If parents in Scandinavia leave their kids outside in weather the parents themselves can’t tolerate they’re fucking idiots.
It’s all about clothing mate. The baby was probably wearing a fullbody ‘flyverdragt’ (flyverdragt - Google Search) and packed in a duvet inside an insulated baby carriage. If she can handle a Scandinavian winter, I think she’d had been ok in a bit of chilly New York weather.
What Rune said. If I’m out on the street, I’m not swaddled.
If they’re dressed up like Eskimos I suppose it’s okay. It’s still a bizarre practice though.
Are any babies harmed or killed from this? If not, maybe they’re not such fucking idiots as you think?
Passing judgement on another culture, are we? 
ETA:And it’s Inuit.
So, were babies or carriages not allowed inside?
They also do it in Greenland btw. Probably because it’s part of Denmark. Don’t know if Canadian inuits do it. There’s a rule of thumb that says -10 degrees Celsius is where you should start to consider moving the baby inside. But I think most people just put on more clothes on the baby.
A babies skin is far more sensitive than an adults and whose face is still exposed to the elements and they can’t tell you when they’ve had enough. Hard to hear crying when you’re inside. It’s also pretty fucking archaic to believe cold air is good for their health, are the parents still draining the yellow bile to reinvigorate the humors too?
Sure, why not? I’m not saying we should invade Finland to save their chilly infants.
You sound like one of them weird US helicopter parents we hear about. Normally you’d check on the baby once in a while (and mothers have supernatural hearing abilities when it comes to their babies crying) otherwise if you hear a baby cry it is considered good manners to go in and tell whomever has it. Most people also have some kinda of walkie-talke system.
I left my key at home more than a few times too, but I was resourceful… climbed up a trash can, opened my bedroom window from the outside, and let myself in the house. 
Fortunately, our windows were cheap and crappy and opened from the outside. And even more fortunately, thieves never tested them. 
I let my kids eat sand, play in scuzzy water and run around the yard while I’m in the house. But ok, provide a cite that cold air is good for an infants health and I’ll admit I’m a Helicopter Parent.
Some things are more dangerous now. An unsupervised child is much more likely to be flattened by an SUV full of 12-year-olds being driven two blocks to school.
Wow. The number of cases of infant frostbite and hypothermia throughout Scandinavia must be huge! And infant deaths from cold! And they probably grow up to be smaller and sicklier than Americans!
Hold on, wait…none of that is the case. Hmmm. Weird.
Do tell.
You’re missing out!!
Except that several people told her it was too cold for the baby to be outside (which is a clue that you might be violating a cultural norm) and, oh, yeah, her husband with whom she was drinking is an American.
How do you think most ice sculptures are made?
That’ll teach me not to read the whole article.
It’s not (very) cold air, but fresh air that is being considered healthful (ok, reasonable cold air is probably considered good also – but that’s just Scandinavians for you). You can say that there are less viruses and bacteria and other things that can cause sickness – but that’s just after rationalizations. It’s just a custom. It doesn’t really matter. The thing is that it was a harmless custom which a little talk with the café-manager or the policeman should have cleared up without putting anyone in handcuffs, throwing anybody in jail or sending anybody into state foster care.
It could have gone down like this:
Police: Is that your baby. There are some people that are worried that it might be too cold for it.
Mother: Yes, my baby. No no, she’s perfectly ok. See, packed up as an Eskimo, sleeping like a clubbed baby seal. It’s done all the time in Denmark.
Police: Denmark huh? Oh yeah I can see that. Although it’s not really a thing that is done in New York. So it’d probably be best if you didn’t do it while here, otherwise you’re just going to weird us out.
Mother: Ok, I see. I didn’t know that. Silly me. Thanks for telling me. I’ll grab the baby and take her inside. No problem.
It’s what actually happened that is being considered an absurd and harmful overreaction. Same with the examples from OP. So there have been some incidents of babies dying in an overheated car. Perhaps the person calling the police didn’t know the kid was older, or didn’t have much experience with children to know that 11yo is quite capable of taking care of himself. But once the police arrived a short talk with the parent should have cleared up the confusion in no time. It’s not really a helicopter parent issue, more like it seems when the police are involved, sometimes things escalate out of sensible control. I don’t know, but would probably think it has more to do with the police being afraid of being sued, insurance claims, and such.
It’s funny that so many of you have heard of the story. In any case, if somebody had told me of a worry he had that it was too cold, and I had informed him that it’s ok, it’s not too cold because the baby is properly clothed. Then I’d have thought that would be the end of it. So there were many layers of misunderstandings involved. But a bit of reasonable talk should have sorted it out.