Mom Arrested For Letting Children Play Outdoors

In a new installment of dumb, first-world problems, a mother in La Porte, Texas was arrested for letting her kids play outside. Tammy Cooper’s neighbor saw her 6- and 9-year-olds playing on the lawn next door and in the cul-de-sac in front of their houses and did what any well-meaning neighbor would do: call the cops to complain that the kids were unsupervised.

When the police showed up, they hauled Cooper away in handcuffs despite her protests that she had been sitting on the porch watching the kids the entire time. It didn’t matter that the cops actually saw her outside watching her kids, she still had to spend the night in an orange jumpsuit in jail. Charges of child endangerment were later dropped, but Cooper is suing the La Porte Police Department, the arresting officer, and the nosy neighbor. 

This raises an important issue, though: the negligence of mothers. If letting children play outside is a potentially criminal act, what about buying your children non-organic food? Or doing anything while pregnant other than sleeping or sitting – surely that’s worth a fine at least?