Posted on 07/11/2014 7:05:34 PM PDT by Kaslin
In spite of the recent tragedies of toddlers being killed or seriously hurt from being locked in a car, I guess it really isn't all that surprising that police are being extra-vigilant to protect kids from hot cars. Some cases, however, like that of a woman in Connecticut being criminally charged for leaving her daughter in a car, are downright ridiculous.
(emphasis added)
Officers were sent to 60 Middle Street on Tuesday where they said Christina Williams, 30, allegedly left her 11-year-old child inside a vehicle.
Police said the interior temperature of the car was about 85 degrees at the time they got to the scene.
When officers opened the car doors, they said the child was responsive and not in distress, and that the car was not "excessively hot."
Police said the child requested to stay inside of the car while her mother went inside a store, and Williams was located in the store and said the same thing.
The mother is due to appear in court at the end of the month.
While an 11-year-old certainly isn't entirely self-sufficient, they're certainly capable of taking care of themselves and letting themselves in and out of a car if they're about to overheat. Many 11-year-olds babysit, for instance. There's a huge difference between leaving an infant strapped in a car seat alone in a car for an extended period of time and leaving an 11-year-old in a not-overly hot car because she asked to stay there.
Williams isn't the only mother being accused of neglecting her children by leaving them safely in a car. Nickie Milem, a woman from South Carolina, is being charged with cruelty to children after she left her children in a running, air-conditioned vehicle with her sister-in-law while she ran into a grocery store.
Child endangerment is a serious crime--but not one that seems to be committed in these cases. This is the nanny state gone insane.
11 seriously??
I parked in the police department parking lot.
Reason has to intrude somewhere in this. Zero tolerance is for idiots.
/johnny
I don’t know. I don’t leave kids in a hot car because it’s too hot not because of what this stupid government tells me
And I don’t do it
Cars get hot
Where is the crime here?
I agree, no crime here.
He inherited his first fighting force when he was 15. (Really? He was just 15? Like, for real?) Then went on to run the Muslims out of Europe.
Gave the kids a different perspective.
Helicopter parents and public officials are the problem. Not the kids.
I set high expectations.
/johnny
Child endangerment?
This is just stupid. The child wasn't endangered based on what was presented.
/johnny
uncle johnny is cool huh
My Dad taught me to drive when I was 11.
And they can let themselves out of a car if it gets hot.
/johnny
Johnny, you can be quite obtuse at times but this one is on the mark. Any kid older than 3 that can’t get his ass out of a car is destined to be a low-information voter.
Tell them some war stories, then they’ll call you cool
But the 11-yr-old might not be able to unbuckle her car seat and get out if it gets too hot. What, no car seat?!?! Nanny cop will just add that on to the charges.
< /sarc> (I think)
what a bunch of crap...an 11 year old?
Well, lets just give all the illegals cars at the Mexican border, then we can arrest their parents for leaving them alone in the car!
?????
If it was sunny outside that means it was probably 75 deg F outside. Maybe not the best judgement but hardly a crisis,
A 11 year would just get out if there was a problem, its not 11 months old its 11 years.
If a 26 year old is a “child”, then it would stand to reason that an 11 year old is really a 3 year old.
It’s very fortunate that the 11-year old did not have a pop-tart chewed into the shape of a pistol or she may well have not survived the new ZERO TOLERANCE STATISTS.
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