posted on March 3, 2001 08:41:59 AM
Auctionqueenie, your story moved me profoundly. I am typing this at my computer which is against the outside wall of my apartment, about 8 feet from the apartment across the hall. 2 years ago a woman was strangled to death in that apartment, on Christmas day, by her boyfriend. She was pregnant, her baby was due on January 15th. I had known her for years, though we weren't close. A mutual friend told me afterwards that she had told this woman to cross the hall and bang on my door if things got "bad". Her response? She didn't want me to know because she would be embarrassed. Sigh. The problem of violence against women and children touches us all even if we aren't aware of it.I am overwhelmed by the immensity of this problem, it's so hard to know where to even begin to make things change. I guess we can all just do the next thing, which in our case is just to be aware of what is going on in the auction sites where we spend so much time. I had no idea such things could be found on Yahoo. Are there such things on Ebay too? I've only been in the Adult section a few times, it is so confusing with no way to search it.
Anyhow Auctionqueenie, you have my deepest regards for your courage and I wish you a strong and joyful life! Karen
posted on March 3, 2001 08:45:09 AM
What an unbelievable story. Auctionqueenie my best wishes for you and your daughter. I can't believe people continue to live in backward and idiotically run cities and states like this. When people ask me how I can live in a big, dangerous city, I think they are naive in a way. Small towns and suburbs, if anything, make the person more isolated and alone. the fact is that there are dozens of battered-womens' shelters, support groups, hotlines, etc here. If I were being beaten there would at least be a LOT of support out there to help me leave(even if that doesn't solve the problem, being alone with it just makes it worse). And I'm guessing Auctionqueenie lives in a suburb or a small town where everyone's so "nice" yet look what happens.
I'm not moving to one of these "small towns" where the pace is "slower" and the people are "closeknit" because look what happens---they "knit" themselves around people who are PIECES OF CRAP....sorry queenie...but he is.
posted on March 3, 2001 09:42:11 AM
Auctionqueenie
You've pretty much come up with the ultimate definition of "between a rock and a hard place". In a position such as yours maybe the only thing you could do is try getting help from a newspaper or TV station. But I think we all watch too many movies, and the reality would be newspapers don't buck city hall either.
brighid868
This has nothing to do with small towns. It has to do with people in love with the power they wield. This was a major part of my point with Pocono. A friend of mine in New Jersey had her 12 year old brother run down by a drunk driver as he was crossing the street. He lived for about an hour. The cops surveyed the accident scene, roped it off,
took photos, measured the skid marks, and had blood tests taken. As it turned out, the guy's uncle was a NJ State trooper. Within a day or so all the accident scene stuff was GONE. Kathy was not about to stand for this so she "made waves". Whenever she left her house (no matter what time of the day) an police car followed her. She'd be stopped several times a day. The only way this ended, was when she traded cars with her mother (who's car was in for repair), and her mother was stopped in the pouring rain and told to walk back to the police car. She had never told her mother because she didn't want to add an add'l burden. Her mother called the county and got it stopped.
posted on March 3, 2001 05:17:38 PM
I wanted to relate something that happened two years ago in the hope that someone here can explain it. I often get spam email and sometimes it is links to x rated sites, which I delete unread. Once I got one advertising "underage girls." I clicked the link in order to get some info to pass on to the police (I have a friend who works in the DA's office). I expected to get the usual request for a credit card. TO my surprise, I got taken right into the site and right to the photos which showed very young girls, maybe 8 years old, wearing nothing and showing everything. I sent these links to my friend and also searched the net for other sites like the FBI and the Exploited Children site and sent it to them. I received back replies that there was nothing illegal about this since there was no adult shown together with the children and no actual sexual act. This disturbed me greatly because I can't believe that young children would pose this way unless there was some force or threat involved. But no one would even look into it, so I have since erased any such email unread.
posted on March 3, 2001 07:51:38 PM
auctionqueenie,
I live in Alleghany Co. VA,I moved back here in 91 to get away from the big city problems in Richmond. This definately isn't the same community I grew up in. The local drug dealers openly do business on Main street, turned loose by the same judge that you dealt with because " they have a right to be on the street" The depressed economy is good for finding e bay items though!!
posted on March 3, 2001 08:16:54 PM
omg, I can't believe it!!!
Yes, do you remember a drive-by shooting on mainstreet around 97 involving the Godfrey boys over a drug thing?? The Salvation Army store had some bullet holes in the glass. They're my ex's cousins.
I'm sure you remember Victor Cucci right?? And the "cocaine house" that serves pizza (hehe)Dabney Pasco represented every one of my ex's family who got in trouble for drugs and he was the attorney who would represent each of them. My ex was dealing. Using? Never knew. He was a *blank* since I can remember.
The cops down there in Clifton Forge are buddies with my ex and he and his family would get away with anything. They'd deal drugs a block from the police station and the cops knew about it and wouldn't do a thing to stop them. It's very disgusting.
And that deal with Judge Byrd locking that gas station owner up for several months because he wouldn't give over his medical records in a libel case was a real trip. Medical records have nothing to do with libel cases like that. Ol Dabney Pasco loved to make people look bad and would manipulate the facts so much that someone with an appendicitis had to be a psychopath.
E-mail me [email protected] I'd love to talk with you sometime. It's really neat meeting someone from back home on here.
posted on March 4, 2001 05:07:32 PM
"Now, if someone is trying to "sell" a child, or anyone else without their consent, I too would be right in there."
A child is too young to legally consent to anything, much less old enough for sex.
posted on March 4, 2001 08:26:34 PM
AuctionQueenie,
I have met one of the women an organization like yours has helped. Although her life is not perfect, her daughter has been saved from the years of sexual abuse she suffered. Her child has emotional problems so I guess the man probably got to her, too. It is an absolute shame.
Although she confided in me her peril I was careful to warn her not to tell me her real name, the real name of the child, or where she came from - or where she was going. I do not even know the name she is using now - or where she is.
This is for her safety - I would not want someone coming to me to help find her.
The point I am trying to make is people like you do make a difference. My heart goes out to you and those you help.
posted on March 6, 2001 01:38:45 AM
I think the clubs on Yahoo tend towards the consensual adults thing, but I would disapprove greatly if a child was ever advertised as "for sale". A child cannot consent.
I think some adult consent might be a little faulty too, if they have any mental impairment, but this goes into a pretty grey area.
Safety and sanity can also be pretty difficult to define, as people do pretty risky things in their non-sexual lives that others would think would be crazy... e.g. parachuting (NEVER! NEVER! would I do that!), taking drugs of various sorts, running across a road.
This sort of discussion about where the lines are fascinates me, as it is as personal as talking religion or politics, I reckon.
I'd love to talk with you sometime. It's really neat meeting someone from back home on here.
