[Deathknight]

Heh its stories like these that really get my fired up. A mother is thrown into jail and fails to notify the police that she has a 2 year old kid at home alone. The kid lives for 3 weeks on dried pasta and ketchup! Sometimes I wish we didn't have such a "free' country. Sure anybody can raise a baby but driving a car? Ohhh thats hard. Better make them take a test before they can do that!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/09/....ap/index.html

[Blueacid]

That is certainly not a pleasant thing. Really, it isn't

The kid must've been smart, to find and eat the food (Or just hungry heh)

You have to wonder about some people.....

[engjohn]

It is truly amazing!
This kind of thing makes me REALLY ANGRY!
For commiting a crime of such danger to a young ones life there should be incredibly stiff punishment. For example, the state should sterilize you so that you cannot breed, and thus not have the opportunity to do this again to another child, you should be put into isolation for 3 weeks yourself with no food, no human contact, nothing but water and bugs to barely keep you alive!
I almost feel that commiting a crime like this is akin to attempted murder, or conspiring to commit murder and she should be punished accordingly!
What will most likely happen is that she will get of with a slap on the wrist!
The US is WAY TOO lenient on crime! <--- but that is a whole different discussion!

[Deathknight]

I agree this should have a stiffer penalty. Its a sad thing that in football they have special rules to protect the quarterback in a football game (in this analogy the quarterback being the baby ) yet we don't have laws that protect our kids as strongly as the NFL protects its QBs?!? The fact that this kid lived defies all the odds. If you knowingly leave a kid without food while you are in jail that IS attempted murder in my book.

[Beast Of Blight]

I'm afraid I can't comment.

Its frowned upon when I make comments to the intellectual level of people, even tho other people are allowed to do such.

[Ducker]

I think that this sad story, as well as many others very similar to this, illustrates the lack of concern some people have for our children's wellbeing. I agree, there should be severe punishment for those who commit such acts against children. But unfortunately our courts don't always see it that way. Sometimes they seem to be more concerned with protecting the rights of criminals than those of victims. And some prosecuting attorneys are more worried about their careers and how certain cases reflect upon them. So they don't always choose to prosecute cases they deem unwinable, just so as not to make them look bad.

Not long ago there was a case where a woman was accused of scalding her baby to death in the bathtub because it cried too much or something like that. Her other child, I think she was about three or so, overheard the whole thing. Anyway the state's Children & Family Services agency took the older child in while "mom" was in jail. Then after "mom" gets out of jail, the judge gives the child back to "mom". That's incredible!!! Like how can they think that this woman is a fit mother? This kind of things just angers me greatly!!!! I have been very active in working with youth for the last 15 years or so and I just have no patience or quarter for those who do these things!

[nihili]

The sad thing is that given how good the child was at foraging, you can be pretty sure this wasn't her first time having to do it.

[Beast Of Blight]

Originally posted by nihili
The sad thing is that given how good the child was at foraging, you can be pretty sure this wasn't her first time having to do it.

I'm glad someone else picked up on this.

I have first hand experiance with stuff like this, There used to be some kids next door that were often left alone, or their parents were locked away in the bedroom doing whatever [ illegal and consensual stuff, to keep the phrasing nice ] and not coming out.

The oldest would always walk over here asking for milk, or something else small like that so he could make microwave meals for himself and the other kids. Like Mac and cheese or some suich.

Children can be quite good at finding somethign to eat if they have no one else but themselve to count on.

[JML]

Originally posted by engjohn

The US is WAY TOO lenient on crime! <--- but that is a whole different discussion!

I agree 100%

[Ducker]

The sad thing is that given how good the child was at foraging, you can be pretty sure this wasn't her first time having to do it.

Unfortunately....I think you're probably right.

The US is WAY TOO lenient on crime! <--- but that is a whole different discussion!

I agree as well. I think that if we could get the courts to enforce the laws, or get the lawmakers to make better laws (although I don't want to open that can of worms here ) perhaps people like this may take more heed of the law if they really think they may be held accountable and have to face the consequences of their actions.

[ThePerfectCore]

Children can be quite good at finding somethign to eat if they have no one else but themselve to count on.

Children are better at a ton of things than most adults give them credit for. I'm sure any parent here can testify.

[Lusankya]

It was 10 days.. not 3 weeks

[altec]

Even if it was 10 days rather than 3 weeks, the negligence of the act is still ridiculous. I personally wish that there were harsher sentences for things like this, and the courts would look at it as attempted murder, or conspiracy to murder, simply because that it what it is. They will not pursue that however, and I am sure that when the mother gets out of jail, the child will still be allowed to stay with her. That really really angers me the most.

[Lusankya]

I didn't say it wasn't wrong.. I was just clarifying an error