Crying wolf is always a bad idea

Daily Republic / December 15, 2011
Aiding abductions by crying wolf
By Kelvin Wade

A couple of weeks ago, my 6-year-old grandson Kawika and I read an ebook version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” together. He loved the interactive nature of the story but more importantly, we talked about the message and he made it clear that he understood it. Now, Kawika is 6, not 17.

Seventeen-year-old Suisun City resident Christina Almanza was arrested after faking abduction, triggering an Amber Alert and massive police response. She was found at an acquaintance’s house in Vallejo. Officers had to shoot an aggressive dog on the premises. The teen was trying to get attention from her family, according to published reports.

I was in my home office when I heard the Amber Alert on the television in the living room describing Almanza’s abduction. I admit what sent me out of my chair and into the living room was the fact that Almanza was from Suisun City. It was shocking.

Amber Alerts are still relatively new and they’ve been successful. In this case, Solano County sheriff’s deputies, California Highway Patrol, the FBI, Suisun City police and U.S. Marshals worked together to find the missing teen. And though, fortunately Almanza wasn’t abducted or in harm’s way, it’s good that we know law enforcement reacts nimbly to these announcements.

But it’s also good that the teen was arrested for apparently crying wolf.

More than one person that I talked to while she was missing mused that she probably hadn’t been abducted. Teens have fabricated stories like this in the past for whatever reason.

Already, when a child is missing, the inclination is to assume a parent had something to do with it. And facts bear out that most children are abducted by someone they know. We also don’t take missing teenagers that seriously because teens run away and that complacence can mean life or death for someone.

What happens when we stop taking Amber Alerts seriously? Car alarms were all the rage years ago, but now when we hear one going off, we don’t even bother to look out the window. We just assume it’s a false alarm. What happens when we hear that a teen has been abducted and we pay it no attention because we assume it’s a runaway? We’ll remember the Almanza case and just blow it off.

Sadly, in the 1980s, Fairfield had children like Clark “Toshiro” Handa and Amanda “Nikki” Campbell kidnapped. Twenty-five-year-old Phuong Le was kidnapped from the Barnes and Noble parking lot and killed last year.

When we get an Amber Alert, we need everyone paying attention. We need everyone on the lookout. We need everyone to take the alerts seriously.

That’s why I’m glad Christina Almanza was arrested. Not because I’m vindictive, but because young people have to understand how serious crying wolf is. This isn’t the right arena to play out family problems. I hope she receives whatever help she needs to resolve her family issues.

We don’t want Amber Alerts to become as irrelevant to us as car alarms. Peace.
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ADDITIONAL NOTES: With how cash strapped every agency is, that's all they want is to have to go chase down a hoax. I realize the girl never thought the police were going to be involved but...I don't know how she came to that conclusion. You call your family and tell them you've been abducted and don't expect them to get law enforcement involved? Just a crazy, juvenile thing to do. We just can't have it.