Connecticut parents arrested for letting kids walk to Dunkin' Donuts
I’ll note this every time this kind of story comes up: it’s good and correct to direct ire at the police here, but it’s also not the end of the story. The story also continues through America’s isolationist and atavistic car culture: you simply don’t see this kind of <i>bloodthirst</i> for “protecting children” in countries (or even areas within the US) with sensible urban design and correspondingly shifted expectations about the public.<p>This should not be read as an excuse, but as an analysis of how we prevent these kinds of absurd individual violations at their root: the police in so many parts of the US derive power from the latent fear of strangers that comes with car-dependent living. Remove that source of fear and power, and the public becomes less tolerant of state kidnappings.