Hard To Say

The plot thickens - baby D did not escape or wander out on his own. He was found with his jacket zipped up and proper boots on. He can't even reliably put his jacket on and he certainly can't zip it himself. He was wearing his own boots, if he had dressed himself, he would have had bright pink boots on because his sister's boots are big and loose and he can put those on by himself. That would have been a sight, wouldn't it?
The police do seem to have tried to be the heroes and rescue him. Stories from the mom, the babysitter, and the police don't match up very well, and little A isn't talking. We still don't quite understand why my son is required to wait for a judge to give permission for him to get his own son, he isn't even allowed to see him. They're admitting it's not normal routine, that my son normally could get him but that since he didn't know about the baby missing until the mother called us several hours later, it's "too late".
It seems an obvious no-brainer that we should have laws that protect children from "bad" parents but how far does that go? It seems the default is that children belong to the government and that's TOO far. I'm trying to think what it was like when children had no government protection, it was horrible but is it really better now? It seems it must be but I'm not sure, I've known so many abused children, what have all these laws really done? Why did we give the children over to the state again?