• 鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)@sh.itjust.works
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    5 hours ago

    I mean… this is type of stuff is why I kinda sus if my parents are actually my real parents. (I actually posted a No Stupid Questions post about it) This kind of thing is very common in China where I was from, and the authorities don’t really like talking about the issue because it looks bad. (I think its partially fueled by the One Child Policy.)

    But then again, my current parents told me about it so it doesn’t exactly make sense to tell me about the kidnapping issue if they were not my real parents. (Or maybe its the ruse all along… idk thinking about it makes my head spin)

  • testfactor@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Yeah, I’m not surprised. I’d imagine an experience like being kidnapped would really change someone. Glad the little fella’s made it back to his family.

    -Ken M

    • Sculptus Poe@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      The cops just found a guy who was on a trip repairing pianos with a kid that slightly looked like the one they were looking for. They arrested him and took the kid. Even when the mother came to town to attest that it was her kid, they gave her the run around and, since she was too poor to fight it in court, stole her kid. Those kids didn’t even look anything alike… People nowadays don’t seem too bright on average, but I think maybe people back then were extra stupid.

      • Blumpkinhead@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Did Bobby Dunbar’s parents not point out that he wasn’t their kid? Or were they just like, “Fuck it, close enough.”

        • poopkins@lemmy.world
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          1 hour ago

          I suspect that the parents either knew or suspected that Bobby drowned in the lake and had gone with the kidnapping story from the start, then had to double down when the police presented them with some kids.

        • xylogx@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          The boy was 4, not like this was two infants being swapped. The parents had to know.

    • jqubed@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      It doesn’t even seem clear that the real Bobby Dunbar was kidnapped. He disappeared while on a fishing trip. An accident seems more likely than a kidnapping.

  • _NetNomad@fedia.io
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    24 hours ago

    i’m suprised no one seems to have point-blank asked him who his parents were in court, or if they did why that wasn’t the beginning and end of the case

    • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      This was back in the era where ‘children should be seen and not heard’. So the kid and his opinions weren’t considered important, unfortunately.

      • jaybone@lemmy.zip
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        18 hours ago

        What’s the old trope where a dog or cat comes running to its true owner? They could have set something like that up with the kid. That or the Solomon treatment.

      • Ricky Rigatoni@retrolemmy.com
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        21 hours ago

        Well nobody was seeing the kid because the two look nothing alike in that comparison photo from the newspapers.

    • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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      15 hours ago

      Oh that’s still a phenomenon today. There’s a great Boondocks episode about it - s1e2 “The Trial of R. Kelly”. A famous musician (R. Kelly) gets charged for peeing on a 14-year old girl (in a kind of sexual way, i’d say). During court, a lot of arguments are made:

      • (prosecutor) A crime is a crime no matter who commits it
      • (prosecutor) She was clearly underage, there’s unambiguous video footage of the incident
      • (prosecutor) Where would we be if we allowed lawlessness to rule?
      • (defendant) R. Kelly is black and therefore racially persecuted
      • (defendant) Even the greeks did sexual acts with underage people, and didn’t they lay the foundation for our glorious nation?
      • (defendant) His music is cool and the people like him, so who cares

      In the end, people start playing music in the courtroom, people start dancing and R. Kelly is set free. It’s such a comically brilliant way to display the absurdity of life. It’s available for free here btw. Watch it, it’s worth it.

      During the whole trial, nobody thought of asking the victim whether she feels she was abused. At some point, she casually mentions she didn’t mind it and would voluntarily do it again. Her word wasn’t even considered during the whole trial.

      • MolochAlter@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Her word wasn’t even considered during the whole trial.

        Nor should it have been.

        There’s a reason some crimes are statutory, this is not at all even comparable to asking the child regarding factual information of the case.