Dems: Kids lack brain development for deceptive police questions, fine for making gender altering decisions

RICHMOND, VA- From the same party that believes children can make life-altering decisions about what gender they are comes a new bill that bans police from lying to minors, which narrowly passed Virginia’s state senate on Tuesday, Courthouse News reports. 

On a 22-18 vote, the bill, introduced by Delegate Jackie Glass, a Democrat, would “prohibit officers from knowingly and intentionally making false statements about any material fact, including by use of inauthentic replica documents, before or during a custodial interrogation of a child to secure the cooperation, confession, or conviction of such child.” 

Deception is a long-held investigative technique sometimes used by officers to investigate cases or obtain a confession from a suspect. The United States Supreme Court affirmed the legality of deceptive interrogation tactics by police in Frazier v. Cupp, 394 U.S. 731 (1969). 

“There’s something, I think, very wrong with having a system that we juggle with whether we treat children as children,” Glass said in an interview. “I think with the advent of the way we surveil ourselves nowadays or track things on each computer, it’s just so many tools now that I don’t think we need to do that.” 

The bill's passage through the House of Delegates on Feb. 4, strictly along party lines, 51-48, has sparked heated debate. Proponents argue that investigators should not employ the same interrogation tactics on children as they do on adults. This stance, a key reflection of the Democrats' mindset, has raised significant concerns among law enforcement professionals. 

“Children don’t have quite the same brain development as an adult does; they’re more susceptible to being influenced, especially by an adult, especially by an adult wearing a uniform,” Majority Leader Scott Surovell said on the Senate floor. [emphasis added] 

“You basically can’t try to trick kids to get them to confess.” 

According to Democrats, children have enough “brain development” to decide they want to be a girl if they were born a boy, and vice versa. But not to be “tricked” by police officers. 

Opponents of the measure argue that deceptive techniques are vital tactics to stop crime. State Senator Bryce Reeves, a Republican and former narcotics detective, related a personal story of when he lied to a minor involved with a gang to gain access to a firearm used in recent crimes. 

“I had enough to charge that juvenile delinquent for something else, but instead, I told him a lie so I could get to the gun,” he said. “If that solved the issue, I’ll do it every day because that took a gun off the street, out of gang members’ hands.” 

Conversely, State Senator Angelia WIlliams Graves (D) supported the bill, claiming that lying contributes to public distrust of the police. 

“We teach our children that the police are supposed to protect and to serve,” she said “What we do not do is teach our children that they should be expecting to be lied to by the police.” 

Surovell said such lying usually takes the form of police telling a juvenile suspect that there is DNA evidence or that a friend confessed to their involvement in a crime. 

“It’s unfortunate that somebody would want to take advantage of a child like that. I know crimes are serious, but there really ought to be a different set of rules when it comes to interrogating children when their liberty interests are at stake, and their future record is at stake.” 

Republican State Senator Mark Obenshein argued that the bill’s passage could block efforts to stop school shootings. 

“Would this bill prevent the police from lying to one of the children about their level of knowledge in order to obtain that child’s cooperation to prevent one of his friends from shooting up a school and killing teachers and students?” Obenshein asked Surovell. 

Surovell claimed the bill only limits how police interact with suspects in a crime rather than someone possibly knowing another individual’s criminal intent. He also said the only consequences of the bill are if a police officer obtains a confession through deception of a minor suspect. 

Obenshain was less than convinced. 

“I’m here to tell you that is not how this bill reads,” he said. “This bill does not just apply to efforts to prosecute a child. It does not just provide an opportunity to exclude evidence. It is a prohibition upon using commonly used police techniques in order to obtain the cooperation of a child.” 

The Virginia Association of Commonwealth Attorneys spoke out against the bill at a House Courts of Justice subcommittee hearing in January, arguing that any issues involving such confessions could be handled by revising police training. They also said there are “guard rails” in place to prevent police from using involuntarily given confessions in court. 

The bill will now go to Gov. Glenn Youngkin to either be signed into law or vetoed. 

Meanwhile, to show how Virginia Democrats appear to suffer from a form of schizophrenia where “concern” over the Commonwealth’s children is concerned, they recently passed a bill that protects Virginia doctors who perform gender-affirming care to out-of-state residents, including children. 

Youngkin has promised to veto that bill.

In 2023, Virginia Democrats pushed a bill that would allow minors to access medical procedures without parental consent. The bill would apply to minors as young as 16 years old. Another Virginia Democrat, Elizabeth Guzman, proposed a bill that would penalize parents who do not “affirm” their LGBTQ children. 

Because Virginia Democrats care so much about kids.