Parents can teach kids to stop abductions

CNN ^ | 2-5-04 | N/A

[JustPiper]

The key to remaining safe lies in not leaving the place where the abductor approaches a child, said Bob Stuber of the Texas-based Escape School, which runs educational programs across the United States.

A kidnapper "wants to get out somewhere by himself," said Stuber, a former police officer and founder of the Escape School. "He may threaten the child, but he's not going to hurt the child right there. That's not what this is about. That takes place later."

[JustPiper]

Carlie Suspect Held Without Bond

Saturday, February 07, 2004

SARASOTA, Fla. — The mechanic charged with kidnapping and killing an 11-year-old girl whose abduction was caught on a carwash surveillance camera was ordered held without bond on Saturday as the community formed a makeshift memorial outside the victim's home.

Joseph P. Smith (search), who has been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993, waived his first court appearance in the slaying of Carlie Brucia (search) a day after her body was pulled from thick underbrush in a church parking lot.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110740,00.html

[Bon mots]

bump for showing the kids later...

[JustPiper]

Take a good look, this could have been YOUR CHILD

Take another good look. He is the MONSTER that was loose to have taken YOUR CHILD

PREDATOR

[JustPiper]

Officials Point Fingers Over Handling of Carlie Brucia's Alleged Killer

Friday, February 06, 2004

SARASOTA, Fla. — The two parties responsible for supervising the man suspected in the slaying of an 11-year-old girl pointed fingers at each other Friday for not putting him behind bars in December.

Joe Brucia, the father of victim Carlie Brucia (search), called for an investigation into how Joseph P. Smith's (search) case was handled.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110721,00.html

[JustPiper]

America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response

The Jenna Hart Abduction Story. How We Got Our Daughter Home Safely

Findingjenna.com is not only an example of a wonderful success story involving the recovery of an abducted 3 year old; but it is more of an expression of thanks from her parents.

Jenna's parents have created a step-by-step procedure for alerting police, media and the community in the event of a child's abduction. They leave no stone unturned in their recommendations of who, when, how and why to call upon anyone who can help get the word out about the missing child.

While this site would be extremely helpful to a family going through this experience, everyone should read through it with an objective mind and make sure they know all the steps to take if the situation arises.

A very interesting spin here - you may be the person called upon by a distraught family to "help out." You may be the only one with an objective view when the family of an abducted child is going through the emotional trauma. Be prepared, be knowledgeable, make a difference.

The Jenna Hart Abduction Story - How We Got Our Daughter Home Safely

[JustPiper]

More Tips From Jenna Hart.com

Prevention

There are several web sites (Child Shield, USA and Code Amber to name two) and many published documents relating to the prevention of child abductions. However, these are a few of the things that we felt applied to our situation:

Memorize your license plate number, or know where it can be found in your files, quickly. For us, not knowing the license plate number delayed the police by over a half-hour - precious time when you're searching for a missing child. Keep a record of your car's vital statistics - make, model, year, VIN number, etc. - in your wallet or someplace outside of the vehicle.

Have family pictures taken on a regular basis. If your child wears glasses, take an occasional photo of them without their glasses. Know where current photos and/or videos can be found for police and the media. Carry a current photo of each child with you.

Have your child fingerprinted and/or have a DNA sample taken. There are numerous organizations that perform these services, many of them at no cost to you.

If you carry a cell phone in your car, keep it on. If your cell phone is on, the police may be able to track it to get an approximate location. In our case, the cell phone was off and in Grandma's purse, so it didn't help.

Know what credit cards you are carrying so if they are stolen with your vehicle, you will be able to report them.

You may want to consider installing an electronic tracking system such as Lo-Jack, which allows the police to track the vehicle if it's reported stolen.

Our recommendations for the family and friends of an abducted child are as follows:

Contact the Police immediately!

Contact family and friends
Contact the media
Get the word out
Make a difference!

Nothing Is More Important Than Your Child's Safety!

[Steve Eisenberg]

The profiler claims that may also indicate that he watched his 11-year-old target and felt comfortable she would not put up a fight.

The Profiler was wrong. Yesterday in the New York Post it was reported that Carlie fought him desparately (can't put in a link as they seem to only have current day's story). She was only passive for the first second or two, and then it was too late.

God or evolution has so constituted most children that when am adult grabs them, they will go along for a few seconds and only then think. This is often a good thing because the child, in such cases, is probably being pulled away from danger (an attacking wild animal in primitive societies, a car today). The child's nature is to go first and then think. Can teaching really overcome this? No, at least not if the attacker is a "good with kids" monster. Does it hurt to try to teach your kids to go against their nature? No. I just think that he was too good and Carlie did not have a chance.

[Steve Eisenberg]

P.S. There could have been an armed robbery going on in the car wash and the adult pulling on Carlie was trying to quietly and quickly get her away. This is another reason why she had to take those couple seconds to decide what to do.

[JustPiper]

Your reasoning just gets more bizarre IMHO

[JustPiper]

How kidnapper-murderer was caught
Posted: February 9, 2004

The nation's attention was riveted last week to the case of an 11-year-old girl, Carlie Brucia, whose kidnapping was caught on a car-wash surveillance camera.

Carlie was later found dead.

There are several things to be learned from this tragedy.

As we all know, the tattooed mechanic, Joseph P. Smith, charged with kidnapping and killing Carlie, had been arrested at least 13 times in Florida since 1993.

Thirteen times. Think about that. A 13-time loser.

In 1997, in Bradenton, Fla., north of Sarasota, he was charged with kidnapping and false imprisonment for allegedly grabbing a 20-year-old woman on the street and threatening to stab her if she screamed. The woman escaped after a passing vehicle stopped. At his trial, Smith testified he had been trying to prevent the woman from running into the street and she had misunderstood him. The jury acquitted him.

He served 17 months in prison in 2001 and 2002 for heroin possession and prescription-drug fraud. Eight days after he got out, he was arrested for cocaine possession and placed on probation for three years. He also got probation for aggravated battery in 1993 and heroin charges in 1999.

A state corrections official, Joe Papy, said a probation officer had asked a judge Dec. 30 to declare Smith in violation of his probation because he had not paid all his fines and court costs.

Papy said Circuit Judge Harry Rapkin declined to find Smith in violation, which could have returned him to jail. The judge defended his decision, saying the probation officer never sent him the evidence he requested that Smith had willfully refused to pay.

Now there are several obvious lessons right here:

This judge needs to go. He needs to be impeached. He needs to be disgraced. He needs to be papered by every attorney that appears before him. He's got blood on his hands – as do literally thousands of other judges like him across this country. It's time they are forced to take responsibility for their actions – and inactions.

Understand that the police and government did nothing to prevent this heinous crime from happening. Nor did they do anything to find the girl while she was still alive. No Amber Alert was issued until the day after she disappeared because there "wasn't any evidence of an abduction." What's the purpose of an Amber Alert? There might not be evidence of an abduction for years after it occurs. Only after bloodhounds tracked the girl to the car wash and the owner of the car wash checked the surveillance tape (which he set up to monitor employee thefts from cars) did the Amber Alert go out.

It was a citizen (the suspect Joseph Smith's female housemate) who recognized him from the media coverage of abduction tape and told police to "come and get him."

According to news reports, the body was found after "negotiations" with the suspect.

Let's recognize what really happened here. A car-wash owner, the media and a concerned citizen solved this crime.

This is so often the case. This is how the D.C. Sniper case was cracked. Yet, books are written by and movies are made about the police chief, not by and about the honest citizens who actually found the criminals. It happens more than we realize it.

The police, despite all the money spent on these Amber Alerts, etc. managed to slap the handcuffs on and that's about it. Too little, too late.

What did government do? What was its role in the crime? It ignored all the warning signs that this man was dangerous and a lifelong criminal. It all but ensured Joseph P. Smith would be there that day Carlie walked through the car wash.

Over and over again, Smith was sentenced to "community service" for his crimes. This is the kind of unrepentant criminal who should be isolated from the community.

My point? Government doesn't prevent crimes. Government doesn't solve crimes. Government doesn't punish crimes. Government fosters crime. Government encourages crime. Government enables crime.

[dead]

bttt

[tutstar]

bttt

[SouthernClaire]

Dear JP,

I'm going to throw this out for whatever it's worth.

A few years ago, I stood in the checkout lane of a grocery store. I was tired, I wanted to get home and cook, and get my family settled in for the night.

Before I knew it, I was talking to a stranger behind me and proudly showing pictures of my little girl.

That's a thing we feel safe in doing. "Hey, here's my darling. You got a picture of yours?"

The foolishness in doing such a thing never struck me.

Well, it wasn't long after that we had problems at my home. An older man showing my daughter porn pictures through a glass door and attempting to beat his way in after I'd dropped her off from school.

Was it the same guy at the grocery store? I don't know, and never will.

I live in a small town and shudder now at the thought that from the grocery store to my house is less than 2 blocks.

All I'm trying to get across is that sometimes in our loving (and ignorant) way, we do stupid things that perps look for us to do in a proud fashion.

I have since removed all pictures from my purse. I no longer carry any pictures of any kind. None of my daughter, my Mom, my brothers and sisters or, even of my doggies.

Whatever needs to be done in this country to protect our kids should be done immediately and with no respect to the "rights" of people who choose to kill a child. I don't have a thought run through my mind other than, "SIZZLE."

Sadly, sometimes it is that the mother must work and the dad is long gone. Community, though, can do a lot to prosper a little girl or boy, and that community would lack nothing for having done so. Matter of fact, only enrich their community by looking after their own.

In Lil Carlie's case, she was a beautiful young lady. Her eyes speak to her kindness and generosity and potential.

Her smile speaks to her love, compassion and friendliness.

We all will miss her presence very much. Our world will suffer her loss and will miss the joy and love Carlie would've brought to us.

Best to you, JP.

[JustPiper]

EX-WIFE OF CARLIE'S 'KILLER': LET HIM FRY
New York Post ^ | 2/10/04 | DAN KADISON
Posted on 02/10/2004 3:04:13 AM CST by kattracks

February 10, 2004 -- The ex-wife of the man suspected of kidnapping and killing 11-year-old Carlie Brucia in Florida thinks he's guilty - and hopes he gets the death penalty.

"I believe it was him," Julie Streeter, Joseph Smith's ex, told the TV program "Inside Edition."

When Streeter was asked if Smith should be executed, she replied, "Yes, I do. That is the most disgusting, heinous crime anybody could ever commit."

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1074994/posts

[JustPiper]

A chilling world we live in Claire