The other night while driving home late like around midnight, and listening to the radio, at the top of the hour one of the news items went like this:
“There was an incident at the mall today (name withheld), witnesses say a child was reluctant to get in a car with an older man. When approached the man seemed aggravated. The car was a Blue such and such with Arizona plates. (We’re I Ohio). Police would like to locate this man and question him. They don’t know if he’s visiting relatives. The child was bi-racial. (I’m not sure what that has to do with it). At this time no crime has been committed.???
- I’m not sure how that’s news.
- As a parent, I can’t remember the number of times a child has been reluctant to get in the car or has been having a bad day, or didn’t want to leave some where we were because they didn’t get a toy or candy or what ever, or was just plain unhappy about the situation.
- Why do the police need to question this man if no crime has been committed, of there is no report of a missing bi-racial child? Abducted by a blue care with Arizona plates? There was no Amber alert on any of the road signs that I passed.
We personally live in the country on the edge of the city limits. If I call the cops, they stop at my property line, and then call the Sheriff because; well I don’t pay city taxes. Or I call the Sheriff and there just aren’t enough of them to go around with the growth out here.
We’ve had our share of mischief in the past. Heck we’ve had two cars stolen from our driveway in the last 5 years. We also live about a 1/2 mile down the road from some pretty bad section 8 housing. But in the past when I’ve called about suspicious activity what do I get? Sorry sir, no crime has yet been committed. When they actually steal something (like your car), let us know. Then we’ll work on it.
We don’t get a news flash like “Two suspicious men were seen antagonizing the dog around the disher household, if you know who these men the police would like to question them.???
Not that I suspect that would ever happen. I won’t. But I don’t know why we are expected to bother the man from Arizona either.
After I heard that news flash, I was personally in awe, because it simply wasn’t news worthy. I think we’ve gone a little overboard with this Amber alert thing. Most of them turn out to be ‘oops’ Johnny was over at Billie’s house, or he simply wandered off. More often than not they are simply poor parents that can’t keep track of their kids, and the number of true abductions in the end to me doesn’t seem worth all the hype. It’s like the boy that cried wolf.
If I were the man from Arizona, and the police tracked me down, and the little girl is my legitimate daughter or granddaughter. I’d be pretty upset. I’d probably have to go hunting after some alarmist that put me on the radio.
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