From The Free Press:
www.thefp.com
Increasingly, police officers in the U.S. are targeting hands-off parents for their “negligence.” Take the case of Brittany Patterson. Last month, the 41-year-old mother of four from Fannin County, Georgia, was arrested after her 10-year-old son Soren was spotted a mile from his home on a spontaneous visit to see his friend’s grandmother. Patterson is fighting the charge of “reckless conduct,” and could face up to a year in jail if convicted.
Last week, the police body cam footage of her arrest went viral:
Her Son Went for a Walk. She Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct.’ Plus. . .
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www.thefp.com
It didn’t matter that Patterson had left Soren at home with her father while she attended a doctor’s appointment. Or that no harm came to her son, who wandered off without adult permission. He was spotted by a stranger, who called 911. The police returned him home safely, and Patterson was home within 20 minutes. But later police returned, placing Patterson in handcuffs and locking her in a jail cell. Now, authorities say Patterson must adopt a “safety plan” that includes monitoring her son’s location with an app.
Leighton Woodhouse spoke to Patterson, who told him the arrest was “humiliating” and “traumatic.” He also spoke to Lenore Skenazy, of Free-Range Kids, who has documented cases like this all over the country. “The culture has changed,” said Skenazy, who partly blames cell phones for giving us “the ability to call anything in,” and also because of “a pervasive belief that any child alone must be in danger, and any parent who lets their child be alone must be terrible.”
