Were charged with neglect. They are considering suing the states. We want to know, how much freedom should begin far kids . Are they put in unnecessary danger. Here is how we are splitting up the phone minds this morning. If you support free range parenting, you can call us at 202 7488000. If you oppose this idea, you can call us at 202 7488001. As always, you can weigh in with your thoughts on social media. Find us on twitter, cspanwj. On facebook, facebook. Com cspan. Or send as an email journal cspan. Org. Here is the Washington Post story from earlier this month that gives the details of the case involving the maryland children. The story says that the children were taken into custody by county police and turnover to Child Protection services. The childs mother says that they were released to the couple at 10 30 p. M. On sunday. The parent said the children had been described as for your brains children and were expected at home at 6 00 on sunday. When they hadnt arrived, they began looking for them. At 8 00, the mother says that they spent about half an hour at the cps offices without being allowed to see them. We are going to be joined by a columnist from the Washington Post, to learn a little more about the case. Thank you for being with us. Can you explain to us what free range parenting is . Guest it is kind of silly, it sounds like chickens, or something. It is a catchall shrimp that i think people like saying. It is the idea or philosophy that children should be allowed to roam. Most people would call this what childhood was called 20 or 30 years ago. A lot of this has changed. The way we parent children and the way we give them freedoms has changed quite a bit in the last two decades. A lot of that is because of fear. Host Child Protective Services had charged the maryland couple with unsubstantiated neglect. What does that mean . Guest that is a good question. I dont know. I dont think they know either. The real definition is that there was some possible neglect but not evidence to substantiate it. It sounds a little vague to me, and everybody else. Host where do you fall on this spectrum . It sounds like you are a supporter of free range parenting. Guest i was a Police Reporter for 20 years. You think i would be the first person who would hold my children tight. I do and i want to, i also understand that through seeing all of the crime, and knowing that statistics say our children are safer than they have ever been. Homicide rates for children are down, compared to these golden years that we talk about decades ago. The real reason people are afraid to let their kids even walk the dog around the block or go to the playground is because we have this looming fear of a stranger snatching arcade off of the street. One of the first tweets i got when i wrote about them was better in a police car then in a ditch. The truth is that a stranger who snatches your kid off the street makes up only one 100th of 100 . The people we really have to fear are the people we know. Priests, tutors, teachers. Not all of them, obviously, but when we do see these cases, they are sophisticated people who know how to get into kids lives. The people who snatch kids off the street god for for a it happens, but it happens so rarely. Host why is this a policy issue . Guest that is the whole cultural shift that we are talking about. There is definitely chatter criticizing that they let them go one mile. Im afraid to drive in the crosswalk where they were walking, so they were very extreme. They believe that their children are mature enough to handle that. It has become a policy issue because again, we go back to fear when people see to kids alone on the street and people call the police, the police are compelled to do their job and react, and then they get Child Protective Services involved, and they are compelled to act. These two kids walking on the street is what triggers it and then it becomes a policy issue rather than being a coulter where we can say, what are those kids doing, let me talk to them and see what they are doing. Host and one of your columns you wrote, we have morphed from a community that helps to raise children to a police state. Is that the direction we are headed . Guest that is the direction we are headed in these cases. This case was not alone. There was a woman who was called the nations worst mom when she let her nineyearold in new york take the subway to go to school. She is kind of the founder and voice behind the free range parenting movement. There was a really tough story where mothers were arrested, and it was usually mothers who got in trouble for letting a nineyearold, i think it was in florida, play in a neighborhood park. In south carolina, it was an eightyearold who was alone at the park, and the mother was arrested. We have turned this into a culture. There was a mother who wrote about being arrested for leaving current child in the car for literally three minutes. We are turning this into a government decision that lacks common sense. We want protection for children lets say this happens all the time now left in a casino parking lot while mom gamble for eight hours. Yes, bring in the police, that is neglect. This is not neglect. We have lost our sense of common sense governing. Host do you have any sins of what the regulations or laws are around when children can be left alone . Guest in various jurisdiction by jurisdiction. For example, in montgomery county, children can be alone indoors if they are nine and older. They can watch another child when they are 13 and older. This is where he got sticky legally with these kids. They were outside, not left alone in a house or a car. There are some jurisdictions that do not have these restrictions. They usually hover around those ages and formats. Host is changing the culture require a change in laws across the country as well . Guest that would probably happen. The culture has driven them the laws. The culture is what is pulling common sense from the enforcement of those laws. That is why we have to change the culture. Host thank you so much for joining us this morning. Guest thank you for talking about this. It is pretty important. Thanks. Host we are taking your calls. What do you think about free range parenting . Again, the numbers are 202 7488000 if you support the idea of letting children roam free. If you oppose the idea, you can call 202 7488001. The Free Range Kids Movement is planning a protest of the situation and maryland in a few weeks. Their website says that they will be staging a protest called let our kids go to the park and walk home alone day. It says, we are encouraging kids to walk home alone if you feel they are ready to. They will join in the park at 9 00, let them go by themselves, and with any luck, the kids might not know each other. When the adults say goodbye it is up to the kids to figure out what to do, we used to have a name for this activity playing. Nick is up who says he supports free range parenting. Caller i support it as long as the federal government stays out of it. If local communities want to set parameters and regulations, that is ok. We are on the way to tyranny led by progressives. One of their commitments is that the government must being that people were too stupid. They bastardized the language. They dont have terms i can allude to. One was microaggression and some university about chickfila. This is really serious. She brought up fear. Fear is the seat of tyranny. I dont mind i have for it because i know the federal government wants to get into it. Host what was your childhood like, nick . Were you a free range kids . Caller yes. My parents died when i was 10 years old. Those are them. I was raised by people who didnt care. I used to go playing construction sites. That was my outdoor play gym. We would have tremendous dirt fights in ditches. We had sandlot baseball. A bunch of boys, 10 years old get out there and play baseball. We really learned. We learned on our own, we didnt have to have helicopter bomb standing over us and everything else. Even though we didnt have parents, it was a rich life. I learned to become selfreliant. The people i was raised with kind of treated me like a servant, by learned a strong work ethic. I went to the army and did fine. Thank you. Host that was nick in tennessee. Next up is michael from riverside, california. You say that you oppose the idea of free range parenting, why is that . Caller what fascinates me is i know that do you hear me . Host how much independence should they have . Caller im not mold or moldable, neither are you. Neither is an old man or an old woman. We can all take care of ourselves. Little children cannot. Host turn off your tv. Go ahead with your thoughts. Caller my tv is way down. All intended do is have a conversation with you, trying to put a word out. Listen. Everybody wonders why everything is going on in society as it is. I am letting you know. These little ones do not know their right hand from their left. You have sick individuals out there who do horrible things to them. That female, i bet she doesnt even care. She would fight for the right to kill a child in the womb. We have 10,000 laws to protect women who are very well to take care of themselves, but children who do not know the right hand from their left, nobody cares. God will surely get peoples attention and you will know that these women do belong to him and to christ. Host that was michael from riverside, california. Our next caller is eric from antioch, california in support of free range parity. Caller i disagree with the previous caller, Samuel L Jackson from pulp fiction. When i was a kid, we were out all day long. We never had problems. Statistics point out that. 001 of strangers accost children. I work as a clerk and a store and two Young Children come in by themselves every day. Everybody looks at them. Host how old are your children . Caller one is about to graduate from college and another is starting college. 18 and 21. Host how old were they when you let them play by themselves outside . Caller they did not have the life that i did. Im talking about me. When they went out one, there were open spaces when we went out. Kids have to have something to do. When there was open land, we wrapped the bike and went out. My daughter was involved in afterschool activities, they would go with a friend or have a parent drive them. There was not free time to just explore. Host area calling in support of free range parenting. Next up is ruth from new haven connecticut who opposes free range parenting. We are getting a very wide range of views here. Caller i oppose free range parenting. As a child in new york city, there was a Police Officer on every other corner, Police Officers in the parks. Now, you send a child to the park, they might not come home. I worry about my granddaughter who is 21 coming home. People are evil now. There is no way in the world i would even want my 18yearold granddaughter walk three blocks to the subway, or even to a park. People are different. You have to train children now. People are terrible. Host its interesting, what im hearing you saying is that you think there should be more Government Intervention in the sense that there should be more police on the street corners it to ensure that our children are safe. Caller of course. People are so against the government. The minute art children are missing, who do we call . The Police Department. We need these entities. People do what they want to do. People are killing their children now. Why do you think we should let them go to a park alone . Children are kidnapped from the park. Host next is colleen in support of free range parenting. Caller i definitely support free range children. I moved from Southern California to rule florida rural florida so my kids could be free range p children. I dont know if anyone is aware but Hillary Clintons book kind of started this and policies where the government interferes and parental rights. There are 450,000 children in foster care. We did not have a sundin influence where 450,000 childrens parents are horrible enough that they had to take the children away. There are policies now. They took these children. There was no crime, there was nothing. Someones opinion some of these people who are afraid to stick their nose out of the door, thats fine. Stay in your house, barricade your door. In new york, people have five locks on the door. We leave our doors open. Host i think i can hear the birds chirping in the background. How much independence would you give your grandkids d . Caller as their age and maturity comes, they get privileges in the neighborhood. I have grandchildren from five to 12. The 12 year old can go in the neighborhood. The nineyearold can go to some friends house. Frankly, Everybody Knows the kids in the neighborhood. They are perfectly safe. No, were not going to stay in our house. It is not the governments business. It is not anybodys business what you do with your children. Host colleen, we hear you and the birds singing at your home this morning. A few comments from twitter. Said rights, do you want to raise your kids to live in fear . Jim writes are there any cases of free range children being abducted or kidnap . Apparently not. One of the articles that spurred this idea was this one from 2008 and title, why i let my nineyearold ride the subway alone. In the article she states, is new york as safe as it was in 1963 . It is not like we are living in downtown baghdad. She did not give the child a cell phone, because she didnt want him to lose it, but let her figure out how to take the subway and if they couldnt do that, i trusted him to ask a stranger. Long story short my son got home, ecstatic with independence. Long story longer, people wanted to turn me and for child abuse. Here now is donald calling in opposition of free range parenting. What do you think . Caller i dont think its a good idea. Im listening to these callers speaking about what they believe in. The majority of these people live in neighborhoods where they are protected. Most of the children running around here you have gang members shooting all over the place, pedophiles. You should ask these callers, what type of neighborhood do you live in . Maybe its good, but everybody cant live in that kind of neighborhood. Back in the day when i was coming up im 61 years old my mom let me go on the bus and go wherever wanted to go. We live in a society where we do not even know our neighbors. How are we going to let our children roam up and on the street . Host so the problem is with the fact that we do not know anybody anymore . Guest and the neighborhoods we live in. Im sick of hearing people talk about the government liberals. Its republicans, i dont care who it is. Im sick of these people bringing up hillary clinton, what does she have to do with letting people roam up and down the street. Is something to happen to something were to happen to one of the children, who were they call . The government. Host next up is dorothy from ohio, calling in support of free range parenting. Why do you support this idea . Caller i feel is the kids are raised properly with the right morals and respect, and you have the right trust and may have the right maturity, you should respect them to have a little bit of range, depending on age group, like the other lady said. Host all right. Next up is anette calling from princeton, new jersey. You also support this idea. Caller i am a big supporter of the idea. Im also a teacher. I could say so much on this. I know i just have a little time. Im finding that people have such a great fear of what can happen to the children as far as walking down the street, going to a store, but do they realize that when they keep them in the house the give them free range on a cell phone. I see what children are allowed to be exposed to on a phone cell phone. Starting with children six years old. Instead of running, playing, getting to know other children, and getting coping skills. They are on cell phones arguing looking at pornographic host so the issue of free range is not just free range in your neighborhood, but free range on social media and the world wide web. Caller they give them a cell phone and they do not even have enough parenting skills at this point to follow their children and see what they are doing. When i see what children are showing me on a cell phone at eight years old, or what their friends are texting them, they need to be outside climbing a tree. They need to be running up and down the street or on a bicycle. These parents dont understand. You are substituting something that was innocent, running and playing in arguing because youre so afraid, and you are giving them a tool that allows them to be men, send pictures to other boys in the school. Host we got your point. A few other headlines before we turned back to the calls. Washington post reports that Police Officials made an arrest of gray, the man who died of spinal injuries after being arrested saying, he was not treated properly, but they are still investigating the severe spinal injury that seems to have led to his arrest. The Police Commissioner says that he was not placed in a seatbelt, a violation of department policy. Grey, 25 died sunday, one week after being arrested. Questions about what happened to him have spurred days of protests and thrust baltimore into the center of a debate over a spate of deaths from mon Law Enforcement officers. A headline on the failed comcasttime warner merger. Despite the diverse region the distribution of 5. 9 million and the expenditure of 25 million on lobbying last year, no more than a handful of lawmakers signed the deal contrasting more than 100 signed letters of support in 2000 10 when comcast was pushing its merger with nbc universal. There are also some unanticipated consequences to the fallout of this deal. Los Angeles Times front page says, still a shutout. With the merger dead, dodger fans are facing a drought. It says, an estimated 70 of los angeles households do not get the sports channel that carries dodgers games. That was expected to be corrected if comcast acquisition of time warner succeeded. With the merger officially pronounced dead friday, the prospects of a deal to carry the games on other cable providers less likely. A report on the drone strike that killed two hostages, that there had been a bid to ransom one of the hostages and it failed. The story says, the captures of weinstein received ransom, magnifying questions about the incident. The failed 2012 attempt to ransom weinstein who was kidnapped and 2011 was reported by a pakistani intermediary. The deaths have lent new u