As I understand it, the video was shown to the police, who showed the video to a doctor, who reasoned the child could have sustained some serious injuries. Watching the tape you can't really tell if she's open-handedly swatting the kid or punching the bejeesus out of her.

The police released the video to news agencies not to necessarily arrest the woman (she was never arrested) but to locate the child to determine whether the child was seriously injured.

At no time during the search for the woman was there any mention of her ethnicity. She was the first to say she felt she'd been hunted down because she's an Irish Traveler. I imagine much of the country immediately shrugged their shoulders and said "What the heck is a traveller".

From what has been broadcast, the mom was upset after unsuccessfully trying to return a pair of jeans. Her daughter had wandered away from her and been paged twice and had been caught taking toys out of packages.

There has been no issue of her being a Traveller and I suspect there can be no issue.

As for her family, it is illegal to hamper a police investigation, which is what her family did by effectively hiding her for a weekend. As citizens of the USA, they have to abide by the law of the land.

The mom has a heavy Chicago accent. She looks like a blue-collar mid-West mom with no trace of ethnicity.

I know we've all heard the extreme cases where a child fell off a swingset and the State intervened and accused the parents of abuse. It's awful. In this instance, it looks like everyone kept the best interests of the family in mind and were forced by good sense and responsibility to locate this woman and her child to assure the child's safety.

I say give the mom an anger management class and set them on their way.

Rich