What is the solution???

[SafeWNY]

This disturbing story on WIVB this morning:

(Amherst, NY, January 4, 2007) - - We're learning more tonight about the alleged abuse of a baby girl in Amherst. The infant is less than a month old. News 4's Alysha Palumbo has more.

Police say 23-year-old William Smielecki abused an infant in his care, not only once, but twice since she was born just three weeks ago.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "The baby's legs were injured probably around December 19th. The child would have been a week old and then the arm injury occurred yesterday and I think the child was about three-weeks-old yesterday."

Assistant Police Chief Timothy Green says Smielecki had been living with the baby girl and her mother in their Amherst apartment, when the mom realized the infant was injured.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "That's what the child's mother noticed was the arm injury, which brought her to take the child to their own doctor, and that doctor immediately sent them to Children's Hospital for treatment."

Officials at Women and Children's Hospital immediately notified child protective services and police, who arrested Smielecki and charged him with child abuse.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "Children that age, they're 100% dependent on responsible people around them to care for them and in this case it didn't happen."

Smielecki is in the Erie County Holding Center on $10,000 bail. He's due back in court for a felony hearing in Amherst next week.

Is a person like this able to be rehabilitated?

How can we prevent this in the future?

Is the mother partially responsible?

I really hate seeing things like this first thing on a weekend. It sets the tone.

[Sylvan]

This disturbing story on WIVB this morning:



Is a person like this able to be rehabilitated? Maybe

How can we prevent this in the future? Sterilization for first offenders. Euthanasia for second offenders.

Is the mother partially responsible? The mother should have been sterilized the moment she found out she was pregnant.

I really hate seeing things like this first thing on a weekend. It sets the tone.You should not beat yourself up over the incompetence of others because, if you are a sensitive person, you will need all of your energy to agree to stop looking for ways to treat symptoms and instead promote the "cure for the causes".

Looking to give the State more power is NOT a solution. It sets the wrong "precedent" and allows for more corruption and dysfunction. And it is literally a backwards way of thinking.

[SafeWNY]

Looking to give the State more power is NOT a solution. It sets the wrong "precedent" and allows for more corruption and dysfunction. And it is literally a backwards way of thinking.

I don't think that the State having more power would be the solution, but I do think that more outreach and education would be worth the effort.

I don't know if I would call it incompetence, but more of an illness than anything.

There are too many unknowns to make a good choice, in my opinion. Was it their first child? Were there signs of domestic abuse that went unnoticed prior to the child being born?

I'm just trying to think of ways we can reduce the number of abused infants - we hear about one every month or so, and it never ceases to amaze me that there were signs that were present yet missed that would have avoided the whole situation from occurring.

Does each parent still get information on the Safe Haven Act and other information to detect the signs of abuse?

Why didn't the mother notice the broken bones? (I know that some bone breaks are not visible, but come on.) I'm sure there were other signs....

[bigpoppapuff]

This disturbing story on WIVB this morning:



Is a person like this able to be rehabilitated?

How can we prevent this in the future?

Is the mother partially responsible?

I really hate seeing things like this first thing on a weekend. It sets the tone.

it is,without question,one of the most disturbing stories i've heard in a long time.......the state doesn't even need to do anything.....just let other inmates know what he's in for........he'll be gone in less than an hour.....

i have zero problem with this kind of justice....

[Sylvan]

I don't think that the State having more power would be the solution, but I do think that more outreach and education would be worth the effort.

I don't know if I would call it incompetence, but more of an illness than anything.

There are too many unknowns to make a good choice, in my opinion. Was it their first child? Were there signs of domestic abuse that went unnoticed prior to the child being born?

I'm just trying to think of ways we can reduce the number of abused infants - we hear about one every month or so, and it never ceases to amaze me that there were signs that were present yet missed that would have avoided the whole situation from occurring.

Does each parent still get information on the Safe Haven Act and other information to detect the signs of abuse?

Why didn't the mother notice the broken bones? (I know that some bone breaks are not visible, but come on.) I'm sure there were other signs....

All your questions are right on target, but why settle for reduction when there is the ability to be closer to elimination of the problem. The "education" would be, "if you have a baby with a loser/abuser, you and the baby will be sterilized" and "if you are convicted of child abuse that causes the childs dealth you will be euthanized".

Education will not cost anything or take up any time. There will be no misunderstandings or confussion.

Make examples out of a few really really bad people who really really deserve for these rules to be enforced on them and the word of mouth will travel across society within' hours.

PROBLEM SOLVED!

[Sylvan]

it is,without question,one of the most disturbing stories i've heard in a long time.......the state doesn't even need to do anything.....just let other inmates know what he's in for........he'll be gone in less than an hour.....

i have zero problem with this kind of justice....

You're right, just put him in general population and they'll beat him to death in no time.

But I go one step further. Sterilize the mother. We dont need any more babies [ignoramous] having babies.

[MAD BLUE BIRD]

Sylvan, wait a minute here.....

I have no problem with seeing justice done to the perpetrator, but putting blame on the mother who, in the story, just put her baby in his care. As of now, or as the story goes, we don't know if he is the father. Now that they are brought to our attention. Let child services look to see if maybe they have other children, and if they do, and they are on state aid, then I can see sterilization.

A strange twist just occured to me. If he is the father, and they do have other children, and she won't take precautionary methods to becoming pregnant, and he is some looser without a job or has a job but can't afford to support whatever they have (maybe even with some aid) and he just snapped. (and I know this is no excuse to let him off the hook) then YES, I would also hold the mother accountable.

[dave338]

I know that the anonymity of the internet allows people to be cold-hearted sometimes, but really - there is NOTHING to indicate that the mother did anything wrong here. In fact, since she seems to have taken the baby to the doctor as soon as she realized something was wrong, and obviously turned the douchebag in, I'd say she did better than a lot of people in that situation did.

My wife and I have a 7-month old baby, and I remember enough about his first three weeks to know that if he'd had a leg injury, it would have been hard to tell. It's not like babies are up and walking around at that age, or really doing anything with their legs at all. In addition, they cry most of the time they're awake unless there's a nipple in their mouth. My guess is that unless there was bruising or swelling, there wouldn't have been any signs of a fracture at all.

So while the guy is definitely an ass, calling for the mother's sterlization is, at best, reactionary and ignorant.

[gshowell]

This is a very sad story and my heart breaks for the baby.

However, I don't see the correlation between the poll and the story. The State didn't harm the baby. The care-giver did.

The baby was injured twice and the Mother didn't notice until the second injury. When she took the baby to the hospital, Officials at the hospital notified child protective services.

If you consider the hospital and child protective services agencies of the State, then judging by the story, the State did what they are supposed to do.

If the mother truly only noticed the second injury, she needs to be educated on the signs of child abuse.

If William Smielecki injured the child...well, humans have yet to develop punishment severe enough.

[winfield31]

This disturbing story on WIVB this morning:
(Amherst, NY, January 4, 2007) - - We're learning more tonight about the alleged abuse of a baby girl in Amherst. The infant is less than a month old. News 4's Alysha Palumbo has more.

Police say 23-year-old William Smielecki abused an infant in his care, not only once, but twice since she was born just three weeks ago.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "The baby's legs were injured probably around December 19th. The child would have been a week old and then the arm injury occurred yesterday and I think the child was about three-weeks-old yesterday."

Assistant Police Chief Timothy Green says Smielecki had been living with the baby girl and her mother in their Amherst apartment, when the mom realized the infant was injured.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "That's what the child's mother noticed was the arm injury, which brought her to take the child to their own doctor, and that doctor immediately sent them to Children's Hospital for treatment."

Officials at Women and Children's Hospital immediately notified child protective services and police, who arrested Smielecki and charged him with child abuse.

Timothy Green, Amherst Asst. Police Chief: "Children that age, they're 100% dependent on responsible people around them to care for them and in this case it didn't happen."

Smielecki is in the Erie County Holding Center on $10,000 bail. He's due back in court for a felony hearing in Amherst next week.


Is a person like this able to be rehabilitated?

How can we prevent this in the future?

Is the mother partially responsible?

I really hate seeing things like this first thing on a weekend. It sets the tone.

Jailhouse justice will take care of this dead spirited animal.............just pray for the baby , tough way to start out a new & promising life............I think we would ALL love to be alone with this nut in a locked room for about 10 minutes , problem is , it would be over with after about 10 seconds !! Not long enough...........

[anyones neighbor]

Does anyone remember a few years ago when parents went through hell because their infant had all these broken bones? They took the baby away and they had supervised visits, etc.? The infant continued to have broken bones and they discovered that it had a disease in which the bones are quite soft and break at the slightest turn? The parents were finally allowed to have the child back but I can't imagine what they went through even AFTER the child was returned.
I'm not saying that this case is like that but I think sometimes it should be proven a little more.
Don't shoot the messenger!!!!!!!!!

[Riven37]

The main issue here is the abuse, not state powers to be increased or decreased.

Men who abuse children is nothing new, these same men abuse women too. What you have here is a man taken control over the woman by abusing her child. This is one tactic an abuser uses to gain total control over another human. These men have serious issues to the point of criminal however, it is still a learned family, and generational behavior but not all ascribed to it.

[anyones neighbor]

Here's the article about what I said! Like I said, it's only a thought.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Brittle Bone Syndrome

A baby of about four weeks who was crying incessantly was found to have a broken leg after an x-ray was done. His parents were accused of child abuse because the broken leg was through a non-accident incident. Simply put, his parents were suspected of shaking the baby so hard that his leg bone got broken in two.

Further tests concluded that the baby was hurt because of physical abuse. About two weeks later, his father coughed while carrying the baby. The baby stretched out his arm in surprise and his father heard it crack. X-rays once again confirmed that the baby broke his arm this time.

To cut it short, the parents were fortunately proven innocent after a couple more tests were done. Unfortunately though, the baby was diagnosed with brittle bone syndrome or Osteogenesis Imperfecta.
http://signmycast.blogspot.com/2007/...-syndrome.html

[HipKat]

This disturbing story on WIVB this morning:



Is a person like this able to be rehabilitated?

How can we prevent this in the future?

Is the mother partially responsible?

I really hate seeing things like this first thing on a weekend. It sets the tone.

No Safe, a person like that needs to be beaten within an inch of his life, and once he recovers, beaten again, and repeatedly like that until he kills himself just to make it stop

[HipKat]

Sylvan, wait a minute here.....

I have no problem with seeing justice done to the perpetrator, but putting blame on the mother who, in the story, just put her baby in his care. As of now, or as the story goes, we don't know if he is the father. Now that they are brought to our attention. Let child services look to see if maybe they have other children, and if they do, and they are on state aid, then I can see sterilization.

A strange twist just occured to me. If he is the father, and they do have other children, and she won't take precautionary methods to becoming pregnant, and he is some looser without a job or has a job but can't afford to support whatever they have (maybe even with some aid) and he just snapped. (and I know this is no excuse to let him off the hook) then YES, I would also hold the mother accountable.

A mother who puts her baby, or a father for that matter, in the care of anyone they do not trust one hundred percent, without question is guilty of neglect