A little housekeeping...

I've added the Code Amber alert back to this page, so that brings everything back that I had before the latest template migration. Who knows, it might help someone out there. They also have alerts that can be delivered to e-mail or via screensaver. Thankfully Amber alerts don't happen all the time, so sometimes you'll just see the placeholder here.

One of the best thing about these alerts is that if you check out the past alerts most of the children were recovered, etc. I don't know if that's generally what happens or if issuing the alerts is making a big difference, but it's good to see the success stories. The only thing about such early public information seems to me that the crime victims are usually already in the headlines, and if they are later determined to be the victim of a sexual crime, the general tendency of the media to protect the victim's privacy goes out the window. Such is the case for the latest case of the girl in California who was forcibly taken from her home. On the one hand, the Amber alert and the knowledge that a neighbour's surveillance camera caught a good deal of the perp's movements probably led to her release and the arrest of a suspece. On the other hand, knowing the motive was a sexual assault brings up a whole lot of ethical issues that I for one don't quite know how to resolve. I'm glad the girl is now safe, though, and I guess that's what really matters. I don't understand the motive of anyone who would do this to a 9-year-old, nor do I understand why he didn't just abduct her but confronted the family, etc. But I'm sure the parents and kids of the area are glad the suspect is in custody. Scary world. It's times like these you have to remind yourself that the vast majority of people out there are good, or at least indifferent, right?