10-year-old walked less than a mile to a dollar store, prompting a passerby to call police, who arrested his mom for reckless conduct.
A boy in north Georgia went for a walk. It landed his mother in jail | CNN
When I was 7, I would mow a lawn for 10$ and then ride my bike to a movie rental store and rent video games. It was about 5 miles away.
When I was 8 or so, I rode the subway to the end of the line and back just for fun...
Arrest the passerby for wasting police time and resources
The onlooker called the police because they observed a child walking alone along a rural highway with no shoulder or sidewalk. There's plenty of very reportable reasons for a child to be walking alone along the highway and plenty of perfectly normal reasons for that to happen
Honestly the police and prosecutor are the only ones who are in the wrong. The police should have simply stopped by the boy to make sure all was well, give them a ride home if possible, and notify the parents so they can take it from there. Charging the parent with Reckless Conduct for this incident is absolutely bonkers
@Trainguyrom @firewyre Better idea for people who observe a child walking where there's no sidewalk and think it's a problem: call the damned transportation department and demand proper infrastructure!
Then whip him on the public square.
this is from december and she has a gofundme for her legal defense apparently (might be : https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-parentsusas-fight-for-brits-parental-rights )
Of course in the US
Two things. One : that is ridiculous overreach.
Two : we shouldn’t accept a society so dangerous our kids can’t explore and have fun..
It's not dangerous, as long as you manage to evade the police.
Your second point is really difficult for me as a parent with a new kid. Feels like we "know" so much more about serial killers / bad things that happen to kids that we're terrified of letting them do anything.
Of course in this case it would have been trivially solved by the city just adding sidewalks, but that feels like another point here.
heard someone say “these kids will never have a summer like ‘85” and that frustrates me. I remember as a kid exploring the whole town with my friends. Predators or dangerous people was not so common. We should work towards getting that high trust society back. The type where we can leave our doors unlocked at night..
Probably unrealistic in cities!
Of course in this case it would have been trivially solved by the city just adding sidewalks, but that feels like another point here
It sounds like the family lives just outside of city limits of a small town, so a sidewalk or trail would involve significant investment for the benefit of very few people. I think in this instance its not actually an infrastructure problem but simply a challenge of where some people choose to live.
When you choose to live outside of town you're specifically choosing to always drive everywhere, and to receive no city services at all, and you're subjecting your kids who lack the same freedoms that you do to the same choices. Plenty of people choose the individualism of not receiving city services in exchange for being alone in the woods
As much as I'd love a world where everyone has a sidewalk, once you're out in the sticks it just becomes really hard to make sense to put a trail or sidewalk there. Especially because even if you imagine a world where every town is connected together by a dedicated cycle trail, said trail would ideally not run directly parallel to the noisy highway
That's good parenting, most definitely a good instinct to have.
When I was a kid in the 60s, during the school year, I walked a mile to and from school, starting at age 5.
On weekends or summers, I would eat breakfast, jump on my bike, and not be back until dinner at 5 (The Rule). I had no ID, no money, no phone, no watch, no water, no food, nothing. And my mom had no idea where I was, either.
If I got thirsty, I'd knock on a door, and ask for a glass of water, and always got one. If I needed to know what time it was, I'd ask someone. I got pretty good at judging the time of day by the setting sun, and could always get home before 5. I never felt unsafe, as long as I could avoid the Robolotto brothers.
I never thought rural Georgia would be so car-brained about it but I guess I'm not surprised
Was it a dangerous walk? This, too, was subjective. The prosecutor, Emma Harper, certainly thought so. Later, in a phone call to Patterson’s attorney, David DeLugas, which DeLugas legally recorded and shared with CNN, the prosecutor called it “a busy highway with no sidewalk” and said, “It’s not walkable. It’s not safe … That’s not a thing that you do here. Because you’re gonna get hit by a car.”
Instead of building sidewalks, they arrest working moms, amazing.
My mother sent me to the corner store for milk when I was 6. Should I call the cops now and stool her out?
I grew up in a small town, by the time i was 6 or 7 i did groceries with my bike. When i was 10 we went pretty much everywhere by bus, bike, inline skates or by foot. The next city was like 10km away where we would traverse all the time. My mom should be in Auschwitz i guess.
Yeah, I definitely walked further than a mile everyday to and from school from 7-14. Sketchiest thing was the old dude handing out those mini Bibles trying to indoctrinate children and shitty drivers.
America: "We will arrest you if you let a child out unsupervised"
Also America "kids sit in front of the screen at home all day."
Also also America " if somebody accidentally runs over your child with a car they will get a 6 month license suspension"
Also also also America "We think crime is way up even though its at record lows and a leading cause of death here is automobile accidents"
Dumbest country on earth. You cannot change my mind.
They do. This story is just because backward ass red state. In my neighborhood there are kids playing around all the time.
Wait I thought CNN was trash, this was a good article.
The really weird thing is that back before the 1990s, when it was common for kids to be free range, there was far more stranger abductions and violent crime than there is today. We just hear about everything so quickly and so much that people think they are now living in a more dangerous time. But then that was the plan since 9/11 - have Americans live in constant fear so the government could take over.
If this is in America, I honestly don’t blame the cops. There are republicans lurking out there.
Did you not read the article? Yes, it's in America. It happened in Blue Ridge, Georgia.
Pathetic. My sister and I used to explore around the whole city when we were that age. We'd walk streets and roads, explore parks and trails, visit malls across town, get into mischief like sneaking into people's backyards, exploring abandoned properties, and building forts in the woods. Some of my strongest memories are of the adventures we went on.
You know what the worst thing that happened to us was? The occasional scrape or bruise from falls when climbing on shit. We both remembered all the phone numbers we needed to know and my sister, being a bit older than me, was very streetwise and knew the layout of the city like the back of her hand. We did our own purchasing, bought our own food, tended our own wounds, and so on.
My sister grew up into one of the smartest and most independent people I've ever met.
“I stopped to ask him if he was okay and he needed help, and he lied, and said that his mother works here at the post office,” the caller said. “And then he just took off away from me.”
Which is exactly that id want my kids to do, if some random person pulled up next to them in a vehicle. When in doubt get the fuck out of there
Yeah. Literally a smart kid. Quick thinking.
Sounds like he was taught about stranger danger. Good parenting.
It was very early 1980s and I was maybe 10 or 11. I went on a 10 mile bike ride from my house to a friend’s house in another town. According to Google maps it was an hour bike ride. Pretty sure it took me much longer. And I’d guess my parents had no clue I did it.
Seriously, I regularly did 12 miles round-trip on my bike down roads with no sidewalk or bike lane at 12 to see my friend who lived in the bad part of town. I guess my parents would be felons by today's standards.
Edit: hi again! I'm not stalking you, I promise!
I'm in my 40s and now I realize that my Parents would have likely been arrested several times over if I were a kid today. Hell I Imagine most of us would be in the same boat.
I mean on weekends or during the summer I was told to get out of the house, be with friends, have fun and told to be home either for dinner or by the time the street lights came on and if I wasn't going to be home in time then to find a phone and call my parents and let them know. Hell I could be like miles/Kilometers from home at any given moment. I could be in a friends house and their parents offered me dinner.
I was like any kid, I got up to no good. I stole candy sometimes. I once opened a Captain Planet action figure in a store cause I wanted the power ring that was inside. I got in trouble at school cause one time during recess me and my friends just decided to start cussing at the top of our lungs.
I'd hate to be a kid today. hell, I'd hate to be a parent today.
I mean on weekends or during the summer I was told to get out of the house, be with friends, have fun and told to be home either for dinner or by the time the street lights came on and if I wasn’t going to be home in time then to find a phone and call my parents and let them know. Hell I could be like miles/Kilometers from home at any given moment. I could be in a friends house and their parents offered me dinner.
Sounds like what most kids were doing from 300BC up to 1980AD
When I was in primary school in the early 90s we used to get offered a lift by the local milkman who often used to be on the way past when we were walking home.
There'd be at least 4 of us. We'd throw our school bags in to the gap between his insulated box on the tray (full of milk) and the head board of the cab, then jump up and hold on the headboard so our legs would hold the bags in place. Off we'd go down the main road - heads sticking over the cab, wind in our hair - hitting 60kph with nothing between us and falling out but the fact we were holding on to the headboard.
I see front page news blasting parents for their kid sticking their head out a sunroof in a carpark and I'm like... man, our folks would have been arrested back in the day.
I hate today, I hate yesterday, I hate tomorrow.
You lot really hate walking don't you
I used to walk to my elementary school (roughly ages 5-10) which was a mile away. Lots of kids in my town walked to school.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Etan_Patz
This was the case that really changed the way kids were treated in the US.
Before this, it was normal for kids to travel great distances on their own.
That’s funny.
1 kid goes missing, all of America changes how they act.
100s of kids die in school shootings, America does nothing.
Laws are waayy to often based on single cases of something. Same with the whole "dont microwave your cat" stuff. So many have to suffer because some idiots or a random case of crazy or bad luck.
And may have helped launch it, but no one did more to further it than the father of kidnapped child Adam Walsh.
Adam's father, John Walsh, became an advocate for victims of violent crimes and is the host of the television program America's Most Wanted. He has also hosted The Hunt with John Walsh and In Pursuit with John Walsh.[3] Convicted serial killer Ottis Toole confessed to Adam's murder, but was never convicted of the crime because evidence was reportedly lost and Toole later recanted his confession. Toole died in prison of liver failure on September 15, 1996.[4] No new evidence has come to light since then, and police announced in December 2008 that the Walsh case was closed and that they were satisfied that Toole was the killer.
This is very odd for US to not return to normalcy.
Everything about this is insane. Making it illegal to walk, calling cops on kids, arresting people for any fucking reason. People created a hell hole they have to live in now.
Why is this kid walking, he should have a car. This is the USA, we don't walk here.
I am currently babysitting a 13 year old boy almost every day. Why? Because CPS says he can’t be alone.
He’s mature. He’s smart. He’s quiet. He is COMPLETELY capable of taking care of himself. His dad works 6 hour shifts at most.
The issue is, his dad went to jail for drugs. He’s been sober, he’s been working, he’s been fighting like hell to provide a decent life for his kids.
He’s not allowed to have his girlfriend around them, so he’s paying for two apartments and they can only spend time together coming up when the boy is in school.
I mean, sure, the dad hasn’t been a saint. But man oh man, they’re doing everything the can to make sure he fails.
He was taking suboxone, got the shot instead, realized he wasn’t experiencing withdrawal and dropped that. Well, now he has to prove that he will have detectable amounts in his system for up to a year, and then they’re going to MAKE him go back on suboxone to keep his son.
It’s madness the hoops some people have to jump through, meanwhile a childhood friend was starved and beaten regularly and they wouldn’t remove him from the home until his parents burned down a neighbor’s house and went to prison for arson.
When we were kids and we’d discuss what we wanted to be when we grew up, his answer was, “my mom’s murderer.”
When she did pass, he cried his eyes out for never reaching out to her and was one of the pallbearers.
I don’t get why things have to be such a mess.
He’s not allowed to have his girlfriend around them
Wait what? That's a thing?
When we were kids and we’d discuss what we wanted to be when we grew up, his answer was, “my mom’s murderer.”
😨
The War on Drugs isn't about helping people stop using. It's about feeding the prison industry and all the parasites that bleed parolees dry.
i dont get why
Because control. It's all about control.
If i do t know it it must be bad. Ic i dont control it it must ve dangerous. Its like an elemental kernel level xenophobia.
realized he wasn’t experiencing withdrawal and dropped that. Well, now he has to prove that he will have detectable amounts in his system for up to a year, and then they’re going to MAKE him go back on suboxone to keep his son.
If they're going to do tests, why not just check for the presence of illegal drugs?
Some people do abuse it. I didn’t get how for a long time. I’ve been taking it for a decade or better now and I swear I get nothing from it but avoiding withdrawal.
An old friend shot it up though and died from a heart infection because of it.
But then thry woukd just be observing, not coercing.
This is what suburban carbrain disease does to a mfker.
Having grown up in Eastern Europe, walking to the kindergarten since 4, walking to the primary school since 7, walking / pubtransiting to mid/high school since 11, the North American suburban carbrain disease is just shocking, even after living alongside it for two decades.
Same. Walked and took buses to school from around 6-7 years of age in the late 90s. My parents were divorced, so I also commuted a lot between their places as a child.
Perfectly normal thing that all the other kids were also doing. I remember one mom being a bit afraid for her daughter, so I was asked to take the bus and walk together with her, but that’s it.
I walked to middle and high school cuz it started too early for my folks. People getting in the car to drive a block will never cease to amaze me
Land of the free
Never has been
Never has been
I used to be allowed to take a rowboat out by myself at 10. What a bunch of pussies we are becoming.
Independence of any level is discouraged in the surveillance society we've built.
O' the land of the free
Cannot even smoke weed
Once again the rest of the world wonders how a whole country can be so... unreal
Land of the free
Highest prison rate outside of russia, still calls itself free.
It's almost like kids belong to the state, now. "Parental rights" lol
Why is suicide illegal?
Damage to government property is a crime.
Maybe it would be safer for kids to walk places if you didn't have pedos embedded in your whole infrastructure
Wow people are just seeing pedophiles everywhere and missing the places they actually are.
I got raped by my mom and people in my group when i did therapy were mostly raped at home or with family.
The walk outside is the safest part of growing up for people at actual risk.
Find another thing to latch onto.
Eh idk, I was nearly snatched off the street by a stranger, very similar to the Morgan Nick case, back in 1998. Virtually every park in the US has creeps patrolling it looking for homeless, especially kids. See Emily Perez case - she ran away to a local park and was taken from there by an unknown person who likely monitors the park for such things.
World isn't as safe as you'd think.
My kid took the bus to the other side of town by herself when she was 9.
How is prison treating you?
Lol her classmates were going to the shopping centre alone before that. Norway is different.
Your comment confused me a bit as I first understood "took the bus" as in "drove it".
Now I want a GTA mod where you can use a child as the main character, but that could also get weird really fast...
Things have gone too far. Fuck Cops and fuck Karen too.
Bro by that age I was driving 4 wheelers through uncharted woods. People need to chill
By this logic, the movie "Stand By Me" should be rated X.
How do "concerned Karens" not know they are more likely to cause harm than good nowadays?
Because in this case it seems they got "results" and now there are several children without a mom around because the state doesn't want you raising your kids to be capable of being independent
The mistake is that the kid forgot to open carry his gun. Remember this is Murica.
They were under 21 so it's gotta be a rifle at the very least.
(Local gun laws in my neck of the woods say you gotta be 21 to get a handgun)
I think that's federal
How it that cop's behavior not reckless conduit?
Because pigs are not held accountable for their conduct.
Fuck everything about this. My kid has been roaming the neighborhood since he was like 7.
"Ohh hell no, how dare the mother not with her child always? As a good citizen i will now make sure the child will be separated from her mother." - Karen McDoofus
I did this frequently when younger without issue. Fucking insane.
This is from December 2024.
Ah, after reading the headline I was like "Again?"
I wouldn't let my kid walk alone in that gun infested shithole country with murderous cops that also handcuff children or pepper spray them
Fair.
In the year 2002 at age 10, I rode my bike 2 miles to school every day and 3 miles to hang out with friends in town.
People still do this.
Ridiculous. I used to ride 5 miles each way to school for years on some really busy roads. I can’t say that I’d be happy to do that again with all the cellphone distractions drivers engage in these days, but a kid walking less than a mile to a store shouldn’t be a problem unless they’re walking on a freeway or something.
Something something back in my day...
be a devil's advocate
in the US this was justified for a citizen to be concerned about hell did not let my kids go farther away from the house than could see them
in the US driving laws are not enforced and the majority of drivers are going over the speed limit by five miles or more but mixing in unsupervised kids to this mix on roads without sidewalks either and BAM!
just north of Georgia in South Carolina one state up crossing guards are refusing to go work because driving laws not being enforced and crossing guards getting hit
The devil's got plenty of advocates, no need to do it for him.
Children should have the freedom to traverse the world independently (and their parents the freedom to let them) as they're able to do so responsibility. Don't let the carbrain win, this is a reason to change infrastructure and laws for cars, not for children. There's way more than enough "think of the children" alarmist nonsense out there.
You follow this logic deep enough an no one would leave their home because cars are too dangerous and scary.
I grew up when drinking and driving was legal. I walked a mile to and from school at 7 years old.
People back then had less anxiety and a worse grasp on odds.
in the US driving laws are not enforced
Lol you've never been outside Europe, have you?
Oh man, my parents should have been arrested so many times.
Makes me angry that removing the ability for self-sufficiency -- even just walking alone for errands -- only furthers dystopia.
Why most American GenXers thump their chests about being turn-key kids... yet they should be opposing such overreach.