[welly]

I hate to be that person but this isn't the actions of a country that prides itself as being free. Sadly, it's not an isolated case either. I've read numerous similar accounts of such things occurring. Along with the "lemonade stand permit", it's bewildering.

I realise that in the grand scheme, these are fairly unique but you simply don't hear about such things happening in Europe, in Australia or in the middle and far East. Perhaps it's a case of similar cases happening in other nations but just not reported on so much.

Why do we keep reading stories like this and the deluge of police brutality and other wacky stories coming out of the USA?

[jfoutz]

There are many things. First, Florida is odd. Dave Barry made his career out of odd things happening in Miami.

Perhaps more accurately, the us has a large population. It's roughly the same size as all of western europe. With 350 million independent agents running around, you'll get some funky edge cases.

And C, I think everyone is susceptible to abuse of power. There are a million stories of HOA (home owner associations) making crazy complicated rules because of smart yet bored homebodies with nothing better to do.

The U.S. has certain freedoms, like self defense, that you don't see in the U.K. Freedom of speech is pretty cool, but you get these weird effects where things advertised as "news" aren't actually required to tell the truth. So it's not all sunshine and lollypops.

Classic puritanism tried to take comfort knowing that people not acting in a godly way would just go to hell when they died. The U.S. has a long tradition of everyone knowing everyone else's business. And being judgmental of it. Sometimes echoes of that ring down through the ages and we get weird laws. We get the moral imperatives, but can't really rely on bad parents going to hell, so we get kind of crazy.

[welly]

You make some good points, I'm definitely not hating on the US because I've lived there on for a number of years on a couple of occasions and I love the place. I'd love to actually settle there one day.

I suppose with a nation as big as the US and the media presence there, it would probably be much more difficult to hide such stories as it would in various European nations.

[vacri]

in Australia

So, in Victoria at least, it was recently made illegal to leave your kids in the car for any length of time. Going inside to pay at the petrol station? Take your kids with you.

Admittedly it's not going to end you up in the middle of the story in the article, and you're going to have to be pretty unlucky to find a cop who's enough of a dickhead to apply this law apropos of no other issues, but technically it's now illegal to do so.

[ryan-allen]

Really? Holy crap! I live in Victoria (don't have kids), and this is news to me. I remember that it's illegal to leave your kids in cars on hot days, but that's it.

[vacri]

State legislation rarely makes the news, unless it's about a new highway somewhere :)

Last Week Tonight did an episode on how state legislatures in the US are passing heaps of legislation "on the sly" (scare quotes because it's not really sly, just no-one watches them...), and it's similar over here. Hell, I keep forgetting our current premier's name, and I voted for him... and I couldn't tell you the name of a single other state politician who isn't a party leader. I've even forgotten the name of the guy involved in the union scandal last week...

[welly]

Crazy. I'm up in the Northern Territory and it feels like anything goes here. (Almost).

[vacri]

NT doesn't have a proper state parliament, so you miss out on a lot of the fun. Fewer services, but fewer restrictions.

[ddingus]

Authoritarians. They are the ones escalating all this petty garbage, IMHO.