My first gut reaction was, like many, that policing whether children can walk to school is effing retarded.<p>But, I remember when we had no seat belt laws or child seats, and that was a dumb idea, and got solved by government intrusion. My parents moved me and my siblings to Mexico for a year, and used to send us walking through the city on own. I was the oldest, at 7, my sister was 6, my brother 4. One time my brother was kicked in the head by a horse while we were wandering in a field petting the horses. In retrospect, my parents were lucky he lived, and a little more supervision may have been called for.<p>I have children, and usually encourage them to walk to school, a little under a mile. But, I&#x27;d never let them loose on their own in a foreign country.<p>I&#x27;m also white and have lived only in at least middle class, ridiculously safe neighborhoods, except for my year in Mexico, my whole life. I realize I&#x27;ve been really lucky, and that there are a wide variety of people and places and standards and ways kids can and do get hurt. So, who am I to judge?<p>I think I could accept policing being reasonable, if it turned out that it did on average prevent injuries or deaths, and that my feelings about what&#x27;s too intrusive might be irrelevant, biased, or lacking data.