1.22.07 The Devlin Wears Orange Jump Suits

Michael Devlin’s attorneys have filed a motion asking the judge to allow their client to wear a formal business suit during court proceedings. The standard issue orange jump suit commonly worn by Missouri prison inmates, they argued, might bias the jury against Michael Devlin. One hopes that this judge has the good sense to tell Devlin and his attorneys that he better get used to the jump suit, he will be wearing it for a long time.

Due to saturation coverage by the mainstream media, we have stared a lot this week at Michael Devlin, Shawn Hornbeck and Ben Ownby. In this bazar story of abduction in Missouri, the media has been accused of unethically demanding intimate details particularly from Shawn Hornbeck who had been missing for four years. Voyeuristically all sorts of questions have been asked as to why the boy, seemingly free to move around Devlin’s property, did not try to escape. Somehow or another we all have become experts on the Stockholm Syndrome. Feeding this frenzy was Oprah, and later Larry King, who interviewed Shawn and his parents. In cases like this where clearly sexual abuse was involved, placing the underage victim in front of the TV lights is not only highly unusual but also ill advised.

Yet statistics just may change our minds this time. According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for the Missing and Exploited Children abduction is epidemic. Close to 800,000 children are reported missing each year. Over 60,000 children are victims of non-family abductions. This number is [almost] incredible.

The issue of child abduction demands our attention. The time for a family wake-up call for vigilance is now. Neighbors need to reconsider their responsibility to each other.

Living in tolerant communities all too often means we do not raise an eye when we see aberrant conduct. This needs to stop. Noticing strange behavior can no longer be out of style. It is time for us all to talk again, out loud, to our children about deviancy.

And to Michael Devlin, the latest predator who has caught our eye? That orange jump suit you have been wearing looks great on you. In fact, wear it for the next fifty years.