come to pick me up.

This article is complete nonsense and I’m glad I don’t live in Waco, Texas. Your experience was similar to mine I used to walk a mile to school or ride my bike to a friends and then walk. I pick my daughter up near a private school everyday and there are 100 or so kids walking under 13.

There are 8 year olds walking around my neighborhood every weekend and nobody bats an eye.

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