I am the mother of the girl who was photographed last week at the fountain on South Palafox (Plaza Deluna). I would like to address some left out issues. Rick, I appreciate you giving this story some attention.
The policeman who initially helped me was wonderful. He did his job. On a day where I felt so prepared, I could not imagine at the beginning of the day what I needed to be prepared for.
I sent an email out to my friends who were talking about going to Plaza Deluna. (yes, there is a fountain for children to play in) I suggested to them not to go alone with their kids but go in a group. I asked my friends to spread the word among Moms never imagining that it would reach the city officials.
Here’s what happened to me afterwards.
A lady on the board of the city redevelopment called a mutual friend and asked for a character reference on ME and then got on the phone with me to ask so condescendingly if I realized that this could happen anywhere….yes, I answered and it did happen at Plaza Deluna. Then she went on to tell me that this was a PR nightmare for her and told me more than once that this park just cost the city 2.7 million dollars.
PR?
She told our mutual friend that the policeman should have never said that this area has a pedophile problem and that she wanted personnel changes at the department.
Hello! These are my children and she is concerned about PR and firing a police officer who helped me?! My friend repeatedly told me that the lady who I talked to is scared to death of bad press regarding the redevelopment.
Then a city councilman called me. He was wonderful to me and sincerely apologized for all that I was going through from the experience at the park to the lady on the development board and thanked me for bringing it to the city’s attention.
Then I got an email from the Chief of Police which went on and on assuring me how safe I was at that park…where I had just been violated. And how we have to be diligent everywhere that is created for children to keep them safe. Wasn’t this created for children? He gave me his certainty that everybody who goes down there is safe because he drives through there almost everyday and he and his wife frequent it on Saturdays. Really, we are safe everywhere he drives through on an almost daily basis and frequents on Saturdays? Regardless of what I and others have reported? Maybe we should get him to do a city tour on a daily basis so we can all be safe.
As far as the man being a pedophile? Well, I guess I do not know for a fact, no. However, why would a man in his 40’s sneakily take pictures of a little four year old playing without her parent’s permission except for something sick? Yes, you are right about pedophiles as a whole being cowards. They are sick, distorted, disgusting individuals who prey on the defenseless. I did not yell at him and I did not chase after him.
I did stand up, stared at him and loudly announce that my husband would be there any minute to have lunch with us, then he did go away. My duty is not to chase him and yell at him and provoke someone who is almost twice my size and certainly stronger than me. My duty IS to protect my children and to report to the police. My biggest regret IS that I did not take his picture. It honestly never crossed my mind. All I wanted to do was get my hands on both of my children, huddle them up and get them out of there, without scaring them.
You see, I consider it my responsibility to feel the fear without causing high anxiety in my children. They are 3 and 4 years old. They should be able to live the life of a child by playing in fountains and going to the parks. I am their protector. I do not want to live in fear and stay within my four walls because, to me, that is allowing criminals to control me. However, as a mother, I have to trust my intuition and leave an area that is proving to be unsafe. There is a book called “Protecting the Gift” by DeBecker and I put into action the things that I learned while reading this book. I gave the policeman a description. All the way from the color hat he was wearing and his colored hair, his height and approx. weight, his fair complexion, his acne scars, dominately pointy chin, very oddly large adams apple, what color socks, shorts, shirt, sunglasses and what kind of camera he was shooting with.
My daughter and I have a “code word” which we have practiced for about a year. I said the word to her and immediately she stood still and looked me straight into my eyes waiting for my next instruction. I am very proud of that, too. I did do a lot of things right. Even if I had thought about getting the camera out and taking his picture, I doubt I would have chosen to scramble through my bag to find the camera, in that moment. That would have meant taking my eyes off of this jerk and my children. My job is to keep my children safe.
After all of this happened and the “officials” treated me like an idiot, WHICH I ASSURE YOU, I AM NOT, I went to the local sex offender web site to look through photos, on the advice of another concerned mom. I thought I had found him. I called the office in charge of this man on Monday morning. I asked for his permanent address, because all that was listed was a temporary address at the jail and it also said that he was released on 3/18/08. The circuit administrator would not tell me anything about him, nor would she tell me her name, which I asked for two times. (She later called back to apologize.) She did give me his supervising officer’s name and number.
When I called her, she told me that I was “not entitled to that information.” What? Isn’t that what the web site is there for? Am I not “entitled” to know where the sex offenders live? I told her that I was not 100% positive but was very concerned about this particular guy b/c he looked like the person I caught photographing my child. She HUNG UP ON ME. So, then I called my city councilman, who was soooooooo nice to me and he was completely appalled that the lady who is listed as his “supervising officer” hung up on me without giving me any information. He made a phone call and called me back to say that this guy is in jail, which is not what the web site is reporting. Then I got another call saying that he was not in jail and then I got another call saying that yes, he is in jail. All within about 20 minutes. At that point, I didn’t think anybody knew where he was, except him. It took me going to inmate services to find out if his name was on the roster, which is printed every night at midnight. He is in fact in the Escambia County jail.
It is great that he is in prison because he is a very bad guy who has two convictions of false inprisonment of a child under the age of 12 with sexual battery, so definitely a good thing that he is behind bars. And by the way, his height is listed as 5’2″ on the web site and he is 6’2.” So, pretty much most of the information is incorrect on him…I wonder how many are listed as in jail who are actually out on the streets? Also, the web site says it is updated daily, that absolutely cannot be the case.
So, I am back to square one regarding the person who was taking the pictures. I am still doing my own investigation, without the help of the chief of police or the city officials. My husband and I are going down there every day CAMERAS IN HAND, without the children, to see if we can find this individual. I’ve been let down by almost all of the people “in charge.” The cops on the street are warning people about the pedophiles, not just here but everywhere and then back at the station being instructed by officials not to warn the parents. Statistics show that pedophiles commit sexual crimes against girls over 50 times and over 150 times to little boys before they are caught. I do not want my children or my friends’ children OR ANYBODY’S CHILDREN becoming one of those statistics.
I am not from here and I did not know how sensitive or political this whole ‘downtown’ thing is. I know how important my children are to me and how important my friends’ kids are to them. That was the initial warning and I hope that what happened to me has raised some awareness and possibly prevented something really terrible from happening.
On the sex offender’s web site, when you put in the address of the fountain area, over 100 sex offenders live within 1-2 miles of this park. There are no security cameras at this park, or at any of the city parks. How about 2.7 million dollars being spent on some security for our children? According to police, the vagrants are bathing in this fountain and human feces is often having to be cleaned up there. This is another part of the information some of the downtown crowd doesn’t want anybody to know.
At the end of all of this, I was recently told by a very caring attorney that even if I find him and even if I can prove who it was, there was no crime committed because I was in a public place. There are so many loopholes in the laws of how far pedophiles have to stay from parks, schools, etc. And again, he might be a pedophile who has not been caught in the act yet. A system that has the potential to really help parents and children is flawed, which is why it takes parents staying alert and communicating.
What if one of my children would have been abducted? Is that what it would take for all people to take this seriously? Remember the saying about an ounce of prevention being better than a pound of cure?
Wake up!