good god

It's grotesque week here on Kristin's blog. The Google alerts tab I set felt the need to give me a belated Halloween present today.

First on the program are Mr. and Mrs. Charcoal, meaning of course Nickella Reid, 24, and Joseph Miller, 27.
According to a story at http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071125/NEWS01/71125022/1001/NEWS, the happy couple lost their one-year-old child two years ago, and to avoid funeral costs, they literally tried to cremate him in a barbeque grill.
However, their ingenious plan didn't work as well as it could have, because some of the kid's bones didn't burn completely, so the parents put what was left of the kid... his name was Deante, by the way... in a ceiling. It gets better.
Local police wouldn't have even known about little Deante if it weren't for abuse reports about his little brother, and now they're trying to decide whether or not to even charge the parents with anything beyond first and second degree child abuse.

I don't even know where to start. While I'm vaguely reminded of the urban legend 911 phone call.. (or was it a "you know you're a redneck when... " joke...) where the operator had to tell the trailer park woman to take her newly-born child out of the toilet, this seems worse somehow.
Oh, that's right, because this story crosses completely into the land of desecration.

Now, I don't know what planet these police are from. For all I know, they could have grown up in a happy place where people don't burn the corpses of their dead babies, therefore there are no charges to be filed against them because there are no laws in place. There was a time when there weren't privacy laws in place, or laws that said lynching was not ok. maybe this is kind of like that. Maybe the laws that are in place just aren't clear. Either way, I really can't believe there's a question about whether or not these people should be punished for what they did to their son, who was probably killed due to criminal negligence or stupidity in the first place.

Also, who allowed these people to reproduce? The story also says the "parents' explanations differ as to how Deante died." Aft... After two years? Seriously? They had two years to beat their own heads into a functional state to come up with something as simple as an "Oh I guess he fell" story that matched, and they couldn't even pull that off? Who are these people? For the love of God, someone pay for a vasectomy for this guy. What the heck, I'll pay for it. Consider it a down payment on the eugenics movement these peoples' story is going to inspire.

Paramedic Pedophiles and other Disgusting Updates

More on Operation Koala, as the list of 92 suspects now includes, you guessed it, a paramedic.
Sometimes it's really hard for me to believe what the world has come to. I know the world is a messed up place, but aren't paramedics in that group of the top 10 people you think are always just there to help you?
My roommates are in the other room watching Gray's Anatomy. The doctors on that show are portrayed as normal people with normal problems, and isn't that what paramedics are supposed to be, too? Sure they can be quirky, be into stamp collecting or something, but not be closet pedophiles.

However, this story on Fox makes the whole picture even more disturbing than before.

The 23 victims, aged 9 to 16, were mainly Ukrainian girls duped into performing sex acts with promises of lucrative modeling careers.
The 15-month investigation — code-named Operation Koala — was triggered by the Australian police discovery in July 2006 of a video depicting a Belgian father
raping his daughters, aged 9 and 11, said Menno Hagemeijer of the serious crime
department of pan-European police organization Europol.
The huge investigation should "give a really clear signal to everybody that this activity is illegal, unacceptable and revolting," said Belgian prosecutor Michele Coninsx. "It is touching on the lives and souls of youngsters who cannot speak for themselves."
As of Monday morning, 92 suspects had been arrested, most of them in coordinated raids last month, and nine remained in custody.

I didn't know until now that the reason some of the kids cooperated was because of the promise of a modeling career. So, the Italian guy that executed this whole thing played on the weaknesses not only of the pedophiles, but also of the little girls.

This sort of hurts my head. I mean, it sucks that the guy started this business, but what's even worse is that it was built up on false promises. It would almost be better if these kids weren't going to have the dreams that were carrying them through this destroyed.

That, and the other paragraph feeds into what I was talking about in the beginning:

The videos, ranging from girls in provocative poses to a father raping his young
daughters, were sold to clients in 19 countries including teachers, doctors,
lawyers and computer experts, prosecutors said.

So, now, it's not only paramedics, but lots of other public officials who are supposed to be trustworthy.
You know, I'm grateful that operations like this are carried out, but if these are the kinds of truths that are uncovered... I don't know if I wanted to know.

Operation Koala... I'm serious

While it's not the most intimidating name for a pedophile hunt, Operation Koala has gone into full effect. Look.
Apparently, these guys have made almost 50 arrests in a worldwide pedophile hunt that has been going on for five months.
(These guys are going through areas including Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall, Essex, Gloucestershire, Grampian, Greater Manchester, Kent , Metropolitan, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northern Ireland, the Scottish Crime Drug Enforcement Agency, Surrey, Sussex, Strathclyde and Thames Valley.)

The operation got started when the 19 or so law agencies involved in Operation Koala tracked people who had gotten videos from a website who tailor made shots of people being abused.
From the story, it looks like the whole thing got started when:

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said the video was traced
back to a 42-year-old Italian, who had been selling more than 150 self-made,
sexually-explicit videos of young girls.

I think this is a really good approach to tracking down these guys.
When the guy that started the videos was caught, they found out that he had only been in business for 18 months, and just the information he didn't get rid of led authorities to the knowledge that he had had 2,500 customers, and they got at least a dozen leads.

I kind of have to wonder why this approach was never taken before. Are these videos a new thing? Is it a monumental revolution to track sick people through other sick people? I was under the impression that criminals have led authorities to other criminals since law enforcement got started.

What sucks about this is that they couldn't stop this guy before so many people were hurt.
True, they're saying more arrests are going to be made, but are they too late to have stopped the most serious kinds of damage to the kids affected?

Jim Gamble, chief executive of CEOP, said further arrests are
expected.
He said: "Yet again we see the technology used by paedophiles to facilitate
child abuse now turned against them as a result of co-ordinated and effective
international law enforcement
co-operation.
"Operation Koala uncovered the true meaning of 'online child abuse': in
this case, the exchanging of images in which real children were subjected to
horrific sexual abuse, often to order."

I hope none of the kids involved were too hurt to be able to get back at their abusers.
Regardless, it's nice to write about child abusers in one entry and then write in another entry about groups that are trying to help.

I'm going to do some more research, and I think this might become my new subject matter. :)

Child abuse from a priest

Alright, if there is a God, he just scored points with me today because he has the sickest sense of humor ever. Check this out.
This priest who was sexually abusing at least one kid was supposedly suffering from terminal liver cancer when he was discovered, so a judge was going to give him seven months to go through treatments:

"Ryan, 58, was formally sentenced in 2004 after pleading guilty to criminal
sexual act charges. But because he was in the advanced stages of terminal liver
cancer, Suffolk County Court Judge Ralph Gazzillo agreed to put off sending Ryan
to jail for seven months. Doctors expected he would not live to see the inside
of a jail cell. Three years later, Ryan was still alive and his illness had
stabilized..."

This is just outstanding for me. The mother of the kid (5 years old, by the way) literally said she feels no sympathy for him, and I don't blame her at all. I think it would have been deserved if the priest had died of liver cancer, but I think it's going to be really funny for him to spend two years in a prison. I can't wait for the day he tries to preach to someone in there and gets beaten up beyond recognition... that's going to be awesome!

Oh... too far? Wait, he sexually abused a 5-yr-old... I doubt it was too far.

more pedophile news! yaay!

So here's the latest on that Canadian pedophile guy they caught: you're welcome.

It says officials added more charges to what this guy has been caught for. Now, he's also being tried for charges related to "a second boy, (who) testified that he had been sexually abused four years ago."

It's just so comforting to me that he's been at this for probably as long as some of his victims have been alive. Now, his charges include "taking away a child under 15 without parental consent with intent to molest, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and sexual abuse of a child under 15, punishable by up to 10 years."

So, alright. This guy is 32 years old. He'll be 62 when he gets out if he's given the maximum penalty on both charges, but considering the distinct possibility that he'll look for a reprieve based on the fact that so much of his captivity and prosecution have taken place off of Canadian soil, because look at this:
"Police went to inform Neil of the charges where he is being detained, at Bangkok Remand Prison.
"He refused to give a statement until he has a lawyer," said Manat, adding that Neil's family in Canada are arranging to hire a lawyer for him...."


Nevermind the distinct possibility that he might be elligible for parole due to good behavior (he'd have no reason to misbehave in prison because no one there will be within his age preference range).

We're looking at a guy that's probably going to get out of prison by the time he's in his late 40's to early 50's for doing disgusting, horrible things to children.

As if I weren't already mad enough at these likelihoods, look at the last line of this story : "Several countries in Southeast Asia are popular with pedophiles because of poverty that drives children and their parents to accept money for sexual favours, and because of lax law enforcement."

Right on, world legal system. Way to make everyone feel protected.

pedophiles

Alright, I don't know if I've made it clear or not, but I like kids.
Not enough to have them necessarily, but enough that when I hear about them getting abused, it makes me really, really angry.
So I see this article, and I'm really relieved, because I've actually been keeping tabs on this particular manhunt article chain.
That's all well and good that he was caught: After all, he abused "five to seven children under age 10." He deserves to be caught in a country that still allows torture without bringing in the "cruel and unusual punishment phrase."

Then, I see this story. So, let me get this straight. This sick fu...ba... person... person....
This sick individual molests kids in multiple countries, gets caught, and they're actually concerned for him? They're actually worried about where he's going to be prosecuted? Because, in a world with even a tiny little bit of logic, a change of venue wouldn't do anything for this guy. HE MOLESTS KIDS. KIDS.
How is where he's prosecuted a concern for his family? If I were related to someone who did that I would literally be driving, right now, to a 24-hour courthouse to have my last name changed.
I'm just annoyed. It also kind of got to me that they didn't even bother to name Thailand's deputy national police chief . . . I thought that was kind of shoddy.
Anyway, that's all. I'm sure something will warrant my ranting again soon.

Church and State, continued

Wow... look at this.
Parents feeling like they have to fake religious intensity to get their kids out of vaccinations that could actually be hurting them.
And apparently, it's a growing trend.
That freaks me out for so many reasons.
First, I really don't think vaccinations that aren't the standard, neutral, actually-good-for-you vaccinations that I took as a kid should be mandatory in the first place.
Second, if they're causing a kid harm, or even possibly causing a kid harm, they shouldn't even be mandatory. Parents shouldn't be in a position to have to lie about their kid's health - let alone their own religion.
Third, this is just another example of how the famous "church and state" debate completely annihilates both sides' credibility.
Real religion shouldn't have anything to do with the kinds of vaccinations you're given unless it's something that harms your body, i.e. your living temple to whatever deity you're into. True, vaccinations are in essence a fraction of sickness that prepares you to ward off the whole version, but in the long run, they protect your body, so there shouldn't be an argument there (given the assumption that the vaccination is approved and healthy).
Just the same as religion shouldn't factor into medicine, medicine as a practice shouldn't need to be affected by religion. People trust medicine and doctors and pills to keep them safe from earthly harms - sicknesses and cuts and cancer. Medicine that isn't full proof shouldn't be used on children, period. Medicine that could be causing a kid to suffer from symptoms of autism shouldn't be given to the masses. Religion shouldn't factor into it because medicine should handle its own fight - medicine should be fail proof on its own, at least where childrens' vaccinations are concerned. If the vaccination doesn't work for every kid, don't give it to every kid. Give it to most of them, sure, but don't make it mandatory.
Last part of the story
"""Dr. Janet Levitan, a pediatrician in Brookline, Mass., said she counsels patients who worry that vaccines could harm their children to pursue a religious exemption if that is their only option.
"I tell them if you don't want to vaccinate for philosophical reasons and the state doesn't allow that, then say it's for religious reasons," she said. "It says you have to state that vaccination conflicts with your religious belief. It doesn't say you have to actually have that religious belief. So just state it.""""
This should not be necessary. We have enough fake Christians in this country as it is - we don't need any more fake believers.