Why we should rage against the taking of this life
Dead baby boy deserves more than platitudes
This time it was Edmonton and Anthony Joseph Raine, but it’s an old story in which the plot line is too familiar and nothing changes. Nothing ever changes. A child is killed. The mandatory teddy bear memorial springs up. Social media is alive both with sugary tributes to the dead baby and illiterate blind rage at those accused of killing him.
The former say Anthony was a “sweet angel.” He was a boy who could “light up a room” with his smiles. He was “always happy.”
According to Edmonton Police Homicide Staff Sergeant Duane Hunter, it’s unlikely the 19-month-old baby was ever happy. He lived a hideous life of abuse, “a terrible life full of violence,” as Hunter put it Monday.
Anthony’s body was covered in bruises.
Charged in his death are Joey Crier, 26, identified by family members as Anthony’s biological father, and his girlfriend, Tasha-Lee Mack, 25.
They are each accused of second-degree murder, criminal negligence causing death, failure to provide the necessaries of life and assault. Crier is additionally charged with assault causing bodily harm.
The charges suggest Anthony had injuries both recent and not, that his death, the result of head trauma, Hunter said, was not the result of a sudden single burst of temper, but rather part of ongoing treatment, and that Crier and Mack also failed to get him medical attention.
The two made brief court appearances Monday and were remanded in custody until May 8.
It appears the little boy’s body was left near the Good Shepherd Anglican Church between 10.51 a.m. and 11.51 a.m. on Tuesday.
While a torrent of Anthony’s young relatives quickly set up a GoFundMe page to take care of burial expenses — by mid-day Monday, it had raised almost $7,000 — and a Facebook group to remember him, with one young woman writing “people my uncle joey killed Anthon it made me cry so much,” in life no one even reported him missing.
His body wasn’t discovered until Friday.
Crier and Mack were arrested on a city bus Saturday night only after police released photos from security footage at a nearby grocery store days earlier.
The police press releases outline the case: On Friday, the day Anthony’s body was found, police released pictures of his clothing, including his Batman T-shirt and runners, in an effort to identify him; on Saturday, they released the surveillance photographs of the thenunknown couple pushing a stroller; Monday, the release identified Crier and Mack and the charges.
Police said the two were Anthony’s legal guardians.
Some social media posts suggested Crier and Anthony’s biological mother, 19-year-old Dalyce Raine, shared custody, and Crier was exercising his visitation rights.
Raine told CBC News Sunday night that “I never thought I’d have to bury my own son.” The Facebook group set up by two of her sisters, Brandi and Ashley, said she was aboriginal, from the Louis Bull reserve about 90 miles from Edmonton.
CBC said Crier was looking after Anthony while Raine went to nursing school, though it doesn’t appear she graduated from high school. She attended Ponoka Outreach School, an alternative school near the reserve, but her Facebook page says she left the school in June of 2015. In the school’s 2015 yearbook, Raine appears as a student, but not as a graduate.
Her Facebook page also features several pictures of Anthony and another baby named Anisa and identifies Raine as a stay-at-home mom.
There are as many questions as answers about Anthony’s life and death: Was a child welfare agency involved in his care and, if not, why not? Were Crier and Mack his legal guardians, or was the arrangement less formal? Is there another child named Anisa and, if so, who is caring for her?
Staff Sgt. Hunter told reporters the little boy “suffered a lot of trauma … He was living a terrible life full of violence, one that is terribly sad, you don’t even want to speak about it. Bruises all over his body and I’ll leave it at that.”
But the responsible society shouldn’t leave it there. That little boy deserves more than platitudes on social media and teddy bears and candles outside the church where his body was found.
Who knew about him and his life, and who should have cared?