OK, I'm just going to say it. Where was law enforcement?
We have a registered sex offender, we have a neighbor reporting children on the property in November 2006, we have a parole violation in 1993 .... I guess the question is what does someone have to do to get law enforcement to pay attention?
I've already heard the laments about how overworked the parole officers were, although what they were doing for 18 years requires a bit more explanation.
The truth is that this was simply sloppy work and the fact that the neighbor's 911 call was handled by an interview on the porch instead of investigating the property shows just how lax the entire effort was.
While I can appreciate the difficulties that accompany police work and I certainly don't want to blame every police officer for this debacle, it is inescapable that something was seriously wrong with the responses that could allow someone like this to get away for 18 years.
