Cleveland Kidnapping: Police Are Useless.

[Rageaholic]

Fair warning, the article in the link describes some pretty horrific stuff.

The latest thing on the news is this story about how 3 brothers had kidnapped 3 girls and kept them captive for 10 years. I won't go into the details since it's all nightmare fuel, but the thing that's interesting (and infuriating) is how the police handled it. They ignored several calls from neighbors about some fucked up stuff going on there.

So the police are more than willing to bust people for smoking a joint, but when something like... this.. happens, they don't give a shit. WTF is wrong with this picture?

[Ginger Tea]

depending on the state/federal law regarding the leash aspect, they may not have responded thinking it's just some BDSM thing and to leave them be.
Granted they were naked, but if the law said adequate measures need to be in place to prevent others looking in, they may have been legally in the clear to walk around their back garden with a naked woman on a leash.

If no such thing exists to say they can do that, then the police might have just put it on a low priority again thinking it's just some harmless BDSM thing going on, just should not be out in the open with it.

[Rageaholic]

But it sounds like they didn't even investigate. Considering cops have no problem violating peoples privacy for drug searches...

It's no wonder cops get a bad rap.

[crashhelmet]

The leash thing could've been a simple matter of the police visiting, warning them about going outside naked, possibly issuing a citation, and then leaving. If there was nothing suspicious going on, they'd have no reason to search any further.

If the women were screaming for help while they were outside, that would be a completely different matter.

But the article says they didn't receive any calls. it's possible no one ever called, but they're now saying they did to make it look like they tried to help instead of just passed around rumors.

[Greenday]

But the article says they didn't receive any calls. it's possible no one ever called, but they're now saying they did to make it look like they tried to help instead of just passed around rumors.

That was a possibility that popped up in my head. Maybe they are just claiming to have made phone calls because of all the outrage over how people were shocked the neighbors didn't notice. Now they claim they noticed and tried to call the police to make themselves look better.

[Jaden]

Yeah, I find this a little odd. When I saw this on the news yesterday and today at work (where our TV is set to the news pretty much all day, and naturally, they were talking about this most of the day) the neighbors they talked to said they never suspected anything about the house at all.

[violiav]

Yeah, I find this a little odd. When I saw this on the news yesterday and today at work (where our TV is set to the news pretty much all day, and naturally, they were talking about this most of the day) the neighbors they talked to said they never suspected anything about the house at all.

I've seen the leash thing in the news as well, but nothing official about it. Everything seems to be rumor. I did see the thing where this woman's daughter claims to have seen that, and the police (if there was a call) didn't take her seriously,

[draco664]

On the BBC news just now it appears that two of the brothers have been released without charge. No evidence against them.

I've noticed in the papers a lot of folks going apeshit. One memorable chap pontificated that if *he'd* seen a house with black plastic over the windows, you can be sure he'd have called the police! Yes siree!

[Ginger Tea]

Any house?
They just might find a night worker who has blacked out his or her windows so they didn't get woken up by the mid day sun when they should be fast asleep.

So I very much doubt the police would even bother to go past dispatch on that one.

Hell my room at my mum's ground floor flat had bin liners as well as curtains, might have looked ugly but the neighbours were not exactly posh or uppity.

[Jetfire]

Any house?
They just might find a night worker who has blacked out his or her windows so they didn't get woken up by the mid day sun when they should be fast asleep.

So I very much doubt the police would even bother to go past dispatch on that one.

Hell my room at my mum's ground floor flat had bin liners as well as curtains, might have looked ugly but the neighbours were not exactly posh or uppity.

And in a University town, there's the Poor Student's Air Conditioning trick, of covering the windows in Aluminum Foil to try and reflect the heat out/keep the rooms cooler.

[Ginger Tea]

Just remembered my dad put up a kinda two way mirror sticky back plastic on the front window of one of our houses, outside it was the mirror during the day time, not sure about night as we had proper curtains too so no idea how well shadows came through.
and inside we could look out on a slightly darker world.

Unrelated, we did have a PC come round periodically, not due to police issues, iir he was more a community constable and just paid visits to our street every now and then.
Also it didn't help that the previous tenants were evicted due to drug dealing and they initially suspected us of shenanigans, cos well it's the house that's evil see.

[Grendus]

Yea, I find it hard to believe that with that many complaints of that magnitude the cops never came around. More likely few if any of those complaints were actually made. It's not that I believe the cops are all on the up and up, but I think it's easier to believe that a few people, when harassed by the press about why they never suspected anything, would lie about contacting the police than that the police force ignored some fairly serious complaints.

It's despicable, but I think I will withhold judgement until we have more facts.

[guywithashovel]

For the past several days, I have had to make myself stop reading about this story. It grosses me out and terrifies me, but at the same time, I want all the info I can get.

I just keep thinking back on all the things I have done over the past ten years, and then I think that while I was doing all those things, these women were locked up in that house going through a daily nightmare that never ended.

When I was attending my last few years of college, they were in that hell hole.

When I started grad school, they were at that psycho's mercy.

When I got my job after almost a year of job hunting, they were still in there.

I wish we could just douse this guy in kerosene and light him ablaze.

[Gravekeeper]

I just keep thinking back on all the things I have done over the past ten years, and then I think that while I was doing all those things, these women were locked up in that house going through a daily nightmare that never ended.

Imagine how both his brother's feel at this point. They were both cleared by police as having no involvement.

[Pixilated]

No involvement, maybe, but I'm finding it very hard to believe they had no idea that something hinky was going on. For crying out loud, at least one of those women gave birth in that hellhole! Even IF she managed to do so without making a sound, how do you threaten an infant into silence, day after day after day after day?