Terrible, but working JSON parser for flat JSON in already validated semantic form.

json_in_awk.txt

Prints out each key/value pair:

awk '{ gsub(/[{}]/, "", $0); n=split($0,a,","); for (i=1; i<=n; i++) if(length(k) > 0) { if(index(a[i], k) != 0) { split(a[i],b,":");  print b[2]; } } else { print a[i] } }'

Example input:
{"verified":false,"protected":false,"location":"San Francisco"}

Example output:
"verified":false
"protected":false
"location":"San Francisco"

Here's how you specify which key you want from the JSON tree:

awk -v k=verified '{ gsub(/[{}]/, "", $0); n=split($0,a,","); for (i=1; i<=n; i++) if(length(k) > 0) { if(index(a[i], k) != 0) { split(a[i],b,":");  print b[2]; } } else { print a[i] } }'

Example input:
{"verified":false,"protected":false,"location":"San Francisco"}

Example output:
false