859
submitted 2 months ago by DwZ@lemmy.world to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Theoriginalthon@lemmy.world 299 points 2 months ago

“I stopped to ask him if he was okay and he needed help, and he lied, and said that his mother works here at the post office,” the caller said. “And then he just took off away from me.”

Which is exactly that id want my kids to do, if some random person pulled up next to them in a vehicle. When in doubt get the fuck out of there

[-] wheezy@lemmy.ml 100 points 2 months ago

Yeah. Literally a smart kid. Quick thinking.

[-] Glytch@lemmy.world 52 points 2 months ago

Sounds like he was taught about stranger danger. Good parenting.

[-] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 228 points 2 months ago

You lot really hate walking don't you

[-] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 99 points 2 months ago

I used to walk to my elementary school (roughly ages 5-10) which was a mile away. Lots of kids in my town walked to school.

[-] NJSpradlin@lemmy.world 57 points 2 months ago

I drive by a school to go to the gym in the morning. There are tons of kids that STILL walk to school. I think these Karen cases are few and far between.

[-] Warl0k3@lemmy.world 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The elementary and high schools in my neighborhood pay the students if they walk rather than take the bus, as both a costsaving and environmental measure. It's a pittance sure, but in a country of 350 million people its extremely easy to find singular examples of any behavior to further any narrative. This article would have a point were it an examination of broad trends, but one example of the cops being the cops does hardly a well-founded narrative weave...

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 32 points 2 months ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Etan_Patz

This was the case that really changed the way kids were treated in the US.

Before this, it was normal for kids to travel great distances on their own.

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 33 points 2 months ago

Laws are waayy to often based on single cases of something. Same with the whole "dont microwave your cat" stuff. So many have to suffer because some idiots or a random case of crazy or bad luck.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] Deceptichum@quokk.au 20 points 2 months ago

That’s funny.

1 kid goes missing, all of America changes how they act.

100s of kids die in school shootings, America does nothing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] A_norny_mousse@feddit.org 135 points 2 months ago

Once again the rest of the world wonders how a whole country can be so... unreal

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 128 points 2 months ago

Everything about this is insane. Making it illegal to walk, calling cops on kids, arresting people for any fucking reason. People created a hell hole they have to live in now.

[-] Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 65 points 2 months ago

Why is this kid walking, he should have a car. This is the USA, we don't walk here.

[-] br3d@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago

By walking, that kid was stealing money from oil and car corporations

[-] AlecSadler 28 points 2 months ago

I want to laugh at this but it sounds like something US leadership would say with a completely straight face.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] theangryseal@lemmy.world 103 points 2 months ago

I am currently babysitting a 13 year old boy almost every day. Why? Because CPS says he can’t be alone.

He’s mature. He’s smart. He’s quiet. He is COMPLETELY capable of taking care of himself. His dad works 6 hour shifts at most.

The issue is, his dad went to jail for drugs. He’s been sober, he’s been working, he’s been fighting like hell to provide a decent life for his kids.

He’s not allowed to have his girlfriend around them, so he’s paying for two apartments and they can only spend time together coming up when the boy is in school.

I mean, sure, the dad hasn’t been a saint. But man oh man, they’re doing everything the can to make sure he fails.

He was taking suboxone, got the shot instead, realized he wasn’t experiencing withdrawal and dropped that. Well, now he has to prove that he will have detectable amounts in his system for up to a year, and then they’re going to MAKE him go back on suboxone to keep his son.

It’s madness the hoops some people have to jump through, meanwhile a childhood friend was starved and beaten regularly and they wouldn’t remove him from the home until his parents burned down a neighbor’s house and went to prison for arson.

When we were kids and we’d discuss what we wanted to be when we grew up, his answer was, “my mom’s murderer.”

When she did pass, he cried his eyes out for never reaching out to her and was one of the pallbearers.

I don’t get why things have to be such a mess.

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 months ago

The War on Drugs isn't about helping people stop using. It's about feeding the prison industry and all the parasites that bleed parolees dry.

load more comments (12 replies)
[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 78 points 2 months ago

America: "We will arrest you if you let a child out unsupervised"

Also America "kids sit in front of the screen at home all day."

Also also America " if somebody accidentally runs over your child with a car they will get a 6 month license suspension"

Also also also America "We think crime is way up even though its at record lows and a leading cause of death here is automobile accidents"

[-] rizzothesmall@sh.itjust.works 72 points 2 months ago

Maybe it would be safer for kids to walk places if you didn't have pedos embedded in your whole infrastructure

[-] Krauerking@lemy.lol 29 points 2 months ago

Wow people are just seeing pedophiles everywhere and missing the places they actually are.

I got raped by my mom and people in my group when i did therapy were mostly raped at home or with family.
The walk outside is the safest part of growing up for people at actual risk.

Find another thing to latch onto.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Tuxman@sh.itjust.works 72 points 2 months ago
load more comments (5 replies)
[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 59 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is what suburban carbrain disease does to a mfker.

Having grown up in Eastern Europe, walking to the kindergarten since 4, walking to the primary school since 7, walking / pubtransiting to mid/high school since 11, the North American suburban carbrain disease is just shocking, even after living alongside it for two decades.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] rozodru@lemmy.world 54 points 2 months ago

I'm in my 40s and now I realize that my Parents would have likely been arrested several times over if I were a kid today. Hell I Imagine most of us would be in the same boat.

I mean on weekends or during the summer I was told to get out of the house, be with friends, have fun and told to be home either for dinner or by the time the street lights came on and if I wasn't going to be home in time then to find a phone and call my parents and let them know. Hell I could be like miles/Kilometers from home at any given moment. I could be in a friends house and their parents offered me dinner.

I was like any kid, I got up to no good. I stole candy sometimes. I once opened a Captain Planet action figure in a store cause I wanted the power ring that was inside. I got in trouble at school cause one time during recess me and my friends just decided to start cussing at the top of our lungs.

I'd hate to be a kid today. hell, I'd hate to be a parent today.

[-] ICastFist@programming.dev 23 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I mean on weekends or during the summer I was told to get out of the house, be with friends, have fun and told to be home either for dinner or by the time the street lights came on and if I wasn’t going to be home in time then to find a phone and call my parents and let them know. Hell I could be like miles/Kilometers from home at any given moment. I could be in a friends house and their parents offered me dinner.

Sounds like what most kids were doing from 300BC up to 1980AD

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 54 points 2 months ago

By this logic, the movie "Stand By Me" should be rated X.

[-] manxu@piefed.social 44 points 2 months ago

How do "concerned Karens" not know they are more likely to cause harm than good nowadays?

[-] FireRetardant@lemmy.world 38 points 2 months ago

Because in this case it seems they got "results" and now there are several children without a mom around because the state doesn't want you raising your kids to be capable of being independent

[-] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 42 points 2 months ago

Instead of building sidewalks, they arrest working moms, amazing.

[-] SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org 40 points 2 months ago

Dumbest country on earth. You cannot change my mind.

[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago

It was very early 1980s and I was maybe 10 or 11. I went on a 10 mile bike ride from my house to a friend’s house in another town. According to Google maps it was an hour bike ride. Pretty sure it took me much longer. And I’d guess my parents had no clue I did it.

[-] SoleInvictus 19 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Seriously, I regularly did 12 miles round-trip on my bike down roads with no sidewalk or bike lane at 12 to see my friend who lived in the bad part of town. I guess my parents would be felons by today's standards.

Edit: hi again! I'm not stalking you, I promise!

[-] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 33 points 2 months ago

Pathetic. My sister and I used to explore around the whole city when we were that age. We'd walk streets and roads, explore parks and trails, visit malls across town, get into mischief like sneaking into people's backyards, exploring abandoned properties, and building forts in the woods. Some of my strongest memories are of the adventures we went on.

You know what the worst thing that happened to us was? The occasional scrape or bruise from falls when climbing on shit. We both remembered all the phone numbers we needed to know and my sister, being a bit older than me, was very streetwise and knew the layout of the city like the back of her hand. We did our own purchasing, bought our own food, tended our own wounds, and so on.

My sister grew up into one of the smartest and most independent people I've ever met.

[-] zululove@lemmy.ml 33 points 2 months ago

Two things. One : that is ridiculous overreach.

Two : we shouldn’t accept a society so dangerous our kids can’t explore and have fun..

load more comments (6 replies)
[-] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.org 32 points 2 months ago
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] firewyre@lemmy.world 32 points 2 months ago

Arrest the passerby for wasting police time and resources

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] cryptTurtle@piefed.social 29 points 2 months ago

Bro by that age I was driving 4 wheelers through uncharted woods. People need to chill

[-] 5in1k@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 months ago

I used to be allowed to take a rowboat out by myself at 10. What a bunch of pussies we are becoming.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] hperrin@lemmy.ca 24 points 2 months ago

If this is in America, I honestly don’t blame the cops. There are republicans lurking out there.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 months ago

The really weird thing is that back before the 1990s, when it was common for kids to be free range, there was far more stranger abductions and violent crime than there is today. We just hear about everything so quickly and so much that people think they are now living in a more dangerous time. But then that was the plan since 9/11 - have Americans live in constant fear so the government could take over.

[-] NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Makes me angry that removing the ability for self-sufficiency -- even just walking alone for errands -- only furthers dystopia.

Why most American GenXers thump their chests about being turn-key kids... yet they should be opposing such overreach.

[-] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

My kid took the bus to the other side of town by herself when she was 9.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] gressen@lemmy.zip 20 points 2 months ago

How it that cop's behavior not reckless conduit?

[-] modus@lemmy.world 28 points 2 months ago

Because pigs are not held accountable for their conduct.

[-] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 2 months ago
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] sexy_peach@feddit.org 19 points 2 months ago

Of course in the US

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
859 points (100.0% liked)

Fuck Cars

13688 readers
107 users here now

A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!

Rules

1. Be CivilYou may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.

2. No hate speechDon't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.

3. Don't harass peopleDon't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.

4. Stay on topicThis community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.

5. No repostsDo not repost content that has already been posted in this community.

Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.

Posting Guidelines

In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:

Recommended communities:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS