Thoughts on the Cleveland Community regarding the 3 women who were kidnapped

[lunatica]

Like everyone else I have been devastated and outraged and on the verge of emitting a primal scream of rage over the horrific plight of the 3 women and one child who have spent their last decade in a nightmare reality that rivals the worst horror movies imaginable. At times I cry and at other times I can feel my throat closing tightly in my urge to just scream in rage about what has happened to these women and this child.

But I also can't help feeling that the community in Cleveland where this has happened is also traumatized badly. From the neighbors of this monster of a human being to the families and friends of the women. This is affecting an entire community on a profound level. There are people there who have associated with this man for years. He stood by the family of one of the victims he was raping and beating pretending to be a concerned friend. He went to candlelight vigils, and he was friends with family member as well as helping hand out fliers of the girl. What that family must be going through right now is unimaginable. The fact that they haven't found some way of murdering him is hard to imagine. I know how I would feel if someone appeared to be sincerely helping me and I found out that they were doing so much terrible harm to my daughter. I would want to fucking kill him with my bare hands. I would want to feel his life slipping away under my hands as I took it away from him.

I think it isn't just the women and child who will need much help to deal with this. The entire community is traumatized over this. The parents, siblings, extended family, neighbors, schools mates and friends are all feeling the shock of what has happened in their community. They will close ranks around these women and this child, but they're in pain too. My heart bleeds for them all.

[uppityperson]

1. Indeed. A lot of people's trust in others has been quite shaken.

[MineralMan]

2. The same thing could happen, and has happened, in any community.

Even yours. We simply aren't aware of such things going on around us, just as Cleveland was not aware. We don't watch our neighbors for such activities. We simply don't.

There is nothing unique about Cleveland. It is just another US City. If you live in a city of its size or larger, there are probably similar houses with similar horrors happening right now.

[lunatica]

3. You're right and I have been very uncomfortable over that thought for days

It makes you wonder about your neighbors. It's an insidious fearfulness that creeps in like storm clouds ending a sunny day.

I tend to be, unlike you, a very quiet neighbor minding my own business with very little interaction with my neighbors in my condominium. It's mostly because of my experiences in a small town where gossip was the way of life. Where everyone knew everything about you. In my experience it was invasive and rude. I've never been a fan of gossip since it is a vicious attack on others, and in a small community it ruins lives over things that are stupid and minute.

[MineralMan]

5. It's a very difficult thing, and I don't have any solutions.

We tend to value our privacy and extend that to valuing the privacy of others. Sadly, that lets people get away with horrible things.

[Thinkingabout]

4. I know there have been cases of underground hell holes built and a young girl has been

Imprisoned and terribly abused and the guy had a wife. These are some really sick people and I am tired of the excuse "I was abused as a child". Its too easy.

In the past few years I have made an effort to meet my neighbors and several looks out for others but in this case I am not sure the neighbors would have known.

[lunatica]

6. I'm assuming the neighbors didn't know

They may have thought something was odd, but I doubt anyone imagined anything close to what was actually happening. That stuff should only happen in books and movies. Not in real life.

[Quantess]

7. The magnitude of the crime seems at least equivalent to murder.

These women can live now, and they can try to piece together a normal life somehow, BUT... 10 years, 11 years of being tormented, raped, --and who knows what else-- is more cruel than murder, in my opinion.

[lunatica]

8. Each day that goes by makes me realize there is another layer in the depth of cruelty

this man did. Remember he beat his wife so badly that she died. I don't want to forget her. She probably spent her entire marriage to him in the same state as these three women.

[Quantess]

9. No I hadn't heard about his dead wife!

Honestly, I stopped reading the news stories about this case because it's too horrific. It's incredibly sad, too.

[freshwest]

10. Lunatica, every further revelation that is coming out is worse than the last. There are no words.

[lunatica]

11. I felt from the beginning that it was going to be one

unbelievable nightmare of a story as it comes out.

[freshwest]

12. It will be a long time before it all comes out. And the initial charges that some complained about,

of Castro being charged with 4 counts of kidnapping (including his child by Berry) and only 3 rapes is not the end of it. They have said they will charge him with every sex act thorughout the years, thousands of them.

We are on the outside, yet we have seen a small part of the shocking details already. More will come out, and this man will never see the light of freedom again. He is too dangerous to be set at large in the world again - like a serial killer, he would return to do the same thing he enjoyed for all that time.

I know it says he was abused, and that the family was troubled. Still, there comes a time when one crosses over the line and is no longer a victim and does not deserve society's forgiveness much less their forgetfulness. The worst thing is that this sickness was not confined to just him.

It is world wide, but I am glad that at least in this country, it is still considered a crime. With the GOP's war on women, I wonder how long that will be, if they continue to control statehouses and install regressive men who see women as property to be controlled for their pleasure and amusement, like Castro. His actions were not as rare on this blighted planet as we'd like.