I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I think that people such as Mr Garrido have no place in a civilised society. I grew up in Yorkshire, during the 'reign' of Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. Sutcliffe was apprehended in a very similar manner, a couple of police officers did a standard vehicle check on a car that was parked in an odd manner. Several mistakes had been made during that investigation, but the final outcome was that Sutcliffe is now behind bars, and will probably never be released. I hope the same fate awaits Mr Garrido and his depraved wife. I can fully understand Jaycee succumbing to the Stockholm syndrome, because unfortunately, the Garridos were the only 'family' she knew... A very sad case all around!

What would make this story much, much worse is to think that he more than likely has damaged the two little girls in the same way. They are about the same age as Jaycee was when she was kidnapped.

ladymach, that was a good article. Thanks for the link. I was not surprised to see the findings of people not calling to report something when they think others will do it.

June

It seems to me that there is some justification for pointing fingers at where public servants, especially, went wrong. If there are no negative consequences to doing your job poorly, you will continue to do it poorly. If police or social services, or someone else, falls down on the job by not following proper procedures, blame does need to be assigned. If there were gaps and faults in procedures, changes need to be made for the future. Nothing ever gets better, if we don't learn lessons from the past, and human nature being what it is, we'll only learn those lessons if we are forced to.

This doesn't let neighbours off the hook, either. Here in Canada, and I believe in most of the States, private citizens are legally *obligated* to report suspicion of child endangerment. Suspicion. That means, anything that makes you wonder. People are very seldom prosecuted for failing to, but I wonder if we'd live in a better society if they were. Personally, since I work with children, I have no excuse. Everyone knows that I know the law. And, a couple of times, it has meant I've stepped up even when in my private, selfish capacity, I'd really rather not be involved. Knowing that, if there were ever blame going around, I'd be in for my share of it, has helped me gather the intestinal fortitude to do things that I knew I should, but really didn't want to.

Oh, maybe I was unclear (I often get that way, I know ). Accountability and improvements needed within a system getting noticed are good things -- and many of those have surfaced in this case. The interesting parts of that, to me, is the press coverage, as it applies. I live far away from the area of this horrible event, so I have to rely on the internet and the likes of the "Today" show for stuff. They've shown the head of the police force out there taking on responsibility for the laxness that has happened in his group. Was it lip service? I don't know ... but he at least owned up to the holes in the system. I'm also sure that, be it right or wrong, every neighbor who lived next to that guy in the last eighteen years now feels amongst the most inattentive, low-life persons to have breathed air (they might have every justification to feel that way, too, I suppose ... but, in the past tense, it doesn't matter now). The parole officer? Hmmm. All I can say for him is that maybe they could use a grill cook at McDonald's --- clearly, he's not so hot at the job he had in this matter, and firing up a grill might suit him better. It's arguable, however, for me to think that (as this "everybody's wrong" media mindset) the pervasive thought, from perhaps my region of the world, would come to be "Whew! Aren't we glad we don't live out there in that crazy California town! The police drop the ball. The neighbors are pretty much not nice at all. And children get mishandled for eighteen years and nobody notices. Good thing it could never happen, that way, where I live!" With that sort of 'blame' established, nothing gets better overall. I'm sure (especially with the heat surrounding the Jaycee situation) that things have gotten hotter than fireworks out there in that particular region. But, as it neatens and tidies, does it have anything to do with stopping the same sort of things from happening right now, say, in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio? [I'm just thinking out loud --- probably nothing purposeful in it]. Here's what I meant, though. As we, over here, look at it? With the media focus on who the bad guys are (when, really, in terms of hard definitions, the only "bad" guys are some freak and his inexplicable wife, as they molded this mess) we get all sedated that it could never happen on our street. And it could, and maybe is as we speak. NBC news telling me, anyway, that 'everything has been nicely figured out' is, in my opinion, journalistic "conclusive". And kinda kee-jerk, *reactive*. We need to be more proactive than that.

I'm buoyed by the stories that Jaycee is (as per her aunt, at least) adjusting to normal life nicely. The girl's amazing! It sounds as if she has held on to a firm, senisible mindset (even though she was made to leave it there, conditionally) when she was just eleven. To me? That's the most interesting, and encouraging, part of this ghastly tale. That we can give our kids, without forethought to peril as they go, a good "center"? It starts young, I think. And (unless the media is playing with that, too --- which is a distinct possibility [but let's hope not]) Jaycee has proven it. She gave birth to two (insanely-conceived) children! By the sounds of it, she was instrumental in running a business! How? She was, at the core of it, a pre-teenager, in her head. That's the story I want to hear about. And I DO get to hear about it, some. But it's always overshadowed by finger-pointing in every other direction. And I notice, too, alarmingly little *anything* on the news about the kidnapper. His sickening self is usually buried by the damnation of the bad police, bad neighbors, bad everything else but him.

I reckon I want to hear about the 'strengths' in this story. Not the weaknesses. Especially not the 'weaknesses' as they land on anybody else but the two disturbing adults who perpetrated this horror. They don't count, but they are the culpable-est ones.

I see where you are coming from , Gats, but actually I think the effect is rather "I'd better do what I can to make sure it doesn't happen here, because I don't want to be hauled over the coals that way". Maybe not so much with ordinary citizens, but with people whose jobs would be to watch out for this sort of thing.

I know that whenever we hear of a daycare being closed because of some lapse on the part of staff, at our next staff meeting "what are we doing to make sure that won't happen here" is a big part of the agenda. And if some of our practices are a little substandard (which happens, we're only human) we pull up our socks, at least for a while.

Well, yes, but many people find it easy to dodge a moral obligation. A legal one is less of a movable line.