Is, its damn hard to catch.
When I first got involved with BACA, I was pumped. Good guys vs bad guys. Bikers against Perps. Save the kids, They know who we are and the kids move on.
Then I started going to court. I started seeing lying parents, making up stories and custody battles to protect their own interests, not so much their kids. I gotta say, any parent who uses their kid as a poker chip in a custody deck of cards? thats Taliban shit. Thats putting your WMD’s in a school, because you know NATO can’t bomb there. Thats the biggest pussy of all. You’re barely better than a perp to me. The whole point of this mission is: Let kids be kids. Don’t put bullshit pressure on them while theyre trying to grow up and figure out who they are, and who they want to be.
But heres the biggest problem: It’s damn hard to prove child abuse, and the perps know it.
They know if they leave visible bruises, teachers will see it. they hit below the belt and shirt lines.
They know how to find weak parents, or struggling kids who need something. the watch, they learn, they infiltrate. They are the most worthless, cowardly fucks in the world. They are the flotsam and jetsom of society. They hide in shadows, and take advantage. They also know what they are doing, and how to do it. The bold ones tell little johnny or suzy that they will kill them if they nark. This shit gets buried deep, and its all on the backs of children. They strip cogs in these kids brains, and sooner or later it changes them. Some, end up thinking its actually normal. The cycle continues. Consider the average perp gets over 100 kids, and you’ll see this is nothing short of an epidemic, and getting worse.
So the ones we get, are the obvious cases.
Then they go to court. YOu have to understand, that you need evidence to prosecute. You need witnesses at least. You need something. When I was a young kid, my father’s lawyer told him something that I over heard and its always stuck with me: The law isnt about justice, its about order. There can never be justice for what happens to these kids. All you can do, is round em up, and put em in prison or put them in the chair. Even putting a bullet in their head, It doesn’t level the field for a kid who’s had years of secret abuse. It just doesn’t. Its damage control. We’ve all got scars, but these kids bear em way too early, when they’re not ready or capable of handling it. Our job, is to help them overcome it. Protecting them helps that.
Back to court, and evidence…. How do you prove it? On the word of a 5 year old little girl? of a 10 year old boy? You need a witness, or evidence. I’m not going to go into evidence, because I barely know shit about it and don’t want to think too much about it, but a doctor can tell when a child has been raped. You get the drift. Whats it take to get to that point? It takes a mother who is willing to throw a marriage away, has the financial or family resources to move to somewhere else, and the courage to put up with the threats from the perp who will do anything to stay out of prison. So many women have been conditioned to do just the opposite from years of their own abuse, and sometimes selfishness. Face it, life is tough. it goes back to the fact that some people are willing to sell out their own kin to find some ease in life, or save their life. Man, this is a tough gig.
Filter it all down, and the ones we get are truly special. Timing, the family, the situation are all right. Sometimes they’re not.
My chapter had 2 cases of sexual abuse of a child today, and the judge sentenced the pricks to 3 years of probation, and 90 days in jail on weekends so the abuser could keep his job. his boss even came out and plead his case.
I don’t mean to get you discouraged. Man, you CAN’T GET DISCOURAGED. It means you have to be wise, and swing harder at this problem we have, because we’re the only guys who can fix it. We need to write more letters, raise more awareness, Ride to more kids, not ignore any sort of abuse, and be stronger than the perps are sneaky and the courts have sympathy or lack of evidence.
Wear your patch, and shout this shit from the rooftops. You’ve earned it. A BACA member doesnt get that patch easily. In my state, its a 2 year commitment at least, and a FBI background check saying you’ve never abused kids or women. It’s also a unanimous vote by a board who has been watching you and your family for 2 years to feel good that you’re BACA material.
It means we need to do more. Goddammit, the innocent are depending on us. the only real innocence in the world: our kids.
Also know this: My whole life is worth one or two kids we save and empower. Most of us have helped way more than that.
