Do we live in an insane country, or what?

[Guest guest]

Ananova:

 

Boy, 7, taken into care over alcopop

 

A seven-year-old boy was taken into foster care in the US - after his

dad accidentally bought him an alcopop at a baseball game.

 

Police and child protection workers said Christopher Ratte should

have known that Mike's Hard Lemonade contained alcohol.

 

But Mr Ratte, 47, a professor of classical archaeology at the

University of Michigan, insists he had no idea, reports the Detroit

Free Press.

 

" I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it, " Ratte

insisted. " And it's certainly not what I expected when I ordered a

lemonade for my seven-year-old. "

 

A security guard at Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park stadium noticed the

bottle in young Leo's hand, confiscated it and contacted the police.

 

An hour later, Mr Ratte was being interviewed by a Detroit police

officer at Children's Hospital, where a physician at Comerica Park

had dispatched Leo - by ambulance - after a cursory exam.

 

A police officer estimated Leo had drunk about 12 ounces of the

drink, which is 5% alcohol. But a blood test 90 minutes later

detected no trace of alcohol.

 

But it was another two days before Mr Ratte's wife, architecture

professor Claire Zimmerman, was allowed to take their son home, and

nearly a week before Mr Ratte was allowed to move back into his own

house.

 

Mr Ratte has filed a formal complaint with the CPS ombudsman's office.

 

" I have apologised to Leo from the bottom of my heart for the silly

mistake that got him into this mess, " Mr Ratte wrote in the complaint.

 

" But I have also told him that what happened afterwards was an even

bigger error, and I would like to be able to say to him that

institutions, like people, can learn from their mistakes. "

 

AND YET...IF THIS SAME FATHER GAVE THE BOY A LOADED GUN & TOLD HIM

TO KILL DEFENSLESS ANIMALS...THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN JUST FINE...