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Parents arrested for 'neglect' for allowing 11-year-old to play alone in their backyard
American Thinker ^ | 06/12/2015 | Rick Moran

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.

Hit and Run:

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: childabuse; childneglect; copsoutofcontrol; donutwatch
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To: Organic Panic
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?

Exactly! This makes me VERY angry. Why not invite him over? Why not mind your own frickin' business unless there was true danger? If there was some kind of danger, step up to help...not call the damn authorities!

41 posted on 06/12/2015 10:13:18 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: heshtesh
Just wait till they tell you as parents you are responsible for providing a baby sitter till the age of 26!!!!!! please note no SARC tag!!

Right! But the government will get them knowing about kinky sex in kindergarten!

42 posted on 06/12/2015 10:15:33 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: noexcuses

WA DSHS is a corrupt and totally worthless agency. They’ve “dropped the ball” more times than O’Bummer and he plays a lot of golf. When my sons were still living at home I always said if one of those people ever came to my house to try to take my kids, somebody was going to prison and somebody was going to the morgue.


43 posted on 06/12/2015 10:16:29 AM PDT by beelzepug (liberalism is not...a political philosophy. It is a stage of arrested emotional development.)
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To: SeekAndFind

When I was 11 I spent entire 10-12 hour stretches completely by myself, deep in the woods behind my house. Just me and my Crosman 760 BB gun.

My parents would probably be executed for that today.


44 posted on 06/12/2015 10:17:28 AM PDT by navyguy (The National Reset Button is pushed with the trigger finger.)
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To: noexcuses
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!

Oh my goodness! Damn Nazis!

45 posted on 06/12/2015 10:18:53 AM PDT by beaversmom
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To: CedarDave
I live in an oil patch town with lots of Mexican families, adults who barely speak English, and their kids little or big, run free, play in streets, or playgrounds with no supervision. Or maybe a toddler watched by a 7 or 8 year old. Yet I do not hear of this occurring with minorities.

You know how schools get into trouble with the feds when their rate of disciplining minority kids is significantly higher than their rate of disciplining white kids?

I suspect a similar dynamic here -- they need to go after some minimum number of white families, on whatever pretext, in order to make their numbers look good.

46 posted on 06/12/2015 10:20:55 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I’m glad I grew up in the 80’s.


47 posted on 06/12/2015 10:22:01 AM PDT by Darren McCarty (Leaning towards Cruz or Walker in 2016. No Jeb. No Graham.)
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To: Justa

He should send the neighbor letters rubbed in poison ivy. (Not leaving finger prints.)


48 posted on 06/12/2015 10:28:47 AM PDT by ladyjane
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To: CedarDave
"...I’ll be called racist for saying this, but why is this only happening to whom I assume are white parents?..."

I am glad you asked. I adopted a child and had to learn all about CPS. They do not want black kids.

They receive lots of federal funding for every child they adopt out, meaning they have a monetary interest in obtaining as many children as possible. I was told that in my area it is approx. $100,000.

That's why they respond to frivolous and trivial complaints against white families. That is why they show up at a white families' door with no warrant and are pushy and threatening: They need a constant flow of children.

But not all children, and that is the hidden tragedy in all this: Because so few folks want to adopt black children, they are considered of lesser value to CPS. That is why CPS turns a blind eye.

It's all about the money. It destroys lives, and denies opportunity to black children who have a valid and compelling need to be taken from their homes.

49 posted on 06/12/2015 10:29:28 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan (B.L.O.A.T. : Buy Lots Of Ammo Today)
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To: SeekAndFind

When I was eleven, I babysat my younger sibling while our parents worked. We walked to the community pool during the day, made lunch, and played in the woods behind our house.

Our mother got home around 4:00 or so, and after checking in with her, we were back outside for another several hours until bedtime, with a pause for dinner.

Everyone my age did the same thing. Not abuse... personal responsibility.


50 posted on 06/12/2015 10:54:16 AM PDT by mountainbunny (Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens ~ JR.R. Tolkien)
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To: T-Bone Texan

As I posted a few days ago, that is a crime deserving of a life sentence. Not that O or Miss Loretta would ever prosecute.


51 posted on 06/12/2015 10:58:45 AM PDT by darkangel82
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To: SeekAndFind

I used to ride my bike across town to the city pool to swim and back without my mother batting an eye. No one paid us any attention. An 11 year old is in the 6th grade, a middle schooler. This whole thing is outrageous.


52 posted on 06/12/2015 11:04:08 AM PDT by tioga
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To: SeekAndFind

They are going to turn every white parent into a felon and take away firearm ownership rights. It’s been going on for 20+ years by way of Children & Family Services. Restore all felons their 2nd Amendment Rights...NOW!!!! Put an end this b#llsh#t!


53 posted on 06/12/2015 11:40:36 AM PDT by Birdsbane ("Onward through the fog!" ... Oat Willie)
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To: Birdsbane
Restore all felons their 2nd Amendment Rights...NOW!!!!

The Second Amendment to the Constitution does not list felons as exceptions to "shall not be infringed". Anyone who can't be trusted to be armed should not be running around loose.

54 posted on 06/12/2015 11:52:28 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & Ifwater the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: heshtesh

Yeah, I got that :-)

Just making a joke about how supervision might be good for anybody at that age.


55 posted on 06/12/2015 12:22:51 PM PDT by rhoda_penmark
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To: JimRed

The felon exception? Enacted by Democrats...and expounded upon daily until all private firearm ownership is eliminated...and “shall not be infringed” means exactly that, without illegal embellishment.


56 posted on 06/12/2015 12:23:25 PM PDT by Birdsbane ("Onward through the fog!" ... Oat Willie)
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To: T-Bone Texan

>>That’s why they respond to frivolous and trivial complaints against white families. That is why they show up at a white families’ door with no warrant and are pushy and threatening: They need a constant flow of children.

But not all children, and that is the hidden tragedy in all this: Because so few folks want to adopt black children, they are considered of lesser value to CPS. That is why CPS turns a blind eye.<<

Absolutely correct. The other reason is that white families are more apt to be compliant with the DHS agents.


57 posted on 06/12/2015 12:34:58 PM PDT by ItsOurTimeNow ("What is Ned may never die!")
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To: rhoda_penmark

At 56 plenty of my friends would recommend signing me up for supervision:)


58 posted on 06/12/2015 1:33:13 PM PDT by heshtesh (I believe in Sarah Palin, the rest not so much.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I had a friend who grew up in the good ole PRC. His father was a veterinarian and thus he and the mother were clearly "bourgeoisie" needing 6 months of simultaneous "re - education". My friend was 11 and his little brother, who was only 9 (this was prior to "One Child") were left HOME ALONE FOR 6 MONTHS! The brothers were told to report to a nearby factory for meals. He said that sometimes, they would be too late because they were out playing but kind workers would leave food for them at their house.

There are 2 parallels to the stories. Obviously 11 year old kids were home alone. The other part that's the same is that the powers of the state were given to godless, self-righteous SOBs that hate children and are stealing oxygen from the rest of us.

59 posted on 06/12/2015 1:56:30 PM PDT by Theophilus (Be as prolific as you are pro-life.)
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To: CedarDave

Because when children are adopted out, The State gets money.

Seizing children from their parents is a most lucrative venture for The State.


60 posted on 06/18/2015 9:26:44 PM PDT by Altariel ("Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!")
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