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/