John Walsh, Shut The Fuck Up!

[lorinada]

** According to ‘the culture of fear’, only about 200-300 kids are kidnapped & killed each year. **

I assume you mean the ones that are not kidnapped by a non-custodial parent?

The vast, vast majority of “kidnapped” children are snatched by the mama or daddy that didn’t manage to win the custody battle. Few of these children are actually in any danger. I’m certainly not condoning abducting a child for any reason, but in our society parents today are made to believe that your child stands a great chance of being snatched and sold into slavery just becuase they walk to the corner store for a candy bar. I think this does everyone a disservice.

Oh, and here are some cites:
Citing how many go missing every year:

http://www.kidsadvantage.org/Child_abduction_statistics.htm

Showing how few of them are stranger abductions:

http://www.solutionsanalysis.net/wherify/CHILD_ABDUCTION_STATISTICS.htm

Showing how few of the ones abducted by family are actually in physical danger:

http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/about/nismart.html

[Shirley_Ujest]

I have enjoyed watching AMW and read his book when it came out.

Yes, he can be maniacally forceful when talking about " We gotta get these scumbags". How else would you have him talk about something so heinous? Like he was reporting the weather or calling a golf game. If he tones it down, we, the viewer, will get apathetic.

If a terrible crime had been commited to someone you love and the cops had reached a dead end, wouldn’t you want someone like John Walsh on your side? I know I would.

To me, the one vivid detail from his book, really the most I remember, was that when his son was murdered, at the time in Florida, there was no communication between morgues and police departments across the state. So if you had a missing person from Miami, the police just looked in the Miami area, but the body of the person might be on ice up in Tallahassee since Day Two that it had gone missing. The cops and morgue attendants just veiwed that as " Well, that’s how its always been done."

He was the one to get the ball rolling on agencies talking to each other. Galvanizing offical agencies to change the way the do things is a pretty freekin’ hard thing to do.

He was the one the police went to to help set up a task force to find his son ( IRC). *While looking for his missing son * Or maybe after the fact, it’s been a while

But, I agree with the few others here, he worked through the most horrific, heinous thing that can happen to a parent and turned it around.

I understand his over-the-top ways. I like the show. It is always riveting. I think as long as it helps get these bastards off the street, it will always be on. John might end up talking a back seat to it, but I think it will be on for a long, long time.
**But, What I want to know is: **

Is that a toupee he’s wearing?

[MsRobyn]

*Originally posted by HelloKitty *
**This isn’t something new or groundbreaking, didn’t your parents ever tell you when you were little “Don’t talk to strangers” or “Don’t accept candy from strangers”, etc?? Sounds like good common sense to me. Children ARE at great risk to predators, AND bullies!! Haven’t you ever seen the lists of missing children at stores, on TV, etc. Turning a blind eye to this reality is just plain stupid, not to mention irresponsible.

Were you ever bullied as a child? If not, great for you. Bullying is not a laughing matter and should be something that parents and caregivers are aware of, it is devastating to the victims.

If Walsh gets people to wise up and stop living in the fantasy world of “it would never happen to ME”, then more power to him. **

There’s a difference between common sense and instilling unreasonable fear. It’s not unreasonable to tell my child to be cautious around strangers and not accept anything they might offer unless I tell him it’s okay to do so. It’s quite another to make him so afraid of strangers that he won’t approach a sales clerk if he should get lost or separated in a store, for example. Or, in the extreme, that he won’t approach a police officer for help for fear of being abused.

I know that the biggest danger doesn’t come from strangers, it comes from people I know and probably trust. The odds of Aaron being abused by a stranger are quite insignificant compared to being abused by a family friend or relative. I choose not to play those odds, but at the same time, keeping Aaron sequestered to prevent anything bad from happening to him isn’t reasonable either.

In the end, it’s a risk-benefit analysis. Since I know the odds of Aaron’s being abused by a random stranger aren’t very high, I choose to teach him to be civil if addressed, and to approach an adult for help, should that be necessary. And I choose to allow some friends and family members to care for Aaron, because the benefit of his being able to spend time with them far outweighs the relatively small risk of abuse.

As for bullying, you bet your ass I’ve been on the receiving end of it, enough that my parents considered legal action on my behalf. There are appropriate ways of dealing with it, however. Again, I choose to deal with bullying in a reasonable, rational way, which is to say that I will intervene with the proper authorities.

Childhood is scary as it is. Let’s not make it more so.

Robin

[Shirley_Ujest]

**Childhood is scary as it is. Let’s not make it more so. **
Amen!

[Cisco]

Is AMW still on the air? I don’t watch tv but I didn’t think I was that far out of the loop… I thought it got canceled about 10 years ago.

[HelloKitty]

*Originally posted by MsRobyn *
**There’s a difference between common sense and instilling unreasonable fear. It’s not unreasonable to tell my child to be cautious around strangers and not accept anything they might offer unless I tell him it’s okay to do so. It’s quite another to make him so afraid of strangers that he won’t approach a sales clerk if he should get lost or separated in a store, for example. Or, in the extreme, that he won’t approach a police officer for help for fear of being abused.

I know that the biggest danger doesn’t come from strangers, it comes from people I know and probably trust. The odds of Aaron being abused by a stranger are quite insignificant compared to being abused by a family friend or relative. I choose not to play those odds, but at the same time, keeping Aaron sequestered to prevent anything bad from happening to him isn’t reasonable either.

In the end, it’s a risk-benefit analysis. Since I know the odds of Aaron’s being abused by a random stranger aren’t very high, I choose to teach him to be civil if addressed, and to approach an adult for help, should that be necessary. And I choose to allow some friends and family members to care for Aaron, because the benefit of his being able to spend time with them far outweighs the relatively small risk of abuse.

As for bullying, you bet your ass I’ve been on the receiving end of it, enough that my parents considered legal action on my behalf. There are appropriate ways of dealing with it, however. Again, I choose to deal with bullying in a reasonable, rational way, which is to say that I will intervene with the proper authorities.

Childhood is scary as it is. Let’s not make it more so.

Robin **

MsRobyn I think you make excellent points and, really, it sounds like you are not the audience that Walsh is trying to reach. I was being too simplistic with my “Don’t talk to strangers” comment.

I really do think Walsh is trying to get the attention of parents that think “Those kinds of things only happen to other people, not to me/us”. Of course it’s sensationalized for TV purposes, but I think his intentions are good.

[Tony_Montana]

*Originally posted by Cisco *
**Is AMW still on the air? I don’t watch tv but I didn’t think I was that far out of the loop… I thought it got canceled about 10 years ago. **

Ohh you been missing out, the love boat is entering its 20th season with many new and funny antics…

Norm from “Cheers” finally bought the farm from liver failure, oh the list goes on…