MRS Hillary Clinton has been unwittingly involved in the case of a Danish mother arrested and jailed for leaving her 14 month baby outside a New York restaurant while she and the father ate inside.
Ms Annette Sorensen (30), a Danish actress, and Mr Exavier Wardlaw (49) from Brooklyn, left their daughter, Liv, strapped in a buggy outside a restaurant in the East Village in Manhattan last Saturday while they drank margaritas inside. They ignored appeals from other customers and waiters to bring the child inside.
The couple, who were able to see the child through the window of the restaurant, said she was all right. A passerby or a customer eventually called the police who arrested the couple. They have been charged with endangering the welfare of the child and Mr Ward law has been charged with disorderly conduct. The couple spent three days in jail while the child was placed in foster care. She was returned to her mother yesterday but she and Mr Ward law still face charges next week.
Ms Sorensen, who became extremely upset when the police took away her daughter and handcuffed her and Mr Ward law, said it was normal in Denmark for young children to be left outside restaurants and shops while their parents were inside. TV stations have shown clips of Mrs Clinton during a visit to Denmark speaking admiringly of how it was safe to leave young children outside shops and restaurants in Copenhagen. In the US, that is against the law.
The Mayor of New York, Mr Rudolph Giuliani, has intervened to defend the police, saying they took action because "patrons in the restaurant were complaining that the baby was left alone, that the baby was crying and, that the baby was being neglected".
The reaction of New Yorkers was one of astonishment that parents would risk leaving a young child outside a restaurant. Garbage bins and flower pots in the city are often chained to prevent theft.