Cleveland, Texas - Not all gang members wear their colors

Warning:  This post is for adults only.  If you are under the age of eighteen years old, please exit now.  If you are above the age of eighteen years old, STICK AROUND AND READ THIS, THEN GO DO SOMETHING POSITIVE IN YOUR AREA TO GET RID OF THIS TYPE OF CRIME.

I read a blog today, directing the reader's attention to the New York Times.  The article focuses in on a horrid assault in CLEVELAND, TEXAS.  By clicking on that highlighted text, you can go directly to the article and read it for yourself.  In fact, I suggest you go there, read it and come back.  If you have a weak stomach, pull up your boot straps and be a man or woman and recognize this kind of activity can happen in your own neighborhood, regardless of class, race, creed, socio-economical background, etc.

I have decided to give one voice to an eleven year old, sweet baby girl. 
Given the circumstances of this little girl's attack, her recovery at best will be as traumatic as the gang rape itself.  So, to think she is even close to feeling safe at this point in her life is absurd.  With an "excellent" therapist, a group for support and parents, whether foster or natural who all make a die-hard commitment to love her without judgment and see her through this, she will get through this very scarred.  The wounds this child has suffered on EVERY level cannot be fixed with a band-aid and a pat on the back.

If people are smart, they will avoid allowing her to see the article from the New York Times.  Some of the comments in there are crude, while others are ignorant and insensitive to the real victim here.

So, my voice, is in red, bold ink:  The italicized words are direct quotes from the article.

18 young men and teenage boys on charges of participating in the gang rape of an 11-year-old girl in the abandoned trailer home, the authorities said.
Five suspects are students at Cleveland High School, including two members of the basketball team. Another is the 21-year-old son of a school board member. A few of the others have criminal records, from selling drugs to robbery and, in one case, manslaughter. The suspects range in age from middle schoolers to a 27-year-old.
The case has rocked this East Texas community to its core and left many residents in the working-class neighborhood where the attack took place with unanswered questions. Among them is, if the allegations are proved, how could their young men have been drawn into such an act?

REALLY?  I can tell you a couple of ways!  How many of those boys, regardless of the home they come from play video games like Vice City?  This is one game where you have to kidnap a hooker off the street, have sex with her in the car, kill her, kick her out, go rob a bank, shoot people and carjack just to earn points!  Let's start right there for starters!

Another way these boys might have arrived here is maybe that we as a society have started letting our children raise themselves by setting them in front of movies that aren't fit for adult eyes when it comes to violence.  While others fight in domestic disputes in front of their children teaching them to DISRESPECT the very person they are supposed to love. 

Oh, or how about the pornography that is available through the click of a button on the internet?  And you actually have to ask how this could have happened?  LOOK AROUND PEOPLE!  These are some ways they are drawn to such an act!


“It’s just destroyed our community,” said Sheila Harrison, 48, a hospital worker who says she knows several of the defendants. “These boys have to live with this the rest of their lives.” 

Yes ma'am they do!  They have to remember "don't bend over in the shower".  "Don't trust anybody".  "How do I live in a prison community without becoming someone's girlfriend?"  That is if they don't get the proper help they need.

As for the adults who participated, too bad!  Shame on them for even bringing the younger ones into it!

As for the parents of the boys, I am so sad for you all.  I can't even imagine this happening if it were my son.  I don't know how I would live with myself.  I don't think I could hold my head up in the community.  We want our children to grow up and be somebody, when they are inticed like this, we are left with the mess.  For you parents who may have had no idea your sons were into this kind of thing, I am so sorry and you can bet I'll be praying for your heart to mend.

Now, about having to live with this the rest of a lifetime.  HELLO????  Are you kidding me?  What about the sweet eleven year old girl?  She is the one who will run and hide every time a group of boys come around for a long time.  Those boys have crossed a HOLY line of humanity with her.  Because they are from different backgrounds, she will not know who to trust, regardless of class, age, size, socio-economic background!  The little girl is the one who has to figure this out!  


Where was her voice in this article?


Residents in the neighborhood where the abandoned trailer stands — known as the Quarters — said the victim had been visiting various friends there for months. They said she dressed older than her age, wearing makeup and fashions more appropriate to a woman in her 20s. She would hang out with teenage boys at a playground, some said. 

 If she were already dressing like this, maybe she wasn't new to sexual abuse.  Maybe it was something she was familiar with.  Maybe she thought this was how you show someone you love them.  Maybe. . . . we will never know.  But IT DOESN'T MATTER IF SHE DANCED NAKED DOWN A DARK ALLEY FULL OF SAILORS WHO HADN'T BEEN WITH A WOMAN IN 20 YEARS!  She deserves to be respected and left alone.
“Where was her mother? What was her mother thinking?” said Ms. Harrison, one of a handful of neighbors who would speak on the record. “How can you have an 11-year-old child missing down in the Quarters?”
 Great question.  Where was her mother?  Was her mother someone who let her children run loose?  Or was her mother naive? We don't get to know that!
What we do know and need to remember is the GUILTY party is the gang, clad of many colors, ages and backgrounds who chose to commit a horrendous crime.  KEEP THE FOCUS HERE.  Get W. back to Texas.  Didn't he tend to extend pretty harsh punishment to criminals?  Not necessarily death. . . . (I can't believe I even had a positive thought about W. but I guess there is a time and place for everything)

The arrests have left many wondering who will be taken into custody next. Churches have held prayer services for the victim. The students who were arrested have not returned to school, and it is unclear if they ever will. Ms. Gatlin said the girl had been transferred to another district. “It’s devastating, and it’s really tearing our community apart,” she said. “I really wish that this could end in a better light.” 

Churches, I hope to God you are doing more than praying!!!  I hope you are actively wrapping arms of love and not judgment around this little girl.  I hope and pray you remember that you were not made to cast stones but to help the broken heal.  If you can't love like Jesus, stay out of it!!!!  Otherwise, you will do more harm than good.

 Ms. Gatlin, I am so sorry this has happened in your school district.  I can only imagine the nightmares you and all the other teachers and faculty are experiencing right now.  I am praying God sends the right people to you all to help you all heal from this horrible nightmare.


Why did I choose to have a voice?  Been down this road.  Mine was a lot less painful.  It wasn't by a gang.  It took many years to get through it.  I have made the commitment.  I will never be silent when it comes to child abuse of any kind. 
My biggest challenge here is forgiveness.  I'd rather go to Texas and help W. zap them, not to kill them, just to shrivel their "weapon of destruction" to this child.
Going to pray through now.