Cops Above the Law??

NoSmoke wrote:I grew up in a foster home, only it was reversed; my parents were foster parents so I have seen a lot of stuff. I wish that was the worst case, but unfortunately it is not.

That would have to be my sister; an adopted sibling (My parents had 3 biological children and adopted 6 more). At 15 MONTHS she was raped by her step-father. They also beat her so bad that she quite breathing, but the neighbors heard the ruckus and called the police, who came in, gave the infant CPR and sent her to the hospital. Fearing criminal reprimenands for this, the parents came into the hospital, put a garbage bag over the infant and tried to suffocate her. A nurse saw this and called the police who immediately put my sister in our foster home. Even then, they tried to abduct her several times.

They were never tried for their crimes, but their crazy lifestyle killed the mom and my sisters step-father by getting Aides and dying. My sister is dead as well, killed by a car accident in 2001 at the age of 19...killed while answering a cell phone call. As luck would have it, a police officer was behind her, but could not do much to save her life as she was not wearing a seat belt and decapitated. Still ge got 17-1/2 years thanks to a police officer so twice was not in the cards.

The parents were such low-lifes that they said my sister was "retarded" because at 15 months she could not walk. yet when the nurse put her down to change the crib sheets, she RAN down the hall. Now I could not wait for my daughter to take her first steps, and watched her do so. What kind of parents could not tell that their daughter could walk? What it happened was, when she cried they would beat her, so my sister learned to lay down when they were in the room. She learned to walk on her own. HOW SAD!

There have been other sad cases as well; two adopted brothers were raped by their dad at age 7 and 6.

Another adopted brother had two broken legs: at 2 months old. The parents broke his legs in a fit of rage because he cried all the time. The only thing he knows is our home having never left at 2 months old.

There are other stories, like the woman that killed her 18 month old by putting her in the stove and cooking her alive, or the dad who took a screwdriver to a 2 years old daughters "neither region", destroying all chances of her having children, yet received all but 2 years suspended sentence.

Today the abuse of children is not what people picture: physical abuse. 90% of abuse to kids today is sexual abuse because of the sexualized society we live in. As foster parents we get by simply by knowing at that time in a childs life, we have provided a safe place to go and have shown them what a real family life is like. Most foster Children however fall into a trap of humanism; after about a year they forget what their real home was like, and remember only the good, and often elect to return home. Typically after a month they call back and want to come back to our home, but by then...sadly...another child has taken its place and legally we can only have x amount of kids in the house; whatever we are licensed for.

Please do not take this as bragging, because it is NOT. I have done some cool things in my life: worked at ground zero after 911, welded the bow section of the first Zumwalk Class Destroyer, welded steel for the Big Dig Project, etc...but my greatest accomplishment has been building a home and having morals to become a Foster Parent. I believe it shows caring, love, and perseverance and I put it on my resume. With that one accomplishment it shows that I have been finger printed, background checked, inspected and scrutinized and passed the test and I cannot imagine an employer that would not want those morals as an employee.

freetown fred wrote:Just a quick note that the system ocassionally works--in Vero Beach, Fla a foster girl had been being sexually abused by the foster dad for yrs & when he started doing the same to the girls little sister--she came home from school one day to find the foster father asleep in his recliner & took the 9 mil she'd gottten off a school chum & 86'd him. She was arrrested & charged w/ 1'st degree murder--needless to say, she got off. I know, I was on the jury. Sooo, is jury duty important--I think so!!!!

Northern Maine wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Just a quick note that the system ocassionally works--in Vero Beach, Fla a foster girl had been being sexually abused by the foster dad for yrs & when he started doing the same to the girls little sister--she came home from school one day to find the foster father asleep in his recliner & took the 9 mil she'd gottten off a school chum & 86'd him. She was arrrested & charged w/ 1'st degree murder--needless to say, she got off. I know, I was on the jury. Sooo, is jury duty important--I think so!!!!

Jury duty is a godsend in many cases...and yes the system does work if it is allowed too!

SteveZee wrote:

Northern Maine wrote:

freetown fred wrote:Just a quick note that the system ocassionally works--in Vero Beach, Fla a foster girl had been being sexually abused by the foster dad for yrs & when he started doing the same to the girls little sister--she came home from school one day to find the foster father asleep in his recliner & took the 9 mil she'd gottten off a school chum & 86'd him. She was arrrested & charged w/ 1'st degree murder--needless to say, she got off. I know, I was on the jury. Sooo, is jury duty important--I think so!!!!

Jury duty is a godsend in many cases...and yes the system does work if it is allowed too!

I've served on a jury once and one other time on a grand jury panel. The later was an interesting experience. I could easily see how people could be maybe not prejudiced, but let's say,eager, to put a case on someone depending on the charge/charges, regardless of the evidence. It was a bit of sensationalism I suppose and some of it is just human nature. One of the times in my life I was an actual conservative.

I can also easily understand Kevin's story of the cops running the looker's plate to see where she lives too. Again human nature trumps regulations. It's to easy and intriguing.

NoSmoke wrote:Guys (and gals): Just to be clear, I was not over-sensationalizing any of my stories about foster kids, those are all true and all occurred here in Maine. What I was trying to show is that there are a lot of bad things happening to good kids, but due to politics, money issues with the state, and whatnot; no one hears about some of this abuse.

Again, none of it was over-sensationalized.

freetown fred wrote:And unfortunatly also, we don't hear near ANYTHING about the legitimate, caring foster parents that take these kids in and provide the stability & love that they do.

NoSmoke wrote:

freetown fred wrote:And unfortunatly also, we don't hear near ANYTHING about the legitimate, caring foster parents that take these kids in and provide the stability & love that they do.

This is the difficult thing to do as foster parents: what to believe and not. Some of this stuff is over the top and you wonder how true it all is. In our case; how could a father have his way with his daughter and share her with his drinking buddies while the girls mom sat and watched in silence? How could that be possible?

Here is the thing...everyone else is trying to figure out what truly happened.

My role is to just believe the children; be a parent that supports, understands and takes things at face value. Now I am sure kids have embellished things, but it is not my role as a foster parent to judge. It is only my role to love the child, show what a family life should be like, and try to make sure the child gets the help that they need. It may be in the form of help in recovery, or it may be help with telling the truth.

In the above case I believe it because it was a year long stay and I had a lot of talks with her...and still do. She no longer lives with us, BUT she is very much a part of our lives still at age 21! But I believe her because she had an odd way of reacting to what happened, a post traumatic stress disorder shown by cutting. Kids that do this have so much bottled rage inside that they take razor blades and slash themselves thinking (oddly) that it will release all the rage inside. I really do not understand it, but the mind is a strange thing.