A 7-year-old boy in Georgia gave police and child protective services everything they could handle.
His crime? Ride around on your bike and get free cookies.
Reason reports that Jackson Widner, the youngest of Beth and Glenn Widner’s four children, came to the attention of authorities in Canton, a suburb of Atlanta, in August 2018.
One day, while walking home from swim practice with his brothers about two blocks from his family’s home, Jackson fell behind and stopped at a grocery store for a free cookie.
Store employees thought it was strange to see a 7-year-old boy alone and called the police. Although Jackson refused to tell the police where he lived because his parents had taught him not to reveal such information to strangers, they were able to discover through other means that he was swimming at the local YMCA.
After finding out where Jackson lived, police told his father, Glenn, that it wasn’t safe to leave Jackson out alone. Child Protective Services was called and a social worker asked the family where the four children were during the day.
Later, Beth let Jackson go for a ride on his new bicycle on January 2. After an elderly woman at the park told him he shouldn’t drive alone, Jackson went to the grocery store for another free cookie.
Police arrived again after being informed that Jackson was unsupervised. Jackson called Beth from his watch phone to tell her that the police wanted to talk to her. When he arrived, Jackson was sitting in the back of a police car as if he had just attempted a robbery.
Beth later learned that child services had been notified.
After yet another wild bike ride on January 18, police took Jackson home alone. The senior office accused Glenn of “contributing to the delinquency of the minor,” saying she could face prison and felony charges. When Glenn asked what law he had broken, an officer said, “You can Google it.”
After visits from other case workers, the Widners had enough.
They decided to move out of the city limits rather than face further harassment.
What is the moral of the story? There is absolutely nothing that government bureaucrats and meddling government benefactors will not try to control. Nothing.
We would be having a different conversation if Jackson stole a car, robbed the grocery store, or was found to be underage drinking. But a free cookie and riding a bike?
Although this story took place in 2018-2019, it should still serve as a warning: the government does not consider anything off-limits. The parents don’t know, the government knows.
Appearing to have our best interests at heart, they will not hesitate to intrude into our private lives even in the most innocuous circumstances.
CS Lewis explains it best.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised sincerely for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes be put to sleep, his greed may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us endlessly because they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
This article originally appeared in The Western Journal.