Originally published at: When adults stay silent, a toddler shows police where a Kentucky fugitive is hiding | Boing Boing
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“It is good to be honest … we shouldn’t lie.”
Future President of the United States of America… and owner of slaves.
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Oh man I feel for that kid though…
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It’s nice that the kid wants to do the right thing.
Sending people to prison for simple possession of narcotics is still an incredibly harmful approach to dealing with the nation’s drug problem though.
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As a parent of a toddler, I know my kids would be torn…on the one hand, there’s the virtue of honesty, but on the other hand, all my children are being raised with the behavior norm: “We. Do. Not. Talk. To. Cops. Without. Warrants.”
(And yes, this makes it a little difficult for them to parse “Paw Patrol,” or, as my wife calls it, “Bootlicker Puppies.”)
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“Never go on the lam where there are toddlers about!”
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Hell, even with a warrant don’t talk to them. They can get everything they need via deposition with legal counsel present.
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A boot licking toddler. I guess the indoctrination is working well, then?
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That’s not really fair; the toddler didn’t rat out the adult because he was conditioned to always defer to the cops. He ratted out the adult because he, like most children, was taught that it’s wrong to lie.
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“We. Do. Not. Talk. To. Cops. Without. Warrants.”
How are your kids going to get warrants? 
A lesson many forget by the time they reach adulthood.
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Ok, fair. It’s just a bit difficult to be nuanced with a toddler, I guess. I don’t have any of my own, but I want to see more people teaching their children to not talk to fascist enablers like cops.
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Just trying to explain why one shouldn’t ask strangers questions like “why are you so fat?” can be downright exhausting.
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I can get that, but as someone who has had very young kids ask questions that some people would find downright rude and given them actual answers … I don’t know. I’m not qualified to say it’s not that big of a deal, because for some people it can be one. I’d like to think the solution would be to generate a culture where differences are acceptable and asking questions to gain information (instead of asking them to be a judgemental asshole) can be ok.
Why are you wearing a dress? Why is your hair purple? Are you a boy or a girl? These have all been asked of me by kids. The answers I give (Because I want to. It makes me happy. Neither, really.) are often met with “Oh, ok” and then they go back to licking the patron computers or poking their fingers into questionable places without a further thought to this purple haired giant in a cute dress who’s setting up the computers to run “Roblox” faster for them.
One of my partners worked in childcare for about 15 years. They can tell all kinds of stories about answering what most of us consider inappropriate questions!
And again: Don’t talk to cops!
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One of many part-time jobs I had while a high school student: Cashier at a dry cleaning establishment. An older gentleman (looked to be in his 60s) walked in one Saturday morning with a 5 to 6-year-old girl (likely his granddaughter). He complained about his suit not being ready yet for pickup, although he had dropped it off that same week on Thursday. “It’s been here over a week now” he said. Then the little girl spoke up. You can guess what she said.
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Occasionally people ask what the witch burning of our time that future generation will judge us for is. My money is on that one right there.
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