Breaking: Suspect caught in kidnapping

[LEW]

Press conference now on MSNBC.

They have Joseph Smith in custody, but not the girl. Oh, my heart really goes out to that family.

[MidwestTransplant]

1. The police chief this AM

said he wished he could just say "we are looking for John Smith." He was pretty close...Interesting.

[soup]

2. More here

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- A suspect was being questioned by investigators Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of an 11-year-old girl, who was apparently kidnapped while walking home from a friend's house, officials said. The girl's whereabouts were not immediately known.

Joseph P. Smith, 37, was in custody on unrelated charges which sheriff's officials did not specify. Smith's car, a Buick Century station wagon, was being combed by sheriff's investigators in a search for clues in the disappearance of Carlie Brucia, who has been missing since Sunday.

"We have strong evidence that he is in fact the perpetrator," said Capt. Jeff Bell, the lead Sarasota County sheriff's investigator on the case.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_ABDUCTION_FILMED_FLOL-?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=state.shtml

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. Doesn't it look like that guy has something in his hand? a gun?

or something, that he is holding when he grabs her, then he puts it in his pocket.

[JPace]

4. At one point he put his hand partially in his pocket

as he was talking to her, he was probably
telling her he had a gun to get her to
do what he wanted.

Men who specialize in teaching women to
defend themselves say that once a man gets
his victim into the car her chances of
survival are slim.

I recently heard that one big mistake parents
make is to tell their children to beware of
perpetrators but the most important thing is
to PRACTICE with them what to say, how to act,
what to do if they are approached. One should
actually role play with them until they are
skilled at resisting. Without the PRACTICE,
the child does not have good resources to resist.
I did not know this with my own kids and was
lucky nothing ever happened to them.

[soup]

6. Speculation on the news

saying it could have been a badge of some sort.

Wonder if he told her he was a policeman, then flashed a badge? That is frightening.

[Native]

5. Here's his arrest card.

Looks like he was picked up yesterday afternoon.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/assets/pdf/SH130524.PDF

[Voltaire99]

7. Interesting that kidnappings are "news"...

...when the ongoing staggering rate of American child abuse and neglect is not. Most children are abused and neglected by their own families, not by strangers.

It's also telling that lurid kidnappings become a national rallying point at a time when no one is discussing the impact upon children of the Republican Congress cutting off unemployment benefits. Creeps seize kids: news. Creeps deny food to kids: not news.

In any moral calculus, the current sitting Congress is more inimical to the welfare of children than all the kidnappers there are. Yes, beware the violent stranger. But fear more Tom Delay -- a child's worst nightmare.