Posted on 03/21/2006 6:38:34 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
Man did not rescue child for fear of 'pervert' slur
ALEX CORNELIUS
A BRICKLAYER who passed a toddler walking alone in a village shortly before her fatal fall into a pond said yesterday he did not stop to help in case people thought he was trying to abduct her.
Clive Peachey, from Cornwall, told an inquest jury in Stratford-upon-Avon that he had passed two-year-old girl, Abby Rae, in his van shortly after 10am on 28 November, 2002.
This was just moments after the toddler disappeared from the Ready Teddy Go nursery in the Warwickshire village of Lower Brailes, according to staff.
Abby was found an hour later in an algae-covered garden pond and rescued by her mother, Victoria Rae.
She was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital by air ambulance but was pronounced dead.
Mr Peachey, of Liskeard, told the inquest he had passed the little girl as she tottered towards the road in High Street.
He said: "I kept thinking I should go back. The reason I didn't go back was because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her.
"I was convinced her parents were driving around and had found her."
Mrs Rae, 36, wept as Mr Peachey gave his evidence to the packed hearing.
She had earlier read emotionally from a statement as she relived the moment she dragged her daughter from the pond.
Two nursery employees had gone into the garden during their search but told the inquest they did not see the pond because it was covered in green vegetation.
The inquest was adjourned until today.
I'm more laid back now, and if I were to happen across something like that again, I would like to think I would just take the chance. I'm older, a female and would just risk the consequences.
When push comes to shove, men should probably do that, too. That is tragic what happened in the lead story.
Funny though, to the best of my memory, it was always a kindly woman who "rescued" me. Luckily no perv ever bothered me that I can remember. I remember being good and scared a couple times though when I became an adult. I was not used to the ways of the world and went to see my husband at Ft. Leonard Wood. I had to sit all night alone at the St. Louis bus station waiting for my transfer. Some creepy guy started bothering me.
One of the scariest things that happened was that when I went to pick up my daughter with her new baby at my sister's, I went into Minneapolis to a huge building to apply for a job. I left my daughter waiting with the baby in the lobby because we were going to do something else after I was done. When I came down from the interview, my daughter and the baby were gone. I really started feeling panicky. Some lady had come up to her and offered to buy the baby from her so she went and hid. I was so relieved when she came out of wherever she had gone and found me.
I'm glad that mother got a fence, but she was not being very responsible to let those little girls outside. I got a fence, too, as soon as I could work it into the budget, and the fenced in backyard was the last place my kids wanted to play :-).
The only society that can afford a social contract is a society where there exists the rule of law, things are predictable, and things are more or less run according to reason rather than by fear. The social contract is the first victim of totalitarian regimes because no one can afford to think in social ways -- everyone scams "the system" and one-another just to survive. This truly is the nihilist ideal (if nihilists can be said to have "ideals") of turning everything into a zero-sum game. As a society becomes less free people will act more like animals. Animals in cages but still animals.
So you're a tough broad. So what? You know what an emasculator is. So what? As I said before, it's easy to be self righteous isn't it. The fact of the matter is that you are not subject to the scrutiny, accusations and personal disaster that a man is in this situation. Most men I know, myself included, will risk losing their lives but not having them smeared and wrecked.
...now you will attack a woman on a message board. Who has said nothing to you.
What happened to the tough broad? By-the-by, it is an open fourm, am I not free to respond?
YES!!!!!
Sort of like when the Paris neighbors of a mulsim gang will drop by from time to time to see how their torture of a young Jewish man is going?
I was driving down a side street at about 25 (speed limit). A little girl (about 3) ran out a door and without slowing or looking ran directly in front of my truck. Which I was able to stop with a good 5-10 feet to spare (I saw her come out the door).
If I had been speeding or my view obstucted she would have been street pizza.
As it is she did'nt even slow (anti-locks so she was'nt scared) just continued her beeline home.
I rang the bell, explained what happened and suggested they keep a closer eye on the child untill she was old enough to be out on her own.
It appears the last part was a mistake. The mother got mad at me for daring to imply she was not a perfect mother and called the cops (truth be told I did more then imply it once she got mad). I spent an hour explaining the kid was never closer to me then when she ran across the street in front of my truck, that I was'nt speeding and that the kid could have been dead next time. Repeat for next cop. Repeat for CPS a week later ('Mom' brought that on herself).
In every such case you should know there is a parent involved that is screwing up. They will NOT appreciate the help. They will accuse you just to deflect attention from their own incompetence or intoxication.
But you still HAVE to do something (while protecting yourself in reasonable ways).
That makes sense; it seemed like that when I was there last fall.
I heard that it would still be technically legal for you to be arrested there, secretly tried by a military court, and then executed, without any right to outside counsel. I don't know whether this is still true, though.
We know that cops are psychologicaly addicted to asserting their authority. Cops typically grow up in a family where they had little autonomy, and they love getting back on all who oppressed them before.
They see everything with ordinary citizens as a black-white scenario. And want to get brownie points for running us in.
My own horror story at the hands of cops: I was bicycling along a nearby lake with my neighbor's boy, with the permission of his mother. David was 13, I am 60. David stopped, and a dozen yards later, I stopped to care about whether he was tired or a mechanical problem. A cop came along and demanded, "What are you doing?"
Me: We were bicycling. I was turning around for David. He's just around the corner.
Cop: !Show me your identification!
Me: I left my wallet at home, but it's just two blocks away. {I didn't realize that I should always carry my wallet when bicycling in my neighborhood.} You can call my wife.
Cop: We are on the look out for sexual predators like you.
Me: {Head spinning--like me?? I was merely bicycling with my neighbor's son, and his mother encouraged him getting some exercise and talking with me about school and his other interests, and now I am accused of being a sexual predator? Reality disconnect big time.} You can call David's mother.
Cop: Who is David? Why do you know him? What are you doing with this boy?
Me: {Fortunately David caught up at this time; he was obviously scared, but he stammered out answers.} Ask David.
Cop: Who is this man? Is he your father or Uncle?
David: No.
Cop: Does your mother know you are here?
David: I think so. {exactly 'here' being ambiguous for a 13-yr old trying to be truthful, as to which street corner}.
Cop: Come with me.
Me: About the bicycles? We can't just leave them.
Cop: Do you want me to put you under arrest?
Me: {5 minutes later, with David in the passenger seat and me behind plexiglass on a metal seat, but fortunately not handcuffed, we arrived in front of my house with flashing lights and a second patrol car with flashing lights--quite a scene.} {Wife comes out to see what is going on; neighbors come out. David's mother comes out.} {David is looking totally scared; I am looking WTF? David's Mom comes forward to say that me and my wife are long-time friends of her family, and what is the problem?}
Cops--now 4 of them: "Son, do you agree to go back with your mother?"
I am speechless. This boy is not the son of these thugs. Nothing has suggested--or even hinted at--that he is unhappy in his family or with his Mom. All we were doing was taking an evening bicycle ride in our neighborhood.
I have not the tiniest bit of respect for cops ever since.
Or, again in 10 years from now...also not relavent to the present discussion
Imagine this:
After the school reported the child missing, a search was begun immediately. As the police combed the area for information, one bystander said that she saw a man in a white van pick the girl up and drive away. When police pulled the van over, the man inside said that he had found the young girl wandering aimlessly around the area and was on his way to take her to the authorities. The girl was crying, saying she wanted her mother, and was comforted by the authorities.
At press time this reporter did not know if the alleged abductor had a police record, but on person told the paper that he knew the suspect has worked at sites near schools for some time.
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
After seeing how the liberal media works, I just don't trust them anymore.
Maybe. But try this one...
Clive rescues Abby and as he's driving her to the nearest constabulary, he's sighted with the child in his car and a constable pulls him over. His explanation for why that child was in his car is not believed and he winds up doing prison time for kidnapping. In today's hysterical climate, I don't think this scenario is far-fetched at all.
I don't, most people I know don't and I believe Clive didn't have one either. I also live in a bigger city than Cornwall.
And what about the negligent and inattentive "care givers" who permitted the child to wander off the property, creating this horrendous problem in the first place?
Bingo! The DA in my county (Contra Costa, California) files against everyone who is accused of child molestation. Every last one. Then he attempts to force a plea deal out of them. Many of them go along with it because they can't afford the cost of first-rate representation at a lengthy trial.
DO what needs to be done in plain view. I'd give the kid the shirt off my back (if need be--I always carry extra clothes with me), flag someone down and get the police there.
Although it would be colder for the kid, they'd be out in the open the whole time, in plain sight.
Any intimation of anything improper would be met with outrage, immediately.
Unfortunately, this has become a hallmark of our culture, to first blame those who help. (Just look at what was done to Richard Jewell.)
So he "does the right thing," goes to prison and his wife and children, assuming he has any, are deprived of their principle source of support. How long does he remain behind bars? And what is happening to his children who are growing up without a father? He may have been thinking about more than himself. He may have been thinking about his elderly parent, dependent on him for daily care and support. What happens to that parent while he's in prison? What happens to that parent who now has the added misery and shame of having a son who's a convicted felon?
There may be a lot more than meets the eye here.
Still there, just a different choice of weapon.
However, I have picked up wandering children in shopping center parking lots and make sure they hold my hand.....way out from my side......not keeping the child too close to myself.
when you're not (as) subject to the same accusations and the resulting personal destruction that will follow.
You are the one who set up the parameters for this discussion. Now you need to change the verbage of your statement?
Doing the right thing makes me a tough broad? That is the excuse because I promote doing the right thing?
Yep. Similar story here.
While visiting a town in upstate NY, I was getting ready to pull out of a local gas station/convenience store. Cute little black girl struggling with a big bag of groceries comes up to the window and asks me to please give her a lift down the street to her house.
Without a moment's consideration, I coldly had to tell her no. In fact, I was nervous about being seen even talking to her in the parking lot. I'm thinking like, "Scram kid. Go on... get out of here... please."
Sick world. OF COURSE I should have helped her and given her a lift. But I couldn't.
Still bugs me to this day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.