Many women make the same claims about rape being an ubiquitous and credible threat that warrants them exercising caution around strange men. Those women’s claims are often dismissed despite the fact there is always a credible risk that a stranger may assault them. See, there’s a balanced way to think about this, which is that it is a legitimate problem that maybe doesn’t warrant extreme paranoia around strangers.
I personally only exercise extreme paranoia when I’m the stranger.
It’s the “Well, you never know!” argument that seems like such a crystal clear parallel. Your life could be ruined if you help a lost child, or if you talk to the wrong man. At what point do we adapt a less reactive framework for addressing social problems?
We clearly have different priorities. And if my goal is helping the child in question, I think that deportation (or fear of deportation, which is apparently leading a growing number of families to withdraw their children from medical care) is hardly “helpful”.
ETA: I think that many or most of the people in my area are full citizens, but harassment is still a real thing if you happen to have a Spanish accent.
I’m not a woman and I don’t have a kid, so I can only speak from the perspective of the big hairy wierdo looming around. The goal is to not be perceived as a threat, because that rarely ends well. This does not mean complete inaction, necessarily, but there are certain activities that should be avoided to avoid giving the wrong impression.
Grabbing a kid and making for the parking lot is on that list of activities.
Oh, I couldn’t agree more. I am a woman and the only reason I would ever touch some stranger’s child is to prevent imminent harm, like to stop them from walking in front of a bus. Most people are not comfortable with other people touching their kids. And probably the kids are not so comfortable with it either.
It’s the idea of just leaving a two year old to fend for itself on the off-chance that something terrible might happen to you that is just a little :dubious: You could at least call the police, that would be an easy and low-risk option to ensure the child’s safety.
But as someone upthread mentioned, what people say they will do and what they actually do are two different things. I suspect a lot of these ‘‘not getting involved’’ folks would crumble if they saw those big, lost eyes blinking up at them.
Looks like most news sources aren’t mentioning the falsely-accused’s name, but one local TV news website (and a British source you can probably guess) did give his first and last name, which appears to be from India. In that context, the immediate overreaction and later response even after it was pretty clear that the guy was well-intentioned, are probably down to them thinking he was Muslim.
Because of all those stereotypes about Muslim men kidnapping children? 
Nothing that specific, just the general hysteria about the “Muslim Menace” that pervades such towns. (Yes, I’ve been there.)
People can really suck sometimes.
Seems that has happened, back in 2002 in England, where a girl drowned and a guy drove past her wondering if he should go back or not.
I’m wondering as well why the father didn’t get charged with assault. He beat the hell out of someone and nothing is happening to him?
according to the Daily Fail (yeah, I know)
"Patel declined to press charges against Strickland because he empathized with a father’s fear for his child’s safety
Read more: Florida man falsely dubbed 'child predator' flees town | Daily Mail Online
I guess he was hoping that by not pressing charges the whole thing would blow over. guess he wasn’t expecting the girl’s father to be an enormous piece of shit.
If you happen to be a parent, this seems like a pretty good way to get away with assault, maybe even murder. Say there’s somebody you really want to kill. Just leave your child somewhere your victim will find them, and hide nearby. When he comes by and stops to ask your kid if they’re lost, you jump out of the bushes and WHAM! Then tell the cops you thought he was a child molester or something.
Of course it can only work if the person you want to kill is a man. If it’s a foreign-looking man, your chances of success go up, like, a lot.
Well it turns outs the man (a Mr Patel) was with an actual policeman during the whole transaction. Did not help him.
Florida man falsely dubbed 'child predator' flees town | Daily Mail Online
Did not help him.
Lots of reactions are natural. That doesn’t make them acceptable or right. I’m not a parent either, but I have hurt people before out of an intense anger reaction, and I do not argue that I was in any way justified in doing so. It would seem to me that my impulse is just as natural as this guy’s.
That said, I am far, far more furious with the people who have revealed they would put their own personal safety over the safety of a lost child. That is just selfish and wrong.
You’re actually making things worse by accepting what you think society says. What we need to do is show this asshole that what he’s doing is not acceptable.
Even if I allow for Ms. Weasel’s argument that the first punch is understandable, the rest is definitely not. I actually worry about the child’s well being. Much more than I worry a stranger is a child molester.
Oh, really?
What if the little kid is going to grow up to be Hitler?
Or if the little kid is made of acid-glue?
He was in the area with a friend who was a policeman. The default assumption would seem to be that the friend was not present for the assault. Those sports complexes can be huge.
I think you might be only assessing the risk on the factor of likelihood. It may be unlikely for you to be perceived as a paedo kidnapper when trying to assist a lost child, but the outcome, if that risk occurs, is potentially severe.
Sure - it is a low-probability event with high-impact consequences. Like a stranger abducting a child, except even lower probability.
Regards,
Shodan
All those saying contact others, police or people, there was a time, almost in living memory, when no-one had cell-phones, and before that no phones at all. And some places they don’t work. One would have to stand still and bawl until someone heard; all the time standing 10 feet away from the kid.
And there are still places like that. However they are inhabited by natives who don’t think of strangers as automatic molesters.