[MeekOneGOP]

Ping a few Texans.......

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Let me know if you want OFF or ON my ping list!

[WyldKard]

Ms. Rueda, who was questioned at length by police, said she thought she had left the child at day care but later discovered him dead in the car when she went to lunch.

How the HELL do you miss the sort of thing? A child is not a wallet, or a pair of eyeglasses to be misplaced in the car by accident! How the hell do you misplace a human being in the same god damn car with you?!

[Alouette]

On cases like that of the Fort Worth woman whose 9-month-old son died in a closed car Tuesday, the nation's legal community is divided.

Here in Michigan, I have heard not one single person defend the creature who let her two babies die in the car while she had her hair done. Is the Texas woman a professional? There seems to be a double standard that applies when upscale yuppies cook their kids opposed to when it's done by "trailer trash" or "inner city" folks.

[alley cat]

The problem with the man in Virginia whose child died in the van, Mr. Turley said, was that he had 13 children, his wife was in Ireland, and he had to depend on his teenage daughters as baby sitters.

This situation sounds completely out of control!

[mewzilla]

This is legalized infanticide.

[Mamzelle]

(shudder) Have to remember that awful moment...went home from a big grocery buy with baby, parked in garage and unloaded groceries. Then started to put the frozen stuff away and get out the stuff for dinner...heard a holler. Baby was really mad at being left. It was a cool garage--but I can see how it might happen.

[twyn1]

I babysat for an infant whose mother left her to die in a car in Arizona (at only 4 months old)...Mom's excuse was she thought she'd only be out of the car for a few minutes and didn't realize how hot it could get in a car, and how quickly. Everybody patted her on the head and felt "sorry" for her...she received probation and some parenting "counseling".

Truth is...Mom was having an affair and left the baby in the car while she was in the "boyfriend's" house having "fun". I was more broken-hearted than she was over the death of this beautiful little girl...and whenever I hear these stories I get very angry and very sad at the same time.

I cannot imagine any parent being soooo preoccupied that they leave their child to bake in a car for any length of time...yeah a few minutes in the garage when you're getting out groceries I can see...but didn't she see the kid when she got out of the car ? And dropping off a child at day care isn't like going through the drive-thru for some coffee...I mean, you have to get out of the car, grab the kids' stuff, sign them in, etc. Did she really imagine that she'd done all that? Of course...I have a hard time imagining dumping off a child in day care at such a young age too...so maybe I am biased..???

[429CJ]

About a year or 2 ago a strange thing happened here in Tulsa. A woman took her infant daughter out to her van. Then she remembered something that she forgot in her house.
When she tried to get back in the house, she found that she had locked herself out of the house. She had some extra van keys so she drove downtown to where her husband worked to get extra house keys.

She locked the van and ran into the building where her husband worked to get the keys. She was only in there a few minutes and when she returned to her van she saw that her baby was not in the van.

She became hysterical and passersby came to comfort her (There was a picture in the Tulsa World of a woman with her arm around her).

The police immediately closed off downtown streets and began a search for the baby. Then an officer wondered why the kidnapper would lock the van after taking the baby.

He got the woman's address and drove 15 miles to the woman's home and found the baby in the baby seat on the ground next to the driveway where the mother had placed it after remembering that she had to get something else in the house.

I always wondered how stupid the mother felt especially after being on the front page looking hysterical.

[elcaudillo]

I wonder what Mr. Rueda had to say about the death of his son?

Perhaps there isn't a Mr. Rueda.

[strela]

I can certainly tell you one thing; if we as a society consider punishing criminally negligent parents who allow their children to cook like a holiday roast to be a "tough call," then we will certainly be hearing about more of these cases. Yeah right, pat their hand and cluck "We know you didn't mean to do it."

Part of the purpose of punishment is to deter others from the misbehavior that brought on the punishment in the first place. And maybe if a few of these addled parents were taught on a daily basis that leaving Junior in the SUV on a hot day might get them some serious up-close-and-personal time with Bubba, there wouldn't be so many infants left lying around in vehicles like so many forgotten sacks of groceries.

[MissAmericanPie]

I know we live in a high pressure world, and some ding bats are always unorganized and running late to work, their minds scattered in 100 different directions, but good grief how will she ever forgive herself for this kind of stupidity?

I am guessing that the baby was in a carrier/car seat that was in the back seat of the car and she just hopped out and never looked back. Then the baby never crossed her mind for four hours or so until lunch time. This is tragic, I don't have the answer as to what should happen to her, it's beyond me. I would think some jail time is in order here, she can grieve in jail just as good as anywhere else and a message needs to be sent regarding people remembering what their top priorities should be.

[luvtheconstitution]

Being the cynic I am, her excuse that she "thought she dropped him off at day care" sounds like something manufactured by a defense attorney.

[Flyer]

she thought she had left the child at day care but later discovered him dead in the car when she went to lunch.

She had already passed off a huge responsibity by putting a 9 month old in day care. If she gets a pass on this what will she have learned? Prosecute.

[Texas Mom]

But it does happen more than 180 times nationwide since 1995, said Anara Guard, information director at Boston University School of Public Health.

Could it have something to do with people putting the babies in a carrier and putting them in the back seat, out of sight for safety and then forgetting them because they don't see them?

Parents are told not to put a baby in the front seat but the numbers are growing of babies forgotten in the back seats and left to die in a hot car. Would like to see some numbers of babies lives saves because they were in the back seat, and babies who have died because they were forgotten in the back seats.

Don't know if I am explaining this right.

Maybe if the baby was in the front seat Mom or Dad wouldn't forget them and 'think they dropped them off at the baby sitter.'

Last year there were several deaths and the parent seems to have a common excuse. I forgot he was in the car. Put em up front. In the long run it's safer.

[Shryke]

It's time some responsible Democrats stood up and outlawed these deadly weapons! Hot cars should be banned! They aren't what the Constitution intended! One, massively complex, hugel expensive law bainnging all hot cars would solve this catastrophe once and for all.

/sarcasm off

[Sloth]

I am torn on these sorts of things. I think there should be a penalty, but (even though I don't have children) I can imagine myself being forgetful or getting distracted and having this happen. On the one hand, I wonder if people would forget if they had a billion dollars in cash in the back seat of the car instead of a child -- on the other hand, I know that many people WOULD forget about it if they were in the habit of carting that cash around with them all the time.

[Rainmist]

Have you ever gotten into your car on a hot summer day and sat there sweltering until the air conditioning kicked in ? How can these stupid people think that their kids would be okay in a car without the air going ? I can't understand it. The Hairdo Woman was black, so most likely she was getting a weave. Weaves take hours to do. She knew she'd be gone a long time. She didn't care. She should go to the slammer for life.
I have never, even sleep deprived, left my kids in the car. How can you not remember that your baby is back there in his/her car seat ? I just don't get it.

[gilor]

"Other legal scholars say society gains nothing by punishing parents who clearly didn't mean for their children to die and who pose no threat to society."

I disagree society would be much better off without this trash on the face of the earth.

Bullet to the back of the head BUMP

[maxwell]

Ms. Rueda, who was questioned at length by police, said she thought she had left the child at day care but later discovered him dead in the car when she went to lunch.

DAMN bro...

You know, in cases where it really was a memory lapse on the part of the parent, it seems to me that the loss of the child would already be punishment above and beyond what any court could mete out...

[Sophie]

I simply do not understand this. Every year in the heat of summer in Texas a number of infants and children die locked in their parents car. I live in Texas. When I take my dog with me in the heat, I always leave the car locked and the AC running. She's huge and no one would dare try to break in. It boggles the mind. Even if you don't watch the news or read the newspaper, common sense ought to tell you this is a life-threatening and usually life-taking thing to do.