3 ms·

I don't know... the story as written does sound really bad. My similarly-aged kids walk about half a mile to school by themselves, as do dozens of other childre

by lacker 4y ago

I don't know... the story as written does sound really bad. My similarly-aged kids walk about half a mile to school by themselves, as do dozens of other children that live in my neighborhood, and it would be crazy to arrest parents for this. But we're only hearing the mother's side of the story. The neighbor who called the cops, the actions of the police, it's possible they saw something that wasn't reported here. And something about this story sounds a little off to me. A kid is peacefully walking a half mile home, someone calls the cops, and the cops actually show up and intercept the kid before the kid gets home? Perhaps the kid wasn't actually okay with walking home, perhaps the mom was kicking him out of the car as a punishment, perhaps the kid didn't know what to do and asked a neighbor for help, perhaps the kid told the police that he didn't feel safe with his mother, perhaps some other stuff happened that the mom wasn't willing to tell Reason about, perhaps the police made a judgement call based on interviewing the neighbors and child that the mother had behaved inappropriately here. But maybe the story is completely accurate and this is just bad by the cops. So I hesitate to judge either way.

adamsb6 4y ago
We do get some information from the other side. The giant delta between the possible prison sentence and the consequences in the plea deal is a signal that the prosecution thought they would do poorly at trial.
- matai_kolila 4y ago
  I'm baffled as to why her attorney advised she take the plea deal.
  - jawns 4y ago
    You are? The choice is to avoid prison time entirely, or be willing to spend at least 2 years in prison if the jury gets this one wrong. The woman has already been failed by the police who arrested her and the prosecutor who declined to drop the charges. Who's to say whether she'll be failed by the jury as well?
    - eftychis 4y ago
      Problem is there is always the mispricing of the cost of having pled guilty to a felony. In the US the hard part is after prison from my understanding. Maybe I am wrong though. Also if your neighbors got you into this state now, what are they going to get you into the future, after you have been "guilty."
    - matai_kolila 4y ago
      Yes, I am. Nothing is gained without risk, and this woman likely now regrets accepting that plea deal. Her attorney should have explained to her what the outcome would have been for taking this deal, and clearly had she known she would not have, since she is now attempting to have the verdict expunged from her record.
  - eftychis 4y ago
    Public defender? Bad attorney-- collect the money and head out?
godshatter 4y ago
I also wondered how the police got there so fast. My thoughts are that the boy wasn't very happy being made to walk home and so looked angry or distraught and that triggered the response from the neighbor and then the incentives to not be the person that drops the ball when a kid could be in danger drove it as far as it did. I'm not saying it should have gone as far as it did, but I also agree there might have been more to it than we know about.
warner25 4y ago
I like the way you think. It's a thin article, written by someone with an agenda (albeit one that I generally applaud). Whenever people tell me stories like this, I too start asking questions that can only be answered by someone on the other side. Your point about the police response time is interesting. My own neighbors (who I like, but they make a good example here) had an incident recently. Their elementary school-aged kids play outside from dawn to dusk if they're not in school, which is cool. One day they built a fire in the woods behind their house, which backs up to 10,000+ acres of public woodlands and grasslands, in the middle of wildfire season in California. An hour after the kids "put it out," it was unattended and still producing large amounts of smoke. Someone walking by finally called the fire department, and the police also arrived to give the parents a citation. Anyway, to hear the mom tell the story it sounds outrageous that someone made the call and that emergency responders showed up, but everyone else who saw the situation unfold was pretty concerned about the fire.
deleted 4y ago
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by lacker 4y ago

adamsb6 4y ago

We do get some information from the other side. The giant delta between the possible prison sentence and the consequences in the plea deal is a signal that the prosecution thought they would do poorly at trial.

matai_kolila 4y ago
I'm baffled as to why her attorney advised she take the plea deal.
- jawns 4y ago
  You are? The choice is to avoid prison time entirely, or be willing to spend at least 2 years in prison if the jury gets this one wrong. The woman has already been failed by the police who arrested her and the prosecutor who declined to drop the charges. Who's to say whether she'll be failed by the jury as well?
  - eftychis 4y ago
    Problem is there is always the mispricing of the cost of having pled guilty to a felony. In the US the hard part is after prison from my understanding. Maybe I am wrong though. Also if your neighbors got you into this state now, what are they going to get you into the future, after you have been "guilty."
  - matai_kolila 4y ago
    Yes, I am. Nothing is gained without risk, and this woman likely now regrets accepting that plea deal. Her attorney should have explained to her what the outcome would have been for taking this deal, and clearly had she known she would not have, since she is now attempting to have the verdict expunged from her record.
- eftychis 4y ago
  Public defender? Bad attorney-- collect the money and head out?

godshatter 4y ago

I also wondered how the police got there so fast. My thoughts are that the boy wasn't very happy being made to walk home and so looked angry or distraught and that triggered the response from the neighbor and then the incentives to not be the person that drops the ball when a kid could be in danger drove it as far as it did. I'm not saying it should have gone as far as it did, but I also agree there might have been more to it than we know about.

warner25 4y ago

I like the way you think. It's a thin article, written by someone with an agenda (albeit one that I generally applaud). Whenever people tell me stories like this, I too start asking questions that can only be answered by someone on the other side. Your point about the police response time is interesting. My own neighbors (who I like, but they make a good example here) had an incident recently. Their elementary school-aged kids play outside from dawn to dusk if they're not in school, which is cool. One day they built a fire in the woods behind their house, which backs up to 10,000+ acres of public woodlands and grasslands, in the middle of wildfire season in California. An hour after the kids "put it out," it was unattended and still producing large amounts of smoke. Someone walking by finally called the fire department, and the police also arrived to give the parents a citation. Anyway, to hear the mom tell the story it sounds outrageous that someone made the call and that emergency responders showed up, but everyone else who saw the situation unfold was pretty concerned about the fire.

deleted 4y ago

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