Handling of 'abduction' case involving teen has been absurd

Handling of 'abduction' case involving teen has been absurd

www.orlandosentinel.com

I know that in this paranoid world, you never approach a small child who is by herself, take her by the hand and walk out of a store with her in search of mommy.

But I am not 14 years old.

I am not Edwin.

Last week, Edwin went to the Burlington Coat Factory store on West Colonial Drive with his mother.

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He saw a 3-year-old girl without a parent. If he had it to do all over again, if he could see the cops, the handcuffs, the TV cam

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is so incredibly pathetic and absurd I actually got very angry this whole event occurred. My elbow is on my desk, with my hand covering my face. On my "faith in humanity chart" that I always keep handy, I knocked my current position down several points.

A 14 year old boy, who was with his mother, tried helping out a young girl who could not find her mother.

Now, what would be the sensible conclusion of this?

Did the boy receive a thank you for helping out a 3 year old girl?

Key to the city?

Front page picture in a local newspaper?

No. The boy is BEING CHARGED WITH FALSE IMPRISONMENT.

So really...who fracked up here?

To quote from the article...

But look at the evidence.

We have the little girl's mother losing track of her daughter.

We have Edwin's mother not taking the girl from Edwin and turning her over to a store employee.

And we have Edwin in handcuffs.

I'm not sure the problem here is with the 14-year-old.

I think I concur with the author of this article.

www.orlandosentinel.com
(visit the link for the full news article)


If anyone finds any info on where you can contact someone dealing with this to yell at them for being stupid, please post it here. I could use someone to yell at.

[edit on 17-6-2010 by SpectreDC]

[edit on 17-6-2010 by SpectreDC]

That's horrible. He probably stopped the little girl being kidnapped for real, and now he's probably never going to help anyone out ever again for fear of being arrested over nothing.

Poor kid.

Oh and we have charges and it is for your protection.

I wonder how many times i've seen/heard that crap, i've lost count.

Great system, guilty until proven innocent.

There are two issues here.

The use of authority, and the decision to prosecute.

We all know about the very delicate nature of the stewardship of authority. It is often very sensational when it is misused, abused, or lacking. When someone does the right thing, someone with authority, we hardly notice. Because it is accomplishing what it is supposed to do.

The laws in place are specific, and they are there to protect children; for the most part, upon our insistence - these laws didn't always exist.

I can understand a particularly anal law enforcement person deciding to see the arrest through. It is wrong, and probably a matter of over-zealousness, or runaway emotions.

Hence we have the justice system, which should ensure this possibility is countered.

Yet...

Interestingly enough, the girl's mother never did press charges. But the Sheriff's Office decided it would, ultimately settling on a charge of false imprisonment.

"He was in custody of the child and had no authority to be so,'' said Capt. Angelo Nieves. "The thing is to make clear we have not charged him with an offense that did not occur.''

I suppose the failure was of the mother asking the clerk to call 911.

The boys mother was obviously not prepared to confront the officer regarding the event. Or the officer would not hear it.

The local media maligned the boy, who I suppose didn't learn any good lessons from this. Obviously an unattended child is to remain so.

The Captain seems incapable of understanding that without intent, there is no imprisonment.

Sad local story. Sad demonstration of a decayed community. Sad.

There's no conspiracy here, just a heaping helping of good old fashioned stupidity

reply to post by SpectreDC



Who should have been charged? The mother of the lost little girl, for negligence in losing her daughter.

So much for good deeds! What a shame, that this boy tried to do the right thing, and is in trouble for it.

I'm disgusted!

Oh god, I should have known this was in Florida... .

Cops do not know how to handle children and young adults here. If anybody here have children DO NOT ever move or live in Florida or get out while you still can. Law enforcement here are notorious for using seriously poor judgement especially towards the youth.

[edit on 18-6-2010 by mishmallow8]

Child helps child in The USA - gets charged with criminal offense.

That will teach him.

reply to post by SpectreDC


This is truely disgusting, and unfortunately the prevailing attitude in this country. When it comes to trying to help kids in this situation, you better think twice, lest you be labeled some kind of pervert

It reminded me of an incident that happened to me about 6 years ago. I was at an air show in my town, and there was a section of the airport with booths selling food, souvenirs, etc. There was a huge crowd and in front of one of the booths was a boy, about 7, crying and obviously terrified, frantically walking around in circles looking at people's faces. Everyone was just walking past and ignoring him. I knew that he had gotten separated from a parent and wanted to try to calm him down and tell him to wait right where he is until they come back for him. I wanted to tell him not to worry because they will not leave the place without him. Of course, knowing what the world is today, I didn't even dare approach him. I just stood there watching him from a distance just to make sure no one tried to walk off with him or that he didn't walk off through the crowd and make the situation worse. After a minute or two I saw a guy walking quickly through the crowd looking just as terrified as the boy. He spotted him and they hugged and the boy said something like "I couldn't find you!", and they walked off, the dad holding his hand.

The whole time I was wondering if I should try to calm him down, and in the end decided just to keep an eye on him from a distance. To this day I can still see that terrified face. Pretty sad that this country has come to this, and I doubt we will ever go back to trusting each other again.