Invasion of the child snatchers

Hard on the heels of the abduction of 400+ FLDS children by the State of Texas comes this tale of quick-trigger "justice:"

The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.

The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.

But it wasn't until the top of the ninth inning that a Comerica Park security guard noticed the bottle in young Leo's hand.

"You know this is an alcoholic beverage?" the guard asked the professor.

"You've got to be kidding," Ratte replied. He asked for the bottle, but the security guard snatched it before Ratte could examine the label.

And so what had begun as an outing to the ballpark ended with Leo crying himself to sleep in front of a television inside the Child Protective Services building, and Ratte and his wife standing on the sidewalk outside, wondering when they'd see their little boy again.

...it would be two days before the state of Michigan allowed Ratte's wife, U-M architecture professor Claire Zimmerman, to take their son home, and nearly a week before Ratte was permitted to move back into his own house.

As many others have said before me, "zero tolerance" usually translates into "zero judgment." State power is a blunt force instrument, and should only be employed as a last resort. We have grown too comfortable as a nation with the rending of families over the least excuse.

I make no claim to be a perfect father--only one exists, and He's in Heaven. But should the State ever make up a pretext to come for my Musketeers, they'd better be well-armed. If we won't fight for our own children, what will we hold off-limits for Leviathan?