Reader comments
No felony charges in parents' attack

Candice says that a child would be upset to be awakened and carried over a fence. Maybe, but that suggests she has never had kids. I have carried my kids into the house from the car, sound asleep and they never awakened. Or, if they fall asleep other than in their own beds, done the same thing. I have a picture of my son who, while fast asleep, has half slipped out of the bed. He's lying there, sound asleep, with his legs in the bed and his head and chest on the floor. Sadly, even good intentioned people have to be extremely careful about comforting a crying child, not their own. Remember in elementary school..in the old days? if you hurt your knee...your teacher would give you a hug and wipe away your tears. Not anymore. I don't know which version of the story is correct..it certainly sounds suspicious on the neighbors part. The subsequent assault sounds inappropriate and illegal. I would certainly want to beat up ANYBODY who had my kids in their bedrooms at night: gay,straight, who cares? But, that becomes a situation for the cops. Illegality, on top of illegality or stupidity, is still illegal.

Broken locks & bashed-in door

Broken windows

Trashed furniture

Broken bones.

And the answer is --

Insufficient evidence that an assault occurred!

If the State can't be counted on to guarantee a citizen's safety, we're begging people to "take the law into their own hands."

Maybe a few Harley-riding "supermachos" need to drop by and generate more "insufficient evidence."

This has neglectful parents and hate crime written all over it. The parents and their friends should be charged with assult. If the parents were concerned about anything they should have called the police. I think the DA is an Idiot and if they are going to charge Bell with Kidnapping that is really a miscarriage of justice.

Its hard to know what story is correct. For the parents of the kids to react that way there must have been something to set them off. If the man did take them out of their bedroom, he deserves anything he gets. If he was just watching out for the kids, then the parents need to be in a lot of trouble. Its hard to tell what happened exactly from just reading this article. I don't think this was a hate crime at all though.

I guess we should all call the cops when our irresponsible neighbors let their young children run unsupervised through the nieghborhood. I hope the parents of the children and all those involved in the beating get what is comming to them. This makes me sick. I have 3 children and would defend them at any cost, but to beat innocent people and then claim a kidnapping, they sound like bigots to me.

I think if small children are found wandering in the neighborhood with no supervision, the cops should be called and the kids picked up. Call them children control officers,. Make the parents pass a parenting course before they are allowed to retrieve their kids from the kiddie pound. So many offenses and they're put up for adoption. That would send a message to irresponsible parents that you cannot leave the proper supervision of your own kids to the neigbors because frankly, we are sick of it. I'm only half serious here, but something outght to be done about these highly irresponsible parents who seem to be an epidemic here. It never ceases to amaze me how often I see toddlers roaming all over with no supervision.

Why didn't Mr. Bell call the parents or the police when he saw the children wandering, instead of "kidnapping" those children? Every child has been told by every authority figure to NOT talk to strangers and to NOT go with strangers. Surely Mr. Bell knew that it was improper to hold those children without notifying authorities immediately.