Eve Tushnet
gives this story a much different headline from many mainstream media outlets. Let’s find out why!
Here is a story that combines some of our favorite Reason.com topics, including strip clubs, jerk cops, and America’s growing willingness to make less-than-perfect parenting a crime. In this case, Florida resident Bobbey Jo Boucher went with her 10-year-old daughter to a neighbor’s barbecue and left the girl there when she headed to work, instructing her to go back home when it was over. When the girl didn’t return within a few hours, her grandmother called the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, which called Boucher at work. When the line was somehow disconnected—Boucher says accidentally, police say she hung up—Boucher wound up arrested for obstructing justice.
The daughter was fine, by the way. In fact, she was going to play at church with some neighborhood kids. A group of them had left from the barbecue and were riding there on the church bus when police stopped it. …
Boucher’s daughter was located within about 34 minutes from when the police were initially dispatched. Boucher herself was eventually arrested, taken to the Land O Lakes Jail, and charged with resisting without violence and obstruction. No matter how it shakes out, she already had to miss work, post bond, and owes $78 in “invesigative costs recovery.” The story was also picked up by New York Daily News, which means it’s now spreading all over the Internet. Here’s how pretty much everyone else is covering it:
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