Who's the victim?

Straight out of an Aerosmith song, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports on a tragic story of abuse ending in the homicide of the apparent abuser. Ballista won't comment on the corpse - notice Ballista did not write victim. However, Ballista cannot let this go. According to the Post-Gazette:

[A] close neighbor said the girl told her that Mr. Booth had sexually and physically abused her since she was 7.

"The whole street knew about it," said Suzanne Gruber, 20, who lives across the street from the Booth home.

"He abused them both," she said. "Some nights I would hear her screaming, 'No, daddy! No! I'm sorry.' She said she just couldn't take it anymore."

Other sources confirmed that allegations of abuse were the motive.

Public floggings for the "whole street." Let's introduce a new theme - Civic Responsibility. Not to mention basic human compassion. Apathy is the ally of evil, make no mistake. Had those same vomit-inducing neighbors heard said abuser/corpse attacking a dog or cat, they probably would have called authorities. A more fair world would release the girl (unfortunately now known as the accused) back onto that very same street, all while the world collectively looked away for an hour or so.

Link to full article


Update: Yes, the "right" thing for the girl to have done was to call the police or social services. But talk to just about any victim of such abuse or review the scientific literature and you'll find why that outcome is not very likely to happen.