Why I won’t support Caylee’s Law

Jul, 08 2011
By Cara
soapbox, vents
7 comments

I usually don’t post anything political or controversial on my blog, but this has me fired up. I’m noticing the older I get the more Libertarian I get. I just don’t want government controlling every aspect of my life and I don’t feel the need for laws and government control over everything. I think most of us are good, honest, educated people and we can make decisions for our families without the government dictating the hows and whys. Most of us are going to do the right thing by our children. So why do we need tons of laws telling us what that right thing is? Because we want to feel good? Because we want some sort of control over a situation that seems completely jacked up? But controlling the masses with a new law, one that makes us feel good and is a knee jerk reaction, isn’t going to bring this child or any child that was killed at their hands of their parents or loved ones back. It’s going to hurt innocent parents who thought they were doing the right thing.

Here are my reasons for not supporting this law:

Casey couldn’t be convicted under such a law. Regardless of whose accounts about the death of little Caylee you believe, she was never technically missing. She was dead and Casey knew where she was. If you think it’s possible her grandfather and uncle had anything to do with it, the only person that didn’t know where she was, was the grandmother. Now Casey could have been convicted with a law like Michigan is trying to pass that makes it illegal not to report a dead body, and while it’s a bit of government control, I could get behind this law.
What is a reasonable amount of time? Who determines this? My reasonable about of time could be totally different than your reasonable amount of time.
What happens if you really don’t know your child is missing because they aren’t with you when they disappeared and the persons they were with never notified you? When my child isn’t with me, I don’t always know his whereabouts and there are times when I don’t talk to him for a full day.
Custody disputes, a lot of custody orders are verbal, or they are changed verbally between the parties. This could turn into a huge he said /she said, if a child goes missing while one parent has custody over who actually had the child. Again penalizing an innocent person.
Teens, are we going to waste law enforcement time when a teen skips school, breaks curfew or isn’t where they say they are going to be, because technically they are missing and parents are scared they will get in trouble with this law?

There are just too many what ifs, that would hurt innocent parents for me to get behind this law. I get people want to do something, I get people feel outraged this week, but creating a new law to make ourselves feel better is the wrong way to go about it. These laws have long term ramifications that in our time of needing to feel better, we don’t think about.

Connor’s Law was one of these feel good type laws after the deaths of Lacy and Connor Peterson. Connor’s Law makes it illegal to kill or harm a fetus in the 3rd trimester. It was created to protect pregnant women. Now it’s being used against the same women it is supposed to protect.

So here it is, my reasons behind why I can’t and won’t support Caylee’s law. I’m just asking people to think before they knee jerkingly create a new law that really isn’t needed.

Editing for Clarification – my mention of Connor’s law has nothing to do with abortion. Abortion is probably a topic I will never discuss on here, as it is too emotionally charged and in my experience you are not going to change ones opinion on the topic. My mention of the law has to do with how the law has been interpreted and is now being used against the women it is supposed to protect. In one case, it was used against a mother to accidentally feel down a flight of stairs. At the hospital she expressed doubt over having another child because her husband had left her, she didn’t know if she wanted to keep the baby or not and had thought about adoption. Based on her doubt, the nurse she spoke to called the cops and she was charged under Connor’s law of harming a fetus, over an accident. Another case I read this week was about a 15 yr old girl with a drug problem, she gave birth to a still born at 36 weeks. The cause of death had nothing to do with her drug problem, yet she again was charged with killing her baby under Connor’s Law. Connor’s law was a good law on the surface, but like Caylee’s law and a lot of these reactory laws that we make because we are outraged, it leaves too many what ifs and we don’t think through the ramifications before putting these laws into affect.

http://www.facebook.com/MeL.Sweatt Mel Ü Sweatt

For the same reasons, I don’t support this law either.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=662461872 Amy Dutsch

I’m a staunch libertarian so I am very much against this law. We need to have personal responsibility and for all the reasons you posted, this law is a bad idea.
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N2cole2005

You don’t support this law bc u feel u should be alotted however much time u deem is necessary to report ur child dead??? Um wow ok need I say more? As far as the conner law um unless the reason is medically necessary or u were raped you should have NO RIGHT to kill a baby because u couldn’t keep ur legs closed or take contraceptives. Y should an innocent child suffer because some selfish bitch doesn’t want to take the nine months to birth the kid and give it to a couple who want it! There are some reasons justifiable to have an abortion but being a slutty selfish bitch is not one of them. O and liberals are for government control conservative/republic is against . Yes I am a woman not a man and am ashamed for any woman out there that aborts a baby bc they forgot to close their legs. I feel for the people who are raped or unfortunately due to medical reasons have to abort their babies and bc people who use abortion clinics as contraceptive means these women r paying for it bc now they want to make it illegal!

Cara

1. If your going to comment, be respectful and don’t go cursing all over my blog. It’s my blog and you don’t have the right to free speech on it, but I’m going to leave your hateful ignorant commemts.

2. I quite aware of the difference between conservatives and libetals. And while conservatives say they are for no / little goverenment control, their actions speak otherwise. You know the actions speak louder than words.

Libertarians are for little to no government control, everyone does what is right for them, and owns it, you know personal responsibilty. Libertarians both liberal and conservative.

3. What the heck does any of this have to do with abortion? I never once mentioned abortion or my political stance on it.

4. Connors’s law is a good but not well thought out law. It is now being used against the women it is supposed to protrect. Women who, wait for it, didn’t have abortions. In one case the mother fell down some stairs accidentally, in the hospital she expressed doubt over having the baby, as she already had small children and her husband just left her. She was considering adoption for the baby. Because of her expressing doubt the police were called and she was charged with Connor’s law. In another case a 15 yr old with a drug addiction had a stillborn baby at 36 weeks, the cause of death had nothing to do with the drug addiction yet she was charged, under Connor’s law, with killing her child.

4. This law is a reactionary law, and one that like Connor’s law is going to hurt innicent people and waste law enforcement time and money. I get people want to do something, but this isn’t the thing to do. And the mob mentality and hatefulness and anger that has come to the surface this week is down right scary.

SoMo

When I first read the blog post I didn’t really agree with your points, however, since your comment I better understand what you are talking about. I, too, thought you were referring to abortion when you mentioned Connor’s law, but now have clarification.

The point for both these laws is that people are outraged and want to feel like they did something. What people need to understand is that there is evil in the world and most times we will not understand it. Making laws specific to cases that particularly outrage us will not help anyone. Matter of fact it will further tie our hands and give law enforcement (I am including the judicial system) further control by interrupting laws when they want to make a point. We don’t need more laws we need more common sense.
http://headant.com Head Ant

Wow, I’m out of the loop.
A law like this would only confuse things. There are too many exceptions and factors that would cause it to hurt innocent people.
That being said, I once had a friend lose her child after forgetting where she was for two days. Her parents noticed the child was missing in that short period. But I don’t think a law like Caylee’s law would have helped in that situation. My friend was a very lost individual.