Next time? A scarlet letter
It's bad enough when the state tries to nanny everyone, but it's even worse when parents voluntarily shrug their child-rearing responsibilities onto the state: specifically, in the following case, onto the cops.
Recently, the police chief of Shady Cove, Ore. went to the local elementary school, handcuffed a third grade girl in front of her classmates and hauled her away in his cruiser—all at the request of her parents. Her crime? The girl had been caught stealing and her parents, the police chief and even the school principal agreed the mock arrest would be a really neat way to frighten the bejeebers out of her (and every other 8-year-old in town).
Well it turns out that the parents who asked the police to do their child-raising for them have had their own challenges; the police chief says her father is a recovering meth addict. So are we really sure it's the girl who needed a lesson from the cops? And why do we keep asking police officers to handle all of society's ills?
Did we learn nothing from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? 
As the Oompa Loompas sang:
Blaming the kids is a lie and a shame
You know exactly who's to blame:
The mother and the father!
In fact, there ought to be some laws prohibiting "Villiages" from illegally interfering in peoples lives through illegal means. See "Stephanie's Law, 2003"
Posted by: Deborah | June 02, 2007 at 11:48 AM
This response is for stephen:
Stephen, this has not been about public shaming or mock arrest. This has been about media publicity, t.v. studios, and people becoming famous at the expense of someone else.
Stephen, I too used to live in a "Villiage" only I now refer to them as the "Village Felons." I used to love this Villiage with it's clean streets, pretty homes, running trains, quaint little community atmosphere, and the Villiage Starbucks. But you see, I was felony wired up in my home to the Internet, my Nissan Xterra was illegally wired by the car dealership, my office was wired up, and my phones wire tapped. The people in this so-called Village stalked, drugged, and abused me inside my home, apartment, car, and on my home town streets. I was drugged by John, the villagers, my own mother, and a male friend, all illegally. For year I have been threatened, attacked, bullied, attacked, psychologically abused, attacked in the workplace twice, and "mobbed" on the roads - all of these things illegal and unconstitutional in this country, and all without any Constitutional due-process. I went to the Police THREE TIMES and the FBI when I was being stalked and terrroized and they would NOT help me. I went to my family, friends, co-workers, and anyone else who might help me but apparently they value deceipt and lies or the rights and protections guaranteed every American. Because of this illegal abuse and violence I have lost my home, car, job, son, career, family, friends, everything. I was discriminated and the denied every Constitutional and Legal right of every American citizen. FYI, I am a single, white, blond, 45 year old - told I was "just a blond sex kitten." But I don't think that negates my rights in THIS country. The child and spousal abuse I went through do not have anything to do with my rights either and after 31 years of male abuse I think I had a right to live SAFE in my own home in this country regardless of whether I needed legal representation from 20 years ago.
When I was in my 20's, I made some terrible decisions and broke the law. I don't really care what those people believe about it all. However, when it happened, I scared MYSELF, I had my child and straightened myself out. If someone "thought" they saw me steal something here, they are wrong, but they did not bother to approach me to find out the truth. I am not a thief or a criminal or a liar or any of the other horrible things they said about me but the damage to my son is done and they cannot take back what they have said and done to both myself and him. Do you know that one of these people got my son to take part in felony activities? Against his own mother?
I was simply a single, low-income mother trying to raise her son and build a new, better life. And these arrogant, self-entitled Villagers were driving around listening to my conversations on wire taps - not exactly the honest types themselves.
This country is based on "equal rights and protections" for every citizen and that includes me. I do not take felony abuse by those villagers, or anyone else lightly. If you are going to "mock arrest" someone, shouldn't you make sure they actually did something? As for arresting an 8 year old girl, those parents should be the ones humiliated and shamed in public, if not around the world, to know how violent and abuse it is.
Not to mention stephen, my family or personal problems were not their business. Not now or ever and maybe instead of driving around listening on FELONY wire taps or watching in my home on FELONY spycams, or making FELONY TV shows, or FELONY drugging women, or inflicting FELONY psychological abuse, or DISCRIMINATING PEOPLE'S RIGHTS they should be questioning their own ethics and morals.
As Rick said, California and America are not a "nanny state", excuse me that is based on, wow what a surprise, yet another TV show concept. We are not a police state, the police are here to "protect and serve." Paid to protect EVERYONE'S rights in good AND bad times.
Just as my own mother said to me "it's just exploitation" and that is what is so sickening. This is not the United States of Hollywood but that what's that 8 year olds arrest was really about, the show of it.
Posted by: Deborah | June 02, 2007 at 11:46 AM
I stole a piece of candy from one of those huge barrels of caramels at the supermarket when I was about 6. As we were getting into the car I pulled out the candy and put it in my mouth like I had gotten away with a free treat. My uncle is a cop so my parents called him to come arrest me because I stole something. They said stealing was against the law and if they didn't call the police then they would go to jail also. Lesson learned.
The parents could probably spank the kid or give a stern warning, but then child services would be knocking on their door before the ink could dry on Lisa's alternative report , "Former heroin addict arrested for child abuse: Principle knew household in shambles but didn't do anything to help".
Posted by: stephen | June 02, 2007 at 12:27 AM
It is the parents responsibility to curb their pets; public schools have become Day-Care Centers at tax payers' expense. Parents demand after school activities/centers for their children at tax payers' expense.
Children have no place to go after school? Go home. These children
are their parents' obligation; not mine.
I will not pay for the results of you parents' sexual irresponsibility/history.
You had these kids; not me. It is the parents' duty to be home when their kids are out of school. It amazes me what panic parents are in when they learn that "next Tuesday" there is no school due to a teachers conference somewhere. "Oh, what will we do; what will we do?"
Latch-key kids should be illegal. Just because parents want a
4-bedroom home financed with an ARM time-bomb; two Ford Expeditions
in the drive-way; and a 52 inch plasma television to baby-sit their children,
it doesn't make me responsible for their irresponsibility.
"It takes a village" pass the buck life-style comes from a village idiot.
Posted by: bg mendell | April 07, 2007 at 01:44 PM
Patricia,
No, I am not against recovering from addiction. And how exactly did I slander the girl's father? I was only pointing out something that you also articulated--maybe more clearly than I did: the girl's behavior probably has its roots in her troubled home life, and her father's addiction probably plays a part in that.
But if that's the case, and it is logical to believe that her father's meth addiction is responsible for some of her acting out, that only makes calling the police on her more egregious. It's blaming the 8-year-old victim for parental dysfunction. And I wonder if the father would have found it helpful, when he was in the throes of his meth addiction, for the family to call the cops on him? But hey, who knows. Maybe they did! But just as I believe that most addicts need treatment, not jailing, I believe calling the police on the child was inappropriate too.
Posted by: Lisa Richardson | April 06, 2007 at 06:16 PM
It takes a village to raise a child is a centuries old concept that has been proven. It comes from a part of the world and time that thrived without a penal system. The point, if the community/extended family is involved in the life of every child- feels that responsibility- we do not have the problem that we see now. People who were raised under the “it takes a village to raise a child” mind-set would say that they were in their teens before they knew who their biological parents were. This was not because they were abandoned, but because every adult in their world had the freedom and charge to correct and reward, care for and teach. Every home was open for dinner, no one parent was stressed into abuse, or passed abuse into neglect.
Which brings me to “Parents no longer allowed to discipline their children…” Every parent who wants to discipline does so. Everyone who is not disciplined himself or herself use the nanny state as a cop out- no pun intended.
Posted by: Petra | April 06, 2007 at 05:49 PM
The nanny state, created by the politically correct, "It takes a Village" crowd and the equally annoying right-wing "moralist" types, will be the death of America as we have known it.
The "nanny state" is just a nice way of describing a "police state" and it is eroding the individuality and individual rights that Americans are justly famous for.
In this day and age parents and society need to remember that children are just that. They are immature, not very knowledgable, prone to lying and tend to avoid responsibility as if it were a sport. What this child needed was a swift kick in the rear end and not a phony arrest by an apparently underworked Police Chief.
With parents no longer allowed to discipline their children in the same manner that their parents disciplined them, and if they do they risk a vist from social services or worse, we have a generation of children and adults, for that matter, who believe that the police and courts are the first resort for any family or minor legal issue. This has resulted in social workers acting as judge and jury and prosecutors and Judges holding parents accountable for actions that when we I grew up in the 60's and 70's would have been laughed out of court; let alone brought to court.
In the day, parents were allowed to raise their kids as they saw fit and for the most part we all turned out fine. In fact, every generation of Americans has been raised in this manner until today and America has done A OK.
What I see in todays youth is a generation of children who do not respect parental boundaries, who are spoiled and carry themselves with a sense of entitlement. They address adults by their first name as if they are equals. They are continuosly lectured in school that its OK to rat out their parents and that they are in control, not their parents. In a word, these kids are coddled and soft and in the end it will be to their detriment. When they become adults they will not be prepared to handle the trials and tribulations of life and when they can't who will they run to then? In other words, handling matters onself and withn the framework of the family unit and not pawning it off on society should be societies ultimate goal and this is what we should be teaching in our schools.
Our parents never called the local police chief to do their parenting and we never ratted them out for being human. Lets keep it that way.
Posted by: Rick Portales | April 06, 2007 at 01:58 PM
"Well it turns out that the parents who asked the police to do their child-raising for them have had their own challenges; the police chief says her father is a recovering meth addict. So are we really sure it's the girl who needed a lesson from the cops? "
The emphasis is on RECOVERING. A RECOVERING addict is someone trying to do the right thing and lead a decent life.
Is that something you're against or what? Wow, she's against addicts going to into recovery! She wants to slander a man because he's trying to get better.
The daughter is probably stealing as a way of acting out because of the stress of her father's drug problems.
I want so say something about Lisa Richardson and her basic humanity, but that might count as abuse, so I'll put some tape over my mouth so that I don't use any four letters words.
Posted by: Patricia Schwarz | April 06, 2007 at 08:56 AM