Ok, this has to be the funniest username/post combo.in the history of the SDMB. “No need to worry about abductions” says evil captor. “It’s all overblown! Just ignore the man in the black hat with.the handlebar moustache” says evil captor. Seriously, no offense, but I am dying here.
I think usually it’s the parent who didn’t get custody, who then takes the kid somewhere anyway.
Technically when a child disappears, the police don’t know if they’re a custody abduction or a runaway. They might have reason to suspect these possibilities but I imagine a lot of times they put the alert out anyway. If their suspicions were wrong, they may be saving the child. And even if they’re right, they’re increasing their chance of finding the missing child.
One thing I wonder about though, with the changing times and all… let’s say that statistically there are no more kidnappings than there were 50 years ago. BUT because of the media hype, most parents no longer let their kids walk the streets by themselves anymore. I, as an enlightened citizen who knows it’s all just media hype, decide to let my kids roam the neighborhoods just as I used to 30 years ago. Now my kids are one of the few out there who aren’t being constantly supervised. Doesn’t this make it more likely that my kids will be the ones taken, statistics be damned?
Basically, it’s not the increase of boogeymen that I’m wary of, it’s the decrease in available targets.
Understandable! I really need to think about changing my user name.
Really? There’s not a single thing that a chief of police can think of to charge them with? Not causing a public disturbance/nuisance, or wasting police time, or endangering welfare, or public drunkenness, or stunting, or disturbing the peace, or failure to provide a film permit, or anything? :dubious:
I think chief Wiggum there needs to read the books on his shelf again.
I thought “mischief” was the catch-all go-to when nothing else would fit. Sorta like being a jerk.
Interesting legal question. Should a responsible gun owner with a license to carry see child being abducted in the street by masked men pull his weapon and put a bullet in the brain of one of the abductors only to find it was fake and being filmed…what charges would that gun owner face? Or any charges? I mean, they labored to make it look like a real kidnapping. They did not rope off any areas or have permission to make any kind of film. The gunman would have acted in good faith, reasonably believing that he was witnessing an abduction.
Would the gun owner get a complete pass? Would the other members of ‘abduction team’ facing charges for their actions leading to death of their colleague?
My college boyfriend had been snatched by his father in a custody issue when he was quite small. It was pretty traumatic for him, as his dad had no intention of ever returning him. People do sometimes kill their kids as a way of getting back at their exes. Just because the kid knows/ is the child of the person who abducted them, it doesn’t mean he or she is less in need of help.
IANAL, but if there are precedent cases in which a homicide with the intent to prevent kidnapping was ruled justifiable, then I expect the shooter would be off the hook. In the present case, a reasonable person would certainly believe a kidnapping was taking place.
The felony murder rule allows persons engaged in a felony to be charged with a murder if someone - an innocent bystander, or a fellow perp - dies as result of their actions, regardless of whether the death was intended or not. In the present case, no felony was being committed - the kidnapping was fake - so I don’t believe they would be subjected to the FMR.
I think it would depend a lot on how obviously it was being filmed. If there’s a crew running around with cameras and sound equipment, then you’re probably pretty well fucked. However, if there is no obvious filming and you run up and pop both of the perps in the head and ‘save’ the kid, you’re probably in the clear, depending a lot on a> The County Prosecutor, b> The Media, and c> The gun/anti-gun climate of the State; any one of which can make your life hell.
Given that one of the justifications for Lethal Force is ‘to prevent the commission of a Felony’, and open kidnapping of a child from a public park would be a rather heinous crime, I’d think in most cases it’s going to be written off as a ‘tragic mistake’, and you’re going to suffer some serious PSTD and guilt issues afterwards.
First, I have doubts whether they have any interest in public safety (however misguided). The whole thing looked more like some kind of “check out our epic pranks!” idiocy.
Second, I wonder how authorities determine that an adult is the actual parent in a case like this. It seems like they were confident these people were the legal guardians right there on the scene, so what, did they have the kid’s passport and birth certificate with them (seems like much better forethought than these dumbfucks would be capable of)?
The twin idiots apologized on the Today Show. They were raised in Port Angeles, and live in Tacoma, where they own a pawn shop. They had been diving for geoducks when this idea hit their collective brain…I cannot imagine how they remembered which way was up when they had their limit of 'ducks. According to the Peninsula Daily News, WSP has 59 kids listed as missing. We were already pretty aware of that.
Reminds me of bobsledding. Doesn’t matter how many man sled it is, total IQ is 100. Here there were three brothers and the child’s mother. Total IQ in the van, 100, with most of that going to the kid.
The Amber Alerts we get here specify the year, make, color and license plate of the car - I think they know who has the kid 
OK. I guess I just get tired of traffic snarling and TV shows being broken into when it doesn’t really look like they need our help.
This was just some cheap, irresponsible and rather dangerous attempt by two losers to get more attention than their “You Tube” videos could. Isn’t it interesting to see that they appeared on the “Today Show” so they could “apologize” (and also gain some fame and television time)? Assholes !!! :mad:
It’s fortunate (or maybe just incredibly lucky) that this prank had a relatively “happy” ending.
[unbelievable sarcasm]Luckily, thanks to this “demonstration”, I am more sharply aware of the dangers of child kidnapping than I had been.[/unbelievable sarcasm]
Something like 95% of all abductions are either family members of aquaintences.
The total number of complete stranger abductions in the US is IIRC around 150 a year.
Admittedly aquaintances make up a huge portion.
If by “they” you mean the police, they want help in locating the car. That’s why the alerts are posted on the highways.
If by “they” you mean the abductees, they need our help no matter who kidnapped them.
I think we’re talking about different scenarios. In the ones I was talking about, they might know who has the child but they don’t know where that person is taking them. In the case of my former BF, his dad didn’t just take him to his own house. That would be idiotic and a pretty easy mystery to solve.
So maybe you have encountered Amber Alerts that are more like a parent not returning the child on time, overdue library book-style, but I’m more familiar with the “take the kid and run”, might do some harm scenario.
I wonder, now that people have heard about this hoax, will they be less likely to intervene in a real abduction if they see one taking place?
" Oh it’s just those asshole abduction hoaxers, don’t worry about it."
It could happen. I guess