Summary

Brittany Patterson, 41, was shocked to face a criminal charge for alleged reckless conduct when her unsupervised 10-year-old son walked less than a mile from their home.

Although authorities offered to drop the charge if she agreed to always supervise her children, Patterson refuses to sign, insisting she did nothing wrong and will fight the charge, which could lead to up to a year in jail.

Her lawyer argues that parents should have discretion over their children’s whereabouts, questioning if constant GPS tracking is now expected. Patterson was released on $500 bail.

  • @tipicaldik
    link
    274 hours ago

    I’m confused… shouldn’t this be happening in one of those liberal nanny states where big government is supposed to be all up in your business?

    Oh, right… those people need to tell you how to raise YOUR kids, but don’t you dare tell them how to raise theirs…

  • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️
    link
    534 hours ago

    How we have lost perspective. When I was that age I was forced to walk to school, a distance of about 1.5 miles.

    Forced, mind you, because if you were considered “too close” to the school you were not eligible to ride the bus. Other than the land directly adjoining the school grounds, the roads I had to use also did not have sidewalks. The number of children killed, maimed, or injured by this during the years I attended that school were, to my knowledge… zero.

  • @ThePyroPython
    link
    414 hours ago

    America: where young people are coddled until they’re 18 then it’s either sell your body, sell your soul, or both multiple times over just to survive.

    • @Crackhappy
      link
      English
      224 hours ago

      Or get sold into sexual slavery, and if you get pregnant by your rapist, fuck you, you’re having his baby.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    485 hours ago

    They asked me to put my hands behind my back and all that stuff, and I realized what was going on.

    Because she was too dangerous to be cuffed normally, or not cuffed at all?

    Als I hate this doubly for the kid. Your mom getting arrested for your slightest sign of independence will fuck you up.

    • @papalonian
      link
      234 hours ago

      That poor kid. I already was upset thinking about them having to see Mom get arrested. I didn’t even consider the fact that the youngest is probably blaming himself.

    • @Death_Equity
      link
      43 hours ago

      Cuffed normally is behind your back. You only get cuffs in front with some prisoner transfers where you also have leg shackles and a belt. Cops routinely have a pleasant and peaceful interaction turn violent and it isn’t worth risking harm to anybody by not equally applying a handcuff and search policy.

      Often it is department policy that anyone arrested is handcuffed. Some stipulate that anyone who goes in the back of a squad car gets handcuffed as part of detaining someone.

  • @dugmeup
    link
    735 hours ago

    A mile is nothing … what the actual fuck? I used to be gone for hours god knows where.

    • @Jambone
      link
      31 hour ago

      When I grew up, we were “free range kids”.

      • partial_accumen
        link
        205 hours ago

        They could have lived in a city that straddles a state boundary. Crossing to a different city/state could be done measured a matter of meters/yards.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          74 hours ago

          At the Four Corners, they could be in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, or Utah in a single step.

          More realistically, if you were in NYC, you could hop a train and be in CT, NJ, or PA for a day trip. Or even further, if you started early enough.

          • partial_accumen
            link
            74 hours ago

            I was thinking something like this where you can be TOTALLY INSIDE ONE SMALL BUILDING and be in two different cities/states.

            The left side of gas station (QuickTrip) is Kansas City, Kansas. The right side of the gas station is Kansas City, Missouri. So cross state lines going from the chip aisle to the soda refrigerators.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              12 hours ago

              Google Maps boundaries aren’t the most accurate. You can look up property records for KCMO and see it’s almost entirely inside KCMO (though it does span multiple parcels).

              What’s more interesting is that while the building is in KCMO, the address of the gas pump canopy is in KCK. I’m sure they all just use the address of the entire business in KCMO for all legal purposes.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              13 hours ago

              How the hell does this work employment wise? Are employees working in Kansas or Missouri and which state collects taxes? Probably not as big of an issue there, but in my state we have things like income tax while our neighbors don’t, which would make situations like this incredibly confusing.

              • partial_accumen
                link
                53 hours ago

                Just a guess, the mailing address probably specifies which state’s rules its under. Police enforcement might be interesting though.

            • @Psychogasm
              link
              13 hours ago

              Yeah, would pass through Misery for my lunch breaks to get to this Quick-Trip. Too bad they had Kansas taxes. Cigarettes were hella high.