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I do ride down that street I just ride around the parked vehicles in the bike lane. What I do not do is rat on them seeing that parking routine has been a fixture on that Hoboken street for years. Kinda like being "grandfathered" in.

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Are you still on topic? Because, in fact, here in NJ the actual law on children alone is very vague. It's left to the judgement of the court whether there's a problem.

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That may explain things like "why some people pay tons of money for prestigious colleges that don't provide their kids with marketable skills".

That doesn't explain why we have laws that the majority of us thinks are not simply stupid, but downright crazy.

The world's actually less dangerous but we know every little incident now because of the 24hour news channels and social media and amber alerts etc. Most kids are kidnapped by their own family members in custody fights. There is also the fact that a parents worst nightmare is to be singled out for being a neglectful, irresponsible monster. No one wants the "Home Alone Mom" or "Home Alone Dad" moniker as they do a perp walk.

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That's a pretty funny statement from someone who won't ride down a public street for fear of invading a social club's turf. rof

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#1 Cory...it's just propaganda. We have our own lives to lead, life goes on.

This is just such a sad commentary on what we have allowed ourselves to become. I know people in my age group that are now afraid of their shadows & then I know people in this same age group who haven't a clue.

I walked to school without an adult, with a couple of friends, when I was about 6. Went to Washington Park with friends when I was 8, which was a haul considering if I walked around the block Riverview-Fisk was across the street.

Is the world a different place? Absolutely. Is it a little more dangerous out there? Absolutely. Should we let the media, our politicians, etc shape our perception? No. Many have allowed themselves to become lazy. Why think & question when it is easier to believe someone else. I encourage people not to live in fear, you can get shot just as easily on your front steps enjoying an iced tea with a neighbor as you can being involved & fighting the good fight to better your neighborhood. I encourage people to question, not blindly accept what they are told. No one is smarter than anyone else, the major difference, as I see it, is the curiosity level, the desire to know how someone came to a conclusion, how something came to be.

I don't see where these parents were negligent in any way. My personal concern was that a mile was a bit much to be walking for young ones, it's a little tiring for me. They know their children best & obviously were confident that the children could handle themselves. I don't envy any parent these days trying to raise a child to be confident & at the same time to be cautioous without being fearful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_crime - It appears I'm not alone with my "imao" corybaitman

Interpersonal communication and the mass media

Hearing about events; knowing others who have been victimised ? these are thought to raise perceptions of the risk of victimisation.[13][43][44][45] This has been described as a 'crime multiplier', or processes operating in the residential environment that would 'spread' the impacts of criminal events.[46] Such evidence exists that hearing of friends' or neighbours' victimisation increases anxiety that indirect experiences of crime may play a stronger role in anxieties about victimisation than direct experience. However there is a cautionary note: '? many residents of a neighbourhood only know of [crime] indirectly via channels that may inflate, deflate, or garble the picture.'[47] A subject's criminal risk perception is exaggerated by peer-communication on crime and only moderated by the own experience.[48]

Public perceptions of the risk of crime are no doubt also strongly shaped by mass media coverage. Individuals pick up from media and interpersonal communication circulating images of the criminal event - the perpetrators, victims, motive, and representations of consequential, uncontrollable, and sensational crimes. The notion of 'stimulus similarity' may be key: if the reader of a newspaper identifies with the described victim, or feels that their own neighbourhood bears resemblance to the one described, then the image of risk may be taken up, personalised and translated into personal safety concerns.[49]

Yet the relationship between fear of crime and mass media is unclear, at least in its causal ordering. To put the dilemma in simple terms: do people fear crime because a lot of crime is being shown on television, or does television just provide footage about crimes because people fear crime and want to see what's going on? The complex nature of crime could allow the media to exploit social naivety, covering crime not only selective, but also distorting the everyday world of crime.[50] Some say the media contribute to the climate of fear that is created, because the actual frequency of victimisation is a tiny fraction of potential crime.[2]

With crime accounting for up to 25 per cent[51] of news coverage, the quality and angle of the coverage becomes an issue. The media displays violent crime disproportionately, whilst neglecting minor crimes. The reality is violent crime has been declining in the past 10 years[52] The profile of offenders in the media is distorted, causing misunderstanding of criminal offending.

Unfortunately, however, despite an abundant literature on media effects ? particularly the 'mean world' hypothesis ? little work has been done into how representations, imagery and symbols of crime circulate in society, transmitted and transformed by multiple actors with a wide array of effects, only to translate into personal fears about crime. Perhaps future work will take account of the transmission mechanisms through which representations, beliefs and attitudes about societal risks are propagated in different social and cultural contexts.

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lmao

The kids weren't in any danger until the cops came into the picture.

Crime rates have decreased by about 25 percent from 1988 to 2008 however fear mongering I surmise has increased 10 fold and I believe its the media and hollywood that has created the fear

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Boris, I don't know if you're a practicing Jew, but it's very similar to how Kosher practice has gotten out of control in the past half century. Anal people, often with the wealth and power to indulge their whims, set a standard, and then anyone who doesn't follow is a bad Jew/parent. My wife has actually studied Kashrut in Israel and is contradicted all the time by less knowledgeable people who in their ignorance assume a stricter standard just because they want to play it safe. It's the exact same thing here. Worse, a lot of parents today grew up in suburbs where there were not even sidewalks. No one in their right mind would walk anywhere, since the nearest anywhere was miles away.

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Who said we all believe it?

Here is question - who are those people who created this current environment that we all think is crazy?

How come that we, the people, all believe that something is wrong, yet, despite this fact, it is being done?

Who's doing it? Why?

Some dark unknown forces? Aliens?

Just look at your tv guide - So many police and crime shows ... no wonder people are paranoid. Will live in a fear mongering nation created by the media on all levels - A single crime story is pumped and repeated into us for weeks, while crime shows are signalled 24/7 into our living rooms

I think part of post boomer psychology involves the idea that EVERYTHING can be controlled and all risk avoided. If something bad happens it MUST be someone's fault, not that "shit happens". Likely much of this can be laid at the feet of the news industry as it has ratcheted up over the past 4 decades.

I wonder what it does to a kid's brain to be told to be afraid of everything, and never get a chance to find out for yourself? How do you know what "hot" is if you never get to touch the stove? Life can be described as a series of risk/rewards choices. If you never get hurt for a taking a risk, how can you develop a sense of appropriate caution?

As a 5th grader I was playing with a buddy in what passed for wilderness in Nassau County close to Queens, the drainage creek right of way. He slid down the hill and tore his leg open on a shard of something, needed like 20 stitches. Was there a lawsuit or hysteria? no, kids play and shit happens. We had old school monkey bars, remember those child killers? Seesaws? Real tall swings? All gone.

I am convinced that if I was a kid today, my Mother would be in prison. I was walking myself to school at 5 years old, got left alone in the car, went down to the river with the dog by myself...

Hell.. even rode a bike without a helmet (pre helmet laws.. so did all the other kids).

By some miracle.. I survived childhood.

"I am a free range kid". Love it.

this is just insane imo.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01 ... ids-walk-home-school-alon