Her Son Went for a Walk. She Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct.’ Plus. . .

It’s Thursday, November 21. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Coming up: RFK Jr.’s crusade to “liberate” psychedelics; the Democrats regroup; will Israel strike Iran again—and will Trump help? And much more. 

But first: crime in America.

There’s no shortage of lawbreakers worthy of police attention in America right now. Like the drug traffickers and murderers coming over the southern border. Or the shoplifters wreaking havoc in our cities. And how about those parents whose children go on walks without their knowledge? 

I’m not kidding.

Increasingly, police officers in the U.S. are targeting hands-off parents for their “negligence.” Take the case of Brittany Patterson. Last month, the 41-year-old mother of four from Fannin County, Georgia, was arrested after her 10-year-old son Soren was spotted a mile from his home on a spontaneous visit to see his friend’s grandmother. Patterson is fighting the charge of “reckless conduct,” and could face up to a year in jail if convicted. 

Last week, the police body cam footage of her arrest went viral:

It didn’t matter that Patterson had left Soren at home with her father while she attended a doctor’s appointment. Or that no harm came to her son, who wandered off without adult permission. He was spotted by a stranger, who called 911. The police returned him home safely, and Patterson was home within 20 minutes. But later police returned, placing Patterson in handcuffs and locking her in a jail cell. Now, authorities say Patterson must adopt a “safety plan” that includes monitoring her son’s location with an app. 

Leighton Woodhouse spoke to Patterson, who told him the arrest was “humiliating” and “traumatic.” He also spoke to Lenore Skenazy, of Free-Range Kids, who has documented cases like this all over the country. “The culture has changed,” said Skenazy, who partly blames cell phones for giving us “the ability to call anything in,” and also because of “a pervasive belief that any child alone must be in danger, and any parent who lets their child be alone must be terrible.” 

Read Leighton’s story to see what happens to parents when we abandon common sense: “A Boy Went for a Walk. His Mom Was Charged with ‘Reckless Conduct.’ ”

The Great American Acid Trip 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—who’s been tasked by Donald Trump with “making America Healthy Again”—is a big believer in the medical power of psychedelics. 

Months after the FDA rejected a pharma company’s request for approval to market MDMA to treat PTSD, RFK posted on X that the FDA’s “aggressive suppression of psychedelics” will soon come to an end. But the man tapped to lead America’s public health infrastructure would do well to follow the science and not the true believers, writes Charles Fain Lehman. 

In his piece for The Free Press today, Charles dives into the strange tale of the push to legalize MDMA, why it failed, and what those who believe in the medical benefits of the drug should do if they want to have more success. It’s a story that features bad science, utopian thinking, allegations of sexual misconduct—all of which adds up to a psychedelic lobby that has hardly helped its own cause. Charles argues for a more sober approach, one that assesses MDMA’s pros and cons as we would any medicine. In other words, ignore the zealots who failed to get their favorite drug approved. 

Read Charles Fain Lehman on what’s stopping psychedelics from getting FDA approval.

If Israel Attacks Iran Again, Will Trump Help?

Last month, Israel’s strike on Iran targeted a key facility believed to be part of the country’s nuclear armament effort. Three people briefed by Israeli officials told The Free Press’s Jay Solomon that the strike destroyed scientific equipment used in atomic bomb development. 

But Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that the attack only slowed Iran’s nuclear program, which remains largely intact and is expanding.

If they are to deal a more decisive blow against the program, “Israeli officials acknowledge that any major military operation against Iran’s nuclear sites would almost certainly need active U.S. military support to succeed,” writes Jay. But will the new Trump administration be on board? 

Read Jay’s full report on whether Trump will give Netanyahu the green light.

Two weeks after the election, Democrats are still coming to terms with their historic defeat. And for all the pre-election warnings that this could be the last election ever, most of the party is trying to figure out what went wrong so they have a better chance of victory next time around. 

Amid the soul-searching, certain questions keep coming up: How did the Democrats go from being seen as the party of the people to the party of elites? Are identity politics toxic? And why wasn’t the abortion issue enough to save them?

On today’s episode of Honestly, Michael Moynihan is joined by self-described Marxist Freddie deBoer and Democratic strategist Ruy Teixeira to explore this and more. To listen to their conversation, hit the play button below, or subscribe to Honestly wherever you get your podcasts.

• The United States evacuated its Kyiv embassy yesterday in advance of a potential Russian air strike on the Ukrainian capital. This directive came as the conflict passed the 1,000-day milestone on Tuesday. The Spanish, Italian, and Greek embassies are also temporarily shutting down on account of the possible strike, which looms in the wake of Biden’s recent decision to lift restrictions on firing long-range missiles into Russian territory.
  
  

• As the war wears on, new polling from Gallup shows that—for the first time—a majority of Ukrainians say that their government “should seek to negotiate an ending to the war as soon as possible.” Thirty-eight percent say that “Ukraine should keep fighting until it wins the war.” That’s a big change in public opinion compared to this time last year, when 63 percent of Ukrainians wanted to keep fighting and just 27 percent supported a negotiated peace as soon as possible.
  
  

• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is offering $5 million and safe passage out of Gaza to anyone who returns a hostage to Israel. The prime minister issued this bounty after the Hostages Families Forum criticized his administration earlier this week over leaked intelligence documents that they say may have prevented the brokering of a hostage deal. Israeli authorities estimate at least half of the 101 hostages who remain in Gaza are still alive, 411 days after the terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023.
  
  

• A Venezuelan gang member in the United States illegally was found guilty of the murder of nursing student Laken Riley by a Georgia jury yesterday. Riley’s 2023 death became a symbol of the border crisis ahead of the election. Jose Ibarra briefly stayed in a New York City migrant processing center before arriving in Atlanta, Georgia, in September 2023 on a taxpayer-funded flight. Ibarra, who was a member of the violent Tren de Aragua gang, will serve a sentence of life without parole.
  
  

• Donald Trump announced Linda McMahon, the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, as his pick to lead the Department of Education on Tuesday. “We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. Cue lots of old WWE footage of our future education secretary resurfacing on social media. The president-elect has also picked Matthew Whitaker, who briefly served as acting attorney general during Trump’s first term, as U.S. ambassador to NATO, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television star, to serve as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
  
  

• On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that “all single-sex facilities in the Capitol and House Office Buildings. . . are reserved for individuals of that biological sex.” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) proposed a bill to this effect earlier this week. In proposing the legislation Mace, a rape survivor, said she was thinking of representative-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE), who is preparing to be sworn in as the first transgender member of Congress. “I will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson even if I disagree with them,” McBride said in a statement. “It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” Johnson added. “Women deserve women’s only spaces.”
  
  

• Comcast announced Wednesday that it is spinning off most of its cable channels, including MSNBC and NBC News, into a separate, publicly traded company. Top executives at the newly formed company, for now just called SpinCo, told MSNBC’s top talent that the network may need to change its name. But branding is the least of their problems. The move raises existential questions about the future of the cable news channels, whose ratings have been on the slide for years.

Madeleine Kearns is an associate editor at The Free Press. Read her recent piece “Democrats Picked the Wrong Women’s Rights Issue,” and follow her on X @madeleinekearns.