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Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
751–760 of 763 posts
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#752Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Let's quickly drop the idea that this is the fault of nosey neighbors No, let's not. According to the article, the neighbor who called the cops asked the boy where he lived, "verified that it was just down the street, and proceeded to call nonetheless". Excuse me? What decent neighbor calls the cops on a neighbor's kid walking just down the street from his own house? I agree the law in question shouldn't even be on…
It puts neighbors in a bad situation. Yesterday there was a kid, probably about eight years old, outside my house wandering around by himself, yelling at passing cars. There are lots of kids in my neighborhood and I'm accustomed to them being loud when they're out playing but this kid was alone, going out into the road, and just acting a bit weird. It wasn't a kid I knew so I couldn't call the parents but calling the…
Ugh, speedbumps are so dangerous.
Sure, they make you slow down for them. But drivers now want to "make up" for that slow down. So they drive even faster between them.
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#753Earlier quoted context omitted.
I live in a vast Californian suburb dominated by single family residences built in the 90s. The homes are priced around the median for the area. The residents are split about 50/50 politically and racially plural. The majority are married and earn ever so slightly below median income. It's about as average as you can get. Note: I looked up these stats to make sure I got them right. They are mostly at the voting preci…
Move to a sane state. I live in the midwest, in a smaller town. You still see kids playing in the neighborhood and parks and running around. Kids walk and bike to school. Nobody would call the cops over a kid walking by himself unless he looked to be lost or in distress.
Utah has a free range parenting law on their books.
https://www.npr.org/2018/04/01/598630200/utah-passes-free-ra...
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#754If ever there was a bastardization of "justice"...
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#755My mother-in-law, also from Waco, took a bus alone to Fort Worth, changed buses, and continued on to Witchita Falls. All at age five.
For all of our nation’s ills, a child walking on his own block outside is a crime that warrants this extraordinary attention? I can’t believe the family didn’t sue the county.
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#756> 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…
Texas is so insane. SO INSANE
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#757>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 alw…
Kids from the project/poor neighborhood in metro cities still do this to a dangerous extent. I dunno what's a good balanced approach ..
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#758Earlier quoted context omitted.
> By this logic they should let you drive drunk until you hit someone too. I have said no such thing. The only implication of my position for drunk driving is that the law should not be able to punish you for it if you cause no harm. But that in no way means that, for example, a cop who sees you driving erratically can't pull you over, give you a breathalyzer test, find out that you're too drunk to drive, and lock yo…
I am not sure why a cop pulling you over for driving erratically is any different in principle than a cop pulling you over for traveling at an unsafe speed (again, for the purposes of this example, imagine a truly unsafe speed, not 5 mph over).
There are two differences.
First, if a cop pulls you over for speeding, it's not for "traveling at an unsafe speed". It's because you were going faster than the posted limit. The law says nothing whatever about such a speed being unsafe. In practice, cops usually don't pull people over just for speeding, but only for going significantly faster than the general flow of traffic. But that's only usually; cops in most jurisdictions have monthly or quarterly ticket quotas, and if it's getting close to the end of the quota period and they're behind on tickets, it's simple to go out to places where people routinely speed and start pulling everyone over. I have seen this happen.
"Driving erratically", unlike "going faster than the posted speed limit", is always a subjective judgment on the cop's part (in most jurisdictions it's something like "reckless driving" or "driving in a clearly unsafe manner"), but the whole point is that it's supposed to be rare; by definition most people on the road will not be driving recklessly and this kind of law can't be abused in the way I described above just to make a ticket quota.
However, the important difference I was talking about was not between speeding and "driving erratically", it was about under what circumstances the cop can write you a ticket that forces you to either pay a fine or come to court. Under our current laws, a cop can do that whenever he pulls you over--there will always be some traffic law you were violating. ("Driving erratically", or something similar, in itself is a traffic violation under current law.) Under the libertarian system I have been describing, the cop could not write you a ticket that forces you to either pay a fine or come to court unless you actually caused harm. He could take steps to prevent you from driving if you hadn't caused harm but were clearly not capable of driving safely, by an objective test (such as a breathalyzer), but he could not impose a fine or court appearance on you.
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#759Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am not sure why a cop pulling you over for driving erratically is any different in principle than a cop pulling you over for traveling at an unsafe speed (again, for the purposes of this example, imagine a truly unsafe speed, not 5 mph over).
There are two differences. First, if a cop pulls you over for speeding, it's not for "traveling at an unsafe speed". It's because you were going faster than the posted limit. The law says nothing whatever about such a speed being unsafe. In practice, cops usually don't pull people over just for speeding, but only for going significantly faster than the general flow of traffic. But that's only usually; cops in most ju…
My entire point here is that just because the system now allows the cops to be capricious doesn't mean we have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and say there is no speed that is so unsafe that it warrants punishment.
Re: Mom handcuffed, jailed for 8-year-old son walking half a mile
#760Earlier quoted context omitted.
Doesn't that lead to vastly unfair sentencing? For example you could target a specific group with harsher sentences, or use minor crimes to stick people with the maximum sentence. Everyone is guilty of something.
Yes. 20% longer for black men for the same crime. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/11/16/black... (Some would say this is the point.)
Not at all surprising but still horrific...