"Five years ago, a retired police officer spotted a 7-year-old girl walking alone in her New Jersey neighborhood. The stranger stopped her, questioned her about where she lived and whether she was alone, then called the police. When officers arrived, the girl gave them her address which was just a few blocks away. They walked her home and met her parents."
"When the parents refused, arguing they'd done nothing wrong by letting their daughter go for a walk in the neighborhood, the officer called for backup and threatened to take their daughter into protective custody. The father tried to comfort his crying daughter. Police wrestled him to the ground, arrested him for obstructing justice, and took him to jail in handcuffs."
A retired officer followed a 7-year-old walking alone, called police, and returned her to her parents. The responding officer demanded ID; when parents refused, he called backup and threatened protective custody. The father comforted his daughter, was wrestled to the ground, arrested for obstructing justice, jailed in handcuffs, later convicted and fined $133. Cultural attitudes now often treat children’s independent activity as suspicious, producing interventions by strangers and authorities. That dynamic undermines the purpose of designing streets and public spaces for all ages, because design cannot enable freedom of movement if social and legal responses restrict it. Children in past decades commonly roamed and played outside with more autonomy.
Read at Fast Company
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