Dad an 'unfit parent' after traffic ticket on a bicycle

[rambone]

A Detroit father was pulling his kids around in a cart behind his bicycle, 50 feet from his home. A cop witnessed him going the wrong way down a one-way street and gave him a ticket. Now they are trying to take his kids from him for being an 'unfit parent.'


Dad Faces Charges After Family Bike Ride

In early September, Sean Harrington was pulling his twin boys on a trailer attached to his bike for a day of fun in downtown Detroit along the river walk. He was returning home and riding down the sidewalk on Park Street when he pulled onto the street to avoid hitting baseball fans who were blocking his path.
He admits he was going the wrong way down a one way street, but he was about fifty feet from his home.
Several days later, he received a letter in the mail, asking him to appear in court in November, facing the possibility of being charged with child endangerment. Harrington and his wife have lived in Detroit for years. He owns three businesses downtown and said he is disappointed that he is now being accused of being an unfit parent.
“I don’t know what’s the next step for them,” Harrington said. “Maybe it is that my children should be taken away from me because I will do reckless things like take them from a bike ride.”

 

[Kitty]

Well it's obvious that all Americans are incapable of caring for themselves let alone our most precious resource - the children. The state can provide so much better than some idiot business man and his wife.

 

[ATOMonkey]

Hurray for the pre-crime division making an example of this obviously dangerous person. He should have just been executed on site.

 

[steveh_131]

Harassing one of the few men in Detroit who apparently gives a *** about his kids? Good idea.

But hey. The Law is sacred, right? He's just doing his job.

 

[Rookie]

Cue Semper Fi...

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Cue Semper Fi...

Not everything is always black and white in the real world. I'd like to know the circumstances. Did he in fact endanger his children by riding into oncoming traffic? If it is simply riding against a directional arrow that's one thing. If in traffic it's another.

 

[jamil]

If a single poor decision makes a parent unfit, perhaps we're all unfit. If it's a habbit, that's a different story. Still I think the state should mostly prefer to stay out of families' lives. It's the rarest case when a child is better off in foster care than with the family. Just issue the ticket and be done with it.

 

[halfmileharry]

I'd sure like to have all the facts but it on the surface it looks like another case of NO GREY AREA when it comes to the law.

 

[cobber]

It sounds like he has been charged by the prosecutor's office, so not only did the police think he had violated the law, but apparently a DPA agreed.

Not enough facts all around to know who's at fault here. Like many of these stories. "Facing the possibility of being charged"? What's that all about, how does a court order you to appear unless you have been charged.

The media admit they did not get a "clear answer" (what exactly DID they learn, tell us that at least) from the police or prosecutor, so it's a little early to tell if this was an abuse of discretion or not. More facts please.

Pretty typical for the media, however...