As an aside, Martha Coakley was the prosecutor in that case and she fought like hell to keep them in prison even though she came to realize they were innocent as she did not want to jeopardize her political career. That's why it was so satisfying to me that she got beat like a rented mule in that special senate election that Scott Brown won back in 2010. Seems so long ago now.
It was because of cases like that that I refused to have anything to do with children other than my own. I never coached Little League, was never a Scout Leader or any of that. I don't even like having other people's children over my house. I think a lot of other men feel the same way.
“It was because of cases like that that I refused to have anything to do with children other than my own. I never coached Little League, was never a Scout Leader or any of that. I don’t even like having other people’s children over my house. I think a lot of other men feel the same way. “
I can’t fault you for thinking that way. Anyone following those cases came to realize that just normal life could put you in jeopardy. A bit of paranoia was warranted.
A bevvy of Satanists? Oh, yes, the 1980's.
Yes. I'm sure that the police would just quietly break up Satanists performing rituals in the woods, including child sacrifices because not arresting them for murder or even filing a police report that would be a matter of public record would be better than starting a panic. / s
A now discredited book called "Michelle Remembers" published in 1980 seems to have been the catalyst for the panic that saw Satanism everywhere during the next decade. It was also the topic de jure for many years on shows like Oprah, Geraldo, Sally Jesse Raphael, etc. On these shows, parents' were warned to look for signs that their children were being abused by Satanists at their daycare centers and pre-schools so of course any out of the ordinary behaviors by their children were chalked up to something sinister by some well meaning parents who then put them into "therapy" often with social workers with little or no psychiatric training and with some who used the "repressed memory / guided memory" therapy techniques to "uncover" what their confirmation bias told them must be true.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Remembers
Michelle Remembers is a book published in 1980 co-written by Canadian psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his psychiatric patient (and eventual wife) Michelle Smith. A best-seller, Michelle Remembers was the first book written on the subject of Satanic ritual abuse and is an important part of the controversies beginning in the 1980's regarding satanic ritual abuse and repressed memory. The book has been discredited by several investigations which found no corroboration of the book's events, while others have pointed out that the events described in the book were extremely unlikely and in some cases impossible.
The Grescoe article (see Criticism section) did not garner much attention and the allegations in Michelle Remembers were still considered by many in the early 1980s to be true. As a result, Pazder was considered to be an expert in the area of satanic ritual abuse. With the sudden emergence of Satanic ritual abuse cases in the 1980s (likely due in part to the publication of Michelle Remembers) Pazder's expertise was called upon. In 1984, Pazder acted as a consultant in the McMartin preschool trial which featured allegations of satanic ritual abuse. Pazder also appeared on the first major news report on Satanism (broadcast on May 16, 1985), by ABC's 20/20. Pazder was part of the Cult Crime Impact Network and lectured to police agencies about satanic ritual abuse during the late 1980s. By 1987 Pazder reported that he was spending a third of his time consulting on Satanic ritual abuse cases.[8] By September 1990, Pazder had been consulted "in more than 1,000 'ritual abuse' cases". With people suddenly being prosecuted for satanic ritual abuse, prosecutors used the book as a guide when preparing cases against alleged Satanists. Prior to the start of the Kern County child abuse cases several local social workers had attended a training seminar that foregrounded satanic ritual abuse as a major element in child sexual abuse and used Michelle Remembers as training material.
Pazder was psychiatrist of dubious credentials and ethics who believed in "repressed memory / guided memory" therapy that he used on his then married psychiatric patient, Michelle Smith, who he then began an affair with (highly unethical) and later married. Pazder also made a lot of money as a "consultant" often working with police departments and prosecutors and taught his techniques for training social workers and others on uncovering so called "repressed memory" and finding "signs" of Satanic ritual abuse that sometimes could be as simple as a young child wetting their bed or any changes in appetite or having nightmares.
The McMartin case was a hysteria ginned up by the Childrens’ Institute International and their technique of suggestive questioning that produced bizarre stories from the kids including a horse being killed and buried, kids being flushed down toilets and witches flying. There was no evidence of any of the charges against the McMartins but they were ruined by what amounted to a Salem witch trial mentality.
And also don't forget that one of the children in the McMartin case identified Chuck Norris as one of his abusers.
The McMartin case, the Fells Acres case along with several others during the 1980's and early 90's were grave miscarriages of justice and the result of hysteria, i.e. modern day witch hunts based on no evidence and worse, based on suggestive interviews where children were encouraged and rewarded for testifying to alleged ritual abuse and Satanic activity, even when most of the children initially vehemently denied it ever took place.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Crueler-Tyrannies-Accusation-Witness/dp/0743228405
It was because of cases like that that I refused to have anything to do with children other than my own. I never coached Little League, was never a Scout Leader or any of that. I don't even like having other people's children over my house. I think a lot of other men feel the same way.
Not just men. The other day a cute little toddler, a little boy, sitting in a grocery cart smiled and waved at me. My first reaction was to smile and wave back or even say hello to him, but now days...I just kept walking - sad.
My niece, who is the mother of 4 young children, works as a teacher's aide at another local elementary school from where her own children attend. She tells me that sometimes some of the younger children, because they like her, will come up and hug her. She's been trained to put up her hands in the air as to not give the appearance of touching them inappropriately or encouraging it. I also know a male music teacher who told me not long ago of a child, a 3rd grader coming up and hugging him saying "I love you Mr. Ed" and how he did the same as my niece as part of the standard protocol. And as he was alone with the children in the classroom with no other adults present, he immediately reported it to the Principal and wrote a statement on what had occurred in order to protect himself against any allegations that his behavior was in any way inappropriate.