Ten-year-old walks home alone - mother is taken away in handcuffs!

USA - A mother was arrested because her son walked home alone! The police cracked down - but was it really necessary?

Brittany Patterson (41), mother of four, was arrested last month and charged with child endangerment - all because her ten-year-old son walked home alone.

As the New York Post reported, her son Soren had walked about a kilometer from downtown to her home in the US state of Georgia the night before Halloween without asking permission first. Patterson said she probably would have let him go even if he had asked.

Police officers found the boy and informed the mother where he was. Since the 41-year-old was at the doctor's office with one of her other sons at the time, she was unable to pick him up immediately.

The officers then took Soren home. However, they returned later the same day and arrested Patterson in front of her family.

The mother is now vehemently defending herself against the accusations and has even appeared on a television program to give her side of the story. She does notunderstand the police's reaction.

"It was definitely traumatizing. My children have never seen or experienced anything like it. Their first encounter with the police was watching their mother being taken away in handcuffs," the 41-year-old explained.

Her lawyer noted: "The irony is that the next day was Halloween - a day when children often go door-to-door in the dark without their parents and ring strangers' doorbells. But Soren was just out on the street in the middle of the day."

Her arrest sparked a wide-ranging debate about the government's role in raising children.

"As parents, we should have the autonomy to decide for ourselves whether we want to wrap our children in absorbent cotton or give them more freedom and independence. It is our decision as parents, not that of an authority that knows neither our family nor our children," emphasized the 41-year-old.

The authorities have since indicated that the charges could be dropped - on the condition that Patterson installs a GPS tracker on her son's cell phone to monitor his whereabouts.

However, this offer has not been made officially in writing or verbally, but has merely been vaguely hinted at.