 Welcome to the Knuckleheads of Liberty. Thank you, Jason. Glad to be here. Leon, glad to join you as well. Your intro was interesting because I'd like to think actually what we discuss has to do with the mainstream. We are the mainstream. People who are in the country believe in liberty and freedom. And that's me. I'm an attorney and for decades I practiced law, made a living, did what I'm supposed to do, represent my clients. And then more and more I paid attention to how intrusive judges were when it came to families. I did a lot of family law and they're micromanaging. And I paid more and more attention to how law enforcement approaches people with the idea that you can't do what you think is appropriate. You can only do what the law enforcement officer thinks is appropriate, even when there's no law that delineates with any specificity what you can and cannot do. It's one of the problems in our country. It occurred to me that somebody should do something about it. So I did a lot of research first. I just went online and looked, who is out there looking after the rights of individuals in the country? Well, the ACLU kind of used to. They still engage in activity, but one can question whether they are truly fulfilling their own mission. The Institute for Justice does fantastic work and is true to their word and their mission, which is to protect the constitutional rights of Americans. So I reached out to them, said, hey, how about parents? Let's do more and more for parents in America. And understandably, they believe that that would constitute what I've now learned is a phrase in the nonprofit world, mission creep, where your mission isn't well-defined and you're not holding to it. So they declined my offer to come join them and go into these arenas that I felt needed some attention. So nothing left to do but start our own organization. So it's the National Association of Parents, Inc. But we do business as ParentsUSA and our URL is ParentsUSA.org. We are a 501C3 organization. We've been in existence since 2013. And instead of talking about the rights of parents and freedoms and liberty and how awful it is when those rights are infringed, we decided we needed to go out and do the work, walk the walk. So as things progressed and people came to us for help or one of our earlier cases, I saw the mugshot of a mother who had been arrested in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware while on vacation with her two kids. And the headline read that mom arrested charged with child endangerment because she left her children at home alone. Well, the headline caught my attention and I wanted to know more. So I obtained a copy of the police report. Most of us probably know that whether it's freedom of information act or simply public access, we are entitled, the public is entitled to most of these documents. So I obtained from the Rehoboth Beach Police Department a copy of the police report. And it turns out it wasn't, she left them home alone. She and her kids were there on vacation. They had a rental unit at the beach. She went to get food to go from a restaurant and her nine year old took the dog out for a walk and a stranger became concerned and called the police and the police showed up and the police do what the police do. They arrested her and charged her with child endangerment under Delaware law. Now I compared the police report. So let's just assume everything the police officer wrote down is true. Were the other kids involved David besides the nine year old? She has a daughter, but the daughter was in the rental unit. And incidentally, part of the investigation I undertook before I contacted the mom and offered our pro bono. Most of your listeners probably know that means free. So to her, we weren't gonna charge her anything. But I looked at the Delaware statute and I also contacted a bicycle rental store on the boardwalk. It's again, it's a vacation resort with beach Delaware. It now has, this has been years ago. It's now in the news because our president resides there. But I contacted a bicycle rental shop and I said, Hey, I'm coming on vacation to row with beach. I have a nine year old. I'd like to go sit on the beach and read a book and let my nine year old ride a bike by himself. Is that allowed? And the gentleman running the bicycle rental store replied, of course, I'm looking out the window now. I see kids riding their bikes up and down the boardwalk and their parents are elsewhere. So I'm thinking, all right. So just the fact that the child's alone shouldn't have been caused either for concern or for the police to take action. I call the local public school, the elementary school. And I said, just question, do you have a bicycle rack out front? The answer was yes. I said, do kids ride their bike or walk to school? They go, yes. I said, did their parents ride bikes with them or follow them in their car or walk with them? And the school person was like laughing at me, going, no, the kids walk here all the time. In fact, we're not allowed under Delaware law to provide bus transportation if a student lives within one mile of our school. So I'm thinking it's not against the law to let have your child out and about on their own. Why in the world was this mom arrested? So I contacted her, offered our services, obtained local counsel, filed a piece of paper that is called an entry of appearance, merely the style or caption of the criminal case, state versus Susan Terillion. Anybody wants to Google her name, you'll find her mugshot. It was in USA Today's digital edition. And within two days of filing that paper that says she has legal representation, the state dismissed the charges. So it sounds like they were just a bunch of bullies. That sounds that way. Low sarcasm, gee whiz, imagine police and government and prosecutors being bullies. One of the things that's come up over time, and this is applicable to parents and non-parents, it's applicable to the case I just mentioned, other cases involving parents, but it also applies to just about every other case in the criminal justice system. Clark Neely, outstanding attorneys with the Cato Institute, he has used the phrase plea coercion. Now, we all always hear about plea deals, right? Yes, yes. He calls it plea coercion. And it is more outrageous when applied to young defendants, criminal defendants of color who are poor, who are using public defenders and are charged, they're usually overcharged. The example I often use is it's shoplifting, but instead of charging shoplifting, which might be a fine and some small penalty, they're charged with armed robbery, because maybe they had a pocket knife in their pocket, never displayed it, but so they're charged with, anyway, so they're charged by the prosecution with armed robbery, they face 25 years to life. And then they're offered a plea deal of two years in jail, but you serve one and you're out in six months with good behavior and you pay a $500 fine. And if you're in a jurisdiction where you're concerned, you're the criminal defendant, you're concerned that even though you're innocent, you're not guilty of this outrageous overcharge, but you could get convicted. Are you really willing to take the risk of 25 years when you could get, pay a small fine, serve six or eight months in the county jail instead of the big house? So yeah, that's part of our criminal justice reform that we should be paying attention to, but it's just as applicable here and let me tell you why. And I know I'm running on, but parents are, some parents of course, and we hear about them in the news, are anything between contentious or terrorists, we don't know which they are, but most parents that we encounter and think about those you know, and if you're watching this at home or in your office, are you a parent who cowers and gets concerned if somebody accuses you of being a bad parent? Oh, you didn't give your child the right juice box, the right food, you didn't give them the right clothing for the weather today. Any criticism of a parent is often taken to heart. Now, when somebody in law enforcement, Child Protective Services or a judge calls you out and says, you did wrong, you violated the law, whether you did or you didn't, parents cower and get scared and get nervous. They don't like being called a bad parent. They don't like thinking maybe they are and they second guess themselves. So one of the messages I hope our organization can get across to parents is they're your kids, do the best you can, don't hurt them, but you know them better than anybody, you know what they're capable of, you know how responsible or irresponsible they are, you know whether you can trust them or not trust them, you decide the level of freedom and responsibility that you give your children and ignore the voices from the in-laws, from the neighbors, from the friends, the coworkers who are trying to tell you how to raise your kids and when law enforcement and the government gets involved, feel free to politely, civilly say, look, they're my kids, I'm gonna do this because I think they're safe and that this is the right way to raise them and if they don't agree with you, email us at help at parentsUSA.org and we'll give you our thoughts on it and possibly participate in defending you. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness always and forever. Thank you for listening to the Knuckleheads of Liberty podcast. Find us on Facebook, Rumble, YouTube, your favorite podcast network and at knuckleheadsofliberty.com.