Finally!  The US has begun to show signs of British Big Brotherish utter stupidity.  We still have a lot fo hard work to do to catch up but reports like this make me swell with confidence that we're going to work hard and catch up to being as inbred and stupid as the Brits.



http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/a-mom-lets-her-son-walk-to-soccerand-the-police-come-calling/

"My 10-year-old son wanted the chance to walk from our house to soccer practice behind an elementary school about 1/3 mile from our house. He had walked in our neighborhood a number of times with the family and we have driven the route to practice who knows how many times. It was broad daylight – 5:00 pm. I had to be at the field myself 15 minutes after practice started, so I gave him my cell phone and told him I would be there to check that he made it and sent him off. He got 3 blocks and a police car intercepted him. The police came to my house — after I had left — and spoke with my younger children (who were home with Grandma). They then found me at the soccer field and proceeded to tell me how I could be charged with child endangerment. They said they had gotten “hundreds” of calls to 911 about him walking. Now, I know bad things can happen and I wasn’t flippant about letting him go and not checking up, but come on. I live in a small town in Mississippi. To be perfectly honest, I’m much more concerned about letting him attend a birthday party sleepover next Friday, but I’m guessing the police wouldn’t be at my house if I chose to let him go (which I probably won’t). "

3 blocks in a small town...
10 homes per block, 30 homes...MAYBE.
100's of calls??
I WOULD SAY the cop is exaggerating ALLOT..  A WHOLE TON, imperial.
If it was a 2year old...YES.  MAYBE a 6 year old..
BUT hes on the soccer team, and he is AT LEAST 8 years old..
Are we raising CHILDREN TO BE ADULTS, or children to be CHILDREN??

CAN I talk to the cop...PLEASE??

Hundreds of calls ... yup. One asshole with the police department on speed dial.

I was latchkey at age 8. Times may have been a bit different then, but this does seem a tad silly to me. Not unexpected, of course, just silly.

And here during the holiday season there are numerous lost children at the beach waiting to be claimed.Some are not even missed by the parents for days.

The cure for that is to require a license to breed. Unfortunately, that will never happen.