What has happened to the safeguards of our children?

[bobthedrummer]

It begins with parents and families. There are bins in our cities where newborns can be placed with "no questions asked".

Sometimes children are placed elsewhere for a few hours, daycare, babysitters, school etc. and sometimes they are put in the custody of others for protection.

Yet despite the purposes of Amber Alerts, protective services, foster care, law enforcement, school officials, medical personnel and other societal segments that have the safety of our children as a priority increasingly these safeguards are failing nationwide.

There have been some recent examples of this discussed here on DU.

"The screaming of children in quiet Portage, Wisconsin" (sybylla/bobthedrummer 6-22-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1161061

"Florida DCF mistake proved fatal for 15 year old girl" (madfloridian 7-17-2007)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1353248

What is causing these safeguards to fail? Where is the accountability?

When does merely shifting the victims from one jurisdiction to another solve anything (except for those in authority of the failures) like this update to the "Portage case" illustrates?
"State will keep toddler from Portage case" (AP 7-12-2007)
http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=1&date=7/12/2007&id=26304

Who has some thoughts or examples of this to share?

[bobthedrummer]

1. Not only children

Just here in Wisconsin there have been several recent cases, three involving young women.

One of them was Kelly Nolan a UW-Whitewater student transfering to Madison
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/8209357.html

Her body was found, she was murdered
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=629908

Mahalia Xiong, 21, a UW-Green Bay student is missing
"Dad Fears Missing Woman Was Kidnapped" (msnbc)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19819250/

Shannon Fischer, 23, Prairie du Chien, a mother of two is missing
http://www.nampn.org/cases/fischer_shannon_l.html

so are many others
North American Missing Persons Network
http://www.nampn.org/mp2006Oct-Dec.html


fair use cited on all links

[bobthedrummer]

2. .

[bobthedrummer]

3. Michael Sisk was an escapee from Mesa County Colorado, Candace Clark was wanted on fraud

and other charges by Grand Junction, Colorado law enforcement. They lived in Grand Junction at one point, possibly with some of their alternative family members, possibly committing more crimes as they did all over the country before their arrest in Portage.

Now there is a search on for Paige Birgfeld of Grand Junction, a mother of three from an entirely different social and economic world than Sisk and Clark. Yet there are staggering details about this Grand Junction missing woman's life that raise questions about many of the same issues.

Below are some links about Paige Birgfeld that are disturbing. She, or the social networks she is known to have been part of could possibly related to the Portage case-not solely because of the geographical location. Take some time to read these links.

"Paige's Secret Life" by David Montero 7-14-2007 Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5629124,00.html

cbs4denver report by Andrea Lopez
http://cbs4denver.com/local/local_story_185221709.html

missingabducted.com report
http://www.missingabducted.com/2007/07/paige-birgfeld-.html

websleuths.com forum
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1562556

fair use cited on all links

[bobthedrummer]

4. Some not so random issues that have raised serious questions about safeguards for me

Jon Benet Ramsey, Boulder Colorado, John Mark Karr's publicized arrest in Thailand, the vastly different social networks that overlap in crime, missing children and adults, human trafficking, black budget operations, some of the illegal programs mentioned in the CIA's family jewels, the criminal administration and "policies" of the Decider...

[pitohui]

5. there weren't ever any such safeguards

we are kidding ourselves if we think children were "safeguarded" in some romantic time in the past, infanticide as a way of getting rid of an unwanted screaming brat was pretty well accepted in many areas a few thousand years ago, it is taking the human race time to grow and evolve and not everybody evolves at the same pace i guess but the reality is that mothers dump newborns in trashbins and toilets probably WAY less often in proportion to population than they did, say, in times of ancient greece

even a couple hundred years ago children were not "safeguarded" they were worked on farms and factories and were little more than slaves

the pampered children of the rich received care and safeguards much earlier in human history than the rest of us, in some areas the poor have no "safeguards" for their children to this day

there was never any time in the past when people cared more about "safeguarding" children than they do today, never, and if that is not saying a lot, well, the human race is pretty fucking pathetic when you get right down to it -- when i was a child, beating children was not abuse, it was considered the right thing to do because the bible say "spare the rod and spoil the child," and we are talking only a few decades ago

mostly in history people haven't given much of a fuck about anybody's children except their own -- and if the child was a financial burden, then they didn't even give much of a fuck about their own -- we are animals only slowly, very slowly, rising from the mud

you are never going to have a perfect world, and you are never going to provide a perfect cocoon for children, but if you look at the big picture, things do get better, just slowly slowly

[bobthedrummer]

6. .

[bobthedrummer]

7. What caused 15 year old Felicia Garlin to take part in the torture of her 11 year old brother

and then participate in the murder of their mother?

"Daughter tells police she helped bury her mother; she is charged with being party to the murder" by Matthew Call Portage Daily Register
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/197970

When confronted with evidence that a family member or relative has been involved with living a secret life, regardless of the social network and status, denial and blaming others results as does hypocrisy and cover-ups of corruption.

"Those who knew Candace Clark said she left a trail of crime in her wake" Portage Daily Register
http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/news/198211

"Paige's Secret Life" by David Montero Rocky Mountain News
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5629124,00.html

on edit: fair use cited for all links

[bobthedrummer]

8. Francine Tate, 50 from Madison, WI is missing

Websleuths Francine Tate forum
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51518

"Woman disappears after housing stranger" 7-20-2007 AP via Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=635936

Fair use cited on all links

[bobthedrummer]

14. Some good news-"Francine Tate Found Alive" AP & Jenn Rourke via WTMJ 4

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/8712122.html

[bobthedrummer]

9. An 8 year old Milwaukee boy has been reported missing this evening

"8 year old disappears" by Dani McClain Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel 7-21-2007
http://www.jsonline.com/watch/?watch=1&date=7/21/2007&id=26757

fair use cited

[bobthedrummer]

10. "FBI: Biological Mom Took Adopted Girl" by Chris Talbott 7-22-2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,,-6797346,00.html
fair use cited

Here, again I have many questions about safeguards and "security"-armed masked people invade a home in Mississippi taking an infant girl, the daughter of a mother who had placed that child for adoption (and the mother is among the armed trio).

Amber Alerts and BOLO are issued yet this group travels from Mississippi into other states and winds up at Fort Bragg! Does anyone else wonder about that part of what has been reported in this instance?


Btw, there haven't been any new reports about the 8 year okd Milwaukee boy-I hope he is back home safe.

[bobthedrummer]

11. .

[ProudDad]

12. Why must we follow the republican lead

and concentrate on the few instances of bad behavior and assume that our entire world and lives are filled with nothing but unremitting horror.


It's the repuke (and conservative Dem) trick of keeping us afraid so we don't do anything useful about our situations...

It's the repuke (and conservative Dem) trick of turning us against one another so we'll buy their bullshit about individualism being paramount and society a form of socialism...

It's the repuke (and conservative Dem) trick of filling the airwaves with this crap -- if it bleeds it leads -- to keep us asleep and exploited by our capitalist masters and their stooges...


Seriously, how much of your life, how many hours, have actually been spent in any kind of dangerous, risky or truly scary situation. But those assholes want you to wallow in it all the time...

I say it's a waste of time and energy...

[bobthedrummer]

13. Politicization occurs everywhere-that is not what this thread is about at all.

It is a highly disturbing topic that merits discussion.