Morals Policing

Gideon (A Public Defender) recently pointed me toward a little oddity in the penal laws of the Nutmeg State:

(a) Any person who (1) wilfully or unlawfully causes or permits any child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that…the morals of such child are likely to be impaired, or does any act likely to impair the…morals of any such child…shall be guilty of a class C felony….

A class C felony carries a penalty up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The State of Connecticut thinks it can put you in prison for doing anything likely to impair the morals of a child. That is some Texas-Legislature-grade crazy there.

State legislatures are where morals go to die. If a day goes by that I don’t teach my kids something that would make the dimwitted authoritarian yahoos in Austin (or Hartford) cringe, I’m not doing my job. Whover came up with the idea that a prosecutor or a jury might have the judgment required to decide if someone else’s kid’s morals were being impaired is a grade-A statist numbskull.

Is the State responsible for the morals of a child? Hell, no. If you trust the State with your own kids’ morals, you’ve got no business being a parent. If you trust the State with other kids’ morals, you’ve got no business being a citizen.