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Comment by Maximus9000 | Hacker News Reader

> Waco, Texas

What? If this draconian policy is happening in Texas, the land of the free, can I assume it's even worse in the rest of North America? I hope Texans are up-in-arms about this government overreach.

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It's frustrating because these kinds of overreactions are based on a perception that crime is much worse than it is. At the same time, the perception that these kinds of incidents are common is itself wrong. Both false perceptions are caused by the "man bites dog" effect, where the media reports what is interesting, and media consumers therefore overestimate the frequency with which these unusual events occur.

This kind of incident is NOT NORMAL. I have lived in various neighborhoods in Austin and a midsize city in Michigan, and kids walking or riding their bike around the neighborhood are common. The same is true of relatives' neighborhoods in Wisconsin, Arizona, and California.

Won't this incident also be counted as a 'crime' in some statistics?

> the perception that these kinds of incidents are common is itself wrong

I also thought this was extremely rare, but then when I posted about it on FB a friend commented that it had happened to them. Not as extreme as in the article, but still very traumatic for the family.

I don't think Texas or any other conservative state that touts "small government" in practice really practice this in any substantial way, especially as you start looking more locally.

In practice these places have a small administrative state, and really overbearing policing.

Smaller county Texas LEOs make their own rules, in direct contradiction to state law(s). They are also wont to lifting bills out of wallets, FYI.

Check out Llano's glorious history:

https://html.duckduckgo.com/html?q=llano%20corruption

You should generally assume that if something is happening in Texas that the other states are better, not worse. The government here is about as hyper hypocritical as it can get and no one actually cares about government overreach except when it has something vaguely to do with guns.

In dark blue WA for example this isn't really a problem nor are there any laws on the books prohibiting it.

Hyper hypocritical is one way to put it I reckon. I'm more inclined to characterize it as an extreme, out-of-control right-wing sh1tsh0w at this point in the state's modern history. Born and raised Texan with very deep historical roots there ...

It happens all over the country, which is why Texas is one of a handful of states that has an (apparently ineffective) law against it. Quite literally 30 seconds of Googling turned up egregious cases in Florida, Massachusetts, California, and Maryland; I haven't found Washington State yet but I feel reasonably confident I could with some more effort.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/free-range-kids-and-our...

I'm an American and my first reaction was "of course this happens in Texas"

That state has a lot of distortions and issues. The only "freedom" that exists is around ensuring the NRA keeps making huge profits.

Apparently, except when you have to "think of the children", in which case they will go full Kim Jong Un on you...

...is happening in Texas, the land of the free...

Meh, you're quoting their own press release at that point. It's like someone telling you they are a genius. If it isn't obvious, such that someone feels a need to tell me, then I'm pretty skeptical about the truth of it.

I read it as probably sarcasm, but no, in practice conservative state governments like the one in Texas like to micromanage your life (who to love, what you do with your body etc.)

No. It’s fine in other places.

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