A Civil Beat investigation into the near-fatal beating of a 17-month old at an Ewa Beach daycare operated by the family of a Honolulu police officer has received some national attention.
The issue highlighted in in today’s “Pick of the news,” a daily summary of top reporting on criminal justice issues compiled by The Marshall Project, a national group that presses for criminal justice reform by highlighting top quality journalism on related issues from around the country and the world.
It was selected as one of just five featured stories, which included others from Oregon, Kansas, Missouri, and North Carolina.
The CB item is short and to the point, with a link back to the most recent Civil Beat story.
There are new allegations of dubious police work in Hawaii, where police officials have ordered a new review of an old investigation into a toddler abuse case. HONOLULU CIVIL BEAT
The original investigative story by John Hill, Civil Beat’s investigations editor, was published last week (“This Honolulu Toddler Nearly Died In An Assault But No Charges Filed“).
It has already triggered an HPD review of the case, which could lead to reopening of the matter.
Congratulations to Civil Beat and John Hill for the excellent work.
Another story caught my eye when I checked the Marshall Project website today: How to Leak Stories to The Marshall Project, Your guide to becoming a source.
It includes some very useful general advice for whistleblowers or insiders who want to share a tip:
What not to do
If you want to minimize — if not avoid entirely — any visible links between yourself and The Marshall Project, The Intercept offers some good, albeit technical, advice on becoming a whistleblower.
Don’t visit our website at work. Don’t subscribe to our daily newsletter with your work email account. Don’t tell anyone about your plans, and don’t use your work phone or email to contact us.
One bit of advice is decidedly low-tech.
If you really want to be anonymous when you contact us, the U.S. mail is a good way to go. Our colleagues at ProPublica offer this advice:
“U.S. postal mail without a return address is one of the most secure ways to communicate — authorities would need a warrant to intercept and open it in transit. Don’t use your company or agency mailroom to send something to us. Mail your package or envelope from an unfamiliar sidewalk box instead of going to a post office. You can mail us paper materials or digital files on, for example, a thumb drive.”
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The failure of police to investigate that beating of a 17-month old was absolutely disgusting.
Civil Beat’s story:
Civil Beat contacted three widely recognized experts in child abuse investigations. None had firsthand knowledge of Peyton’s case, but all three described protocols most likely to lead to a conviction that HPD failed to follow.
Experts say investigators should talk to all those who had access to an abused child as soon as possible, preferably within a day, and look for inconsistencies in their accounts.
The police talked to Manuela Ramos shortly after the incident. But it would be several months before they interviewed her daughter or son. It would be that long, too, before the main detectives assigned to the case, from HPD’s child and family violence detail, did a second interview with Manuela Ramos.
People involved in this investigation are so shallow and uncaring that they actually let this happen. The beaten child did not matter to them; they only cared about their jobs. Normal people would quit if they had a job like this and move on to a better place with a better job. It’s such a me-first attitude. How can people be so selfish and immature? It’s disgusting.
And after leaving this job, people involved in this case would be able to go public and let the public and officials know about this case. But they didn’t. Can you imagine a life living in such fear that you would let something like this happen? Real adults stand up for other people, kids keep secrets.
Seems to be a trend of news stories dealing with the reluctance of law enforcement officers to take action on citizen complaints. State sheriffs blowing off a person calling in about a suspicious person trying to open cars at Kakaako park. HPD claiming it can’t act on illegal firework complaints, even if you have photo/video evidence on your smartphone. Officers will claim they can’t do squat unless they actually catch the culprit in the act with their own eyes….hoping that the complainant is naive or that they aren’t persistent enough to follow up on the initial call. Until individual officers are held accountable for reports of inaction, nothing will fundamentally change, other than short term spurts in response to negative media coverage.