Child Endangerment?

[myswtghst]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23594474/?GT1=43001

Full article at the link above. Short version: Mom left sleeping child buckled in car, in loading zone at Walmart, for about 5 minutes or less, while in full sight of the car with the car locked and alarmed. Mom was just in front of the store, helping her other kids put money in the pot for the Salvation Army. Police arrested mom, claiming child endangerment, and she's prepping for trial.

I'm curious to see what people's opinions are on this. I know we've had outrage about parents leaving kids in the car, but this seems like a MAJOR overreaction on the part of the police.

So...what does everyone think?

[Greenday]

I think the police in this case need to get their heads checked. I fail to see what the woman did wrong. It was sleeting out, which means it wasn't hot outside, so the child wasn't in any danger of overheating. She locked the door, left the heat on for the kid so it wouldn't get cold, stayed pretty darn close to the car. Where's this danger that made it necessary to arrest her? The police screwed up big time with this one.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I dunno. I can see both sides.

On one hand, the mother took every a lot of reasonable precautions, like locking the car and putting the alarm on, to make the child at least a little safer. And I personally would not expect a car parked in the loading zone to be there for a long period of time

On the other hand, car alarms are frequently ignored because they go off so easily.

In the strictly legal sense, it may be child endangerment, but this doesn't rise to the level where the mother deserves to go to jail. So I will agree that this was at least a minor overreaction.

[AFPheonix]

The kid was strapped into her child seat, asleep, in a locked, alarmed car in a loading zone with the mom 10 feet away for a few minutes at most.

While I can appreciate the police's concern over kids being left in cars, this was not a dangerous incident in the least.

[Giggle Goose]

Hell, I used to be punished by having to sit out in the car if I was being bratty at a store, restaurant, etc.

But I guess I gotta feel for the cops since there are a lot of shitty parents out there. Poor parents! It's so hard to make those judgement calls.

[DesignFox]

I definitely think the police over-reacted in this case...gimme a break.

[powerboy]

The police did over-reacted on this one. She 10ft away and plus if they were putting money into the Salvation Pot, she would have been back in a couple of minutes.

[tropicsgoddess]

I've heard of parents leaving children in cars in the HOT Florida sun for hours and forgetting about them,but to arrest a mom who leaves her kid in the car for a few moments and it's only sleeting outside is out of bounds on the police's end.

[the_std]

I agree with Irving, in the "seeing both sides" part.

But I wouldn't go so far as to say "poor mom", although it's too bad that things have gotten to the point where the police had to react like this. Poor police. Can you imagine how many times they've been called to such a car where the kid really is in danger because some parent can't take responsibility for the baby-matter they produced? Because of people like that, it makes it very hard for police to deal with these kinds of situations as we would deal with them, knowing what we know now.

Although, I agree, she shouldn't go to jail for this.

[miffed]

The officer should have talked to the mother instead of berating her and assuming she was leaving the kid, afterall the mom did not leave the kid unattended since she was only 10yds away. I appreciate the concern of the officer but it's misplaced.

[Seshat]

Whichever way the police and children's services go in these matters, they will make mistakes.

If they err on the side of caution, cases like this one happen.

If they err on the side of trusting parents, children get hurt, abused or killed.


They're human, not perfect. They will be faced with difficult situations, they will make errors.

Society can't insist on perfection. (Well, we can, but we won't get it.) All we can do is decide which type of error we want them to make more often.

[TheRoo]

Another thought to add to Seshat's error on the side of caution point: If the police react to a situation like this as they did, there are still several checks in place before she could be convicted. The prosecutor would have to sign off on it, a judge would have to sign off on it, and a jury of her peers would then have the final say.

If they ignore a more serious situation, that's it. The only way we would even hear of such a case is if tragedy struck. It's a tough judgment call, but after all of the kids who have died recently in similar, although more dangerous, situations, I can see why the police would want to at least make the mother aware of the potential danger of the situation.

[rahmota]

Seshat i am sorry to disagree with you on this. Children services are not humans. they are subhumanoid blood sucking parasites with all the charm and personality of an itchy veruca. They are swaggering tinplated dictators with delusions of god hood who hink they are the only one with the right to think and have the only solution to the way life should be. They do not respect people's civil or human rights and if they make up their puny little minds that you are wrong or that someone is gulty of somethign they will abuse their power ignore the law and do everything they can to destroy your life unless you bend over and take it with no lube. They all deser ve to be dropped into the deepest pits of hades realm and buried in cat doo doo for all eternity. They are worse than the KGB and the gestapo. if you want to ruin someone's life all you have to do is call them and make something up and they will persecute and ruin a person. They never check their facts and if they decide you are scum they will trat you like it. They do not believe in innocent until proven guilty their mantra is if we are called you are guiulty and you have to proove you are innocent.

I know from personal experience as they have tried to destroy my family based soley on the words of a proven liar. I am not going to discus any more about it but it ties into the recent unfortunate events.

As for the situation in the OP that was most assuradly an overzealous irresponsible immoral overreaction on the part of the authorities and they need their assses kicked. The eis no seeing the other side in this case. The only thing the po po have is an ego the size of jupiter in this case as there was nothing wrong with what the mother did. She was not endangering her child until the nazi scum showed up. Then they started endangering the child.

[Seshat]

Heh.

People - and childrens' services departments - vary from place to place. In your area, they're presumably (hey, I'm not there) veruccas drawn from Satan's own hairy feet. In another area, they may be nearly angelic. Most commonly, I expect they're something in between.