10-year-old walks alone a mile away from Georgia home, leading to his mother's arrest
10-year-old walks alone a mile away from Georgia home, leading to his mother's arrest
Brittany Patterson, 41, said she was shocked that her son's stroll could lead to a criminal charge.
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.
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A mile is nothing ... what the actual fuck? I used to be gone for hours god knows where.
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When I grew up, we were "free range kids".
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My family had a healthy idea of limits, closer to the "free range" philosophy, before such a term was required.
Our neighbors across the street, however, were the prototype for helicopter parents.
While my sibling and I gained confidence and navigational skills by biking around our confusing neighborhood before the days of GPS, the neighbor's kids weren't allowed to go down the street unsupervised. My siblings and I stood alone on the corner bus stop, but the neighbor's mom sat in her car and only released her kids when the bus had arrived.
At the time, my parents made fun of theirs for holding such a tight leash. We also pitied the kids because they panicked about being "lost" when my siblings brought them on a walk around the block.
But now I see kids sitting in cars at bus stops as the norm. And of course, stories like the above article go to show that the helicopter style has won (for the time being.) The people who were raised to fear everything outside their front yard are now parents themselves.
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I had a bike. I can assure you, I went MILES away. At 10, I was probably riding 1-5 miles to friends houses or to neighborhoods for selling whatever nonsense my scouts program was selling.
Just be home when the street lights come on!
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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.
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Shit dude I remember walking further than that, at that age...crossing a busy 4-lane (state) highway (without a crosswalk or a sidewalk)...to buy pogs and rent video games.
That was only...30 years ago. Holy shit that was 30 years ago.
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I too had to walk to school, but with sidewalks! I do feel if there's a house, it should have a sidewalk.
Love sidewalks.
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My kids not only had sidewalks but after enough complaints we got the city to clear the snow when needed!
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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.
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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.
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Als I hate this doubly for the kid. Your mom getting arrested for your slightest sign of independence will fuck you up.
This so much. So much bullshit is being done to "protect children" and it actually hurts them.
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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.
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Town of 400? Was she a flight risk. Could they not have asked her to come by and remand herself? Do keep in mind this is a non-violent crime. This was for show, to make a point or simply to be cruel.
The police here are probably just two of the 400 people with no oversight.
When the deputy was complaining about her child wandering downtown, It paints a very different picture if there's only a general store a Dollar general and a gas station.
The only thing I can imagine if the police aren't being dick heads, is that the kid was getting into trouble. Maybe he was stealing or being perceived as stealing. Because he was being homeschooled maybe he was down there and they were pissed off because he was truant but can't really be truant.
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Bootlicking bastard. How dare you defend the cops for handcuffing this poor mother whose crime is apparently letting her kid have a childhood? "Peaceful interactions turn violent"? Pizza delivery drivers are more likely to have violent and fatal interactions with the public than cops, should they handcuff us "just in case" before handing us our order? God you bootlickers disgust me. Not ONE of your positions is upheld by facts. It's all "feelings", feelings like "the cop felt unsafe so he unloaded 2 full clips into a black kid playing tag". It's all a big tower of fascist feelings.
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The elementary school closest to us is about a mile away. Kids in my neighborhood walk to school.
What the hell is wrong with letting a kid walk a mile away??
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Probably somebody got elected on a "protect the children" and did this to prove it. It's not like it effects the jackass responsible for it. It's performance child protection and it's pretty common.
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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.
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Or get sold into sexual slavery, and if you get pregnant by your rapist, fuck you, you're having his baby.
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The coddling is a fairly recent thing. People born in the late 90s is who it started with, about the time that 24hr
propagandanews channels became a thing.
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Happened in the woke liberal capital of.. * checks notes *
... Georgia?
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Small townrural Georgia, no less!I crossed out "small town" because Mineral Bluff is too small to even count as incorporated. Literally all that's there, in terms of businesses, is a gas station, a Dollar General, and whatever the Hell this is.
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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...
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Stay classy, Georgia
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Yikes.
In 1997; I was walking about 2 miles to and from school. Unsupervised. I had a house key on my neck and was a latchkey kid in third grade. I obediently walked to and from school directly from home; meeting the crossing guard a half mile from school twice a day; as I had to cross a major 4 lane divided highway.
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This really feels insane, even for this day and age. Which makes me think we’re probably not getting the entire story.
If true, it’s downright silly. Back in the 80’s, we were out of the house unsupervised for hours. Parents just about encouraged you take candy from friendly strangers or to hitch a ride in their cool white van with ‘Free Puppies’ written on it. As long as you made it home without broken bones, they didn’t care. Ask anyone from my generation.
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I think it’s all on the parent saying they didn’t know where the kid was, the kid saying his parents didn’t know where he was.
I wonder how my parents would have responded when I was little, “in the woods”? “Up the street at one of the neighbors”? Or “I don’t know”?
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I mean when I was a kid in the late 80s/early 90s on weekends my parents generally had no clue where I was as long as I was home by dinner. and if I wasn't going to be home by dinner then to call and say so. payphones were everywhere, just call and let them know.
I mean hell I remember one time my friends and I were in some store a good 5 miles away from home and my parents happened to be shopping there at the same time. my mom comes up to me and says "I saw a tshirt you might like, do you want it?" and showed me the shirt and I said sure and that was it "see you later tonight".
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Pfft when i was that little i would wind up in a different city/state unbeknownst to my parents.
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That's actually really not good lol
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I got a 10-speed bike when I was about 10. A friend and I rode 15 miles to my uncle's house to visit my cousin. Got home that evening and told my mom and she was like "That's a bit too far away. Anyway let's have supper."
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I hope she wins. This is pathetic
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When I was a kid, I literally walked 43 miles from my home one day. Took 15 hours. I just had my parents pick me up when I got to the pizza place - no big deal.
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The initial reports of this made it sound much worse, now it seems so tame this charge borders on ludicrous. I walked about 2 miles to my bus stop as a kid with no side walk and it was ABSOLUTELY unsafe, but we didn't have a choice as the roads were no outlet and too narrow for a bus to get into my neighborhood. I never saw a kid get hit, but I knew of multiple adults that were hit by a car with a few fatalities. I still think this Georgia story sounds dumb, so either we're being deprived of details or the police are being ridiculous.
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Why is it so hard for you to stand behind your own words? If you can't do it, then stop replying?
And American police being ridiculous is just so off-character to them that that option seems just impossible, doesn't it?
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When the authorities make a misstep, they often keep going for fear of looking weak and leaving space for future exploitation
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When I was a kid in ft worth I used to ride my bike across town and all over downtown and nobody batted an eye
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Same experience and same metro-area.. It was the 90s, but still, I'd be gone on my bike across town for hours. I lived in Grapevine.
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My time was early/mid 70s
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I uaed to walk 4 miles to school and even further back (because i walked with a friend to their house and then to kine on the way home) instead of taking the bus. I would keep my bus money and use it to buy drinks and stuff. This was only 20 years ago. Much has changed.
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I used to have to walk a mile to the friggin school bus stop, shit is ridiculous nowadays.
