There really are some amazing people on this planet and some amazing kids. I've done the usual thing where I end up in some kind of neverending rabbit hole of videos on YouTube and watched/listened to some truly horrendous 911 calls made by children (hence the not a happy post part) and while the calls are horrific to listen to it's impossible not to be amazed at the maturity and ability of the kids involved at times. One was a five year old girl who called to report that her parents had been shot dead. She was able to call 911, describe the scene, remain calm (probably in shock) and let the police in the house. An eight year old girl who's parents had been shot called 911, described the situation. She knew her dad was dead and was able to make that clear to the operator ( don't even want to think what she saw that meant she KNEW he was dead but she had no doubt at all) , they weren't at her usual home so didn't know where she was but at 8 years old was able to go outside and read the house number and find the street name and read that out too. A six year old girl who witnessed her stepfather attacking her mum. She called police and explained exactly what was happening. Made sure the operator knew there were two younger children in the house too and made quite a big deal of protecting the baby. When her mum was screaming at her to hang up the phone she was defiant and ignored her mum as she knew she had to. She kept them updated on the situation with the baby and told them that as such a young child he (or she) was very delicate. The call is so harrowing that even the trained operator, who was excellent throughout, said oh **** at one point. There are more like those too. Too many more. No kid should ever be in that position but their maturity and ability really surprised me. At their age I was eating mud in the garden and didn't know how to wipe my own arse and they're there calling 911 and making perfect sense.
Children can be surprisingly mature. And they are taught to ring 999 in school too. The NSPCC usually visit and do school assemblies annually. At age 5 my kids knew their address but that 6 year old in particular sounds amazing to be so protective of her mum and siblings.
Am I an ostrich? I know this kind of thing happens, but I have no interest in listening to recordings of them on YouTube or watching shows about paedophile stings. No judgement on those that do.
That's what I meant about the YouTube thing. You can set off watching something completely random and then it recommends something and you think why not it's only 30 seconds, then something else and why not? It's 2 minutes that's all. An hour later you've gone from watching Luke Steele's greatest saves to videos of cruise ships sinking without really intending to
I was taught how to ring 999, I remember it to this day but I still reckon if I had to ring it now as an adult I'd end u saying 'can you send a nee naw please. Someone's got an ouchy' It turns out that that 6 year old had already called 911 over 20 times previously to report the domestic abuse and largely been ignored every time or they'd come out and done nothing. She grew up to be in an abusive relationship herself but fortunately got help and got out of it. Or at least I think that's the right call anyway.
My wife reads stories about child/animal cruelty and it upsets her. She's an intelligent woman, I ask her why she reads them when (a) she knows it happens and (b) it can upset her for a couple of days.
The Paedophile C4 show was about the police and how they catch paedophiles. It was difficult to watch, but interesting - especially the policeman in the first episode just made up his entire character for the sting right down to the smallest details. One of their biggest problems is the unofficial hunters who can become targets of the investigations themselves - although we were trying to work out what stopped police from different forces talking to each other!
I used to have a neighbour who was / is a DS in the police and was in the paedophile unit. I asked him about what he does when he first moved in, you know, just making conversation. He told me his job but apart from that, was very vague and just said he sees stuff daily that makes his eyes bleed. I decided I didn't want to know any more and he certainly didn't offer. I don't know how he does his job. He wasn't sure how much longer he could stomach it. I also have a family member who works at Wakefield Prison, where many of these monsters stay at HM pleasure for 20 years. He once described how many of them have to spend their entire time in isolation because of the hierarchy in there. For example, there are those who think it acceptable to hit on 5 year olds - they get beaten up by those who think that is wrong, because they think it is only ok when they are 8-9. They get beaten up by those who think it should be 12 etc. There is a distorted world out there that I couldn't even imagine. I don't know how he does his job either.