Posted on 06/12/2015 8:21:37 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I don't know if these horror stories about parents being arrested for allowing their kids to play unsupervised are becoming more numerous or if we're just hearing about them more often because of social media.
But it's hardly relevant to a couple in Florida who found themselves arrested and charged with felony neglect when they couldn't get home in time after work to take care of their 11-year-old son.
One afternoon this past April, a Florida mom and dad I'll call Cindy and Fred could not get home in time to let their 11-year-old son into the house. The boy didn't have a key, so he played basketball in the yard. He was alone for 90 minutes. A neighbor called the cops, and when the parents arrived—having been delayed by traffic and rain—they were arrested for negligence.
They were put in handcuffs, strip searched, fingerprinted, and held overnight in jail.
It would be a month before their sons—the 11-year-old and his 4-year-old brother—were allowed home again. Only after the eldest spoke up and begged a judge to give him back to his parents did the situation improve.
I spoke with Cindy about her family’s horrible ordeal.
"My older one was the so-called 'victim,'" she said during a phone interview. But since she and her husband were charged with felony neglect, the younger boy had to be removed from the home, too.
Here is the law: "A person who willfully or by culpable negligence neglects a child without causing great bodily harm, permanent disability, or permanent disfigurement to the child commits a felony of the third degree."
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
My great granddad and great granddad were both latchkey kids before DHS and lib’s came and told parents how to raise their kids; both of them lived in New York City (Brooklyn) and would take the subway by themselves to go to NYC and just bum around. They were eight and nine at the time.
Yeah, and let me hold my breath until they start requiring parents to (use their food stamps to) feed their own children, instead of sending them to the public schools for 2-3 meals every single day of the year!
dumbest thing of the day? or at least an hour?
On day my son (now 26) came home from school (1st grade) with a business card from DSHS and announced that if I made him feel bad then he could call them. I replied go right ahead... you will be taken to facility with no cable tv, no private bedroom, and will have to eat whatever they serve you. He handed me the card and said No thanks!
I consider that neighbor's conduct unforgivable. I'd guess there was a long-running neighborhood dispute, and the bratty neighbor saw an opportunity to get even. Even if I was not the victim of this malicious report, I would shun that neighbor forever.
Thanks for the heads up.
Now, now...if you got arrested and strip searched, you had it coming. Uh...officer safety. And, don’t be a thug. Oh yeah...the cops were just following orders. What are you, an anarchist?
Yeah...a "talk". Those types of Gladys Kravitz busy bodies really grind my gears.
"Abner! The Stevens boy has been playing basketball all by himself! For 90 minutes! Call the police!"
"Gladys, get away from the window and get back in the kitchen and fix me a sandwich."
I'd certainly have a "talk" with them. Then I might seed their entire property with a certain type of weed that can be hard to kill and is illegal to have growing on your property. Then I might tip authorities to where they might find a drug dealer living nearby.
If the child responded that they were fine they would have been left to their own devices.
Or the neighbor would have had a key to the house and just let the child in.
If the g.d. neighbors really cared they would have gone over to make sure the boy was safe.
So good parents in safe neighborhoods get arrested and feral youths are ignored.
Racism.
Yes.
An issue here is the breakdown of the social fabric of a lot of neighborhoods. Whether it be because of the increasingly transient nature of society, kids spending much more time indoors, etc.
When I was this age, late ‘70s, I was under explict orders to go check in with one of our neighbors if I got home and my parents weren’t there. My Mom had cleared that with several of them ahead of time.
I had to do that once. Was provided a glass of lemonade and a couple HoHos, and told that I could either stay in her house or go outside, so long as I stayed within sight and earshot. If a cop had showed up asking where my parents were I’d just say I was being watched by Mrs. -——— and pointed to her house. The cop might have checked with her, but would have been ok with it. I think the same would apply today.
The boy is 11. The neighbor’s next few Halloweens will likely be regrettable.
Lord please save us from the people who want to save us!
What jerk neighbors. They couldn’t just ask the boy why he was out. They couldn’t say, “if you need any snacks or water come on over.” And what the heck are they thinking when a kid playing in the yard is suspicious?
I would make their lives hell. The kid can’t play, on a late spring day for 90 minutes? I remember locking myself out for hours when I would forget the house key. And the neighbors didn’t call the cops. I would go to their houses sometimes because they usually had friends my age.
tp and egg the house, swipe a few outside xmas lights to for good measure... not right to do but considering what happen well. Did this to a neighboring house because they threw dirt and old toys into my familys pool.
my way of dealing with the BS was this..
Moved to an area where the neighbor is so far away, they can’t see my house.
met neighbor before buying the house to make sure we saw eye to eye.
Live in an area where locking the door is optional.
The big city do-gooders are getting to close again (they keep running away from the crap they created) so it might be time to pull up roots and move further out.
All through the 1980s and 1990s the term "latchkey kid" was common.
It was assumed that grade school children would take the bus home from school at 3pm and wait at home until 5ish when their folks got home from work.
Yep, that is what the government did. Whom should we start with to be held culpable? The neighbour?
So, What happened to “it takes a Village”? was there no neighbors around, besides the one that turned them in?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.