Leave Well Enough Alone

A mom near Chicago was charged with child endangerment for not leaving the child out of her sight. Thankfully, charges have been dropped. Still, she should never have been arrested. The Crestwood police department seems to have shot first and asked questions later.

Leaving a sleeping 2-year-old in a car instead of taking her into sleet is reasonable. Staying within 30 feet (and sight) of the car adds to the reasonableness. Locking the car also helps. What exactly was the danger? Where was the abuse? What has caused more harm to the family and therefore to the child – being left in a car for a couple of minutes or having the mother arrested and taken away from not only that child but also the others? Which is in the best interest of the child – having the mother nearby while sleeping peacefully or having the mother go to court and being subjected to a bunch of scrutiny and stress?

Treffly Coyne’s actions did not warrant such a harsh treatment from the community service officer – such micro-managing of parents for something that is not a problem. The state of Illinois is providing training for people who are expected to report child abuse. You are to notify DCFS when you notice that someone has “put the child at risk of physical injury”. That law must be read to include the word “reasonable” in front of “risk”, otherwise, no one could do anything with his children. What is more likely to cause physical injury – sitting in a locked car or driving down the 2-lane road to get to the parking lot? Simply putting the child in the car and driving somewhere causes the child to be at risk of physical injury. You wouldn’t expect all parents to stop driving, would you? You couldn’t even take your kids to Cedar Point.

The problem is that “reasonable” is subjective. And subjective laws are open to misinterpretation and differences of opinion. I’m sure a jury full of parents would have found her innocent if the case had gone to trial, but I am glad the prosecutors dropped all charges.

And as for the other children, the ones that are old enough to remember this event, the ones that were left standing in the sleet while their mother was being arrested, what effect did this have on them? Was being left in the cold, wet winter in their best interest? Will they ever trust a police officer again? “Find a police officer if you are in trouble. He is there to help you.” They won’t believe that for a while.

Yes, the community service officer was doing an officer’s job. In the light of recent tragedies involving children in cars, the officer should have investigated. If you see a child locked in a car, check to see if a parent is around. But the key word is investigate, not prosecute. If there is no imminent danger (child is warm, breathing, etc.) then let the family life continue as it was. Do some more investigating in the background if necessary, then bring charges if something is apparent. But don’t interrupt the family life first in order to protect the child from nothing.

A leader who is a great oppressor lacks understanding, {But} he who hates unjust gain will prolong {his} days.

Proverbs 28:16

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This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:54 am and has been carefully placed in the Current Events category.

3 Responses to “Leave Well Enough Alone”

  1. js Says:

    Nothing new under the sun. I saved a Mitch Albom article from 1997. It didn’t scan all that well, but you can probably read it.

    http://www.geocities.com/dutin32/sorensen.pdf
    http://www.geocities.com/dutin32/sorensen1.pdf

  2. An American Says:

    Treffly Coyne is a fine mother who happened to be out on an excursion planned by her children to donate to charity. A lesson we would all do better to be taught by her kids. Unfortunately the government, very concerned about the welfare of her child stepped in. Somehow the officer saw that a sleeping two year old in a warm and safe locked car with the alarm activated would be better off without the mother who cares for her.

    The police would not listen to her story, they refused to listen to witnesses, they did not investigate by going into the store to look at the security video.

    Instead, they arrested Treffly Coyne, took custody of her two year old child, broke up her family, and most disturbing, the police abandoned three little girls at the Walmart… left them to their own luck, crying on the curb.

    All because the government decided Treffly Coynes family needed its “protection.”

    Her children were never in any danger until the representatives of the government showed up.

    The police chief of Crestwood, Timothy Sulikowski, knew that there was no evidence that Ms. Coyne had done anything wrong, yet he still decided she needed to be charged and prosecuted.

    TO COVER UP THE HORRIBLE MISTAKES AND MISCONDUCT OF THE CRESTWOOD POLICE.

    For 97 days she was labled a child abuser by the state, investigated by the DCFS or CPS, paid expensive legal bills and suffered the public humiliation brought on by the unsubstantiated charges of the Crestwood Police.

    Even when the prosecutor dropped the charges for lack of evidence, the police chief and Mayor Robert Stranczek continued to make public statements against Treffly Coyne.

    Treffly Coyne is now suing the Village of Crestwood, police officers James Ciukaj, Forrest Wondolowski and Angel Brudnicki in federal court.

    She would have preferred to have won in criminal court.

    All she asked for was an apology and that the charges would be dropped. Thousands of dollars later, and hundreds of thousands of posts on the internet, the Crestwood Police cannot even give her that.

    A terrible mistake was made that night at the Walmart and the Crestwood Police and Mayor Stranczek refuse to acknowlege it. Until they do, all citizens, all families in Crestwood are in danger of these kinds of police abuse.

    Her fight is not over. The federal Judge will hear the case and has the power to direct the Crestwood Police to make changes in their policies and procedures.

    Hopefully she will prevail in her fight, which is a fight for all of our civil rights and her case will create stronger boundaries between the family and the police.

    It was wrong to arrest that mother and subject her children to witness in terror the actions of the police.

    What is more wrong is that the woman has to fight such wrongdoing in federal court.

    A victory for Treffly Coyne will be a victory for all American Families. The civil rights she is fighting for our your civil rights as well.

  3. J Anderson Says:

    Maybe she should have tried to be a good wife while her husband was busy defending her to the world. Sometimes it takes a while for the truth to come out. But eventually it does. Thats why she lost the lawsuit against the Crestwood police. In my opinion the woman cant be trusted. It seems like a jury felt the same way. She was wrong and now everyone knows it.

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