CA reminds me of many parents I have known who routinely protect their children and refuse to admit that the child could do anything wrong. A great example are dear family friends of ours who are the nicest, sweetest people on the world - always there for you in times of trouble and always there to share a laugh and a good time as well. I love them like family. But, they raised their children with blinders on. For example, the younger one terrorized the neighborhood. But his parents rarely believed he did it and rarely held him accountable. One day, I was in my bedroom and heard a thump and saw a BB hole in my window. I had seen little Johnny with a BB gun earlier in the day, so I told his mom that I thought he had done it. (They lived next door). Her reaction? "Oh, but he doesn't have a BB gun anymore. His dad got rid of it." When I told her I saw the kid with the gun earlier, she asked him, "Did you shoot the BB into her window?" "No." "Well, he says no and my son does not lie." I showed her the hole and it was obvious that it would have come from the window across the wall. But, mom said, "Well, that really does not look like a BB hole." It wasn't until I found the spent BB casing and dad matched it up to the BB's he found in Johnny's room, that they paid for the window. This went on over the years. Little Johnny loved to vandalize, start fires and torture small creatures. He had a cactus plant with bugs impaled on each needle. But mom always defended him. "It wasn't him!" Or, "They have a vendetta against him at the school. They blame him for everything." I will adm it that eventually, the kid did get blamed for everything, even if he did not do it, but I understood why. The kid put a hose through his other neighbor's mail slot causing $11,000.00 in water damage. He next slashed another neighbor's tires and lacquered the car. I saw his father out there cleaning up the lacquer, not the kid. We believe he killed a neighbor's kitten because he was playing with the cat, the neighbor went in the house for a minute and came back out. Johnny was gone and the kitten was in death throes on the lawn. We always worried how this kid would turn out. He is very smart and I feared hed become a serial killer or something. Luckily, I think he has turned out halfway decent. He does not do much with his life but besides being sued for vandalism before he turned 18, he has not had legal trouble and at my father's funeral not too long ago, he cried like a baby so I really feel he has some heart. The older boy was always the sweeter one but also never held accountable. He ended up in jail for burglary. Parents like these do not realize the harm they cause by constantly defending, protecting, denying. They do not realize what the effect of their actions could be. Think Scott Peterson, the golden boy who could do no wrong. I read a new book about that case and read how his mother was on tape actively trying to get Scott to keep quiet and hide anything he knew, before he was arrested. They even had a tip-line which, when cops called in false tips that pointed to Scotts guilt to see what would happened, they threw those tips out and never divulged them to LE. I think these parents know what their children do but have a tribal mentality of complete loyalty and an unwavering belief that their kids are better than others and that nothing their kids do is without excuse. I feel that this attitude, in part, helped create casey and the situation we are now faced with. (Personality disorder on the part of CA, including a very controlling nature may explain some of the rest). I also feel that this adds to their need to deny the tragedy that most feel occurred. (I think an understandable inability to face the horror of it plays a part as well). In any event, I have always felt the Anthony family is an odd family and that as a family, they played a part in how casey came to murder her own daughter. But, I think casey alone is legally and morally responsible and I feel for GA and CA because regardless of what they created, they did not foresee nor do they deserve, the loss of their precious grandbaby. As for those who are incensed that they do not force the truth out of casey, I do not believe for a minute that casey would ever, ever, ever tell them the truth, even if they stopped the B.S. and told her they did not believe her. casey knows what is at stake. She's cold and calculating and I don't think anything her family had to say would move her.
Nevertheless, I also understand why some are so aggravated by these people. They make such outrageous claims in what seems to be an arrogant, angry manner, sort of daring anyone to not agree. Regardless, in the end, they have mostly done what is right when it comes to their dealings with LE. Remember, it was CA that called LE and asked that her daughter be arrested. She is the one who said that something was wrong and that the car smelled like death. She also told casey that she did not know what her involvement was and that casey alone was to blame for being in jail due to all the lies she told. And, GA testified in the GJ against his daughter. I, too, become very annoyed with this family and the ludicrous statements they make in an outraged manner. But, I feel that in the end, their overall conduct has not made a difference in the quest for the truth about Caylee and actually has helped lead to the charges against their kid. I am going to try hard to balance the effect of their conduct with the fact that these people are also victims. And so, Im going to try hard to have compassion for them. I think it is the right thing to do.
