“Youths entrusted to Washington’s foster-care system have endured abusive practices in a jail-like Iowa group home that inappropriately used painful physical restraints on children, according to a new report by a government-designated watchdog group.”
Here’s an update on the Camp Fire happening in Butte County in Northern California:
1. The fire grew from 70,000 to 90,000 acres and is still only 5% contained. It is now the most destructive fire in California’s history
2. So far there have been 9 confirmed fatalities. 5 of these people died in their cars while trying to evacuate
3. The last incident report I saw said that the fire isn’t expected to be contained until 11/30/2018 but this information might have changed by now
4. A total of 6,713 buildings have been confirmed to be destroyed (6,453 of which were residential buildings, 206 were commercial buildings)
5. A text to donate has been set up by United Way to help with recovery efforts. Text “buttefire” to 91999
6. All school in Butte County is cancelled for the next week
7. The air quality in Chico is extremely bad right now so please stay inside as much as possible and keep your pets inside if you can
The Honey Run Covered Bridge (built in 1886) has been destroyed and is no longer standing. This is really sad news to me because I used to go there as a kid growing up and I’ve spent a lot of time there with my friends as well. It was a historic Chico landmark loved by so many people
Here’s a satellite picture of the fire showing how far the smoke has traveled
Here’s some additional information if anyone living in Chico or Butte County wants to volunteer. There’s also some information on evacuee shelters and animal shelters or if anyone is searching for a missing person.
Daily reminder that “Missing Person” posts are a common and often effective method that abusers use to find their victims that have run away from them. Also used to find people in the witness protection program.
If you see a “missing person” post with a number that is not just 911 on it, be very wary. And if you do see someone who is supposedly missing, call the police, NOT the number provided on the post. I trust the police as little as anyone but they’ll at least be able to tell you if that person is actually missing and it has less of a chance of giving information to a possible abuser.
A couple of red flags I’ve noticed:
Abusers claiming their victims are mentally ill or schizophrenic, to explain why they might not want to come back
Abusers giving any excuse to explain why their victims may not come back really
Abusers telling you not to approach their victims if you see them, or limit your communication with them
Abusers telling you not to mention them to their victims at all
Abusers claiming that their victims aren’t safe with their family or friends
Abusers claiming their victims are being threatened away from them
(Feel free to add on)
Add-ons to the list of red flags from my mother, a psychologist who has worked with victims of domestic abuse:
Abusers claiming their victim has a history of self-harm that leaves bruises is always a red flag (except in the case of autistic children, but even then, call 911, not the abuser)
Abusers claiming their (POC) victim doesn’t understand English and so you shouldn’t try to communicate with them/trust anything they say is not uncommon for human traffickers
Abusers claiming their victim has a history of making things up for attention or to get their way, tacitly implying you shouldn’t listen to them when they express fear or disclose their abusive situation to you
Posters lacking a last name are inherently not to be trusted. The lack of a surname is there to keep you from looking the person up in other databases and finding out they’ve been listed as missing by their family/the police.
Posters that put any character smears – mental illness, drug use, etc. – out about the victim are trying to make you predisposed to not communicating with or trusting the victim so you won’t believe anything they say. Treat this as a flashing neon red flag and call the police.
My mother would also like to note that taking a picture of the poster or tearing it down and turning it in to police can be very useful to them when they’re trying to build cases against abusers so if that’s at all possible for you, by all means do it.
Re: “except in the case of autistic children”, honestly, with the interactions with Autism Parents™ I’ve had, including some that tried to get legal guardianship over their adult child on false pretenses and others who explained literally curb-stomping a child with “oh, he’s autistic”, even that is still too much.
Even with the police involved, it could still be a case of abusive parents trying to find kids (especially LGBTQ or disabled youth) who have run away. But yeah, contacting them would help lower your chances of aiding an abuser.
Daily reminder that “Missing Person” posts are a common and often effective method that abusers use to find their victims that have run away from them. Also used to find people in the witness protection program.
If you see a “missing person” post with a number that is not just 911 on it, be very wary. And if you do see someone who is supposedly missing, call the police, NOT the number provided on the post. I trust the police as little as anyone but they’ll at least be able to tell you if that person is actually missing and it has less of a chance of giving information to a possible abuser.
A couple of red flags I’ve noticed:
Abusers claiming their victims are mentally ill or schizophrenic, to explain why they might not want to come back
Abusers giving any excuse to explain why their victims may not come back really
Abusers telling you not to approach their victims if you see them, or limit your communication with them
Abusers telling you not to mention them to their victims at all
Abusers claiming that their victims aren’t safe with their family or friends
Abusers claiming their victims are being threatened away from them
(Feel free to add on)
Add-ons to the list of red flags from my mother, a psychologist who has worked with victims of domestic abuse:
Abusers claiming their victim has a history of self-harm that leaves bruises is always a red flag (except in the case of autistic children, but even then, call 911, not the abuser)
Abusers claiming their (POC) victim doesn’t understand English and so you shouldn’t try to communicate with them/trust anything they say is not uncommon for human traffickers
Abusers claiming their victim has a history of making things up for attention or to get their way, tacitly implying you shouldn’t listen to them when they express fear or disclose their abusive situation to you
Posters lacking a last name are inherently not to be trusted. The lack of a surname is there to keep you from looking the person up in other databases and finding out they’ve been listed as missing by their family/the police.
Posters that put any character smears – mental illness, drug use, etc. – out about the victim are trying to make you predisposed to not communicating with or trusting the victim so you won’t believe anything they say. Treat this as a flashing neon red flag and call the police.
My mother would also like to note that taking a picture of the poster or tearing it down and turning it in to police can be very useful to them when they’re trying to build cases against abusers so if that’s at all possible for you, by all means do it.
Re: “except in the case of autistic children”, honestly, with the interactions with Autism Parents™ I’ve had, including some that tried to get legal guardianship over their adult child on false pretenses and others who explained literally curb-stomping a child with “oh, he’s autistic”, even that is still too much.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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