Raw Story
Police in Des Moines, Iowa, may have been trying to "scare" the peace movement when they ticketed the mother of an adolescent anti-war protester for corrupting her daughter, a law professor says.
Last week 12-year-old Frankie Hughes was arrested at the office of Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) when she refused to leave the premises during an anti-war protest.
Hughes' mother, Renee Espeland, was standing outside Sen. Harkin's office as her daughter protested, the Des Moines Register reportedlast week. The next day, officers from the Des Moines police department returned and issued Espeland a misdemeanor ticket for "contributing to the delinquency of a minor."
It was a move that alarmed at least one legal expert. The police may have been "trying to put a scare into the peace movement," said Drake University law professor Sally Frank.
"There is a difference between encouraging a child to break the law and encouraging thought and care for other people," she told the Register. "When you think of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, you think of a parent allowing their children to get involved in drugs, not a peaceful protest."
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