Brittany Patterson, 41, said she was shocked that her son's stroll could lead to a criminal charge.

Summary

Brittany Patterson, 41, was shocked to face a criminal charge for alleged reckless conduct when her unsupervised 10-year-old son walked less than a mile from their home.

Although authorities offered to drop the charge if she agreed to always supervise her children, Patterson refuses to sign, insisting she did nothing wrong and will fight the charge, which could lead to up to a year in jail.

Her lawyer argues that parents should have discretion over their children’s whereabouts, questioning if constant GPS tracking is now expected. Patterson was released on $500 bail.

    • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
      29·
      1 month ago

      They could have lived in a city that straddles a state boundary. Crossing to a different city/state could be done measured a matter of meters/yards.

      • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
        11·
        1 month ago

        At the Four Corners, they could be in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, or Utah in a single step.

        More realistically, if you were in NYC, you could hop a train and be in CT, NJ, or PA for a day trip. Or even further, if you started early enough.

        • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
          14·
          1 month ago

          I was thinking something like this where you can be TOTALLY INSIDE ONE SMALL BUILDING and be in two different cities/states.

          The left side of gas station (QuickTrip) is Kansas City, Kansas. The right side of the gas station is Kansas City, Missouri. So cross state lines going from the chip aisle to the soda refrigerators.

          • catloaf@lemm.eeEnglish
            5·
            1 month ago

            Google Maps boundaries aren’t the most accurate. You can look up property records for KCMO and see it’s almost entirely inside KCMO (though it does span multiple parcels).

            What’s more interesting is that while the building is in KCMO, the address of the gas pump canopy is in KCK. I’m sure they all just use the address of the entire business in KCMO for all legal purposes.

          • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
            3·
            1 month ago

            How the hell does this work employment wise? Are employees working in Kansas or Missouri and which state collects taxes? Probably not as big of an issue there, but in my state we have things like income tax while our neighbors don’t, which would make situations like this incredibly confusing.

            • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
              8·
              1 month ago

              Just a guess, the mailing address probably specifies which state’s rules its under. Police enforcement might be interesting though.

          • Psychogasm@lemmy.world
            2·
            1 month ago

            Yeah, would pass through Misery for my lunch breaks to get to this Quick-Trip. Too bad they had Kansas taxes. Cigarettes were hella high.

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
      3·
      1 month ago

      I got a 10-speed bike when I was about 10. A friend and I rode 15 miles to my uncle’s house to visit my cousin. Got home that evening and told my mom and she was like “That’s a bit too far away. Anyway let’s have supper.”