What are we going to have to do to protect children from predators like the recent one in New York?

[mfcorey1]

There are just too many reports of gruesome events surrounding innocent children. In the last two months I have read of three children being forgotten and left in hot cars to die. Two more were apparently left in a car after being killed by their father. The list goes on and on. How can we protect the children?

[Zoeisright]

1. Children are always going to die, and there will always be predators.

This is nothing new. Keep a close eye on your kids at all times and do the best you can.

[theoldman]

17. Even if you do the best you can there will still be accidents.

I raised three children and one almost drowned. In the blink of an eye a child can be out of your reach. When they become teenagers they are in greater danger.

[HopeHoops]

2. We had one last summer of a dad leaving a toddler in the car while he went into a casino.

It didn't turn out well.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I used to work at a casino and I saw that

happen from time to time. I always reported it to security. Security is then supposed to go out to the car while the parents are paged. If the parents don't show, the police are called. If you pay attention, you'll notice while you're in a casino that people are constantly being paged. A whole lot of them are people who have either left their kids in the car or forgotten them in the arcade.

[MineralMan]

4. Such things have always occurred. Today, though, they

become national stories, instead of the local stories they once were. Parents, as always, have to be attentive to their children and the risks they may face. However, children need to explore their world and exercise age-appropriate freedoms , and cocooning them is not a wise approach.

[exboyfil]

5. Yes I don't understand parents

My 15 year old daughter and I were traveling at about 5:00 a.m. in the morning. I pulled off to go to restroom at a gas station, but it was closed. The casino next to the gas station was open so I parked as close to the door as I could, and I went in leaving my daughter in the car. I did not take very long, but I still was concerned about my daughter's safety. Of course we did have two border collies in the car - one of them pretty large and fierce when aroused.

I still get concerned when I leave her and her sister (13) at home at night. How parents could treat their children with so little concern is mind boggling.

[hack89]

6. Our kids have never been safer

violent crime of all kinds has been steadily declining for decades - you have to go back 50 years to find lower rates of murder, kidnapping and other violent crimes.

Here are the FBI annual crime reports that show this:

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/ucr

The real problem is a voracious non-stop news cycle that thrives on sensationalism. When I was a kid growing up in California, I would never have heard of that cute blond girl missing in Alabama - now it is a 2 week Nancy Grace special.

[Posteritatis]

7. Yep. (nt)

[WatsonT]

9. Bingo

And as fewer and fewer actual cases appear they will become even more sensationalistic with the few that do crop up. Leading people to believe that we are living through some unprecedented epidemic of child murders.

[LuvNewcastle]

10. Very true

That story about Casey Whatshername would not have been a national media event when I was growing up. They talked about Vietnam and how many were killed that day. That is national news material, not criminal court cases. People get all outraged over these murder cases and don't bat an eye at reports about our soldiers being killed. People's priorities are completely out of whack these days.

[Patiod]

11. Absolutely 100% correct

Thank you for posting this.

[X_Digger]

19. It's a psychological phenomenon..

Our perceptions of 'bad things' are cumulative. We don't remember the days where nothing bad happens as strongly as we do those days that do.

Every crime that we hear about adds a +1 to some counter in our heads-- regardless of whether or not such events are occurring at a slower pace.

[WatsonT]

8. Continue to enforce the laws on the books

these cases get a lot of news but in fact aren't that common (yes one is too many but realistically this doesn't happen a whole lot).

Overreacting and even more so assuming all adult males are out to murder or abuse children won't help.

[leeroysphitz]

12. Stop having children? n/t

[CBHagman]

13. Please don't compare the incidents involving children left...

...in hot cars with the case of Leiby Kletzky, murdered by a man who is reportedly mentally ill. And don't allow 24/7 media coverage, the age of the Internet and cable TV news, to skew your perception of reality.

Brutal and senseless murders are nothing new, not in the least, but I want to say that poor Leiby was just doing something that countless children do without incident every day (In fact many of us grew up walking considerable distances unaccompanied, and completely without incident).

I feel for the boy's parents and community. No one should have to go through what they are experiencing now. But part of the reason it shocks us is that it is rare (Read Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear).

As for children dying in hot cars, that is more common than people realize, and that too is a tragedy. But it is not new, and it is not because parents or caregivers somehow intend for it to happen.

Gene Weingarten wrote an article (Yes, that Gene Weingarten, known chiefly for humor columns) on the subject in 2009.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/03/06/ST2009030602446.html?sid=ST2009030602446

[mrcheerful]

18. I remember back in the 60's growing up how parents often left kids in their cars

to go shopping. I remember parents doing that in the winter leaving car engines running and kids putting cars in gear and crashing. I also remember a woman and her daughter being strangled in moms bed and her son was left with the bodies alive. When all was said and done it was discovered her husbands gay lover was the one who committed the crime, the hubby found out and did 10 years for not going to the police after his lover told him he killed his wife and daughter. The real kicker was 3 years before they lost a child due to strangulation, mom tied the baby's pacifier to the crib with string and baby got it wrapped around his throat. I also remember one of the neighbor girls who kept flashing her developing chest at a guy who drove past her house because she thought it was funny to tease a deaf mute until the day he stopped to tell her mom, then the girl accused him of trying to kidnap her, her story fell apart after she claimed he told her to get in the car with him.

[piratefish08]

14. stranger danger.

welcome back to the 70's.

[Gman]

15. It's not our job to figure out how to protect the kids from everything

and it cannot be done regardless. That is the kind of mentality that brought the Patriot Act to be.

[rucky]

16. Kids need more - not less - contact with adults.

This "never talk to strangers" mentality dissuades normal adults from approaching kids who may need some help.

I know this sounds counter-intuitive, but right now when kids venture out on their own, they're really on their own - and the chances of interacting with a helpful stranger is still much greater than a predator.