When I first read this story about a woman getting arrested because her kids were playing outdoors, I figured it would be a perfect addition for my ongoing series that tries to determine whether the United States or the United Kingdom has the most incompetent, stupid, and/or venal government officials making the most brainless and/or thuggish decisions.
And when you read these excerpts from a newspaper in Houston, you’ll agree that venal and thuggish are very appropriate words.
A stay-at-home mom from La Porte has filed a lawsuit against the city’s police department, an unknown officer and one of her neighbors. Tammy Cooper said she was wrongly accused of endangering her children and was even forced to spend the night in jail, all because she let her kids play outside. …her children, ages 9 and 6, were riding their motorized scooters in the cul-de-sac where they live while she watched from a lawn chair in her front yard just a few feet away. ..a La Porte police car pulled up in front of her home. …He proceeded to tell me he had received a call from one of my neighbors that my kids were riding their scooters unsupervised. Cooper said she was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car and forced to spend the night in jail. …The charges against her were eventually dropped but she still describes the ordeal as humiliating and said her children were even questioned by police and terrified. …”I hope that what I went through doesn’t go unpunished – that there are consequences for a bad decision,” Cooper said.
But as I thought about the story, I got more and more angry. Heck, it’s the kind of story that should get everybody upset. So maybe it belongs in the this-should-turn-everyone-into-a-libertarian category. Sort of like these horrifying examples.
- A story of vicious IRS persecution.
- Threatening to send a woman to jail because someone whistled at a whale.
- Two stories of innocent people who were victimized by the idiotic Drug War.
- A video about how the EPA tried – and fortunately failed – to destroy a family.
- A story about the Justice Department’s discriminatory attack on a hapless homeowner.
- The government treating child molesters more leniently than people who accidentally omit irrelevant info from forms.
Though I have to admit that I have a hard time understanding why any ethical person wouldn’t be a libertarian anyhow.
But I’m digressing. Returning to our topic, I very much hope that Mrs. Cooper wins her lawsuit. It’s not against the law for kids to play outside. Even if she was inside watching a soap opera, that shouldn’t matter.
If cops have nothing better to do in La Porte, then perhaps it’s time to downsize the police department. And a good place to start is by firing the thug that arrested a woman for no reason.
[…] Tammy Cooper […]
[…] Tammy Cooper […]
There is quite a bit more to the Tammy Cooper story than you mention here. The following facts come from official court record in Cooper’s unsuccessful lawsuit that went to the 5th Circuit, which affirmed the lower courts’ findings, and Cooper did not dispute any of these facts:
The police arrived on the scene a little after 10 PM. Kind of late for a 6 and a 9 year old to be awake and playing on the street, in the dark, don’t you think? The arresting officer saw that Cooper’s garage door was open, her SUV’s tailgate was open and full of groceries, and the hood of her car was hot to the touch. The officer surmised that Cooper had just returned from grocery shopping, meaning that her children were playing on the street at night without her even at home. When the officer asked if she had just gotten back from grocery shopping, she refused to answer and declared her 5th Amendment rights.
Two separate neighbors told police they saw the children playing in the street unsupervised. One neighbor said she almost hit one of the children with her car because the child swerved out in front of her on its motorized scooter, at night, in the dark. While the mother was off shopping.
[…] Tammy Cooper […]
[…] believe me, just ask Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, James […]
[…] do Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, James […]
[…] believe me, just ask people like Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, the Hammond family, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, […]
[…] would also include people like Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, […]
[…] concise title). Charter members would include Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha […]
[…] if you think I’m exaggerating and governments don’t behave this way, check out the story of the mom who was jailed overnight because her kids played outside – while she was watching […]
[…] if you think I’m exaggerating and governments don’t behave this way, check out the story of the mom who was jailed overnight because her kids played outside – while she was watching […]
[…] for being hostile to government, just check out how Andy Johnson, Anthony Smelley, Charlie Engle, Tammy Cooper, Nancy Black, Russ Caswell, Jacques Wajsfelner, Jeff Councelller, Eric Garner, Martha Boneta, […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] shared some horror stories, such as this instance of vicious IRS persecution, a story of a woman jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside, an example of cops “legally” stealing $17,000 from a man who committed no crime, a video about […]
[…] shared some horror stories, such as this instance of vicious IRS persecution, a story of a woman jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside, an example of cops “legally” stealing $17,000 from a man who committed no crime, a […]
[…] Was it the Texas woman who was arrested because her children were playing outside? […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] sometimes I use horrifying anecdotes in hopes that people will realize the risks of unconstrained […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] A women jailed overnight because she let her kids play outside. […]
[…] sometimes I use horrifying anecdotes in hopes that people will realize the risks of unconstrained […]
[…] sometimes I use horrifying anecdotes in hopes that people will realize the risks of unconstrained […]
Walter K
The end of being a kid is close at hand, boys will no longer be able to climb trees, walk to the stream and fish and god forbid they were to go plunking cans with a BB gun the neighbors would be calling the SWAT team.
Her side of the story implies she was there, watching her kids. Most of the time your stories are dead-on, so I have no reason to disbelieve you. But I can tell you that living in an urban location I have CONSTANTLY walked outside to large groups of children screaming, shouting, defecating and urinating outside my apartment, up to midnight, with ZERO adult supervision. My car has been pissed on and scratched to hell, my cat has had rocks and explosives thrown at it, and parents do nothing.
At midnight, the little kids go in and the teenagers come out for 3-4 hours, slamming their skateboards on the ground repeatedly. Still no adults. If you knock on the parents door asking them to control their children, you get verbally and physically assaulted. There is an apartment playground about 100 meters away. No one ever uses it. I have seriously considered putting up posters of the evilest-looking guy I can find and claiming that he’s a suspect in child abductions, rapes and murders in the area just in the hope I can get some sleep.
I agree, it is likely ,because the charges were dropped, that the case has no merit, but if a parent endangers a child by negligence, it isn’t about their life, it is about a child they are responsible for.
Dr. L. It is not your job or your brothers to worry about what other people do with their life. If these motorized scooters were more like a motorcycle, they would of fell into that category. The fact the police dropped the charges tells me they had no case. Sure, plenty of adults are idiots but there are far better ways to handle it without the state being involved.
If they were on motorised scooters( my brother clocked a fourth grader ar 45 miles per hour) at age 6 unsupervised in a public road, she is guilty of child endangerment in my opinion. I would have liked more specific info.
Those kids should have been inside eating cauliflower and brussel sprouts. Maybe some hard time playing video games and drinking sugary beverages would teach them a lesson.
Reblogged this on MisBehaved Woman and commented:
Well, we can’t have children playing outside now can we? Every moment we allow such insanity the poor kids are being deprived of…being brainwashed by the media. Think of the losses corporations will suffer if their advertising cannot reach the children! >End sarcastic rant<
Reblogged this on News You May Have Missed and commented:
Another Disgusting Display of Government Thuggery