So a 40-year-old soccer coach in Las Vegas was arrested last week for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl who was a player on his team. The pair was found in the coach's vehicle in a parking lot, though apparently not caught in the act of doing anything.
My first question: Why did they arrest the guy?
I mean, why didn't they tar and feather this low-life pervert and beat the living crap out of him instead. And then arrest him? But other serious and important questions have been raised by this incident, as well.
For instance, we've since learned that the mother of the girl reportedly knew about the relationship and either (a) allowed it to continue, or (b) told the girl to break it off - which the girl obviously didn't do.
And for that the mother was arrested.
Now if it turns out that mom did permit the relationship, is that something she should be prosecuted for? I mean, who gets to decide these matters - the parents or the government? If you say the government, you're heading down a very slippery slope. The next thing you know we'll have some kind of government-run health care system.
Like it or not, this matter raises some serious parental rights questions. After all, the difference between 15 and the "official" age of consent in Nevada, which is 16, is negligible and an arbitrary one set by the government.
But what if the mother DID tell the girl to break it off and the girl - as infatuated, immature 15-year-old girls are wont to do - ignored her mother and continued to see the man behind her mother's back. Is that something the mother should be arrested for?
Others are saying the mother should have been arrested for not reporting the matter to the authorities. Again, if a parent decides to deal with a private family matter on their own rather than involving government agents, shouldn't he or she be allowed to? I mean, it's not like the girl was being raped or physically abused.
Now, don't get me wrong on all of this. While the mother's case is at least debatable, the matter of the 40-year-old soccer coach is pretty open-and-shut. To take such advantage of an impressionable 15-year-old girl like this is inexcusable.
Perhaps instead of trying this guy in a government court of law and incarcerating him, a better option would be to take him and the girl's father out to the desert and give the father a shotgun and the soccer coach a 30-second head start. Now THAT would be justice.
Unfortunately, none of the news stories on this matter indicate where the father is. Another whole issue for another day.
• Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a limited-government public policy organization.