Not everything’s a crime
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Oh noes!
Two interesting stories from the Nutmeg State in the last month or so remind us rather forcefully that not everything is a crime.
First, we have the tragic death of a two-year old, who shot himself with his father’s gun. Both parents have been charged with risk of injury to a minor. Apparently, the gun was left unlocked and loaded in an accessible location. A very stupid move on the parents’ part and they are paying for it dearly. But will criminal charges accomplish anything? It is an accident and should be treated as one, not as a crime.
Some might argue that prosecuting these negligent parents serves as a deterrent to others, but I think the death of the child is deterrence enough. After all, children have died under such tragic circumstances in the past and criminal prosecutions haven’t prevented further tragic deaths.
Even more curious is this arrest today of a mother who left her child alone at home for four hours:
Police said when the boy arrived at his Richard Street home after school on Friday, Binns was not home.
Police said the boy was found playing in a neighbor’s yard and had no idea of how to contact his mother. The phones in the boy’s home were not working, police said, and the boy had not eaten.
State law doesn’t specify at what age a child may or may not be left alone at home.
So now the State is parenting? The mother probably needs a smack upside the head, but a criminal prosecution? That seems to be a bit of overkill in this case. The child is fine. We’re now punishing her for what might have happened, instead of what did.
Sounds an awful lot like the Guv’nor’s approach to criminal justice.
Whether either of these prosecutions goes anywhere remains to be seen. This also highlights the power wielded by prosecutors. They have the power to drop these prosecutions, or press on, a la Raising the Bar, in the face of common sense that advocates some sort of community service or probation.
Since when have kids become so fragile that they can’t be on their own (in a neighbor’s yard no less) for a few hours? Is stranger danger real or a product of a paranoid society?
And how screwed is Catherine O’Hara?
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Seems like the police have to file charges against the couple since it’s such a clear violation of statute. But prosecutor should not proceed further after the arraignment — don’t know how that works legally.
The politicians (Kenney and Lawlor) quoted in the Courant article are idiots. Maybe they could go to Galveston next and look for building code violations.
Reader’s Digest had a great story about a Mom who let her kid ride the subway!. The nanny state is out of control.
I think that’s the same kid that is featured in the episode of Penn and Teller’s bullsh!t that I linked to in the last sentence of my post.
Yes, (although the clip didn’t go that long.)
When I was 9, I rode the city bus alone for the first time, having been deemed ready for it by my parents. Looking back, I think I was a little young for it, but I did get to where I needed to go, and knew how to pay the fare.
Today, things are different for sure. Not long ago my husband left our 7 yo in the car in a West Hartford parking lot to go inside a certain store for 5 minutes to grab a couple of things. Less than a minute or two had gone by when someone outside called the police. In short order my husband was paged to the front of the store and had to explain to a police officer what he was doing. The officer informed him that he could be arrested for having left our son in the car alone, for any length of time. He then said that he would offer just a warning this time.
Mostly this was a sufficient lesson for our son, who had refused to go into the store because he was tired, and my husband, also tired, did not bother to push, because it was a 5 minute trip and it was not a hot day. Of course, I had my own troubles hearing this all went down and that my husband’s parenting is so awful that he almost got arrested for it. I also think the police might have better things to do than get called to West Hartford parking lots for issues like this.
What I want to know is who these people are that call the cops as soon as they see a child alone somewhere. At the very least, wouldn’t you wait for a period of time to see if the child has indeed been left unattended for a significant period of time? Why are they so quick to involve the police all the time?
We’ve gone soft, I tell ya.