Update from Philly.com, which was even kind enough to alert us to this!
Police on Thursday issued this statement: “On April 5th,2017, the parents of Baby Doe were located; they reported that their baby was fine and they did not believe that the male was attempting to remove the baby from the stroller.”
The video below ran in yesterday’s New York Post. It shows a man in a Philadelphia Dunkin’ Donuts who goes up to a stroller, leans over the hood from behind, places his hands into the stroller, and seems to be (to my eyes) trying to get a look at the child. Of course, that’s not how it was interpreted by the press or an onlooker, who attacked the man:
.
Since I’m not sure the video is onsistently loading, click this and it’ll take you there.
Anyway, the video was brought to my attention by Catherine Lavallee, a New England mom of two sets of twins, and her wise comments on Facebook echo everything I believe. After one woman wrote: “It looks like he touched her AND was trying to grab a hold of her by her chest and neck.” Catherine responded:
I didn’t see that. It looked like he just wanted to look at her. It wasn’t appropriate, but it wasn’t “attempted kidnapping”
And:
I think the more we fuel unnecessary fear and paranoia about kidnapping the more our village breaks down and the less help parents are able to get.
And:
It seems highly unlikely that anybody would try to kidnap a baby in a public place with so many people standing around.
This is what the news does, though. They try to hype things up as much as possible in order to capture the public imagination, damn the consequences. Forget that it might fuel panic, or cause unnecessary paranoia. Next time somebody might get shot just for looking at a baby.
Legitimizing the fear that babies are stolen every day from bustling public places while the parents are RIGHT THERE but, to their eternal regret, glancing away for a second or two, is not just wacky, it is a wild-eyed, distrust-sowing, hate-filling, fear-fueling, men-demonizing, mom-shaming, child-crippling way to ruin society.
Not to put to fine a point on it.
But think of all the things this dystopian view of “our world today” does:
1 – We hate on any mom who takes her eyes off her kids, even for a moment.
2– We distrust any male who shows any interest in a child, interpreting it as “creepy” or prelude to a crime.
3 – We can’t allow kids any freedom, if we truly believe the second they are unsupervised, monsters are ready to pounce.
4 – We start arresting parents who don’t subscribe to this Liam Neeson-movie view of the world and actually let their kids be outside without a bodyguard.
5 – We retreat into our homes or private places and slam the door in the face of community. Trust no one, it’s not worth the agony of a child being kidnapped.
Clickbait is one thing. But the police also proceeding to act as if this minor interaction = attempted kidnapping comes with its own dystopian consequences: Men afraid to be around kids. And people charged with “potential” crimes that they did not commit.
We must reject these “almost” stories where nothing happens to a child, but “almost” did, or “could have.” They are not news, they are ghost stories writ as fact. And Catherine has the last wonderful word:
I must be the only person who has never encountered a potential kidnapper before.
.
.
69 Comments
Have any of these people ever even *tried* to kidnap a baby before? Obviously the quickest, quietest way to do it is not to gently caress the child while standing still, but just to grab the stroller handle and back it quickly away so that you’ve at least got a head start when mom notices. There is no indication whatsoever that that guy was trying to take the kid anywhere, and he really had plenty of time to at least start his escape if that was his intention.
No, it doesn’t look like a kidnapping.
If I were going to steal something from a donut shop, it would be a donut, not a baby.
And according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, they have a “suspect” but not a “victim”. They are asking the victim to come forward. (That’s a new one)
I don’t know what happened there, but my first thought was that the man is disabled in some way, since what he’s doing is not appropriate but doesn’t necessarily seem menacing.
I always thought it would be good to be very careful if one encounters a bear with her cubs, but I have to extend this to American parent and their kids… A tactic will probably be, if I encounter them, to grab my phone and stare into it. Or does playing dead help as well?
Hard to tell, but if I had to guess from this footage, I’d guess the guy wasn’t quite all there mentally or was from a different culture (possibly both) and this was meant as a casual and friendly social interaction with the child. After all, in many cultures, it’s perfectly normal to look at, comment on, or even touch or pick up stranger’s children in a public place. Admittedly, it looks odd, and I don’t blame the mom for not being thrilled, but it doesn’t look like attempted kidnapping.
I agree, that was not an attempting kidnapping. It is kind of weird for anyone to get all up in a baby’s face, at least in the USA. But it appeared to be a brief moment, where the guy was not even trying to be sneaky with all those people there.
Honestly I think that was a racist / sexist incident where they saw “black male too close” and freaked out. If it had been me (a white female) going up and goo-gooing at the baby, they might have felt annoyed but not scared. I would not have been arrested for that, I’m pretty sure.
They don’t even have the parents to even ask – what exactly did he do? Did he say anything? Was he trying to unclip the harness? In the silent video we can’t see if the guy verbally indicated that he was playing with the baby, i.e., if you talk and make your presence known, that much less likelihood you are trying to sneak a baby out of a crowded place.
C’mon, Lenore, didn’t you learn your own lesson from a couple days ago? He’s got a schlong, so he’s in the wrong. 😉
On a more serious note, anyone else like how they replay the same 5 second clip about four or five times in the video? Reminds me of how many times those towers fell on September 11.
It is weird going up to a random baby like that. I hadn’t thought about him being “disabled” or just socially inept, or culturally different but that’s a possibility. My first thought was actually that it may have been mistaken identity. Perhaps he thought he recognized the baby? Either way, does not look like an attempted kidnapping.
I have a friend with a severely disabled child. He’s about 4, but probably is the equivalent of a 3-month-old as far as mental and physical development is concerned. He is in residential care during the week.
The other day, I saw him and his caregiver waiting for a tram. I went up to him, tousled his hair and said, “Hi Dominic!” (even though I know he doesn’t understand me, I know he responds to voice tone and touch.) After I did that, I was like, “oops, his caregiver doesn’t know me,” and I introduced myself to her.
The caregiver didn’t freak out at all. Maybe should have freaked and called the police on me.
The next thing to happen will be the mom suing the police for endangering her baby by posting this video without permission. We all know how dangerous it is to post online videos of kids.
No way was this a kidnapping attempt. Now, it was weird what the guy did but he certainly wasn’t trying to kidnap her. At least not in this footage. It looks as if the guy might have had some psychological shortcomings but I don’t believe he had any intention of harming the child. People need to chill.
Am I the only person who finds it strange that the stroller is behind the mother and off to the side???? I usually stand behind my kid’s stroller.
My Dad’s 82 years old & loves little kids – and doesn’t have the best boundaries. I don’t think it’s dementia, it’s just “I’m old dammit & I’ll do what I please.” So far he hasn’t had any trouble, but I’m afraid one of these days he’s going to poke a kid on the nose & get tackled by some media-primed paranoiac.
I doubt the media was ever even 90% “responsible” in their reporting, but it seems that in the last 10-15 years they’ve thrown all caution to the winds in the quest for eyeballs – it would be such sweet payback if some Matt Lauer type ended up all over the internet for looking cross-eyed at somebody’s kid.
Okay, it’s really time to take the law in our hands. If you’re a guy or if you know a guy (I’m thinking husband, dad, etc) we need to encourage them to interact with children. In public, a lot and not just their own kids. If it becomes more common it will start to be seen as less scary. Maybe post a picture or video of a ‘stranger’ (even if it is actually your kid’s violin teacher – who needs to know?) being friendly with your baby, child or, god forbid, teenage girl. At least you’ll get a lot of laughs from the inevitable cries of warning you’ll receive and since nothing illegal occurred everyone is okay. Bonus points if you it’s a minority (aka very suspicious) person in the picture.
Anna, I agree. In other cultures it’s normal to touch, look at, even hold others children. We in America are super uptight so that even if I’m playing peekaboo or making silly faces at someones baby in a store, as a white female with 4 children in tow, people freak out and act like I’m some kind of dangerous creeper.
Looks like someone who is culturally different or perhaps mentally delayed in some way who just likes babies. I would bet good money he meant no harm and was completely taken aback by the violent reaction to him wanting to see a baby.
I’m so tired of this “my child was almost trafficked/kidnapped” nonsense thats come to a peak right now.
definitely weird & totally inappropriate. I hope they get to the bottom of this
I agree. Inappropriate, but not criminal. This was a common thing back when I was growing up. Strangers would approach children and say hello. Parents would sometimes be there (most times kids were on their own doing their thing). For babies, I recall mothers at the register, stroller by them, and people bending down to have a look. No one freaked out. In fact, I recall many parents being proud that people found their child adorable.
Media and people have spread the fear more than it has ever been. In a time that is much safer than in the past. When the village is intact (united), any would be criminal thinks thrice. These days, most people ignore. And criminals know this. Which is why we see, sometimes, brazen acts of criminality. I saw a video where a guy was breaking into a motorcycle in daylight, in a busy parking lot. No one tried to stop him. They just recorded the whole thing. Sad. I ride, so for me it wouldn’t even be a question. I’d confront the guy for sure. Prevent him from doing so. But smart about it. Not jumping in “guns blazing”.
This is kind of like looking at a dark shadow in the forest and trying to decide if it’s Sasquatch. My first thought is that he might know (or think he knows) the child. If he was mistaken — or if Mom knew exactly who he was and didn’t want him near her kid — it would explain her reaction. He’s not trying to unstrap the child or move the stroller. (My other thought was that maybe he thought the baby was choking or in distress, but he/she doesn’t look distressed.)
I wouldn’t minimize the “clickbait” quotient. A lot of the current media runs on “eyeballs” and “engagement.” I have a lot of friends who are newscasters, and they say their jobs have become onerous with the obligation to tweet, engage in Facebook live and otherwise drive traffic.
These scary, “I’m so glad it didn’t happen to me.” stories gain traction and, by extension, “value” from going viral. Not much we can do about it, but as I say, if you want horror, find something on Netflix.
I’m pretty tired of my local news, which every night has stories that go, “You wouldn’t believe what almost happened today.” It used to be news when things ACTUALLY HAPPENED!
He definitely didn’t look like he was trying to take the baby. It was odd though, just coming up and putting his hands around the baby’s head. I would find that odd if it happened to me, but I wouldn’t attack him. I’d never touch another person’s baby like that.
According to news articles, the man was only briefly detained. A police captain has been quoted as saying that they need a complaining witness, and that they’re not sure the people with the baby were the parents. That makes me wonder if they got that information from the man they detained.
I would love if the police would sort this out and actually spread the news that hey, this man just knew/thought he knew the baby (or possibly this man is developmentally disabled and loves babies).
But that won’t stop people from remembering that story about the baby that was almost kidnapped at Dunkin Donuts.
I would suspect a thief, not a babysnatcher (certainly WAY more likely!). While visiting New York City many years ago, my husband had his backpack stolen right from under his chair at McDonald’s (because he wasn’t savvy enough to have his leg through the strap). He never even noticed until he got up to leave.
A Black man dared to approach a white baby! I’m surprised they didn’t lynch him.
SMH. I feel really bad for the guy. He probably just thought the baby had squishable cheeks. Touching babies is a bit no-no in US culture, but I’m willing to bet he had no idea people would react so crazily.
BL
I’m cracked up. I want a donut.
The man appears to be drunk or mentally incapacitated. Just tell him to leave the baby alone. No big deal.
The concerning part of the video to me was the other man’s response and how he went so quickly to violence.
Hah, before I even opened the link my first thought was “I bet it involved a black man and a white child.” I told myself I was probably wrong, but nope, we love to mistake the random or dumb things some black men do for horrible crimes against humanity.
As noted by others, I also just think that the person was well-intentioned and that the fervor is due to it being a largish black male. Imagine the same video but with a smaller 80-year-old white woman!
If he was trying to kidnap the baby he is really stupid, but I don’t think he was, he was looking at the adorable kid. I agree, he should not have touched the kid without moms permission, but she and the other guy totally over reacted.
I can’t tell you how many times I have been stopped by complete strangers who think my kids are adorable.
Just FYI, the story I read indicated that he shouted “that’s my baby” as he grabbed her.
Cooing at other people’s babies and young children is still de riguer down here, and long may it continue! It’s silly and sad when people can’t interact with each other in a perfectly normal fashion, and babies are built to be cute so we’ll take an interest in them.
This chap does seem a little off beat, but that is no indication he’ll harm the child. Hope he is OK.
Jennifer Aniston has been pregnant 87 times. Well, not really but for over 2 years a gossip magazine would spread a rumor that she’s expecting. This is because it sells. It makes a great headline.
This is the same for attempted kidnapping and how a child almost became a sex slave. It makes a great headline. We’ll always see headlines like that for as long as they work. Many people can see through this BS. However, it still works. This also reminds me of All Star Wrestling. Even though 98% of the crowd (or more) know that it’s fake, they still watch the show.
My question is, how is it that these people are not embarrassed for being a sheep that’s a slave to their own emotions? They buy the newspapers, turn on the TV, or click on the hyperlink the same as a meth head that will do anything in order to get their fix.
Thank you for all you do Lenore. We are with you. The work you are doing is validating and important.Thank you for dong it.
The guy didn’t look like a kidnapper to me. It looked to me like he was socially inept. As children get smothered in protection, it also hinders them from developing social skills. America is ‘manufacturing’ children with terrible social skills/creeps/kidnappers. (all of these people belong on the sex offender registry)
Why would a guy want to steal a baby like that who would surely out him by screaming its little head off?
Statistics show infant kidnappings are almost always by women who want a child of their own.
The MO is usually elaborate. Haven’t the people buying into this paranoia seen the great Coen Brothers flick of some years ago known as “Raising Arizona”?
Dunkin Donuts?
IKEA?
Get real!
When I was a kid, people stopped to admire babies in buggies and prams. They ooo’d and ahhhed! How cute! Do that these days and get caught on camera, you might pay with your life.
When did we get so foolish?
Lately I have been pushing back by smiling and waving at every little kid I see. Some moms smile at me. Some do not. But I am doing my best to make the world kinder and friendlier. One child at a time!
When was the last time you smiled at a stranger?
Hineata–
Yes, it is still common. People are all hyped up by this story, so they’re saying “Nobody interacts with babies and children in public anymore!!” but that’s an exaggeration. I have a 5-year-old, and we definitely have conversations almost daily where people in line at the grocery store say “Hi! What’s your name? How old are you?” and giggle at his cute answers. So, no, I can say from firsthand experience that many “strangers” still expect to interact normally with young children.
” Haven’t the people buying into this paranoia seen the great Coen Brothers flick of some years ago known as “Raising Arizona”?”
Also, why haven’t they read the classic abduction narrative by O. Henry, “The Ransom of Red Chief”?
Ugh! The music makes it worse; they’re trying to evoke a mood of creepiness. As the saying goes, we try our suspects and criminals in the press.
The press actually owes this man an apology for targeting him in such a witch hunt.
What I dread even more is how a black male–either from another culture or not in sound mental health–will be treated by the police and courts. 🙁
Kidnapping or not, this is wrong and indefensible.
This is not a case of fearmongering. This is a stranger with his hands in baby carriage.
I post here fairly often. I rail against overreactions and jumping to conclusions. And a lot of the responses I see here are the writers’ utopian perfect world ideal of what they would do in a beautiful world.
BUT
This is A STRANGER WITH HIS HANDS ON A BABY.
I don’t care what his reason is. He’s a gentle disabled person? How the heck do I know that? He just wants to take a look? That’s not an excuse. I have no idea of this person’s intent. Kidnapping? Not likely. BUT THIS STRANGER HAS HIS HANDS ON A BABY. Say whatever you want about me, but if that were my baby this guy would have his hands full with me.
Journalism in America is dead. You NEVER see any lengthy, intelligent, insightful conversation. Just theater. Only brief interviews with so called ‘experts’ are allowed. And woe be unto them if said expert strays from the official narrative and you happen to be on CNN, you just get cut off.
There was a time when news informed. Provided information and facts. Although often the facts were manufactured. Today it is all just more and more emotional programming. It’s a brainwashing technique. Every story has to be emotional, SHOCKING.. News reporters all seem to want to be screenwriters. And they are taught that this is journalism. News used to be about information. Today it is all about how you should FEEL about whatever it is they are telling you, truth or not.
ALL TV news in North America is Psyops. Please look it up, in depth, and not on Wikipedia. Also look into Operation Mockingbird. It is alive and well.
Nobody should be watching any TV news or reading a newspaper. If you are, at best you are entertained, at worst, disinformed. When you watch news, watch with a critical eye. Think to yourself, who benefits from me FEELING (not thinking, there is no thinking allowed here) this way about this story. Look for the bigger picture.
Funnily enough, I see a lot more actual quality journalism from the American and British journalists on RT. It is worth watching, but with the same critical eye. If American media is 98% propaganda, RT is about 40%
A couple of years back, where I live, there was a breaking, lead story on the 6 o’clock news about a man in a park who who exposed himself to a couple of young girls. The story even included ‘reaction’ from people on the street (nowhere near the park, just somewhere on downtown streets) who only got the information from the reporter who told them the story that they were reporting on. After that day you never heard anymore about it. It turned out that the girls sitting at a table were approached by a young man they knew, simply saying hi, but crazy mother, seeing this from some distance made up a story in her head. The freaked out boy ran off when screaming mother was running toward the innocent scene. Of course she immediately called the police instead of listening to her daughter and her friend. Mountain was made out of molehill and ‘news’ was made.
About the video. Inappropriate yes. But I’m betting it was just a man maybe with some mental issues.
Also, notice the music in the video, or rather drum beats they put over it. Especially the very first drum beat. Intended to crate a sense of dread. Watch it with the sound off then with the sound on and notice the difference in how it can be interpreted.. Psyops..
So this wasn’t a big enough deal for the mother of the “victim” to call the police, but it has made the rounds on the internet as a major attempted kidnapping? Seriously?
@Donna
“So this wasn’t a big enough deal for the mother of the “victim” to call the police, but it has made the rounds on the internet as a major attempted kidnapping? Seriously?”
The mother is undoubtedly too traumatized to speak yet.
BL – The mother didn’t appear traumatized at all from the video. It didn’t even interrupt her desire for donuts. She simply grabbed the stroller away and got back in line. The “Good Samaritan” overreacted to the situation, but mom seemed totally non-plussed.
@Donna
“BL — The mother didn’t appear traumatized at all from the video.”
OK, I’ll try again:
(beginning of snarky remark)The mother is undoubtedly too traumatized to speak yet.(end of snarky remark)
So….the update is kind of information-free. And really, comment-free from the police. How about “We apologize for being complicit in fear-mongering without all the facts” or “We were wrong in assuming that that the actions of the alleged suspect were nefarious, and have contacted him to apologize for our role in this INCIDENT.”
i agree with everyone who thinks the mother and other stranger overreacted to the situation – it’s obvious the child was not being kidnapped or harmed. I actually watched this video with the sound off the first time, and my thought was the man likes children but doesn’t necessarily have the appropriate social skills to know how to interact with them. Once I heard the music that accompanies the video, I found it gave it a whole other perspective, one of something ominous about to happen.
bmj2k: I think your comment is an overreaction to this video – you make it sound like merely touching a baby could lead to harm him/her. Certainly, if the man had some kind of weapon in his hands, you might think that, but the child cannot be immediately harmed just by virtue of touching his/her face.
When did it become so “inappropriate” to interact with babies and children out in the world? Babies are cute! It used to be normal for strangers to touch, kiss, and talk to young children. Personally I’ve always wished my children were the type to openly interact with any old person, but unfortunately I have two shy birds who hide behind my legs and refuse to say anything 🙁
Remember, although this was not an attempted kidnapping, IT COULD HAVE BEEN and therefore all the fearmongering is completely acceptable because THINK OF THE CHILDRENS and don’t forget that 50,000 children were abducted last year and this could have been one but of course we’re glad it wasn’t and don’t forget to BE SCARED AT ALL TIMES because only that fear will keep the most precious thing you have safe.
I feel better now.
Thanks for the update. I figured the parents would say it wasn’t what the internet implied.
Oh and PSA to anyone thinking of abducting a cute little baby: 9 or so years later those cute things turn into “TWEENS” and do you really want that kind of drama in your life? If you MUST abduct a child, for goodness’ sake make sure it is a boy. 😛
[Sorry, recovering from girl drama over here ….]
Actually, mom seems totally not nonplussed.
@ Ron Skurat
It’s been going on much long than 10-15 years. The media was widely condemned in the 1980s & 90s due to highly irresponsible reporting. The Satanic Panic (which was far more complex than the far religious right losing their minds, as many have painted it, and actually started due to a quack “repressed memory therapy”, used to recover “forgotten memories of childhood sex abuse”, that radical/ anti porn feminists started pushing after the release of the book Sybil in 1973)… deep breath and start over… The Satanic Panic which was made up of the Repressed Memory Movement, Ritualized Sex Abuse Hysteria, Incest Survivors Movement, Day Care Sex Abuse Hysteria, and Anti “Porn Rock” crusade by illiberal Tipper Gore and friends was fueled by an unrelenting belief in the absurd stories and accusations pushed by the mainstream media. McMartin PreSchool was the most infamous example of this, as this NY Times Retro Report Shows.
https://youtu.be/2R21tWs-qCw
(Of course it helped that the lead “therapists” (social worker) and prosecutor on the case started dating the men who broke the stories and pushed them in Time.)
After seeing a trial by media that involved accusations of day care workers killing a horse, sacrificing babies, putting them in microwaves, flying them to Satanic Churches without and flying around in black robes… without any parent ever knowing or suspecting it… this still seems a little tame, but it 100% the exact same method to madness.
Forgive my typo’s, still getting used to a new phone.
The McMartin video has comments from people not allowed to go to day care or pre school during the panic because their parents believed they were all full of ritual (which meant reoccurring or Satanic, depending on who was speaking) child sex abusers and pornographers.
It’s also loaded with don’t trust men messages. That Time cover… “I HATE HIM”!!!
I am extremely curious as to who called the cops. The mother is right there and didn’t feel the need to call the police to report an attempted kidnapping, why the heck would anyone else feel the need to do so?
@SKL
I don’t know if I would say it’s racist. People are being incredibly careless throwing that accusation around too, as well as Misogynistic, Islamaphobic. Anti LGBT, Transphobic, NAZI!! on and on. The media is all hysteria all the time. At this point Millennial reactivists are calling people who turn down their sexual advances racist, transphobic, etc…
There is most definitely a male phobic element to a lot of it, and as we’ve seen in other stories for some time now there a rampant fear of child sex trafficking.
http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/500-kids-gone-missing-dc-2017-sex-trafficking-fears-officials-asking-fbi-help.html
A total of 501 juveniles have been reported missing in D.C. since the beginning of the year. This startling number has forced the hands of several officials who’ve written a letter to call on special help from the Justice Department in investigating the matter.
The letter, obtained by the Associated Press, asked FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to “devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.” It was signed by Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond (D-La) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents D.C. in Congress.
“Ten children of color went missing in our nation’s capital in a period of two weeks and at first garnered very little media attention. That’s deeply disturbing,” Richmond’s letter said.
As the AP reports, the District of Columbia logged 501 cases of missing juveniles, many of them black or Latino, in the first three months of this year, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, the city’s police force. Twenty-two were unsolved as of March 22, police said.
^^ NOTE THIS. ONLY 22 OF THE 501 CASES WERE STILL OPEN WHEN THIS WAS WRITTEN. MOST WERE MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT WHERE THE MISSING PERSON WAS, TEENS WHO SNUCK OUT & RUNAWAYS (which also does not automatically = abducted and trafficked). Now, see below…
Police then went on to dispel talk of these girls being kidnapped and sold into slavery by human traffickers.
“We have no indication to believe that young girls in the District are being preyed upon by human traffickers in large numbers,” said police commander Chanel Dickerson, leader of the Youth and Family Services division, according to NBC News 4.
AND SEE THE COMMENTS
Why would anyone be surprised by this? D.C. is the center of pedophile and Satanic power. Children are a staple for these scumbags.
The Justice Dept. and the fbi and cia are all involved in the trafficking as well as the cover-up for all high profile people who are involved in such activities similar to ping-pong pizza and the satanists who run our government and control our economy.
You are absolutely right Psychic Warrior. The FBI and CIA do control the child sex trafficking how else do think they can blackmail the scumbag politicians and control them. Same goes for the heroin and cocaine flooding the world and destroying untold millions of lives. The drug trade is completely controlled by the CIA. Same thing as the new mystery out of the Pentagon, 10 trillion dollars missing. Excuse me but I ain’t buying that one. These are the people who really run the government.
Other stories on it…
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/03/24/us/missing-black-girls-washington-dc/index.html
The Metropolitan Police Department recorded 501 cases of missing children so far in 2017, and said 22 cases were open as of Wednesday.
“We have received a lot of media attention and a lot of concern from the public because of the number of releases,” Dickerson said at a news conference on Friday. “There have been concerns that young girls in the District of Columbia are victims of human trafficking or have been kidnapped, or that there’s an increase in the number” who have gone missing.
“And I say this without minimizing the number of missing persons in DC — because one missing person is one person too many — but there’s actually been a decrease,” she added. “There is always a concern of human trafficking, but we have no evidence for this.”
Annual statistics show cases of missing children have remained relatively steady in Washington over the past several years — with 2,222 cases in 2014, 2,433 in 2015 and 2,242 in 2016.
CNN has requested a monthly breakdown of these figures to see how the 2017 numbers compare, but the Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately return requests for comment on those specific figures.
Still, numbers alone do not tell the entire story, DC City Councilmember Trayon White told HLN’s Michaela Pereira in an interview Friday.
“What the community is alarmed about — we had a 10-year-old girl missing the other day, but there was no amber alert,” White said. “We just feel like, you know, if this was a white person or from another neighborhood, there would be more alarm about it.”
^ It was probably because they we’re still gathering information or there was no clear reason to believe an abduction had occurred. Perhaps they kid was found as they were doing the report. You have to enter the kid as abducted and then do an Amber Alert.
Each state AMBER Alert plan includes its own criteria for issuing AMBER Alerts. The PROTECT Act, passed in 2003, which established the role of AMBER Alert Coordinator within the Department of Justice, calls for the Department of Justice to issue minimum standards or guidelines for AMBER Alerts that states can adopt voluntarily. The Department’s Guidance on Criteria for Issuing AMBER Alerts is as follows:
There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction has occurred.
The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger.
The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.
You don’t just enter an amber alert because they are missing, with no suspicion of abduction/kidnapping. That would create a great deal if hysteria considering 90% of those reported missing are back home within hours.
According to Wikipedia Pizzagate (today’s mini Satanic Panic) was started by a “White Supremacist Account” on Reddit during the late stages of election to discredit Hilary.
Everyone sounds insane. Absolutely insane. From White Supremacist Accounts to Satanists to rampant Nazi’s popping up after the election to Child Sex Traffickers in IKEA and the porn Industry grooming your children for trafficking per anti porn radical feminists.
The build up to this started before the election.
@ JJ
The story I read said he yelled, “THATS MY BABY”!!
So yeah, I’d say he’s a bit touched but people honestly attempting to kidnap are not generally going to announce themselves first.
https://www.google.com/amp/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2017/04/04/attempted-abduction-dunkin-donuts/amp/
A witness, who was the one who called police, told CBS3 off camera that the man is a regular, known for strange sometimes lewd acts.
The witness adds that during the incident the man shouted, “That’s my baby” before touching the child.
After seeing the video, parents Tia and Antonio say they will be on high alert.
“I mean I would like to hope that the parents would come forth and press charges and get people like that off the street,” said Antonio.
No charges have been filed against the man. Police say they need the couple in the video to come forward to build a solid case.
CBS3 has learned that the man returned to the business on Tuesday and was quickly kicked out after verbally abusing an employee.
^^ I wonder if the employee was “the witness” that called this into police, as opposed to the parents. So glad they found another kids parents, who were not there, to make a statement saying the “the parents” need to come forward and get trash like this off the streets!
Yeah, the guy was sitting in a chair in the corner and just randomly got up and ambled over to the baby and put his hands on him/her. Then acted surprised when people reacted.
So my thought was, this guy probably hangs around this place, probably has mental issues.
You don’t “get those people off the street.” Not until you prove they are a serious danger to themselves or others. Annoyance doesn’t cut it. Sounds like someone has been wanting this guy gone for a long time (perhaps understandably) and hoped this would be enough. But no, touching somebody’s baby is not enough to be considered a “serious danger” to self or others.
@BMJ2K — I absolute agree that I don’t want a stranger’s hands on my baby without some kind of good reason, same as I don’t want a stranger’s hands on me. But none of us watching the video knew if that man even was a stranger.
My guess is the guy who punched him also called the police. That guy has probably been walking around for 10 years, just waiting for his chance to be a ‘hero.’ Also, if I were the parent, I’d be nervous to come forward. “Oh, you don’t want to press charges? That’s fine; you’re under arrest for child neglect.”
I agree that it seems this particular “people are stealing babies everywhere” craze began when Hillary Clinton was accused of running a pedophile sex trafficking ring in a pizza store, and wasn’t helped when the DC police decided to change their policies and put all missing children on Twitter instead of just some, creating the impression of a sudden spike.
Seems like maybe the dude has some cognitive issues and the “rescuers” reaction was way OVER the top (possibly fuelled the misconception that black men are inherently dangerous?).
@Dingbat:
“A witness, who was the one who called police, told CBS3 off camera that the man is a regular, known for strange sometimes lewd acts.”
Let’s be honest, if that was true, the man would be in prison because someone would have reported him already.
“The witness adds that during the incident the man shouted, “That’s my baby” before touching the child.”
They sure react slow if he shouted that before touching the child.
As for the man who “helped”, well. His reaction might have been exaggerated, but at least he reacted. I’d like to think that is something bad were actually happening, he’d at least try to help.
“Let’s be honest, if that was true, the man would be in prison because someone would have reported him already.”
It turns out being known for strange acts is not an imprisonable offense in this country.
There’s no sound. If there were sound, I’d bet we’d hear that baby crying. This looks every bit like he was trying to quiet a fussing child.
I agree. It’s disgusting. Racism, that is.
Yeah, as a mom I wouldn’t be OK with a stranger grabbing or touching my child by the head or neck. I wouldn’t call the police or claim it was an attempted kidnapping, but I would react quickly to get the person away from my child and ensure that they stayed away.
When I was around 8, my family was present at a public event where a mentally-disturbed man – who had been observed behaving erratically earlier – randomly grabbed a little girl from the crowd and repeatedly stabbed a her in front of her mother and younger sister. The girl died. We were around 75 feet away and it very easily could have been me or my little sibling who had been murdered.
So yeah, given that baggage, erratically-behaving strangers don’t get a free pass to touch or grab our kids.
I don’t know how many thousands of times I’ve turned around, glanced back, and in a very pointed way made eye contact with a kid in a stroller. The transaction is between me and the kid, and no-one else (unless owner of said stroller happens to notice) but um, often they don’t – because they’re busy texting.
Moral of the story:
“Hey, kid. It’s a rough world. You may feel invisible right about now. But it’s okay. It’s cool. I notice you. You’ll be alright. Don’t worry. Be happy. It gets better.
The hearts of humankind would do well in this sad and sorry messed up world – to more openly embrace the wonderments of brand new human beings. It should be largely encouraged. It should not have a best before date or a shelf life. It should not come with a thousand pages of legalised retainers, detainers and options withheld for endless vetting of credentials, potentials, meanings and intent.
We used to know how to do this. I think we’ve forgotten. It involves critical thinking and basic smarts. It doesn’t even require overpriced post secondary education. Machines don’t do this for us, because they’re not human.
By happy chance and infinite luck – we still are!
If only this would happen more often:
Count to ten.
Take a deep breath.
Ask a simple question.
Relax!
Looks to me like this guy might be looking to see if there is a wallet, cell phone, or some other high-value item tucked behind the child. Not a kidnapping – seriously, the guy would just grab the stroller and go if that was the case.
To be fair, we elected a Dunkin’ Dipshit as our “President.”