How Do WE Make It Right? - Clevelands Child Rapist

I woke up and turned on the news. The previous night a young lady had escaped from captivity and called the local Cleveland, Ohio police for help. It is not everyday that the police get phone calls where the caller claims to have escaped from captivity. When they finally got around to taking her call seriously, they responded and found two other ladies were still held captive in the same place.

Those women are now free.

The news played the 911 call, including what will probably become a famous under-reaction to a call for help, indicating they would send an officer to investigate when one is available. I turned off the news and went to work, thinking good for that young lady, she’ll be a hero, and also wondering 'why was that dispatcher so indifferent?'

That afternoon before leaving work, a quick check of Yahoo News showed the same topic was the number one news article for the day. The article made me sick as I realized these women had been deprived of the formative years of their life. These women can not get those years back.

The first child went missing in 2002. Her story was reported in multiple places on the Internet. It is a story of law-enforcement indifference during the time she was missing. The police made a judgment on why she was gone, and lowered the priority of their search. As it turns out she was just the first of several taken (that we know of so far). Is there anything at all that can be done so that the scars don’t become the meaning of her life?

The second was taken in 2003. The news says she was 27 at the time she was freed. She must have been seventeen, an older child. The news says while in captivity she had a child in 2006 who was six years old at the time they were freed. How do we make up for the years and the opportunities she lost during that time?

The third became a victim in 2004, a child at the age of 14. Had she even gotten the chance to go to high school yet? What in the world can be done to make up for those lost years?

Once a year, three years running, in the same neighborhood – how in the world can something like this keep happening in the same place? One account says police visited the house several times; that naked women had been seen crawling through the back yard, that people had been heard beating on the doors (from the inside), that there were plastic bags over the windows. The police reaction? In order: childish stories, we didn't hear it, and anybodies guess. The same article says the local police will conduct an internal investigation. Yeah, right. Some Dick Tracy want-a-be is going to conduct an investigation. Forget your investigation; my guess is your taxpayers want resignations, and not more of their tax dollars to feed your police incompetence.

And while we’re on that article, here’s a question for the Cleveland Police Department: How in the world are you going to make it right for those three young women who lost ten years of their lives? Do you really think that a few scribbles on your personal records regarding insider indifference or general incompetence is going to make up for it? Do you really think a suspension will make up for it? Forget I asked, at this point I’m guessing the last thing any of us want is to hear anything from you about why they were held under your noses for so long.

The only thing missing from this story is the serving of a warrant - Jose Guerena style.

The next year or two will be filled with what has become the standard entertainment for us, a parody of justice. The television will likely be filled with stories of them, their captors, and political talking heads flapping their jaws telling us how they're going to fix it. Commentators telling us about the strategies the defense will take, the strategies the prosecutor will take, and how we all feel about it.

We'll totally miss the fact that they missed out on growing up. We'll forget that they missed out on high school, boyfriends, dates, sunshine, and seeing the outdoors. We'll forget that they missed out on being able to take care of their own children. We'll forget that nobody listens when a child says she saw a naked lady crawling across someone's back yard while trying to escape. We'll forget that nobody hears when doors are being knocked on from the inside.

The years when many of us grow up, the years when many of us do the ground work for achieving our dreams, the years that many regard as the happiest of their lives – these years had been taken away from these young ladies and replaced with abuse and captivity. They suffered through this because of indifference.

How do we help them readjust to living out of captivity? How do we help them to get on with their lives?

How do we make it right for them?

August 1, 2013

The speculation above regarding how long this topic will be in the news was overestimated. In this one case, justice was swift.

The Cleveland Child Rapist was sentenced to life in jail, plus 1000 years.

September 3, 2013

The Cleveland Child Rapist was found hanging in his cell, an apparent suicide.

May 2015

The movie 'Cleveland Abduction' came out. I could not watch it, and still have not watched it. Hopefully, those involved in the events were compensated enough to make up for the years that were lost.

March 2018

I still have not watched the movie 'Cleveland Abduction'. I teared up reviewing and updating the article.

The name of the perpetrator is intentionally withheld from this account. There is no good that comes from glorifying a villain.

About Respect

The victims of this crime have requested privacy. Also, there is a child who is a secondary victim of this crime.

I hold as a basic principle that children should not be held accountable for the crimes of their father, whatever those crimes may be.

Accordingly, and in honor of the request, two sections of the original article (providing names and links to more detailed accounts) have been 'unpublished', and replaced. I urge the mainstream media to do the same.

Who knows? That child might grow up to be President some day.