Brazil - Joao Helio Fernandes, 6, dragged to death in Rio carjacking, 7 Feb 2007

White Rain

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I don't even know why I bother looking at the news anymore. I can barely stomach any of it, and the images/thoughts of all these horror stories keep me from sleeping every night. My heart aches so much for all these little kids in the world today.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,250937,00.html

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A 6-year-old boy was dragged to death when two men stole his mother's car and he got stuck in the seat belt trying to escape, police said Thursday.

Joao Helio Fernandes was in the car with his mother and his sister Wednesday night when approached by the thieves in Osvaldo Cruz, a district on Rio's poor north side, police said.

The women managed to escape and Joao opened the door but was unable to unbuckle his seat belt and was dragged for about 4 miles, police inspector Hercules Pires do Nascimento of the 30th precinct station in the Marechal Hermes district said by telephone.

The thieves saw the boy was stuck in the belt and drove at high speed, swerving back and forth, in an unsuccessful attempt to get him out of the car, Nascimento said.

The thieves eventually abandoned the car and walked away, leaving the boy hanging from the car. He was taken to a hospital but died. No arrests have been made in the case.
 
white rain.. i hate to burst your bubble.. but do you really think things have ever been different for children?

you do realize, that it just seems worse because we have more communications & news reporting than ever before- and these things make the news because they are sensational- and because we have more people than ever before, don't you...?
 
No I don't think things have ever been different, but I now have two baby girls who are the same ages as most of the kids getting raped today and that makes a HUGE difference to me. Not that this kind of thing doesn't bother me, it always had, but now it's hitting a little too close to home.

I hate to burst YOUR BUBBLE but you're not telling me anything I didn't already know so you can cut the sarcasm there.
 
White Rain, I agree with you in that as horrible as these stories are of children suffering, being beaten, killed, raped, etc., it is so much worse when you become a parent yourself and you have little lives depending on you. Like you said, it's too close to home. Everything changes. People used to say to me "Wait til you have kids", and I'd be like yeah, yeah, yeah.....and then I had kids and everything changed.

Imagine this poor innocent child losing his life for a FREAKING CAR!!!!:furious: I can't even imagine his suffering........
 
white rain- there was no sarcasm intended, just stating the sad facts... & wanted to make sure you didn't have any illusions about things being worse just because of the sensationalistic media we have (now more than ever).
 
I also don't think things just SEEM worse, I think they ARE worse, but that is my opinion only. I know back in the day things were covered up or not talked about as much, but these days you cannot turn on the news without reports of kids being beaten, raped, murdered, buried alive, being kidnapped getting off a bus in PLAIN SIGHT of adults.
When I was a small girl in the 80's we could go outside in the yard and play unattended. We could ride our bikes up and down a street, and walk two doors down to a friends house without disappearing. And we could go to school as first graders without the fear of being raped IN school, we could go door to door and sell wrapping paper for the school, we could play in the sprinkler without predators ogling and we could go to bed at night without fear of some sicko using night vision goggles to watch us and our families.
Am I saying none of this EVER happened? Nope, and I am sure that plenty of things did happen then without news coverage, but I do believe that perverts are doing more and more sick things, and that there are more of them, and I also believe that more and more parents these days are killing their children.
Again though, all that is imo.
 
White Rain said:
I also don't think things just SEEM worse, I think they ARE worse, but that is my opinion only. I know back in the day things were covered up or not talked about as much, but these days you cannot turn on the news without reports of kids being beaten, raped, murdered, buried alive, being kidnapped getting off a bus in PLAIN SIGHT of adults.
When I was a small girl in the 80's we could go outside in the yard and play unattended. We could ride our bikes up and down a street, and walk two doors down to a friends house without disappearing. And we could go to school as first graders without the fear of being raped IN school, we could go door to door and sell wrapping paper for the school, we could play in the sprinkler without predators ogling and we could go to bed at night without fear of some sicko using night vision goggles to watch us and our families.
Am I saying none of this EVER happened? Nope, and I am sure that plenty of things did happen then without news coverage, but I do believe that perverts are doing more and more sick things, and that there are more of them, and I also believe that more and more parents these days are killing their children.
Again though, all that is imo.
I agree with you totally. things are worse and these kinds of crimes are happening much more. It just keeps getting worse everyday. I don't it has much to do with more media coverage i really think the world is getting more evil by the minute
 
I think so too, imo it's because alot of these predators get short jail times, then they are right back out there on the street doing it again. Thats shown to be true so many times.
Also, h*ll they've got it made in the prisons anyway. Sitting around all day playing cards and basketball, tv's in their cell blocks, more drugs on the inside of the prison than out, three meals a day and snacks from the commissary.
Jail should be jail, no perks at all. They need time to sit in those jails and THINK about what they have done.
 
White Rain said:
I also don't think things just SEEM worse, I think they ARE worse, but that is my opinion only. I know back in the day things were covered up or not talked about as much, but these days you cannot turn on the news without reports of kids being beaten, raped, murdered, buried alive, being kidnapped getting off a bus in PLAIN SIGHT of adults.
I totally agree with you White Rain. I think things are much worse. Yes, we have far more communication today, so we hear more of it. But we also have far more tolerant views towards violence, sex, etc. We see it on the news, in the theaters, on the DVD's, on our game stations, in the papers, on the billboards, everywhere we look. And our kids are flooded with it. So yes, I think it has gotten much worse. I don't think it's going to get better any time soon either.
__________
JMHO
 
I'm in agreement with White Rain: i believe things are definitely worse now, even though the reporting of events has stepped up exponentially.
 
I'm also just absolutely apalled that this child was killed in such a brutal, heartless manner. I hope the perpetrators are caught and punished to the full extent of the law ! Such a sad, miserable story.
 
Again? Another child dragged to death during a carjacking?! Didn't the carjackers remember the previous time(s) this has happened?! Some at least have the sense to stop the car long enough to get the child out of it before taking off.
 
I agree things are worse and we hear more in the news. I believe things are actually worse because of lax punishments on perpetrators of crimes on children. Predators know that even if they get caught, they may not get punished for it at all. Then what are we teaching our children about reporting abuse? Why should they when their abuser will only get a slap on the wrist.

That poor mother, I can only imagine what she witnessed and went through that day, watching her child be dragged.
 
I think the only way things will improve for children is for people to step up and start looking out for each other. I know if I suspect abuse or any thing out of the normal (and i'm nosy) I report it. It's that easy if every one would do this, and start caring about everyones children not just the ones they love I think people would get the point and we would see a decrease in this type of thing. Just look at SH if people would have stepped up and reported their feelings to police he would have been ome much sooner and if the feeling was wrong then so what at least they will know for sure one way or the other. I am also disterbed by the man who says he saw adam walsh beiing taken from the mall by a man holding him over his head by the arm. even if you thought it was his child throwing a fit thats still abuse and the police should hav been called asap, altough I don't know if much would have been done about it back then. My point is every time there is a story about a child being harmed you always hear about people who if they had just made a little effort and spoke up for the child could have made a difference in the childs life. I had an incident as some of you know where it appeared my 3 year old son was home alone (he wasn't) I just knew the police would be at my door but they never came (no one steped up to report me not that I wanted to be reported but I want others to care what happens to my child). We can all gripe about the rise in violence aginst children but until we can get people to start looking out for and protecting all children I don't think we will see a decline. until people start to fear others turning them in they wont fear the time in jail because most of the time they don't get cought and if they do it's to late.
 
White Rain said:
I also don't think things just SEEM worse, I think they ARE worse, but that is my opinion only. I know back in the day things were covered up or not talked about as much, but these days you cannot turn on the news without reports of kids being beaten, raped, murdered, buried alive, being kidnapped getting off a bus in PLAIN SIGHT of adults.
When I was a small girl in the 80's we could go outside in the yard and play unattended. We could ride our bikes up and down a street, and walk two doors down to a friends house without disappearing. And we could go to school as first graders without the fear of being raped IN school, we could go door to door and sell wrapping paper for the school, we could play in the sprinkler without predators ogling and we could go to bed at night without fear of some sicko using night vision goggles to watch us and our families.
Am I saying none of this EVER happened? Nope, and I am sure that plenty of things did happen then without news coverage, but I do believe that perverts are doing more and more sick things, and that there are more of them, and I also believe that more and more parents these days are killing their children.
Again though, all that is imo.

My older children were born in the 80's, and although we heard about child abductions and worse, it seemed to be few and far between. Adam Walsh was one of the first I heard of, and it is probably his dad's work that enables so many missing and endangered children to get the media attention and LE investigation that they deserve. I remember how shocking it was that a child could be taken from a large store like Sears and just disappear!

Still, it happened far away, and my children roamed the neighborhood virtually freely. We had "Madea's" on every street that watched out for EVERYONE'S children. Neighborhoods are changing, neighbors don't know each other sometimes, they may not even know the children's or parent's names, and more women work, so fewer are in homes looking out for 'roamers.' Even with all of this, I firmly believe that these types of crime are getting to be more frequent. We hear almost DAILY about horrible atrocities being commited against the very weakest and most vulnerable of us.

As a Christian, I think it points to the end times, and it truly makes me wish for Christ's return, even today. Humanity is simply almost completely depraved.
 
I think it is worse today but things were not talked about then. Heck my great great grandpa was one of the worst of them. His wife died and his older daughter at the age of 9 took on all the housework and he required her for sexual abuse too. She became pregnant and had the baby at home. He delivered it with her and two days later he took the baby out and she never saw it again, She was sure it was murdered and buried. But back then you didnt say anything women were not listened to back then and definitely not a little kid.

Thankfully my great grandma stopped the abuse with her and did a 360 degree turn and made a point of always being clothed and almost making nudity into an unspeakable thing that was never done. It passed down throughout my grandpa and my mom. When I was little my barbies and doll always had to have their clothes on and be dressed. Im not like that myself but Im glad that she went that away instead of abusing her own children.

kgeaux-As a christian myself also Im not sure if it is the end of times. As that has been believed for centuries that the end was almost here. Im almost scared to know just how bad it is going to get.
 
i guess i'm on the fence with this. in some ways it seems worse, but in other ways.. in the old days, infantacide was a common thing. in ancient times babies were often just abandoned to die on hillsides. things were not reported to the police and definitely not public knowledge. in more recent times- even well into the 20th century.. beating a kid, child rape and molestation were not considered abuse- so not only was a lot of stuff not talked about or reported, but it was not even considered a crime.
i just don't want peole to think that infantacide or killing children is a new thing. as for any increase in numbers-- there is just more crime overall- because of the ever-exploding population, governments being overwhelmed and corrupt, lack of funds, families falling apart, stress, lack of mental health care, too much idle time/lack of meaningful work, technology, *advertiser censored*, & of course- drugs & crime. add on top of that more & more cases being reported- and it seems like a while lot more-- and of course it IS a whole lot more, because, the world population is growing by about 75 million people PER YEAR... or about 5 people per second. so of course there's going to be more cases of everything (including infanticide). but is the situation really getting worse, percentage-wise? once again, all problems come back to one thing--- overpopulation.
 
barb0301 said:
I totally agree with you White Rain. I think things are much worse. Yes, we have far more communication today, so we hear more of it. But we also have far more tolerant views towards violence, sex, etc. We see it on the news, in the theaters, on the DVD's, on our game stations, in the papers, on the billboards, everywhere we look. And our kids are flooded with it. So yes, I think it has gotten much worse. I don't think it's going to get better any time soon either.
__________
JMHO

I think these two are related. What we hear about as having been done is now in the realm of the possible. Think pre and post columbine. The more of it we hear the more likely it becomes. In this sense the flood of news is enabling further erosion of our limits. How to fight the continued downward spiral without limiting access to the news of the world is my question.

Crypto6
 
White Rain said:
He was taken to a hospital but died.

:sigh:

I was hoping he was dead before they went FOUR miles...
 
I just read a book on Albert Fish, who was executed in 1934 for the murder of 10-year-old Grace Budd. He is believed to have murdered many more children.

He told his shrink that he usually raped and killed black children, because the police ignored their parents when they reported kids missing. And in fact, he confessed to a number of killings that had never even been investigated by the police or covered in the newspapers.
 

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