A Young Voice Silenced
As painful as it might be for some people to read this, I wanted to talk about child abuse. I'm not putting this entry behind a cut or giving any trigger warnings because if none of us can talk about this issue like adults, then that's part of the reason why stuff like this keeps happening.
On Wednesday, I was watching the local news when it was announced that a 10-year-old boy had been killed in Buffalo. His father had restrained him, stuffed a sock in his mouth, then beat him to death. As the days have gone on and all the details emerged, the case is so much worse than that.
It turns out that the young boy, a Somali immigrant named Abdi (short for Abdifatah) Mohamud, had been through much worse than just a beating. He was pulverised. His stepfather, Ali Mohamed Mohamud, had tied Abdi to a chair, shoved a sock in his mouth, then duct-taped his mouth shut. All this time, Abdi struggled to get away from his father, kicking him and fighting to get away. At one point, Abdi vomited through the sock, and instead of helping him, Ali shoved a fresh sock in Abdi's mouth and taped his mouth shut again. When Abdi wouldn't stop fighting to get away, Ali grabbed a hardwood baker's rolling pin and beat him over 70 times, some of the blows so hard they shattered his skull. When Abdi died, Ali just threw a blanket over him and ran away like a coward.
Issues of abuse were known in the household. The police had been called previously to the home at least 16 times for domestic violence disputes. Ali had older sons who left home because of the abuse. And Abdi wasn't silent about the beatings he endured at the hands of his step-father; he told classmates and friends.
Why was there nothing done to help him? Why do people choose to stay silent when others are being hurt? This is no longer the 1960s, the era of the Sylvia Likens case where a young girl was kept in a basement and regularly burned with cigarettes, beaten, and sexually violated. This is the 21st century, the age where the internet can show us nearly every corner of the world, where the phrase "it's none of my business" really doesn't exist anymore.
I wonder sometimes that if people stopped treating child abuse as if it's something that should be talked about in whispers or discussed online behind trigger warnings, would Abdi still be alive?
Frankly, I'm done being quiet.
On Wednesday, I was watching the local news when it was announced that a 10-year-old boy had been killed in Buffalo. His father had restrained him, stuffed a sock in his mouth, then beat him to death. As the days have gone on and all the details emerged, the case is so much worse than that.
It turns out that the young boy, a Somali immigrant named Abdi (short for Abdifatah) Mohamud, had been through much worse than just a beating. He was pulverised. His stepfather, Ali Mohamed Mohamud, had tied Abdi to a chair, shoved a sock in his mouth, then duct-taped his mouth shut. All this time, Abdi struggled to get away from his father, kicking him and fighting to get away. At one point, Abdi vomited through the sock, and instead of helping him, Ali shoved a fresh sock in Abdi's mouth and taped his mouth shut again. When Abdi wouldn't stop fighting to get away, Ali grabbed a hardwood baker's rolling pin and beat him over 70 times, some of the blows so hard they shattered his skull. When Abdi died, Ali just threw a blanket over him and ran away like a coward.
Issues of abuse were known in the household. The police had been called previously to the home at least 16 times for domestic violence disputes. Ali had older sons who left home because of the abuse. And Abdi wasn't silent about the beatings he endured at the hands of his step-father; he told classmates and friends.
Why was there nothing done to help him? Why do people choose to stay silent when others are being hurt? This is no longer the 1960s, the era of the Sylvia Likens case where a young girl was kept in a basement and regularly burned with cigarettes, beaten, and sexually violated. This is the 21st century, the age where the internet can show us nearly every corner of the world, where the phrase "it's none of my business" really doesn't exist anymore.
I wonder sometimes that if people stopped treating child abuse as if it's something that should be talked about in whispers or discussed online behind trigger warnings, would Abdi still be alive?
Frankly, I'm done being quiet.