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[mainiac]

I read that at "teen lawmakers" and thought I was in a delightful universe of comedy.

[Frumple]

Hey there, M, I'm pretty sure we actually get teen written laws pushed into the books occasionally. Usually feel good stuff, iirc, and pretty rare, but still. It happens!

If my memory's not completely shot and/or the news articles I'm possibly misremembering weren't massively misrepresenting what happened, anyway.

[TheBiggerFish]

There have been teenage mayors.

[itisnotlogical]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/19/474892457/tenn-lawmakers-call-for-federal-probe-over-arrest-of-elementary-school-children

just what?

Well, you see, this is how it works in the American criminal justice system: You take some mostly harmless criminals, throw them into a slightly harder criminal culture, make them extremely angry with the criminal justice system, and then release them back into the world with all that newfound anger and knowledge.

Starting them off at 6 just gets the ball rolling earlier.

[Frumple]

There have been teenage mayors.

That's mayors, though. The bar for mayoral positions are not so much low as they are subterranean.

[mainiac]

Teen lawmakers exist but it would be ironic for them to be dealing with child protection issues.

[TheBiggerFish]

There have been teenage mayors.

That's mayors, though. The bar for mayoral positions are not so much low as they are subterranean.

Yes, but also no.  You still have to get elected first.

[Reelya]

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/19/474892457/tenn-lawmakers-call-for-federal-probe-over-arrest-of-elementary-school-children

just what?

As some commenters pointed out in the NPR article, can you imagine if these kids had actually jumped into the fray, then the cops turned up? They were indicted for not getting involved in a fight. It's a catch-22. But it still seems insane that a 6 year old is supposed to break up a fight of older kids.

... It's more understandable that this happen, but no more excusable, when you realize the community meeting to protest this was almost entirely African American. (NPR omitted any mention of this). So ... I'm getting a better handle on this. 5 very young African American kids didn't get involved in a fight, so they get arrested for ... not fighting. There's a thing, where the cops tend to treat African American children for infractions as if they were older. e.g. a 14 year old black kid will be more likely to be charged as an adult, and I'm guessing they're treating 6 year old black kids as the moral equivalent of a white teenager in Tennessee.

Seriously, putting a year old black kids into detention centers for not doing anything (this included several girls). That's patently insane, but it's got The South written all over it.

[Shadowlord]

>  The Tennessean, however, reports some of the parents said the children were charged with " 'criminal responsibility for conduct of another,' which according to Tennessee criminal offense code includes incidents when a 'person fails to make a reasonable effort to prevent' an offense.' "

... So Good Samaritan Laws are real and apply to six year olds, eh? Note to self, never visit Tennessee.

[Reelya]

Note the dad who's two daughters were among the arrested kids. So if your 10 and 8 year old daughters witness two boys fighting, they're now expected to go all "action girl" on dem boys asses. So in other words, the law doesn't even take into account whether you could safely break up the fight. You're expected to break up fights of bigger and stronger people than yourself, even at personal risk. BTW there's no news on whether the two people fighting have been charged with anything.

[Rolan7]

To be fair, they haven't released any details on the situation because it involves minors.  It might make more sense if we had any idea what happened.

For example, the kids might have formed a ring around the combatants and jeered them on...  That's a thing that happens.

[O.Wilde]

Yeah, but a ring of six to ten year olds urging on a fight? At that point that probably deserve shouting, not arrest.

I honestly can't think of anything that they could have been doing short of actual physical violence (Which, as far as we know, they did not) that would warrant an arrest. Hell, even if they were involved in the fighting it's still not an arrestable thing for me.

[Culise]

>  The Tennessean, however, reports some of the parents said the children were charged with " 'criminal responsibility for conduct of another,' which according to Tennessee criminal offense code includes incidents when a 'person fails to make a reasonable effort to prevent' an offense.' "

... So Good Samaritan Laws are real and apply to six year olds, eh? Note to self, never visit Tennessee.

Just as a clarification, these are the "Good Samaritan laws" being referring to, rather than the more typical laws that bear that moniker.  In this, the handful of states that possess these laws do indeed have a bit more in common with nations like France, Germany, and Denmark than the UK and other common law nations, so I can see how it might seem unusual. 

Still, more than passing strange to arrest a whole bunch of children for this; I wonder what the specifics of the case really are.

[Frumple]

I honestly can't think of anything that they could have been doing short of actual physical violence (Which, as far as we know, they did not) that would warrant an arrest. Hell, even if they were involved in the fighting it's still not an arrestable thing for me.

Eeehhhh... I could conceptually see it if this was like the dozenth time they had surrounded people and incited violence, despite other attempts to prevent the behavior. That could conceivably see some time in juvie, or something of similar nature tailored for the particularly young.

... I somehow doubt that's what happened in this case, though. Most of the time we see kids this young get arrested, it seems to be primarily cases of cops and/or administrators being pieces of shit. Still, few hundred million people, some of 'em will probably be kids that actually did something reasonably sufficient to net being sent off.

S'just, y'know. Unlikely.

[mainiac]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj_IsiMA4G4

Finally I understand why Trump saw muslims cheering.  I would be cheering too.