All at Reason: “After a False Accusation, Police and Child Services Forced a Family Apart for 7 Months” [Robby Soave] “Cop Arrests Mom for Letting Kids Wait in Car During 10-Minute Errand” [Lenore Skenazy] “A Mother Spends a Week in Jail, Is Fired From Her Job, and Temporarily Loses Her Kids After a Police Mix-Up” [Zuri Davis]
5 Comments
Regarding Ashley Foster—isn’t there some rule about having to go in front of a magistrate within 72 hours?
Also, what was the basis for a home inspection? Absolutely none. Likely there was some sort of policy that the return of kids, in all cases, required. But that doesn’t mean that the CPS people had the right to condition her getting her kids back on a home inspection. In fact, in my view, the person who ordered the home inspection should be prosecuted for interference with custody and, at a minimum, should lose his or her job. There was no cause whatsoever for this home inspection, and the damages imposed in a civil case should be sufficient to bankrupt the jurisdiction.
It may seem picayune to many. Gee, what’s the problem? But if Ms. Foster had decided to stand firm on her rights, it would have prolonged the problem and the response may have been to label her “uncooperative” with all the fun that entails.
And I bet, since her car was impounded, that she had to pay some exorbitant amount to get it back. Nice work, government.
Regarding Ashley Foster—isn’t there some rule about having to go in front of a magistrate within 72 hours?
Evidently weekends don’t count, so if you’re arrested on a Friday, that Saturday and Sunday are just “tough luck, better wait until Monday, hope you didn’t have plans.”
She was incarcerated for a week.
The public doesn’t help here. I left my child in a car seat — fully visible to me at all times, per my state’s law — to run in and pick up take-out food from a place with a big plate window. A woman stormed into the restaurant and started screaming at me. I yelled back that I was within my rights, but I burn with anger to this day when I’m reminded of the incident. Somewhat reassuringly, the restaurant crowd sided with ME (which I didn’t expect). One man called out, “mind your own damn business, lady”. But, if she’d called the police, I suspect the police would take HER side, not mine. And I can assure you that in some prosecutor’s offices, cases involving leaving the kid in the car is seen as in a league with rape and murder. Of course there are cases where a child is left in a sweltering car for hours — but can we please make a distinction between those cases and the dash-for-minutes cases? And don’t get me started on the pets in the car. Entire crowds of do-gooders will surround a vehicle — with window cracked down on a cool fall day, Fido sitting happily inside — and scream about the “murdering animal abuser” they’re going to tar and feather when he gets out of Best Buy, axes in hand to smash the windows, etc.
“but can we please make a distinction between those cases and the dash-for-minutes cases?”
We should. However, I seriously doubt that either the criminal “justice”* system or the general public are capable of making that distinction.
*This is false advertising. We have a legal system, not a justice system. The operational ends of the system doesn’t give a rat’s a– about whether or not justice gets done. The care only that the rules were followed. Theoretically justice is considered when the laws/rules are written, but in practice, even then, justice is at most a tertiary concern.