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A mom near Chicago was charged with child endangerment for not leaving the child out of her sight. Thankfully, charges have been dropped. Still, she should never have been arrested. The Crestwood police department seems to have shot first and asked questions later.

Leaving a sleeping 2-year-old in a car instead of taking her into sleet is reasonable. Staying within 30 feet (and sight) of the car adds to the reasonableness. Locking the car also helps. What exactly was the danger? Where was the abuse? What has caused more harm to the family and therefore to the child – being left in a car for a couple of minutes or having the mother arrested and taken away from not only that child but also the others? Which is in the best interest of the child – having the mother nearby while sleeping peacefully or having the mother go to court and being subjected to a bunch of scrutiny and stress?

Treffly Coyne’s actions did not warrant such a harsh treatment from the community service officer – such micro-managing of parents for something that is not a problem. The state of Illinois is providing training for people who are expected to report child abuse. You are to notify DCFS when you notice that someone has “put the child at risk of physical injury”. That law must be read to include the word “reasonable” in front of “risk”, otherwise, no one could do anything with his children. What is more likely to cause physical injury – sitting in a locked car or driving down the 2-lane road to get to the parking lot? Simply putting the child in the car and driving somewhere causes the child to be at risk of physical injury. You wouldn’t expect all parents to stop driving, would you? You couldn’t even take your kids to Cedar Point.

The problem is that “reasonable” is subjective. And subjective laws are open to misinterpretation and differences of opinion. I’m sure a jury full of parents would have found her innocent if the case had gone to trial, but I am glad the prosecutors dropped all charges.

And as for the other children, the ones that are old enough to remember this event, the ones that were left standing in the sleet while their mother was being arrested, what effect did this have on them? Was being left in the cold, wet winter in their best interest? Will they ever trust a police officer again? “Find a police officer if you are in trouble. He is there to help you.” They won’t believe that for a while.

Yes, the community service officer was doing an officer’s job. In the light of recent tragedies involving children in cars, the officer should have investigated. If you see a child locked in a car, check to see if a parent is around. But the key word is investigate, not prosecute. If there is no imminent danger (child is warm, breathing, etc.) then let the family life continue as it was. Do some more investigating in the background if necessary, then bring charges if something is apparent. But don’t interrupt the family life first in order to protect the child from nothing.

And that rhymes with P and that stands for Politician. Right here in River City.

Or across most of the USA. It seems that between Kwame Kilpatrick and Eliot Spitzer, those in power have trouble staying out of trouble. My first thought was “Is it that difficult to behave yourself?” My second though was that there are still 48 states not in the negative news.  Those that do stay out of trouble don’t get the headlines either, so we never know about the good guys. Then my next thought was that maybe those people just aren’t getting caught. It is rather sad how cynical we have become regarding politicians in the US today that we almost expect those in power to be corrupted, especially if they are in Washington D.C. If it is not expected, then at least people are not surprised when something happens.

A recurring theme among the news stories about the governor of New York relates to his work as the attorney general, his job before governor. He apparently was ruthless in his prosecution and showed no leniency. It will be interesting to see how he will be prosecuted. There are a number of people calling for his resignation and not wanting any kindness shown to him.
The mayor of Detroit, on the other hand, has not condemned anyone recently, and so he was able to survive a number of mini scandals. His smooth personality gained him a lot of leeway in his behavior. A lot of people are now seeing through his little act now, and he is getting deeper in trouble the longer he denies everything. But it is interesting to contrast the two situations.