Patterico's Pontifications

2/16/2017

This Is What “Cultural Sensitivity” Looks Like: Parents Not Arrested For Leaving Their Baby Locked In A Car Alone

Filed under: General — Dana @ 8:19 pm



[guest post by Dana]

Last Saturday night in Corpus Christi, a 4-month old baby was discovered strapped in a car seat, alone in the family car. The baby’s parents and 4-year old sibling were in a nearby movie theater. Police were called around 11:00 pm when passers by noticed the baby. Although Kirk Stowers of Corpus Christi police stated that “it is a violation of law to leave a child unattended,” the parents, who are from Saudi Arabia, were not arrested because they claimed this was “normal” behavior in their country:

Authorities aren’t sure how long the family has been living in the United States, but decided to show “cultural sensitivity” and let the family go this time. Police are filing the case as an active criminal investigation and plan to follow up with the parents and see if it “really is normal in Saudi Arabia” to leave a child unattended in a car.

“If it was someone who grew up in the United States, of course the outcome may be very different,” a Stowers, a spokesman for the Corpus Christi Police Department said.

Hey, you know what else is considered “normal” and acceptable in Saudi Arabia? The oppression of women, the killing of homosexuals, the forced separation of the sexes, the forced marriages of girls 10 years old and even younger. This, along with public beheadings, hangings, stonings, amputations, the flogging of criminals, even including those determined to have violated some public morality law, such as a woman daring to remove her hijab in public. That’s what’s considered normal in Saudi Arabia.

And, as commenter narciso noted, given that Saudia Arabia is way hotter than Texas, it’s highly unlikely that leaving one’s baby alone and locked in a car is considered “normal” by any standards. Duh.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back)

–Dana

23 Responses to “This Is What “Cultural Sensitivity” Looks Like: Parents Not Arrested For Leaving Their Baby Locked In A Car Alone”

  1. This path of “cultural sensitivity” seems fraught with unintended consequences.

    Dana (023079)

  2. You know Dana, temperatures in the kingdom are even a might warmer than Texas, I can’t imagine how that excuse would fly.

    narciso (d1f714)

  3. I know, right?! This doesn’t put the Corpus Christi police in a good light. In fact, they look downright dumb.

    Dana (023079)

  4. I thought I had made that point in the post… Darn. I forgot to.

    Dana (023079)

  5. The rhetorical question to ask is, would an American living in Saudi Arabia be given the same leniency by Saudi authorities for behaving as they normally would in America?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  6. Can I get some cultural sensitivity over here? I’m a redneck and our culture prides itself on bigotry, sexism, racism, ignorance, drunken yahooism and intolerance for other cultures. Y’all wouldn’t try to shame me for that, would you? That’d be pretty sorry behavior on your part.

    Jerryskids (3308c1)

  7. No they’d probably be hung, there was a brit convicted of alcohol smuggling, he was given a life sentence,

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. I updated the post with your observation, narcisco.

    Dana (023079)

  9. If this story says anything at all is 1) that those particular “parents” are lying weasels and 2) that Corpus Christi cops are dumber than their lunch.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. You’re welcome.

    narciso (d1f714)

  11. Forget it, Jim-Bob, it’s Corpus Christi.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  12. Seriously for a moment. This is how you lose laws. Somebody will challenge an arrest based on something and poof, you can leave your kid in the car whenever and wherever you want to. PC has a price.

    Cross Lucas (57ef7b)

  13. What is infuriating about this is the general trend in our country is in the opposite direction. We have people arrested and kids shipped off to the arms of CPS because the parent goes off for 5 minutes to make a quick purchase. I don’t have a problem with kids being in the car for a short period of time – in fact it’s probably safer than taking the kids out and lugging them through a parking lot. But leaving a baby in the car to watch a movie? Yeah, that’s not right.

    Paul Zummo (2c79a5)

  14. Has anyone considered that they could have been testing the responsiveness of the CCPD to “strange” placement of certain objects? Some departments, to their citizens’ detriment, might have let that one go altogether. But again, if this is indeed normal that might explain how easily Wahhabi can warp the mind of a child with prolonged instances of near-heatstroke during their infancy.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  15. Greetings:

    Well, look at the bright side. The parents showed a good bit of “cultural sensitivity” by not blowing up the movie theater.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  16. They have been considerate of the fact that screaming baby+full garb would have made them targets of thrown sodas and junior mints if not worse.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  17. The article should have mentioned whether the baby was a girl or a boy. Seriously, to the Saudi’s. if it was a girl, what difference would it make. I’ll bet the 4 year old was a boy.

    Bill Cook (057f08)

  18. The jury link didn’t work, but this was who i was referring to:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/homaidan-al-turki

    narciso (d1f714)

  19. I’m hoping that what the cops considered is whether they’d be doing the kids any favors by arresting their parents and putting them (the kids) … where? A hospital for the baby? A foster home for the older kid?

    nk (dbc370)

  20. 5. Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 2/16/2017 @ 8:37 pm

    The rhetorical question to ask is, would an American living in Saudi Arabia be given the same leniency by Saudi authorities for behaving as they normally would in America?

    Probably yes, actually, unless the government there wanted to make trouble.

    They wouldn’t be treated like somebody else drinking alcohol, or engaging in a Christian prayer service. (Jews are not allowed there at all, but sometimes maybe they can look the other way) Same thing for a woman wearing the wrong kind of clothing, or driving a car but it probably also matters how much money and connections a native has. If someone has real good connections, and didn’t harm anyone in the royal family, they can probably get away with murder, if they pay a fine to the decedent’s family. I mean the government will really pressure the family to agree in some cases.

    It probably matters considerably what country somebody comes from. Somebody from the Phillipines working for someone could probably get away with a lot less, or would receive a much harsher warning, than a U.S. citizen or a Brit there on business..

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  21. It’s not mronal in saudi Arabia. It’s normal probably every place outsde of the United States.

    Nobody who wasn’t in the United States in recent years would think there was a big problem with leaving a baby in locked car for a time not long enough for the baby to get hungry (locked so the baby couldn’t be kidnapped) in not too hot weather.

    This is a new law, which was probably never debated in any state legislature.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  22. “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.”

    -Sir Charles Napier, in India, on the customs of the local savages.

    Burning of widows===leaving infants in a car in the sun.

    Our custom was to hang them, and confiscate all their property. Time that custom was reinstated.

    Fred Z (05d938)

  23. Just let natural selection run its course.

    Gerald R A (6ecddd)


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