Quote:
Originally Posted by Azred
I see that some states are staring to push for versions of "Caylee's Law" in their Legislatures, which will make it a felony for parents or anyone else in charge of supervising children to fail to report the disappearance of a child within 24 hours.
Sounds good, right? Wrong.
I don't know the age limit on such a law but let's look at scenario 1. Your teenaged kid goes to spend the weekend with their friend, something which has happened before and nothing bad ever happened. This time, though, the kids have decided to skip out of state for a weekend campout. By the time you find out, it has been more than 24 hours. Does the felony clock start when they leave or when you realize they are not where they are supposed to be?
Scenario 2. The younger kids have gone on a camping trip with the grandparents in an RV to the Black Hills (or wherever) and cell phone reception is not possible. One kid gets lost hiking in the woods. Again, by the time the grandparents realize he is lost and are able to get to somewhere where they can report him missing more than 24 hours has elapsed. Are the grandparents now felons?
We could keep coming up with scenarios but I think the point has been made. There are already laws on the books to cover these sorts of things (like Amber's Law and the Amber Alert program, which is now national) so another law is not necessary, especially one based on only one emotionally-charged case.
Laws enacted because of emotion are bad laws.
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Azred, I have some of the same concerns, while the law sounds good right now, there are all kinds of scenarios where a child could be killed and it take some time before the parent learns of it. You are right an emotionaly charged law is a bad one. Laws are to be made through thought, not feelings. We run into trouble when we let our hearts do the thinking, Hearts are made for thinking.