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Civil Liberties

Parents of Kids Taken Away By CPS: They Were Terrified

Has this incident made the Meitiv children any safer?

Lenore Skenazy | 4.13.2015 10:08 AM

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Here is what Maryland Free-Range Mom Danielle Meitiv had to say about last night's ordeal with the police and Child Protective Services. She wrote on Facebook:

The police coerced our children into the back of a patrol car and kept them trapped there for three hours, without notifying us, before bringing them to the Crisis Center, and holding them there without dinner for another two and a half hours. We finally got home at 11pmand the kids slept in our room because we were all exhausted and terrified.

Has this incident made the Meitiv children any safer? When the authorities picked the children up a short distance from their house and took them away without telling their parents, what were they being protected from? Why is this not simply a case of kidnapping?

Families should have legal protections against such abuse. The Free-Range Kids & Parents Bill of Rights is one solution. Bring it to your next town meeting. Write to the town paper. Hand it to the mayor. Modify it any way you'd like—its basic premise is simple and very necessary:

Children have the right to some unsupervised time, and parents have the right to give it to them without getting arrested.

Spread the word.

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NEXT: Why Can't We Build Things Anymore? Because Government Is Terrible

Lenore Skenazy is president of Let Grow, a nonprofit promoting childhood independence and resilience, and founder of the Free-Range Kids movement.

Civil LibertiesCultureFree-Range KidsParenting
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  1. Andrew S.   10 years ago

    Well, Nancy Grace was right all along. These parents left their children unattended, and what happened? Dangerous, sociopathic individuals kidnapped them.

    1. Charlie In Muk   10 years ago

      Trudy Kahn - Montgomery County CPS Administrator

      trudye.khan@montgomerycountymd.gov
      trudyej@comcast.net
      trudyej@hotmail.com
      Home Address & Phone number:

      19423 Battleridge WAY
      Montgomery Village, MD 20886
      (301) 926-3708

      Owner Information
      Owner Khan Trudye J
      Est. Market Value $190,300
      Tax Amount $1,682
      Tax Year 2015
      Property Details
      Acres 0.047
      Bedrooms -
      Bathrooms 2
      Year Built 1972
      Land Sq. Ft. 2,054
      Living Sq. Ft. 1,626

  2. Almanian!   10 years ago

    Good lord - I am SO glad my kids are adults now. I mourn for Daughter #2 and granddaughter #1 (just coming up on 1 year old!) having to grow up in today's environment.

    Of course, when she's at our house, we let her roam in the yard. Guess I'll have to start keeping an eye out for the federales and local policia.

    Jerks...no, DANGEROUS thugs.

    1. Zeb   10 years ago

      You aren't in Maryland, so you probably have little to worry about.

      1. Hamster of Doom   10 years ago

        There's no CPS outside of Maryland?

  3. Andrew S.   10 years ago

    And also, is there any reason to keep the kids for 3 hours without calling the parents other than in some attempt to "teach the parents a lesson"?

    1. Vernon Depner   10 years ago

      The kids should get an attorney. Holding them incommunicado for that long has to be a violation of THEIR rights, let alone the parents' rights.

      1. mad.casual   10 years ago

        At the very least it seems like a restraining order would be a slam dunk. It may only be against the specific officers involved and simply only force CPS to use different officers next time, but still...

    2. Raston Bot   10 years ago

      It's likely they spent that time scrambling to get a judge to sign the emergency seizure. These are petty bureaucrats at CPS. A judge still has to sign off on their actions.

      1. Thymirus   10 years ago

        Were I that judge, I'd have them arrested for aggravated assault and battery, kidnapping, and misconduct in public office under the color of law, and recommend maximal penalties for each count upon conviction. 30 years in a small cell should teach them the virtues of civilization.

  4. mad.casual   10 years ago

    Children have the right to some unsupervised time,

    This sounds dangerous, like Freedom of Dissociation dangerous.

    Before you know it, kids everywhere will be maliciously refusing to bake gay wedding cakes.

    Without the government and Tim Cook to provide equal protection, anarchy will ensue.

  5. Thymirus   10 years ago

    I don't understand the supposed necessity of additional legislative safeguards on the matter. In a just world, the thugs who unlawfully accosted and detained these children may well have been shot for their felonious misdeed in the process of its commission. You don't abduct people without consequence, especially children. Stupid, authoritarian motherfuckers.

    1. Gadianton   10 years ago

      In a just world

      I think I see the problem.

    2. Scarecrow Repair   10 years ago

      You have simply stated the reason for private police only, and for only victims being able to prosecute crimes against them (probably with hired lawyers of their choosing, but that should be obvious).

      This has a couple of side benefits. It gets rid of victimless crimes, and it removes the police monopoly which leads to such corruption; police are just people, no immunity of any sort.

      1. Thymirus   10 years ago

        I'm quickly moving towards a real belief in private policing. These totalitarian cunts are becoming more ruthless by the day.

        Victimless crimes are an abomination anyway, but the protection the law affords its enforcers from scrutiny is unbelievable. These bastards commit capital crimes on a regular basis, and where's their punishment? Administrative leave? With pay?

  6. The Late P Brooks   10 years ago

    This just proves if you let your kids run around unsupervised, child molesters will snatch them off the sidewalk.

    Next time, CPS will rape and murder those kids, just to show it could happen. Sacrifice them for the greater good; it's the American Way.

    1. Thymirus   10 years ago

      Next to zoning boards, protective services are the closest entities God gave us to demonic excrement.

  7. Raston Bot   10 years ago

    Why the fuck do they still live in Montgomery County? If they must live in communist shithole Maryland, there's Charles County to the southeast and Frederick County to the northwest. Both are rural.

    MOVE, GODDAMNIT. For the sake of your kids. MOVE.

    1. Thymirus   10 years ago

      I recommend rural Wyoming, and plenty of firearms.

    2. GroundTruth   10 years ago

      This was my first thought too.

      Why do they stay? The entire relationship between them and the nannies and cops is poisoned and not going to get better. It's time for them to put the house on the market and move far away.

      1. Marshal   10 years ago

        Why do they stay?

        Both parents have government jobs.

  8. Jordan   10 years ago

    For god's sake: hire an attorney! Go on the offensive.

  9. Jan S.   10 years ago

    Saturday, we allowed our 11-year-old grandson and 5-year-old grandson (cousins) walk unattended to the local playground, about 3 blocks away. On their way, they invited the children next door, with whom they had spent the morning playing in our respective back yards. The mother of the 3 girls, ranging in age from 11 to 4, said they were not allowed to walk to the park, or play there, without adult supervision.

    My husband and I spent the 2 hours the boys were gone wondering if the police would come to take us away; thankfully, no one called the authorities.

  10. straffinrun   10 years ago

    Beat the hell out of a horse thief, shoot a brother in the back, steal an old man's property. These type nut punches suck, but abusing kids is like a nut punch that gets both of 'em.

  11. Raston Bot   10 years ago

    I'm convinced the only way this will stop is if the judge is held accountable. So, Lenore, who's the judge? When was the judge appointed?

    http://www.judicialselection.u.....m?state=MD

    Removal of Judges

    Maryland judges may be removed in one of four ways:
    Judges may be removed by the governor upon the address of the general assembly with the concurrence of two thirds of the members of each house.

    Judges may be retired by the general assembly with a two-thirds vote of each house and the governor's concurrence.

    Judges may be impeached by a majority of the house of delegates and convicted by two thirds of the senate.

    Judges may be removed or retired by the court of appeals on the recommendation of the commission on judicial disabilities.

    1. Ted S.   10 years ago

      What are the names of the antisocial workers who did this? The Meitivs have a 6A right to that information (and, I'd argue, 6A and 1A rights to make the names public).

  12. OldMexican   10 years ago

    Just what is it about Your Children Belong To Us don't you understand?

    /Da State.

  13. Stormy Dragon   10 years ago

    A discussion of how we're overprotecting kids due to irrational fear came up at the beginning of an NPR show on fear this weekend:

    Invisibilia: Fearless

  14. JW   10 years ago

    They haven't learned their place, yet?

  15. Dweebston   10 years ago

    In this one case I would have no problem with kids faking allegations of sexual abuse during the encounter. Well, I'd still find it repugnant. But I wouldn't shed tears for the accused.

  16. ant1sthenes   10 years ago

    And yet, if you hired a random person from a gas station to kidnap your kid to teach them about stranger danger, they would put -you- in jail. Makes no sense.

    1. Ted S.   10 years ago

      The State doesn't like having anybody encroaching on their turf.

  17. cfskyrim   10 years ago

    I'm just glad I've lived in rural areas my entire life. You people that live in urban areas have some weird shit going on. Where I live, it is quite common to see a young boy out with his BB gun looking up into the trees for squirrels, kids riding their bikes, kids playing basketball or football, etc.

  18. R C Dean   10 years ago

    Alt-alt-text:

    "Cheese it! The cops!"

  19. R C Dean   10 years ago

    Alt-alt-text:

    "Cheese it! The cops!"

  20. MP   10 years ago

    Considering the past history here, is it really possible that this is anything beyond a Respect Mah Authoratay! stunt? It seems a shame that their only reasonable action plan is to relocate. Anything else won't resolve in their favor until their kids are 40.

  21. Free Society   10 years ago

    Families should have legal protections against such abuse. The Free-Range Kids & Parents Bill of Rights is one solution.

    The regular Bill of Rights should if the actual Bill of Rights isn't enough to inspire the state to behave according to the rules it's supposed to enforce upon itself, I hardly think that more laws for it to disregard is the answer.

  22. Charlie In Muk   10 years ago

    Trudy Kahn - Montgomery County CPS Administrator

    trudye.khan@montgomerycountymd.gov
    trudyej@comcast.net
    trudyej@hotmail.com
    Home Address & Phone number:

    19423 Battleridge WAY
    Montgomery Village, MD 20886
    (301) 926-3708

    Owner Information
    Owner Khan Trudye J
    Est. Market Value $190,300
    Tax Amount $1,682
    Tax Year 2015
    Property Details
    Acres 0.047
    Bedrooms -
    Bathrooms 2
    Year Built 1972
    Land Sq. Ft. 2,054
    Living Sq. Ft. 1,626

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