View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2007 > March > 12
Monday, March 12, 2007
A discarded newborn shadows the day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Today is not a good day. It is the leftover day from yesterday’s finding of a small child’s body.
There are times when you realize that human beings can stand up to the occasions and be heroic and then there are other times that you question how some people can stand to live another day after having done what they did.
One of those days was Sunday. A young boy, about 12, found a gym bag lying next to the street in his community of town homes. He looked in the bag and saw what he thought was a doll, until he touched it. He then realized that it was not a doll and he carried the bag to his home around the corner. What was in the bag was not a doll but a deceased newborn baby. We did a large media request and all of the stations were very responsive and helped get the word out; which is what we’ll need to do to find who the mother is.
Regardless of how many years you have been in the public safety field or medical field or media field, these calls are, by far, the worst. It is hard for anyone, especially parents, to fathom how anyone could discard a defenseless newborn child, on the side of the road like it was garbage. It was undignified and it was unnecessary.
Not wanting the child or not being able to raise a child is one thing but there are options under the Safe Haven Laws. Generally speaking, a mother can relinquish a newborn child, less than one week, to a medical facility including a hospital or infirmary or other active medical treatment area, and walk away with immunity from prosecution. There are certain preferred requirements such as the need for the mother to be identified but the law is set up to provide this option as opposed to throwing away the life of a child.
The mother could be a young teenager who possibly kept her pregnancy a secret. The child appears to be full-term. Maybe someone out there knows of a woman or young girl who was pregnant and now there is no baby with them. This is an act of desperation and as such, the mother may provide the clues to a family member or friend or neighbor that would tie this deceased child to her.
I did a bunch of media interviews. We asked the TV, radio, and newspaper to help us on this and they were very responsive. Thanks.
If you know someone, maybe a young girl who didn’t plan the pregnancy or someone that you think might be at risk, as a mother, and therefore may a risk to a newborn child, find out what you can do or what resources you can help provide.
Whoever did this to a small infant needs to be found and they need to be responsible for what they did. No human, especially a newborn child, totally defenseless, should die in such a way. I hope that we solve this case soon. Let’s hope Tuesday is a better day.
