flourish
Now With 30% More Emo
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- Mar 8, 2009
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In my very small community, there was an SO who moved here from another state. It was before the days of registration, so he was only found out about because of his ugly personality, and a diligent woman having the connections to find out about him. She knew there was something off about the guy. I talked to him one time on the telephone about an issue in the community and was utterly repulsed talking with him on the phone (there was nothing sexual, but his controlling, ugly personality). There was no internet then. He had made friends with all of the dysfunctional people in our community. They can find each other. They are attracted to each other. I could give plenty of other startling examples of this type of situation. I sincerely doubt that a decent normal person would have made friends with the Garrido's. They may say "hi" to be polite, but a prolonged personal relationship, no way! As I have read on this site, the "hinky" meter would go sky high, and you would be doing what you could to protect yourself and family from the dysfunction. It might not even be conscious on your part. Don't forget that the kids called him "Creepy Phil". I think there was a lot of "protesting too much" in the beginning of this case, which indicated fear to me. Creepy Phil wasn't caught because he was so darn smart; rather it was due to a lot of circumstances, incompetence, acceptance on the part of the public as well as LE. Having been involved several times in reporting child abuse to LE myself, I found early on that you have to be incredibly "firm" with them. I learned because of the lack of response several times with different children. Now I do not take anything for granted with LE. The average citizen would have no idea that LE doesn't do that great of a job with child abuse and investigating complaints or understanding child abuse. I wonder how much training they receive? If anyone ever suspects abuse and makes a report, don't assume what needs to be done has been done. Be aggressive and ask questions and get answers from them after you have called.
Good info And to add to this informative post, calling your local Child Protection Services (CPS) agency (a.k.a. Department of Health and Human Services (DHS)) can be more effective than calling LE. As a mandatory child abuse reporter, my training and experience has shown me that it's best to reserve calls to LE when it's an immediate danger, such as a child left in a parked car, or a clearly intoxicated parent arrives to pick their child up from school.
When you suspect neglect or abuse, but there isn't an incident occurring right at that moment, call your CPS agency during regular business hours. Even if they don't think there is enough reason to open a case at that time, they will make note of the call, and if more calls come in they will likely open a case. If you make a call, and they see there is already an open case with that family, they will take quicker action. Hope this is helpful and makes sense