That makes sense. The Star of David part made me wonder about moving it.
Israelis branding someone with a Star of David is analogous to a bunch of American assholes branding someone with an eagle - it’s a national symbol. It gets a little blurry for the Star because it is also a ethno-religious symbol in certain contexts but I’m inclined to think this was a-religious and very much nationalistic/political/racist.
Wow, I’m sure that kid isn’t going to grow up with any emotional or mental scars now…
Chances are he’ll never see her again, at least until he’s 18, so there’s time for a foster parent to try to fix some of the damage.
I was going to post this in the stupid MFers thread, but it wasn’t hard to decide this was more evil than stupid.
A woman who creates YouTube videos to give parenting advice is arrested on suspicion of child abuse.
Her 12-year-old son escaped through a window to a neighbor, terribly malnourished, with open lacerations on his limbs from being cut by rope, and duct tape on his ankles, all signs that he escaped from restraints. Police found his 10-year-old sister still in her house, also malnourished.
This woman has 6 kids and puts out videos giving advice on how to raise your kids with strict discipline.
Here is an article on her:
Psychopaths; if our society had any brains there’d be a bounty on them.
I first read that as - Psychopaths; if our society had any brains there’d be a bounty of them.
Well, most of us have brains, but these people still manage to do their damage.
I agree though. Some of this is that they don’t seem to be interfering in the neighborhood, they keep to themselves etc. Many times we have heard “I can’t believe he was an axe murderer”
I read an article yesterday about this. People in the neighborhood say that they had contacted cps on these people more than once.
Hmm, after reading the article above it appears to be the same one I read yesterday with a few additions. The neighbors were, indeed, aware of something not right and had contacted authorities.
That’s very, very sad. How could the authorities not enter the home and not see that something is wrong? Do they need a search warrant?
A friend has an abandoned car in the alley behind their house. It’s her dead sisters car. She has the paperwork. It’s junk. She has called the ASPCA, The Dumb Friends League, Cars For Kids and the Police. They all said, yes, thank you we will come get it, and then nothing but silence.
She is trying to donate it to a good cause, but nobody does anything.
I had to google it but “The Dumb Friends League” is a real thing. Interesting choice of name. Has she tried NPR’s Vehicle Donation Program?
IIRC, we donated a car to the Salvation Army when a repair bill would have been more than the car was worth. The charity got it fixed up and gave it to a needy family.
Yeah, I thought a strange name too. But our pets don’t talk. Well, they do just in a different way. We have to learn their language, just as they learn ours.
Not sure if she has looked into NPR. But I think that’s where she got information about Cars for Kids. They all say “Great, we will be there tomorrow” including the cops. No one ever shows up.
It’s very, very frustrating.
I have twice donated old clunkers to NPR. Both ran, but needed major work. Both times a tow truck was there within a week to haul them away.
If no one shows up. I’d sell it to the junk yard, and donate what money she gets from it to the charity of her choice.
The authorities have rules to follow, yes. They can’t just bust into a home because a neighbor made an accusation, and if you stop and think about it you wouldn’t want them to have that sort of power. It would be too easy for people to weaponize police against people they don’t like. We get that sort of thing already with swatting.
Many, many years ago I lived next to a highly abusive parent. My best friend and I reported this to CPS, but faced two obstacles: one, we were minors ourselves (late teens), and two, the authorities needed specifics that could be confirmed objectively before taking action. As it happened, we were able to supply names, dates, event, and even types of wounds on the kids. Before charging in to save the kids the authorities took them aside at school to interview them and also to confirm the wounds and scars (some quite extensive) we had described. I’m glad that they took our reports seriously enough to actually investigate further.
It’s not that the authorities don’t care, but they have to operate on facts and evidence. This can cause one to grind one’s teeth in frustration (particularly when one can hear the sounds of a six year old being brutally beaten on the other side of the common wall between one’s bedroom and the next residential unit).
There is also the problem that sometimes abuse is a pattern, and not a single occurrence. A child going without a meal once isn’t necessarily abuse. If it happens over and over to the point the kid is knocking on the doors of neighbors begging food and water that is abuse.
I do sometimes think that “nice, white, suburban lady” sometimes gets a pass when she shouldn’t (in the case where I was involved the lady went to great pains to be very, very nice and kind to the neighbors, probably intentionally to divert suspicion). I don’t know if that’s the case here, or if people weren’t reporting problems in an effective manner, or what.
I am glad that the kids are, apparently, finally getting some help without anyone dying first.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I’m sure that many charities have people who are more willing or able to donate a bit of their time and/or expertise to help than money, especially when those people are generous but not wealthy.
Charity is all about giving what you have to someone who desperately needs it, out of a sense of generosity. That isn’t restricted to money. That’s the basis of volunteering. It can be fun and very fulfilling to help out people in need.
I understand that, but if neighbors have not seen the kids for weeks. That should raise an alarm.
…Why? There are any number of explanations for that which don’t involve abuse or a risk to the safety of the kids. Definitely nothing that rises to the level of a search warrant. Our system of law is predicated on needing evidence of wrongdoing, not evidence that proves a wrong isn’t being done. Absence of evidence isn’t evidence of danger.
You can always request a wellness check from the authorities if you’re worried, but at most they’d just question the parents.
Could you imagine how shitty it would be if cops could search anyone’s house just because a nosy neighbor can’t remember the last time they saw the kids? I would not want to live in such a fucked up society.
hopefully quickest two-post derail on Planet Earth:
How much of a follow-up was there after the kids were i-viewed at school? Or, more specifically, what came of their parent(s)?