January 14, 2006

• today humanity needs to be questioned and my heart bleeds.

  often times in life, when
  things are going well for us, we overlook and forget about the horrible
  acts that mankind is capable of committing.  and we go back to
  living in a bubble of sorts, and it becomes easier to not know that bad
  things are happening all around us everyday.  then once in a great
  while a discovery is so inhumane and heinous that we must look and it
  is in times like this that i am reminded that as much as i would want
  to just live in a comfort zone where evil does not have a place, doing
  so and being apathetic to really perhaps actively thinking about and at
  least promoting awareness only ends up in there being the worst kind of
  injustices. because the world is not watching and being active
  participants in really being here for one another. and it is
  heartbreaking to me that while i am able to have moved away from a lot
  of the horrific things that happen to people everyday, i have allowed
  myself to forget about reality.  i've forgotten that there are
  people who need more people to care about what is happening, to
  hopefully be able to make a change, or to at least have a public
  consiousness that will remain keenly aware that just because we are
  well off, doesn't mean others are not in need.  acts like this
  remind me that i need to be a more active participant in the good of
  the world, so that maybe it will be possible to at least get helpless
  children out of the way from abusive authority figures.  acts like
  this tell me that i should not allow myself to be blind to attrocities.
  they tell me that more people need to care and spread the word and be
  aware...bad things do happen, and while we may not be able to do
  anything about it...we should try to spread awareness so that people
  will know to look out for one another and maybe be just maybe...the
  awareness will mean that a caring citizen will not let a neighbor they
  know is hurting suffer alone. maybe there will come a time when it will
  not be too late to do something.
  
  
  
  ugh. i'm just upset by this
  tragedy...and just wish that something could have been done to prevent
  this. i wish things like this didn't happen, but i know that they do.
  human beings are cruel, they don't understand that they can and do hurt
  others. that there are very real consequences to their actions.
  AAAAAARGH. i'm so heartbroken.i can't think straight.
  i'll just repost  BabyMooch

  's post now...

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  THIS IS WHY I HATE THE NY CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM AND HAVE NO FAITH IN THE NY JUSTICE SYSTEM!! HOW the HELL can you NOT even THINK or SEE something was terribly wrong?! Now a little girl is DEAD. DEAD when she could've been SAVED!!    NYdailynews.com Bound, beaten, starved, killed

  Stepdad & mom face murder rap in death of girl, 7

  By NANCY DILLON, AUSTIN FENNER and ALISON GENDAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

  Kindergarten photo of Nixzmary Brown, who weighed less than a 4-year-old should when she died at 7. NYPD detective removes a chair - with twine still attached - yesterday from Greene Ave., Brooklyn, apartment. Chair allegedly was used by parents to bind and torture Nixzmary Brown. Body of Nixzmary Brown is removed yesterday from Brooklyn apartment buidling she lived in. Nixzmary Brown's tragic life of unimaginable physical and emotional agony ended at 4:30 a.m. yesterday when the 7-year-old's battered body was found in her Brooklyn "house of horrors." The second-grader had been bound to a chair, tortured, sexually molested and starved for weeks before being killed by a savage blow to the head - even after child welfare authorities dismissed charges of abuse. In what cops are calling the worst child abuse case in a decade, Nixzmary was beaten with a belt without mercy because her stepfather believed she was "wild," police sources said yesterday. Trapped inside a makeshift, barren bedroom, Nixzmary missed weeks of school - and was forced to use a cat's litter box as her bathroom, sources said. No one - not the city Administration for Children's Services, not her mother, not her public school, not her neighbors - did enough to save her. Her stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, 27, an Army veteran with a past assault arrest, and her mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, 27, were both charged with second-degree murder. Based on his own admissions and statements from other children in the family, Rodriguez also was charged with sexual abuse. It was 4:30 a.m. when Santiago - who has five other apparently unscathed children - found the girl's corpse lying faceup on the bedroom floor in their Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, authorities said. When medical technicians examined Nixzmary's small body, they found fresh and old bruises, ligature marks around her ankles and wrists where she had been bound and a fresh wound to her head, authorities said. She stood 45 inches but weighed only 36 pounds - less than what a 4-year-old should weigh. The medical examiner determined Nixzmary died of head wounds and the accumulated injuries of years of beatings. Last night, investigators carried a small wooden and metal chair from Nixzmary's second-floor apartment. White twine - apparently used to bind the girl - dangled from the chair. One cop called Nixzmary's apartment on Greene Ave. a "house of horrors." Not since 6-year-old Elisa Izquierdo was held prisoner, sexually abused, starved and beaten to death by her mother has the city seen a case so disturbing. Elisa's death on the lower East Side in November 1995 became a symbol of the failures of the city's child welfare agency - triggering a revamp of the system. Mayor Bloomberg yesterday called Nixzmary's death a "great tragedy." He vowed to launch an investigation into her slaying and to review all open child abuse cases throughout the city. But Bloomberg defended the ACS. "A 7-year-old is dead," he said. "ACS was called. . . . They tried to do an investigation, obviously not fast enough. . . . Overall, ACS does a very good job." As the city's sweeping probe began, the medical examiner also was investigating the death of a second Brooklyn child - 2-month-old Michael Segarra, who was found dead in his Howard Ave. home. His family had been monitored by the city. ACS officials first investigated Nixzmary's family last May, after her school, Public School 256, said she had been missing for weeks, sources said. But child welfare workers dismissed the abuse charges and closed the case. A source said investigators believed Santiago's explanation that she had been ill because of pregnancy and had a hard time getting her children to school. Nixzmary, a slight girl who loved math and playing tag, started missing school again in November, showing up to class just two days that month, sources said. Her unexplained truancy and bruises on her head led school officials to notify the ACS again, sources said. A second official case file was opened Dec. 1. But sources said investigators took no action to safeguard Nixzmary or her siblings. The agency has 60 days to investigate a complaint. Her sister and four brothers, ages 6 months to 9, were all placed in protective custody yesterday. There was no initial evidence they had been beaten. When detectives at the 79th Precinct stationhouse grilled the stepfather, he told cops the girl was "wild" and "tormented" her siblings, pulling their hair and throwing food on the floor, sources said. To punish her, he locked her inside a bedroom or tied her to a chair or other piece of furniture - often at night, sources said. "It wasn't his kid, so he thought she was disrespectful, wild," a source said. "So he'd beat her and wouldn't feed her, locked her up in a bedroom, but he left the other kids alone." Rodriguez has two children with Santiago, his wife, sources said. Investigators believe she participated in the beatings, sources said. A teenage boy who lives in the building said Nixzmary's mom ran to his family's apartment for help after she found her daughter early yesterday. "She said [Nixzmary] was dying. When they got downstairs, [Nixzmary] was mad cold," said the teen, giving his name only as Adam. The teen said he had seen signs in the past that the girl had been abused. "She had a black eye and a busted chin," he said. "Her chin was bleeding." Yet, apparently, few or no attempts were made to save her. Just a month ago, ACS Commissioner John Mattingly had pledged to review his agency's practices after two kids being monitored died. He found himself pledging to do the same thing yesterday. "I am deeply disturbed by the death of Nixzmary Brown early this morning," he said in a statement. Nixzmary's classmates and their parents described her as a quiet girl who loved to draw and write stories about friends. She was learning English and tended to stick close to her mom. "My heart goes out to that little girl," said William Peace, 43, whose nephew was Nixzmary's classmate. "This is what happens when ACS lets them fall through the holes." Santiago doubled over to hide her face from reporters and photographers as she was led from the police station early this morning. Outside her apartment building, neighbors put up a shrine of teddy bears and candles to Nixzmary. A cop brought down a rose-scented candle inscribed with a verse from the family's apartment. It said in part, "Because I love you, everything's more beautiful." Originally published on January 11, 2006

   

  What the hell went wrong?

  It is the sort of story that stuns, and sickens, anyone with a heart and a conscience. A 7-year-old girl dead in her Brooklyn home. A homicide, police say. Murder. And ponder this: For that child, death was likely a relief from a life of torture. Little Nixzmary Brown, killed by blunt-force trauma to the head, had been repeatedly beaten, starved down to 36 pounds, forced to use a litter box in what was described as a torture room. Police said it is one of the worst cases of child abuse they have encountered. And consider what they have encountered in this city. Then consider how this little victim suffered. But killer parents aren't the only ones at fault. Nixzmary's school twice contacted the city's Administration for Children's Services about this bruised, stunted and emaciated little girl, but the agency dismissed one report as unfounded and was still investigating a second. In the name of all that's good, how did caseworkers fail to see that Nixzmary was being starved? How did they miss the injuries that were inflicted on her over the course of years - the scars from which were readily apparent in her autopsy? Did they not look into the room where Nixzmary was imprisoned? Did they not question the siblings who were witness to her suffering? Did they not remember Elisa Izquierdo who was similarly held prisoner, starved and beaten to death in 1995? She, too, died because caseworkers accepted the alibis and explanations of monstrously abusive adults. And what of all the other adults who saw Nixzmary, her neighbors and relatives and her teachers and school principal. Yes, school authorities did file reports, but in the end they failed to protect a child who was allegedly being deprived of the very sustenance needed just to grow. "Overall, ACS does a very good job," Mayor Bloomberg said, while promising a thorough investigation. That's very nice, Mr. Mayor, but doing a good job "overall" was meaningless here. Nixzmary is dead, and many bear responsibility. Originally published on January 12, 2006   Bloomberg.. is an idiot.

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