Comments on: Sherwood Park mom should be charged

By: Alain

Alain — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:14:46 +0000

I hadn’t seen anything in the stories that the baby was in the front seat. Not saying that wasn’t the case though.

In the lady’s defense, it could be that it was a single cab truck. Not sure. If it’s only an extra cab, can you put a car seat in the back?

I checked and the baby was in the front seat!
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Technology/Alberta+kidnapper+over+head+says+baby/1478267/story.html

It seems that the back was full of other car seats. You can turn off the airbag, or at least I think you’re supposed to be able to do that.

Good catch.

By: ashley

ashley — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:13:03 +0000

Not only that , what was the child doing in the front seat??

By: Alain Saffel

Alain Saffel — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:51:08 +0000

Not having written the stories on this, I can’t say the media has made any assumptions in this story. I trust they have based their stories on the facts, unless you’ve seen or heard a retraction that would indicate they have the story wrong.

Nobody’s saying that parents don’t make mistakes. Kids do have a mind of their own but so do parents. We rely on parents not to make absurdly obvious mistakes like leaving your child in an unlocked, running vehicle.

Children also have minds of their own and do things that we do not anticipate and cannot control. If it results in harm to the child, parents typically aren’t found negligent should anything go terribly wrong. This isn’t that kind of case.

Fortunately our justice system does not operate on the principle of ‘he without sin not casting the first stone.’ That in itself is absurd.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:47:05 +0000

I think it is pretty easy for a person to judge without knowing all the facts. Not that I do, but I am surprised at the lynch mob this mom gets when there is so little attention paid to the young offender that actually committed a crime. How many assumptions have been made by the media when it comes to their articles about this situation? We live in a society that is constantly looking to blame situations on someone, when sometimes it is a genuine mistake (we are human after all). I can think of many examples in my 5 years of parenting that I have made mistakes (like accidentally leaving the front door unlocked, and then finding that my child has run half way around the block). If they were taken, or hit by a car, I shudder to think of how I would be pictured in the media…I should be charged for such gross negligence. As far as knowing what is “reasonably foreseen”…it always looks so much clearer when you look back on a situation. As far as wishing a criminal record on someone who has made a mistake that could happen to almost anyone…let he who is without sin cast the first stone…

By: Alain Saffel

Alain Saffel — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:27:34 +0000

I don’t know whether your insurance company covers you when you leave a vehicle unlocked and running. Would be good to know. If I were still a reporter, I’d do that story as a follow-up.

While I don’t think she should go to jail over this, I think she should be charged and there should be some type of penalty that suits the crime. Perhaps community service is in order? Maybe she should be going to prenatal classes and telling her story about why moms shouldn’t be doing what she did.

At least some good could come of this situation. I understand she made a mistake, and we all have, but it doesn’t excuse it.

By: Adam Snider

Adam Snider — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:11:09 +0000

I think insurance companies shouldn’t cover people who leave their vehicles in that condition. How hard is it to turn it off, take the keys and lock it up?

I’m pretty sure that they don’t. If you leave your vehicle running, say to warm it up in the winter, and someone steals it, the insurance company isn’t going to cover that (even if the car was locked, the fact that you left it running is considered to void the insurance policy because you didn’t do due diligence to prevent the theft).

As for the specifics of this case, I think the woman made a huge mistake to leave the car running and unlocked. Was she wrong to leave the baby in the truck for such a short trip? That’s debatable. Had she turned off the truck and locked it, perhaps it would have been alright. I’m not a parent so it’s hard for me to judge the situation.

However, leaving it unlocked and running was absolutely stupid, regardless of whether or not she left the baby in the truck. Of course, she was in front a school where lots of people were picking up children, so she probably thought that there is no way that the truck would stolen with so many witnesses around. Plus, she’s probably done it a hundred times in the past without incident.

Does that excuse her negligence? Of course not, but it does serve to explain it a bit.

Should she be charged? I personally don’t think so. I can see your point about setting an example, but charging her and then not following through with any sort of punishment won’t send a message at all, as far as I’m concerned. And, like you, I definitely don’t think she should serve time for this, so pressing charges seems like a pointless waste of time and money.

Just my (very wordy) $0.02.