Apathy towards child abuse

[HomeSweetHome]

Maybe someone here can help with ideas about this: I witnessed a crime today, I saw a woman punching a child (probably her own) with all her might about a dozen times. I yelled at her to stop and got her license number. I called the cops and after a little bumbling, I finally spoke to an officer 4 hours later who says the car is reg'd to a PO Box so he can't do anything and "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident and someone else who knows these people will turn them in." Am I just being naive here or isn't there a whole lot more that could be done?! If the same car ran someone over they wouldn't say, "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident..." they would find the person and arrest them! I told him the car was in a insurance company parking lot and they could cross reference the license plate, the post office probably wouldn't let someone get a PO Box with no real address to send the bill to, and the car is reg'd in someone's name so they could look up the address on their driver's license but he didn't seem to care. Is there any other recourse? Part of me is starting to get leery about upsetting people at the police department but I just can't get this little girl's face out of my mind and not only do I struggle everyday to teach my own kids to do the right thing but the thought that my apathy could result in more beatings for that child makes me sick....

[debbus]

[i'd get the name and badge number of the police that you spoke with. What about child protective services? Someone more of a child advocate?
The other problem is,there are no other witnesses. I saw a teen actually hit a pedestrian with their car and leave the scene of the crime. I told a policeman and rather than go after this person, he told me there was nothing he could do because he didn't see it. It's unreal- but you will get a ticket if your seat belt in not buckled-I don't get it.
Please don't be afraid to follow up. You are brave to do something.

[HomeSweetHome]

I did call CPS and spoke to a social worker, she told me they are not allowed to tell the police what to do. She took down all the information and said she would talk to a supervisor about it but it was Friday afternoon so who knows if anything will happen? They are all just so non-commital. The policeman did let it slip where the PO Box was which is in a small local town so the desperate part of me wonders if I just drove over there if I would see the van again, it was a distinctive color.

I just don't get how you see stories about people being arrested for spanking their kids in the grocery store but then you read stories in the paper about people with restraining orders that the police don't enforce and they get murdered. You would think there would be some happy medium where the system actually worked sometimes!

[i'd get the name and badge number of the police that you spoke with. What about child protective services? Someone more of a child advocate?
The other problem is,there are no other witnesses. I saw a teen actually hit a pedestrian with their car and leave the scene of the crime. I told a policeman and rather than go after this person, he told me there was nothing he could do because he didn't see it. It's unreal- but you will get a ticket if your seat belt in not buckled-I don't get it.
Please don't be afraid to follow up. You are brave to do something.

[Faethdragon]

Children's Protective Services. Thats their job to investigate (alledged) Child abuse. They are usually very responsive to a child's welfare this is their JOB so they should have the resorces to track the individual down. They are very methodical in what they do. They also do not keep US informed of what they are doing BUT even tho it seems as tho nothing is being done I'll bet you that it is. So have faith I've seen the good they can do. Just keep checking with them so that they know someone is watching and cares about the sisituation. DO NOT go after the person yourself. You could be placing yourself in jepordy and probably do not have the training to understand the sitituation. Personal opion only of course. :)

Maybe someone here can help with ideas about this: I witnessed a crime today, I saw a woman punching a child (probably her own) with all her might about a dozen times. I yelled at her to stop and got her license number. I called the cops and after a little bumbling, I finally spoke to an officer 4 hours later who says the car is reg'd to a PO Box so he can't do anything and "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident and someone else who knows these people will turn them in." Am I just being naive here or isn't there a whole lot more that could be done?! If the same car ran someone over they wouldn't say, "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident..." they would find the person and arrest them! I told him the car was in a insurance company parking lot and they could cross reference the license plate, the post office probably wouldn't let someone get a PO Box with no real address to send the bill to, and the car is reg'd in someone's name so they could look up the address on their driver's license but he didn't seem to care. Is there any other recourse? Part of me is starting to get leery about upsetting people at the police department but I just can't get this little girl's face out of my mind and not only do I struggle everyday to teach my own kids to do the right thing but the thought that my apathy could result in more beatings for that child makes me sick....

[Dixon]

"HomeSweetHome" (whoever you are);

Much kudos to you for trying to do something about it.

Dixon

Maybe someone here can help with ideas about this: I witnessed a crime today, I saw a woman punching a child (probably her own) with all her might about a dozen times. I yelled at her to stop and got her license number. I called the cops and after a little bumbling, I finally spoke to an officer 4 hours later who says the car is reg'd to a PO Box so he can't do anything and "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident and someone else who knows these people will turn them in." Am I just being naive here or isn't there a whole lot more that could be done?! If the same car ran someone over they wouldn't say, "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident..." they would find the person and arrest them! I told him the car was in a insurance company parking lot and they could cross reference the license plate, the post office probably wouldn't let someone get a PO Box with no real address to send the bill to, and the car is reg'd in someone's name so they could look up the address on their driver's license but he didn't seem to care. Is there any other recourse? Part of me is starting to get leery about upsetting people at the police department but I just can't get this little girl's face out of my mind and not only do I struggle everyday to teach my own kids to do the right thing but the thought that my apathy could result in more beatings for that child makes me sick....

[taishon]

I'm a high school teacher and a volunteer firefighter so I talk to/work with the police and CPS people a fair amount. I agree that the CPS people tend to be methodical but they also tend to be chronically underresourced. If this happend with the Sebastopol police, then I am surprised as they tend to be very responsive. I've actually pestered them about minor things that I should not have called them on. I would recommend giving as many trusted people as possible the description and liscense number so others can be on the lookout. If enough people call it in (obviously, don't call it in unless you witness something) then they will have to respond. Most officers I know, welcome community watchdogs who can give them a good description. Sorry you had to witness that. As far as the teen hitting a pedestrian goes...if you get the liscense, you can also go to the schools and they should be able to track down the parents etc.
Taishon

"HomeSweetHome" (whoever you are);

Much kudos to you for trying to do something about it.

Dixon

[rogue420]

First off I applaud you for trying to do something about that abuse. I strictly do not believe in violence on children, for any reason. There are 100% non violent ways to discipline your child that work great.
This country makes me sick to death. A horrible mother like this one, visibly in public abusing her child, the police and CPS not doing a dam thing about it. Same old story over and over again. CPS are assholes who are usually not there at the right time, so they do their best to remove children from good loving homes, and the ones that need to have their children removed go on unnoticed by the system. No, it is not CPS's job to investigate, it is their job to fustigate and abuse families and children themselves. I have not hardly seen more damage caused to children then what I have witnessed CPS do to them. Child abuse is horrible and should not be tolerated, but nobody seems to care when the abuse of not just the children but also the childs parents is coming FROM CPS. Heres a statistic for ya, CPS siezes 80% more children in the first two weeks after a news story break about some foster parents killing or abusing one of their foster kids. 80%!! The lame case workers think their jobs will be in danger or their precious system will be jeopordized so they have a knee jerk reaction and take children away from many loving parents who do not deserve to be broken up. I hope more people will wake up and smell the cess pool that is the Child welfare system, or CPS as most know them.

Maybe someone here can help with ideas about this: I witnessed a crime today, I saw a woman punching a child (probably her own) with all her might about a dozen times. I yelled at her to stop and got her license number. I called the cops and after a little bumbling, I finally spoke to an officer 4 hours later who says the car is reg'd to a PO Box so he can't do anything and "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident and someone else who knows these people will turn them in." Am I just being naive here or isn't there a whole lot more that could be done?! If the same car ran someone over they wouldn't say, "hopefully this isn't an isolated incident..." they would find the person and arrest them! I told him the car was in a insurance company parking lot and they could cross reference the license plate, the post office probably wouldn't let someone get a PO Box with no real address to send the bill to, and the car is reg'd in someone's name so they could look up the address on their driver's license but he didn't seem to care. Is there any other recourse? Part of me is starting to get leery about upsetting people at the police department but I just can't get this little girl's face out of my mind and not only do I struggle everyday to teach my own kids to do the right thing but the thought that my apathy could result in more beatings for that child makes me sick....