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can't take hearing any more details
sometimes I feel like I can't take hearing any more details about the homicide. i want to believe the boyfriend lost his soul to heroin but the facts may stand in the way.
Me too
I was just going to post that as more and more details come out about this murder of this innocent child, the more crazy it sounds.
Bella deserved much better than this from her mother, her biological father, her family members, her community, and yes DCF too.
There weren't many new details released
Though an important one I didn't see in the WCVB report was a preliminary positive DNA match over the weekend from infant nasal spray bottle and hair brush in the apartment with DNA from the body.
The other was that the informant was a male "a lifelong friend" of McCarthy who had stayed with the couple (in her section 8 funded, BHA apartment) prior to Bella's death and knew her. When Rachelle claimed she was clean of drugs, he was happy for her that she could get Bella back from DCF, but was then told Bella was dead. He texted his sister, who then reported it.
This story differs from that told by the biological father.
It's not just the drugs...
"i want to believe the boyfriend lost his soul to heroin but the facts may stand in the way."
You are correct. Hideous people like this are basically already hideous people before the drugs got ahold of them. The drugs may amplify it and make it worse, but nobody just "becomes" this way. They are already this way. The "oh they were such sweet little people before they got strung out on drugs" routine is frequently a myth.
i think you
I don't think you know what you're talking about.
Bella loved
Bella Bond loved cats, dancing to country music and the color green.
http://news.yahoo.com/2-charged-bostons-baby-doe-case-due-court-06120137...
I feel that Bella's "family"
should be banned from any funeral. I know this is irrational of me, but I want to scream and say "why didn't you call the police?" each time a read an article where the aunt says "her cheeks were chubbier". The biological father should be treated as a sperm donor. Bella's family consists of the law enforcement officials who worked tirelessly to determine her identity. Her family consists of strangers who shared her picture to find out her name. Her family consists of many people, just not ones biologically related to her.
Trashy people
I've never seen such a cluster of trashy, lowlife people. The father, the "godmother", the whole gang of them. I get the impression none are telling the truth. Why are people like this? It really doesn't take much to elevate one's consciousness and comport oneself in a higher class manner. It doesn't even take money. I'm tired of people who are proud of being skanky.
So many missed opportunities
Every new detail sheds a brighter light on this ever-increasingly horrible death. I hope, as we hope for justice to prevail for this little girl, that this brings awareness and action to prevention efforts. Here is how to report child abuse and neglect: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dcf/child-abuse-neglect/reporting-abuse.html
The only comfort...
Her beautiful little soul is safe now. That is the only comfort I have to keep me from bursting into tears.
And to think this type of abuse happens all over the world every day..... Le sigh
I think we can just summarize
I think we can just summarize it as "she was killed" and leave it at that. That's what happens when a toddler is in the hands of people who can't keep a goldfish.
I think the lesson we can all learn from this is that if someone you know says "DCFS took my child," it's your duty to call DCFS and say "so-and-so says you have his child. If that is not true, then you should call the police."
Blame everyone or no one
DCF did take her previous two children so it wouldn't be illogical to assume they took the 3rd kid. I don't know if I would have called the state on her myself if I was a neighbor.
You can blame the state for not following up more, perhaps. It's an agency which clearly can't keep track of kids already under their "watch" let alone kids which don't have an active case.
The whole thing is sad and tragic and not much else can be said. I don't blame the neighbors and I don't blame the state. This is an example of bad decisions being made on every level by everyone involved.
sounds good to me.
I'd like DCF to learn more about why the boyfriend killed the kid in case it can help some other little kid.
assuming he did kill her...
I wouldn't be shocked to find out either of them was the actual killer.
It fits with the research
Most child abuse happens to kids preschool age and below, happens because someone got impatient that the kid won't sleep or won't stop crying, and a frequent perpetrator is a recently acquired boyfriend. It's unfortunately a common pattern where the child's needs essentially get in the way of the plans of an immature mother or a boyfriend who isn't interested in being a parent type yet hooks up with someone with a kid anyway.
Just something many primates tend to do
http://discovermagazine.com/1996/sep/firstkillthebabi864
Disclaimer Sarah Hrdy was one of my long-ago teachers.
Her biological father,
family, extended family, anybody who had an inkling about what was going on, should be profoundly ashamed of themselves. Instead you see the typical emotional drama in court and in front of cameras and reporters, like they are victims. Sleazy, shifty people, who will probably try to pull some $scam$ out of all this. McCarthy sounds like in addition to his severe drug abuse, also had untreated, serious mental illness. He should never have been out on the streets, clearly a very unstable and violent individual.
What a nightmarish life that poor child lived. Another one who 'fell through the cracks'. Those cracks are more like an abyss. Social services will once more have to wiggle their way out of unacceptable negligence.
not to mention the neighbors
not to mention the neighbors who "didn't put two and two together"
we'll see...
...but Baker promises swift reform of DCF. Let's hope it prevents something this horrible from ever happening again.
Budget Cuts
I've heard lots of arguments that the current batch of problems with DCF is a result of the budget cuts that happened in the late 2000s under the Patrick administration. Patrick kept the front-line case workers but cut managers and funding overall. It takes time for these cuts to have an impact but now we see the end result.
Short of hiring a ton of new people (not easy, not quick, not cheap) it's hard to see what Baker can do to solve the problem.
Cuts were made to everything during the great recession
Tax revenue shriveled up as the joblessness and foreclosures racked the economy.
Mass. rebounded faster than the rest of the county.
It'd be interesting to compare Baker's DCF budget with Patrick's pre-recession DCF budget.
Is he willing to spend more money...
.. to increase staffing levels (and to ensure staff is properly trained -- and effectively monitored).
ding ding ding
ding ding ding we have a winner here.. along with BostonDog's post.
This is exactly the issue. Staffing levels are horrible. Ask any case manager in DCF or the DTA offices and they will tell you, they are short staffed.
While I want to blame DCF, I've worked with other state departments (DMH and DPH), and really can see how staffing levels effect case management and outcomes. Many times case workers have several hundred cases they have to work, I can't imagine what it's like to keep track of everyone (and everything).
Sociology majors equals poor computerization
DCF seems to lack fundamental technology for keeping track of children, families, and cases along with review procedures and process checking to aid all this staffing you call for. Adding more people with fuzzy degrees just multiplies confusion.
your conclusions are specious
You're mixing up social work and sociology.
But one of the problems with DCF is that they don't require their "social workers" to have any background as a social worker, therapist, nurse, or other relevant training. Most of their positions require a bachelor's degree in anything and some require an associates in anything. Even if they had a good tracking system, they're still relying on the word of someone with a bachelor's degree in business going out to a home and saying that the parent is parenting well and the child is safe, or is parenting horribly and the child should be removed. Yes, final decisions about termination of parental rights or long-term foster-care placement are written by licensed clinicians and finalized by courts, but they rely heavily on things like someone with no training in assessing child development saying that a child is getting more and more delayed and people with no training in assessing parenting skills saying that a parent doesn't parent correctly.
that's the question.
I don't want to be cynical about this. I want to believe that Baker will keep his word - but as Mary Poppins says, it's a pie crust promise: easily made, easily broken.
That's not good.
That's really not good. When tragedies like this happen, the worst, the absolute worst thing that can happen is politicians demanding a major policy change just so they can say they did something.
This was a terrible edge case. The mother told people DCFS already had the kid. And it was entirely too believable, so nobody called DCFS to make sure of it. Maybe there should have been some notification to the DCFS when Bella was born. Or maybe that's kind of illegal under HIPPA or otherwise a bad idea. But the last thing DCFS needs is monday morning quarterbacking from people who have no direct stake in the hard work of taking care of those children in the Commonwealth who will not get adequate care from their parents.
I don't have faith, or the
I don't have faith, or the expectation, that any government entity can overcome the amount of dysfunction present in this poor kid's brief life. A Dad who was allegedly trying to meet his kid for the first time when she was 2? A Godmother who appears far more interested in mugging for the cameras than she was in the kid's welfare while she was alive? Only an adoption would have saved this child and I am sure Mom would not have let that happen easily.
The mother's seemingly uncontrolled drug use....
... should have been sufficient grounds for putting this baby in foster care.
Let's try this for public policy
"Court records obtained by 5 Investigates show Rachelle Bond had a history of drug and prostitution arrests."
Instead of outlawing drugs, how about we grab somebody like this BEFORE THEY GIVE BIRTH TO A CHILD and say to them "we'll give you $1,000 worth of drugs if you get this shot in your arm that will stop you from getting pregnant for 3 years?"
Tell me with a straight face that she doesn't take the deal. I assure you we'll spend a hell of a lot more than $1,000 trying her in this wrongful death, and over the course of 3 years, she can get drug treatment without a pregnancy getting in her way.
We have the technology. Why aren't we using it?
What did your state rep say
What did your state rep say when you called him up and suggested this plan?
You think Kevin Honan answers the phone?
Believe me, I've tried.
He must have Caller ID.
He must have Caller ID.
Try harder
As a resident crackpot you still have the right to introduce a bill to the Massachusetts legislature through your legislator via Free Petition: In Massachusetts all citizens have the right to petition the state legislature. This procedure is called the right of free petition. A citizen drafts and files a Petition and accompanying Bill. A legislator sponsors the Bill in the General Court. If a legislator disagrees with the contents of the Bill, he/she may indicate this by placing the phrase “By request” after his/her name.
Lost in translation
My German is a little rusty, but I think it translated as "Yes, that will soon purge the undesirables from the gene pool."
Cash for contraception
The Boston-based Women's Hope Network pays a woman $300 for using "long-term birth control", presumably IUD or contraceptive implant. Meanwhile, she can work on sobriety and the other major issues in her life without the destabilizing effects of pregnancy, as well as preventing the introduction of a drug-addicted infant into the health care and social support systems.
Donald Trump could support that
if it didn't discriminate based on gender. Let men get vasectomies for the same payment. The Donald, in a move of compassion, might offer illegal immigrant mothers with kids already born in the US (anchor babies) a larger stipend.
OH MY (EXPLETIVE) GOD
It actually exists! Somebody actually pays women to use birth control! Scream this from the rooftops!
I wonder what it was like for
I wonder what it was like for the mother to see those pictures of her daughter up everywhere.
What about the relatives? I don't think DCF would release information about who was in its custody, but the police could have gotten this information. I find it incredulous that everyone in that situation accepted the mother's explanation without question, even when that little girl's likeness was everywhere. Then again, maybe if you're in that situation, you don't want to believe that someone you know could be capable of killing a child.
The picture...
As impressive as the work was on the hypothetical image -- I don't think that it actually catches the look of little Bella all that well -- and the (too high) age estimate might have thrown people off as well...