Sunday, August 30, 2009

Law Enforcement Failed Jaycee Lee Dugard

The happy rescue of Jaycee Lee Dugard, ending her 18 year captivity at the hands of Phillip Garrido and his wife, is quickly being overshadowed by the multiple failures of law enforcement and revelations that Garrido's crime spree didn't stop with Dugard's captivity.

Those failures start at the beginning; namely how was Garrido even out of prison at the time that Dugard was kidnapped from a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe. Garrido was supposed to be serving 50 years in prison for a vile rape, and yet was out of prison after serving less than 10 years at the time. That rape victim narrowly avoided the same fate as Dugard.

Who authorized his release from prison after serving 20% of his sentence?

Had he been in prison to serve the length of his sentence, he would have never been presented the opportunity to kidnap Dugard.

Following that failure, the next chance that law enforcement had was when neighbors called in to authorities about noise coming from the Garrido property. Police officers responding never bothered to check the rear of the property, which Garrido set up a sheltered tent compound where Dugard and her two children (both fathered by Garrido) were being held.

One of Garrido's neighbors even called to report that they had seen tents and children in the Garrido backyard, and yet law enforcement never conducted a thorough search of the property, which would have revealed the tent compound.

Now, the horror show takes on new levels of depravity when reports surfaced yesterday that Garrido is now being considered a suspect in the murder of at least four women.

Garrido's wife, Nancy, also faces multiple charges, including forcible rape, and kidnapping. She can't even remotely be considered an innocent bystander in all this, and while I expect her to claim that she was a battered wife and had no choice but to comply with Garrido's acts.

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