Multiple Calls About Women on Dog Leashes in the Castros' Yard

[BainsBane]

Original Post: The case of the three women held captive for a decade in Cleveland reaches a new level of absurdity with a Tuesday night report detailing the many warning signs that police appear to have ignored. USA Today says that not one not two but at least three neighbors called the police between 2011 and 2012 to report suspicious activity at the house where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped their years-long imprisonment on Monday. We're not talking about the watering-the-flowers-at-midnight brand of suspicious activity. We're talking women-being-led-around-the-yard-on-dog-leashes suspicious. Some might just call that sick. (Add it to the list.)

Cleveland Police missed something. That much is clear. Despite the department's obviously extended effort to find the victims, the sheer volume of tips that would have led them to the Castro home is starting to looking pretty condemning. While some are calling the USA Today report "mostly hearsay," it's hard to believe that so many different neighbors would've made such similar calls. Some reported inexplicably large amounts of McDonalds being carried into the house by Ariel Castro, one of the three brothers and a school bus driver. Others reported seeing women standing in the windows of the Castro house and at least once incident of a woman pounding on a window, after which they called the police.

The leash stuff really is twisted, though. "[Neighborhood] women told Lugo they called police because they saw three young girls crawling on all fours naked with dog leashes around their necks," the report reads. "Three men were controlling them in the backyard. The women told Lugo they waited two hours but police never responded to the calls." Again, this is just one of several incidents that neighbors say they reported to police, incidents that the Cleveland Police didn't follow up on. It's not just the USA Today piece that's making these claims either. Local news outlets are issuing similar reports.

Despite the volume of reports — The New York Times published a similarly condemning story after USA Today's — Cleveland Police not only say they did nothing wrong. A police spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday that they never even received any calls. Hard to believe? You bet. Understandably evasive? Sure. But it's certainly no get-out-of-jail free card. (Pardon the bad pun.) As Reuters' Jim Roberts put it, "Hard to see how this Cleveland story ends well for the Police Department there."

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/police-apparently-missed-multiple-calls-about-women-dog-leashes-castros-yard/64987/

[LynnTTT]

1. Who to believe

The knee jerk reaction is to ask why the police didn't investigate... To say the police are lying.
But seriously, it's a little hard to believe that these guys would parade the women around the back yard, in full view of many neighbors..
And If I saw something like that, I'd sure follow up with the police to find out what had happened. The windows were covered and no one said at first that they had any idea the women were there, and now, after a few days all these stories are coming out. The neighbors are enjoying the limelight a little too much.

[warrior1]

2. I guess with the young women talk

we'll find out. I'll with hold judgement until then.

[99Forever]

14. I couldn't agree more.

Lots of rush to judgement from both ends of this. Way too much, if you ask me. I'll wait for the facts.

[BainsBane]

4. There is a blurb above the article

Saying police only received two calls. That, apparently, didn't include the one that the young girls made from across the street and the 911 operator didn't take seriously.

[intheflow]

7. Given the dispatcher's seemingly dismissive attitude

when Amanda Berry called, I can believe calls may not have been logged. You have to admit, it sounds fantastical and bizarre, it might be that the calls were dismissed as cranks.

[nashville_brook]

17. +1

[madmom]

9. I heard these "stories" shortly after the story broke.

[RandiFan1290]

3. Are people really surprised by this?

This is how police treat people in poor neighborhoods all over the country. We are ignored and if they do show up we are accused of doing something wrong for calling them. This is why a lot of people choose not to call them anymore.

Where have y'all been?

[Fumesucker]

5. Not in lower income neighborhoods evidently n/t

[BainsBane]

6. No, but I still think it's worth

learning the details, if these are indeed accurate.

[LiberalFighter]

8. There needs to be an investigation to see if those calls were made.

If they were called in what were the disposition of the calls and who handled them?

[Blue_Tires]

10. If you're one of the neighbors seeing this regularly

and the calls go without response, at what point do you physically go to the police department and make some kind of statement?

Or is the Cleveland PD really this bad?

[BainsBane]

13. If there are like the police in my city

Minneapolis, they are this bad. Police here seem to think their sole purpose is to harass poor people, especially people of color. They won't even investigate car thefts when they catch someone in the car.

[arcane1]

11. I'm trying to remain open-minded about the alleged leash calls

I've only seen the one reference shown in the OP, where a neighbor says some other women told him they called police, etc. I haven't seen any statements from the actual women themselves that validates his claim. Right now it's 3rd-hand information based on what I've seen so far.

[Quantess]

15. I've read about it in a few news articles. (no text)

[hfojvt]

12. the truth of the matter is

that the police probably ignore a whole bunch of calls.

They don't want to admit that though.

It is better for people to believe they have a responsive police department.

But the police have limited resources. Which means they probably cannot answer all calls. So they have to do a sort of triage. Triage is the medical world's way of dealing with limited resources - they divide injuries into three categories. 1) those who are not seriously hurt, and who can wait, 2) those who need immediate help, 3) those who are hurt too badly to recover.

Police dispatch probably does something similar. A dead body is category three - it can wait. They will still be dead an hour later. Category two is a crime taking place - shots fired, a breaking and entering, an officer calling for backup, etc. Category 1 is gonna be an odd complaint like this one or a noise complaint. Maybe somebody will get to it - iF there is nothing else going on. Well, in a big city like Cleveland, there is always gonna be something going on.

Then too, there are probably three types of callers - 1) ordinary citizens, 2) important business people, 3) important political types. Ordinary citizens can be safely ignored, or put on a back burner.

I have to do the same thing in my job - I cannot get everything done in a fixed amount of time, so I prioritize. Decide what is gonna get done and what isn't.

[ellie]

16. It is absolutely disgusting

What purpose do the police serve if not to protect the most vulnerable of citizens?