From an article in USA Today:
Israel Lugo said he, his family and neighbors called police three times between 2011 and 2012 after seeing disturbing things at the home of Ariel Castro. Lugo lives two houses down from Castro and grew suspicious after neighbors reported seeing naked women on leashes crawling on all fours behind Castro’s house. . . A third call came from neighborhood women who lived in an apartment building. Those women told Lugo they called police because they saw three young girls crawling on all fours naked with dog leashes around their necks. Three men were controlling them in the backyard. The women told Lugo they waited two hours but police never responded to the calls.
OK, there are two possibilities here and neither of them is good. One possibility is that these people never saw anything nor made any phone calls and are now simply milking the story for attention and/or money. The second possibility is even more disturbing. These folks really saw what they claim they saw but didn’t care enough to do anything other than make a half-hearted call or two to the police. (“He, his family and neighbors” just made 3 calls? This entire crowd of people got together and managed to make just 3 calls between all of them? This sounds bizarre.)
If you saw what is being described in this horrifying quote, would you just give up and forget the whole thing after TWO HOURS? And then do what, go about your business like nothing happened?
Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. “But they didn’t take it seriously,” she said.
This disgusting viper of a woman forgets to mention that while “they” didn’t take it seriously, neither, apparently, did she. She probably thinks it is a good thing that her daughter should see naked women crawling around. Hey, it brightens up an otherwise dull day, and if “they” don’t take it seriously, then why should she have a brain of her own? She never received any authorization from “them” to have opinions.
Just imagine this conversation:
“Mamma, I just saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in Castro’s backyard. I called the police but they didn’t take me seriously.”
“Oh well. I guess she’s supposed to be crawling there then.” Yawn. “Just forget it, honey. I’m sure she will crawl away soon. Come inside and I’ll show you my new bathroom towels and we’ll discuss that sale at JC Penney’s.”
I’m now not surprised that this horror went on for years in that Cleveland neighborhood. The people who live there are all extremely weird and not particularly human. The really scary thing is that these neighbors don’t have a problem with revealing their names and showing their faces. So they probably don’t even see anything wrong with the story they are telling. Can you believe this? They feel no responsibility for this. They see themselves like small children who tried telling Mommy and Daddy what happened and saw no reason to engage with the situation on an adult level.
God save us all from this kind of neighbors. Who has any doubt that these freakazoids go to church and pray and consider themselves good, kind people? If I were complicit in something like this out of laziness, indifference or immaturity, I don’t think I would be able to live with myself. These jerkwads seem completely content with themselves. Adult people drawl, “But I tried!” and don’t see that trying counts for shit. It’s actually making something happen that is needed, not childish “trying.” And then we wonder why my students insist to be celebrated for making 200 mistakes as a result of “trying hard.” Well, if adults think it’s OK to allow atrocities to happen next door as long as they “tried,” how can we be surprised?
What is it that makes people so infantilized, so incapable of taking any responsibility for their own actions, so eager to play the role of helpless infants?
I am absolutely appalled right now. What the Castros did is horrifying. But the realization that an entire neighborhood was complicit in what they did is even more horrifying. If there were a single – I don’t even want to say good person – just a single adult living in the area, this would all have stopped years ago.
Of course, now we will hear a lot of dumping on the police officers (who surely deserve that and more), but no condemnation of the vile freakazoids who saw women being brutalized and turned away indifferently. They forgot that the job of being human cannot be relegated to the authorities.
Clarissa's Blog 
People should never give absolute confidence to the police.
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Or to any authorities! There should be personal responsibility. Police officers can and often do fuck up. One can’t act like a little child all one’s life.
Thanks for leaving this link here!
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I believe that there’s actually a name for this behavior; it is called Kitty Genovese Syndrome.
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And after everybody seemed to be horrified by the Genovese case, the same thing happens. And over the period of several years, too!!!
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I saw a very similar scenario depicted in a TV documentary. The guys who had to do with this guy seemed kind of retarded and probably had a deep need to feel superior to somebody. In all, it was a situation based on casual misogyny, displayed by the men and women.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pickton
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Not long ago, in Edinburgh, Scotland, a new born baby was abandoned by its mother, and the people who first spotted the child simply called the police and nothing else. Just left a new born baby lying out in the open. I find that very sad
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This is exactly what I’m saying. You see a naked woman crawling or a small baby lying around and you think making phone calls is the appropriate response??? That’s just insane.
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This guy, monster Castro, should be put to sleep (sooner rather than later) like those assassin dogs that assault people. Nothing less than that. Not a single dime of taxpayer money supporting his stay in jail. As my eldest put it: Qué cabrón, hijo de perra, al paredón!.
And what a trio of courageous women!.
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So murdering peolple could be a good thing?
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I’m sure Castro will get his punishment. The problem is how to avoid future Castros from perpetrating these atrocities in full view of an indifferent neighborhood.
I strongly believe that a wave of public outrage and shaming of these freakish neighbors would be a very healthy and useful thing to do. Maybe this would spur the prosecutors to bring them up on charges of aiding and abetting. Because this is obviously what they were doing.
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I’m more interested by this than murder penalty.
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“This guy, monster Castro, should be put to sleep (sooner rather than later) like those assassin dogs that assault people.”
Yes! Let’s respond to savagery with savagery!
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Interesting that we can put rabid dogs to sleep because of illness but its savagery if you want to do the same to a rabid human. Did you ever stop to think that euthanizing them was a compassionate thing to do to release the individual from their constant sickness?
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Jesus fucking christ, just when I think you couldn’t be more stupid you manage to surprise. Euthanasia is performed in accordance with the patient’s wishes. You don’t just take out criminals from their jails cells, fry them in an electric chair and get to call it euthanasia.
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Ok Stringer
I will call it “kill the sick fuck” who has a terminal illness that is incurable. You can call it savagery, I will call it compassionate. You obviously think its more humane to let the individual sit with their perverse thoughts in a jail cell(hoping they get out to do it again) for the rest of their natural lives. I, on the other hand, think that is a completely twisted form of punishment and not in the least way humane.
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I don’t think anybody wants to be humane towards these criminals. I’m personally opposed to the death penalty for 2 reasons:
1. Death is a less serious punishment than having to live in a cage. Why let the creeps get off so easily?
2. I’m afraid of the murderers who kill these criminals for money and then walk around free. These are obviously deeply damaged folks. I mean, they murder for a living. The idea that they are walking around and we don’t even know who they are is very disturbing. If in order to kill off one murderer, we create 10 more murderers, then that seems very counterproductive.
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The problem with prison for repeat offenders, especially serial killers or serial rapists(kidnappers) is that you run a risk that they could get out and continue what they obviously are wired to do. It is also a drain on taxpayers for the only benefit, which is, revenge or punishment. It makes no sense other than to appease bleeding heart liberals who think that killing someone is not humane.
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“It makes no sense other than to appease bleeding heart liberals who think that killing someone is not humane.”
– Didn’t I just explain how nobody is trying to be humane?
Life without parole is a very good alternative that is cheaper than death penalty and doesn’t create killers in the process.
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Clarissa
I don’t see you as a bleeding heart liberal. 🙂
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“I don’t see you as a bleeding heart liberal.’
– Ah, OK then. 🙂
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@Stringer
Before you call someone stupid you might want to at least be right or smart for that matter.
Euthanize
— vb
( tr ) to kill (a person or animal) painlessly, esp to relieve suffering from an incurable illness
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The more people are around the less likely it is somebody will actually help you. It’s especially true in countries with population that has “learned helplessness”.
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It depends. Sometimes a person on their own will ignore a problem because they’re afraid of acting alone, but if it’s two people together, they might look at each other, say something like, “did you see what I just saw?” and then act together. Then again, there’s a difference between a pair of friends and a crowd of disconnected strangers.
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Yes, the stronger the bond between the victim of a crime and a potential rescuer, the more likely the rescue.
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What about mother and daughter who saw a woman in obvious distress and just forgot all about it? What a family of freaks, seriously.
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Learned helplessness is exactly what this is. These people have abandoned all agency to the point where they are hardly even human any more. I think a dog would do more than they have.
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What I meant is- people are less likely to go out of their comfort zone, do something more than a half-hearted phone call to a Police, care more about being nervous and potentially embarrassing themselves than take responsibility and intervene on behalf of a stranger. But MOST normal people who aren’t complete shitheads would at least try to seriously help close family and friends, even if it meant taking personal risks, doing something they wouldn’t do for strangers. They wouldn’t even think about it, they would just act.
Another thing about the police force: people on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, who grew up in cultures strongly influenced by Russian, German and Soviet regimes don’t trust policemen to the same extent Americans do. When in trouble you’d try to contact your friends first (last Saturday a friend of mine was in trouble: a quick phone call to us and we were there in 5 minutes. I somehow doubt police would be there before an hour passed).
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“care more about being nervous and potentially embarrassing themselves than take responsibility and intervene on behalf of a stranger”
– It’s like we are talking about 3-year-olds, seriously. I don’t understand the need to make excuses for these creatures. They see a person in obvious distress and worry about their image? That is absolutely insane. It’s like all normal human feelings have been drained from them. You see someone in pain, you feel pain. Any – and I repeat ANY – other response is a symptom of sociopathy.
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Al Qaeda-Isreali alliance? http://www.infowars.com/israel-rescues-al-qaeda-terrorists-from-syria/
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I liked the last “Code-Switching as Necessity?” part of this post:
http://www.balancingjane.com/2013/05/dialects-discourses-and-jokes-charles.html#disqus_thread
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More immaturity surrounding this case: comments I’ve heard, on the Internet and in-person, by people who are totally convinced that they would have broken free years ago from such a situation. For their sake, I hope they never find out what they’d actually do if they were locked up and tied up for long periods of time, repeatedly raped and brutalized in other ways, forcibly impregnated, etc. etc. I do just wish they’d shut up about it. I know that many people say these things out of fear, because they want to imagine that such a thing could never happen to them and that they’d always immediately prevail. But really they’re being jerks.
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“More immaturity surrounding this case: comments I’ve heard, on the Internet and in-person, by people who are totally convinced that they would have broken free years ago from such a situation.”
– This is why I have been avoiding such discussions. What kind of a vicious, stupid, brainless loser can come up with a ridiculous comment like that?
” I know that many people say these things out of fear, because they want to imagine that such a thing could never happen to them and that they’d always immediately prevail. But really they’re being jerks.’
– You are right, this is the reason why they make such comments. But you are also right in that fear is not an excuse to be such a jerk!!!
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I’m almost certain I would have broken free or died trying, since I once made a pact with myself that I would break free from my psychological chains (authoritarianism) or die trying. Even so, and with tremendous effort, it has taken me 17 years to be completely free. So, that was a lot of determination, and still, 17 years.
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They did break free and it took them 10 years. It would be less, I’m sure, if everybody else didn’t stand idly by.
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Yes. I can’t quite imagine the situation, but if the neighbors did see something, then certainly had they been Zimbabwean neighbors, those girls would have been freed very quickly.
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It is not easy for relatively poor and poorly educated people to contact the police. If they are brave enough to do so and nothing happens it is not surprising that they do not follow up. How often in your life have you seen something odd and failed to report it? Ever? And you are highly educated and from privileged section of the population.
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” How often in your life have you seen something odd and failed to report it?”
– Naked women crawling in the backyard?? Never. And this isn’t about “reporting.” It’s about coming up to the person and offering help instead of turning away and then giving interviews about the situation and milking it for attention.
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Maybe it’s more difficult for poorly educated people to not giving absolute confidence to the police…
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OK, let’s forget the police. Why didn’t they approach the crawling women and ask what was happening or offer help? Why didn’t they dial 911 and ask for an ambulance? Are ambulances scary, too?
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Because they’re giving too much confidence in the police…and because they’re cowards.
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“Why didn’t they dial 911”
I thought that’s what they’ve done…
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I can’t believe people are excusing this. Everybody agrees with my outrage about the students who “tried so hard.” But when we talk about adults who exhibit the same approach and put people’s lives at risk, there is suddenly an approving chorus.
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Personally, I even more agree with you now than I agree about students who tried so hard.
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“Personally, I even more agree with you now than I agree about students who tried so hard.”
– Thank you! Maybe I’m also an anarchist because I don’t get this blind reliance on authorities.
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You’re not an anarchist, but you seem to be some kinda “civil libertarian”.
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I basically agree with you. I am shocked that this brutality occurred right under people’s noses. But in some ways, I’m not sure what else there is to do besides contact “authorities” (ambulance, 911, police etc. etc.) Like you, I think any functioning society has a division of labour. And to some extent, because of that belief, my “expertise” is narrow. I don’t feel comfortable apprehending a criminal on my own: I don’t have a bullet proof vest or weapons; I have never been trained in how to disarm somebody and I don’t have any knowledge of the mental or physical needs of abuse victims. So I think it’s reasonable to call the police or an ambulance when a situation arises that seems to require crinimal apprehension or medical intervention. However, I think if these calls were made at all, they were half hearted at best. People should have been calling repeatedly; 911 should have received multiple reports and it seems like very few were made at all. A sad and terrible situation all around.
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These people who are painted as Moogli-like and unsocialized are now very skillfully posing in front of the cameras with their “Oh, I totally knew something was up” and milking the situation for what is worth. Suddenly, they are all very capable and perfectly happy with themselves.
“On the other hand, asking how nobody noticed that three women and a child were captive in the house next door seems to ascribe some fault to either Castro’s neighbors or the Cleveland authorities. A neighbor, confronted by an inquisitive reporter, might not be trying to self-aggrandize so much as absolve himself of blame. ” Notice the language: “seems to ascribe some fault.” Why is everybody so terrified of saying that these people suck? The police, the neighbors – they all suck beyond belief.
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I think that the reason it is so hard to agree with you is that it’s too scary (albeit obvious). I was petrified when I found about about these women that lived in captivity and abuse for 10 years. But it is even more horrifying to admit that something like this could happen to any of us, and others around us would not give a shit.
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Even here in the discussion people are not unanimously and passionately against these indifferent neighbors. I understand that identifying with the victims is psychologically painful but identifying with the neighbors is worse.
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“The neighbor who kicked open a door to help free three women who police say were held captive in a Cleveland home for close to a decade, said he at first thought the screaming he heard was a domestic dispute.
“I heard screaming,” Charles Ramsey told WEWS-TV of Monday’s dramatic rescue. “I’m eating my McDonald’s, I come outside and I see this girl going nuts trying to get out. I go on the porch and she said, ‘Help me get out. I’ve been here a long time.'”
That is a normal person. Thank God at least one normal person is living on that weird street.
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What’s blowing people’s minds at the moment is that this neighbor, Charles Ramsey, was arrested over a decade ago for domestic violence. So now people are trying to fit him into the narrative, because as we all know, heroes of a story need to be knights in shining armor.
Meanwhile, many of the neighbors who didn’t do anything for years probably have no arrest record…
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I take it for granted that these things are happening all the time. This kind of violence is common. Generally there is something wrong with people today, and so much so I choose to minimize my contact with many people, just because there were many years in which I could have used some help, and nobody came through for me. So, I’ve applied that acid test to any possible future relationship: Would this person stand up for me in a crisis? If not ….if I find out that they are a backstabbing son of a bitch, I dismiss them as a person I want to interact with. I see that backstabbing trait everywhere and I see it as a trait of modern “humanity”. I therefore stay away from this humanity — and may they long enjoy their blood fests.
That said, I always instinctively help people, or do the right thing. I’m old-fashioned in that way and my real cultural roots are collectivist. Also I’m not deeply concerned about not making mistakes. I’ve never internalized that fear, at least not in relation to helping others. I don’t identify with the political structure that much that I would be afraid of looking foolish in front of it.
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I’m very unsociable and avoid people. But when I see a person cry in a public restroom, for instance, I always ask if they need help and try to look comforting. People are always very grateful. I can’t imagine just walking by coldly when somebody is in pain.
So if somebody crawled around naked on a leash, I know I wouldn’t just ignore them.
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No, I would not avoid them either. Not normally. Although somebody crying might not get much of a response from me. It really depends on whether they look like it is something serious. Sometimes I just have to save emotional energy or it kind of bleeds out of me. I do try to save it for something that looks like a real crisis — because I’ve often encountered real crises and I’ve sometimes helped others out of theirs.
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Certainly I have suffered some damage to my normal, human emotional functioning over the years. I don’t trust my ability to read Westerners very well. They seem duplicitous. But I am highly skilled in acting very decisively once a situation becomes clear to me.
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