Mom who left her 2-month-old baby in shopping cart gets social media divided
After news surfaced about a baby being left in a shopping cart outside a grocery store, social media went on fire and condemned the infant's mother, Cherish Peterson, who admitted that she made a "mistake."
Peterson, mother of four, is now being charged with a misdemeanor of child endangerment, though initially, numerous outlets reported that police believed she made a mistake.
Local news stations reported that police took the abandoned baby to a nearby salon wherein a witness said the Arizona mom came back after two hours. Peterson said she came back to the grocery store in a frenzy, 40 minutes upon realizing that 2-month-old baby Huxton wasn't in the car with her other three children.
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According to the Huffington Post, an off-duty Phoenix police later drove the infant to a nearby hospital for precaution.
In an interview with CBS 5 KPHO, Peterson said, "Nothing they can say can make me feel worse than I did in that moment I turned around and saw my car seat missing," referring to the many people on social media calling her a "terrible mom," some labeling her as a "drug addict."
Meanwhile, a Facebook page, I Stand With Cherish, has been established by Peterson's supporters who believe it was an honest mistake. A supporter has challenged mothers like her and Peterson to stand by the prosecutors' office in case the charges push through. Peterson's husband, Nathan, has also stated that the incident was a mistake and that both of them have learned from it.
In line with Peterson's case, another fire was sparked as some Twitter users pointed at the case of Shanesha Taylor, a black mother who was charged with felony child abuse and sentenced to 18 years of supervised probation after leaving her two sons inside her car during a job interview.
One user said the outpouring of support only shows how "powerful white privilege really is," and while the prosecutor has not decided if Peterson's case will move forward, the social media world remains divided.
