What Would YOU Do In His Shoes?
Here's a story that some local news stations are glomming onto in their lurid, righteous way.
There might be a little more to it than meets the eye.
Dad without baby sitter accused of caging kids - Says he wanted to keep daughters from running away
"POSEN, IL -- (07/04/08) -- A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter.
Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian, was arrested after a woman at a gas station in Posen heard a crying child and spotted him pushing small hands back into a cage, police said.
He had a wire cage behind the front seats of his truck, police said. Black-tinted windows and a large plywood board in the back window concealed it.
Gonzalez told police he used the cage because he didn't have a baby sitter. He also said he wanted to control the girls, ages 2 and 5, so they wouldn't run away. Police said the girls did not live in the cage."
video here
On first glance the breathless tale of child cruelty evokes memories of other, very true instances of bestial behavior. In the video the smarmy newsfakers use terms like "jury rigged cell" and "homemade jail". The police chief adds to the condemnation with "my stomach turned" and "it made me sick". As sort of an exclamation point the crack news team interview a youngish male neighbor who "heard children cry" next door.
Well the story needs to be looked at again, without the hype. The guy was using his truck for work, salvaging scrap metal to sell. He worked at night while his wife worked long hours during the day, so the little girls were in no danger of being cooped up in a hot car. They couldn't afford child care. The truck appears to be a crew cab type. The inference that plywood was used to shield the rear cab window from prying eyes might have been true, but as someone who knows what to do with a heavy, dangerous load in the back of a pickup, his double plywood barrier was prudent and necessary protection to keep the window, and his kids, safe.
Which brings us to the children. Aged either 2 and 5, or 3 and 6, they were way to young to be left alone. And certainly too young to be left alone for a second at all for what they might have gotten into. This man was with his children while working, which is more than can be said for a lot of parents. As far as hearing children cry next door, who the hell hasn't? Not a peep about how he treated them in the print version or video, which makes me think since there was nothing there to indict him further, they wouldn't mention anything.
Here's the crux of the matter - this family was doing what they could to survive but both the police and these breathless press whores tried their best to sex up the story as a Major Crime. We're going to see a LOT of stories like this now as people try to make do as society breaks down completely. We have to remember cops and the DA will always magnify and change alternate behavior into aberrant behavior to justify their suspicions and their jobs. The media will always magnify the importance of their coverage to make themselves look indispensable.
Did I mention he was hispanic?
And I'd like someone to tell me why they used the bylineSays he wanted to keep daughters from running away instead of Says he wanted to keep his daughters safe.
And I'd like someone to tell me the difference between his pickup nest and this:
There might be a little more to it than meets the eye.
Dad without baby sitter accused of caging kids - Says he wanted to keep daughters from running away
"POSEN, IL -- (07/04/08) -- A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby sitter.
Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian, was arrested after a woman at a gas station in Posen heard a crying child and spotted him pushing small hands back into a cage, police said.
He had a wire cage behind the front seats of his truck, police said. Black-tinted windows and a large plywood board in the back window concealed it.
Gonzalez told police he used the cage because he didn't have a baby sitter. He also said he wanted to control the girls, ages 2 and 5, so they wouldn't run away. Police said the girls did not live in the cage."
video here
On first glance the breathless tale of child cruelty evokes memories of other, very true instances of bestial behavior. In the video the smarmy newsfakers use terms like "jury rigged cell" and "homemade jail". The police chief adds to the condemnation with "my stomach turned" and "it made me sick". As sort of an exclamation point the crack news team interview a youngish male neighbor who "heard children cry" next door.
Well the story needs to be looked at again, without the hype. The guy was using his truck for work, salvaging scrap metal to sell. He worked at night while his wife worked long hours during the day, so the little girls were in no danger of being cooped up in a hot car. They couldn't afford child care. The truck appears to be a crew cab type. The inference that plywood was used to shield the rear cab window from prying eyes might have been true, but as someone who knows what to do with a heavy, dangerous load in the back of a pickup, his double plywood barrier was prudent and necessary protection to keep the window, and his kids, safe.
Which brings us to the children. Aged either 2 and 5, or 3 and 6, they were way to young to be left alone. And certainly too young to be left alone for a second at all for what they might have gotten into. This man was with his children while working, which is more than can be said for a lot of parents. As far as hearing children cry next door, who the hell hasn't? Not a peep about how he treated them in the print version or video, which makes me think since there was nothing there to indict him further, they wouldn't mention anything.
Here's the crux of the matter - this family was doing what they could to survive but both the police and these breathless press whores tried their best to sex up the story as a Major Crime. We're going to see a LOT of stories like this now as people try to make do as society breaks down completely. We have to remember cops and the DA will always magnify and change alternate behavior into aberrant behavior to justify their suspicions and their jobs. The media will always magnify the importance of their coverage to make themselves look indispensable.
Did I mention he was hispanic?
And I'd like someone to tell me why they used the byline
And I'd like someone to tell me the difference between his pickup nest and this:
posted by nolocontendere at 6:10 AM
2 Comments:
Government officials are worse. They're a bunch of child predators just looking for an excuse to steal kids from their parents and sell them to child-slavery rings. Most kids taken from their parents and put in foster homes are treated much worse.
Absolutely, prime example being the FLDS child grab down in Texas. I think this guy was doing the best he could under the circumstances but was convicted of DWM - driving while Mexican.
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