The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: Kamaji on January 30, 2023, 03:05:26 pm
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Connecticut Parents Arrested for Letting Kids, Ages 7 and 9, Walk to Dunkin' Donuts
"I have never felt threatened by a single person in this town until meeting those officers and the social worker."
LENORE SKENAZY
1.30.2023
It was Super Bowl Sunday in February of 2019. Cynthia Rivers and her husband decided that their kids, ages seven and nine, deserved a long-promised treat for cleaning their rooms: the right to walk to Dunkin' Donuts by themselves. (Reason has changed her name to protect the family's anonymity.)
This was in Killingly, Connecticut, a suburban town in the northeast part of the state. The Rivers' lived near an elementary school, library, state police barracks, sidewalks, crosswalks, many Victorian-style homes, and the aforementioned donut shop. The kids gathered $7, and off they went.
A few minutes later, the River parents heard a knock at the door. It was the police.
The first cop to show up "said he didn't think it was safe for the kids to walk by themselves," Rivers tells Reason. "We told him that while we did feel it was safe, we agreed to not allow them to walk around town unsupervised."
"We thought that would have been the end of it," Rivers added, "until three more officers showed up."
The first cop sent Rivers' husband to retrieve the kids, who had only made it about two blocks. Then mom, dad, and the kids faced a barrage of questions.
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Source: https://reason.com/2023/01/30/dunkin-donuts-parents-arrested-kids-cops-freedom/
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Nanny state! My God the distance and places I went when I was seven, we rode for miles through back alleys across busy streets. We walked for a mile to go to school and no one on the police department peed their pants over it. All this in Lynwood which was surrounded by South Gate, Compton, Long Beach and Watts during the time when racial issues were reaching the boiling point.
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When I was seven, I would ride miles from my house on my bike while mom was passed out on the couch.
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When I was 5 and my brother 4, we used to traipse around the neighborhood in Chenai (then known as Madras) without our parents.
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When I was 5 and my brother 4, we used to traipse around the neighborhood in Chenai (then known as Madras) without our parents.
Which reminds me, this brings up today's limerick:
There once was a man from Madras
Whose balls were constructed of brass.
When jangled together
They played "Stormy Weather"
And lightning shot out of his ass
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For me in the mid to late '60's, was the only rule was to be home before the street lights came on.
Even if it meant for me to eat a cold supper. My biking range around my house was about 50 square city blocks. Back then, much much more to do outside than in.
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I never knew that seven and nine were too young to walk to a local store
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Will the state allow them to walk to a bus stop alone. :pondering: