An 8-year-old boy returns home after a normal day at elementary school. As he walks up to his front door, he finds his cat skinned and mutilated, its body parts pinned to the outside walls of the house. Also posted to the house is a note that reads, "This is what will happen to you if you testify."
This would devastate any child set to testify in court, especially if the person he is testifying against is his uncle.
In cases of child abuse, the parents are required to leave the courtroom during testimony, leaving someone like this boy - who just experienced such a brutal intimidation by his abuser - to find the courage to sit on the stand and tell the jury the details of his abuse by a relative.
This is where the Bikers Against Child Abuse come in.
Members of BACA aren't there to start a drunken brawl or rough up anyone - quite the opposite - they come dressed in slacks and button-down shirts for the formal ordeal.
BACA members sit quietly in the courtroom so that the child can find support in their familiar faces. Keeper of the children Sure, bikers usually look mean and tough with their tattoos, leather and unkempt pony tails, but don't let that fool you. BACA is different from other motorcycle clubs that have bad reputations such as the Hells Angels or Warlocks. Instead of riding their motorcycles from bar to bar raising hell, members of BACA spend their time with abused children, helping to make reality seem a little less like Hell.
"Torque," the president of the BACA Austin chapter, who asked to be identified only by his BACA nickname for his personal safety, wants to empower abused children.
"We work to give them their life back, to turn them into kids again," Torque said.
BACA's work to help abused children often begins with cooperation from local law enforcement, Child Protective Services, the district attorney or the local Children's Advocacy Center. After the child and guardian report abuse to officials, they are given a BACA pamphlet and can call group members to set up an initial BACA meeting. If the fit is right and the child is comfortable and open to the group's help, BACA will then "adopt" the child into the group.
An "adoption" ceremony full of teddy bears, hugs and bikers marks the beginning of a trusting friendship between BACA and the child. Members can now guard homes and escort the child and family when there is a threat of potential violence from abusers and can go to court with the child.
"Bigfoot," the sergeant-at-arms for the Lost Pines chapter of BACA, stressed that they try not to act as counselors for the children, because it can be frightening to dwell on past abuse. Instead, they are more like a big brother or sister who helps the child feel normal again.
"Sometimes it helps the kids, when they know lots of members were also abused," said Bigfoot, who got his name for being mistaken for Sasquatch.
Most importantly, the "adoption" means that the child can count on their new BACA friends to be there through the good times as well as through the struggle against threats, bad dreams and pain, Bigfoot said. Scare tactics target kids Abusers often threaten children, usually to intimidate the child into not testifying. Torque said that the abusers will do almost anything to keep the child from going to court and telling their story.
Some of the scare tactics Torque mentions include peeping into rooms from outside but can be as horrifying as bashing out all the windows in the house or attempted kidnappings. In any situation such as this, all the child has to do is call their BACA contact. No place is too far and no time is unreasonable for a BACA member to ride to help a child.
"If a child called me at 3 a.m. from Kansas City, I'd go," Torque said.
Todd Looney, a sergeant at the Hutto Police Department who personally supports BACA Austin, said police usually don't have enough officers to provide ongoing security, so they only deal with immediate threats but BACA is able to provide ongoing protection, sometimes staying for 24 hours a day, for multiple days.
Even though the biker stereotype can be misleading, BACA uses it to its advantage. "The chance of a problem happening is greatly diminished," Looney said.
"Hashbrown," a 16-year-old girl and "adopted" BACA child, knows all too well about being afraid. She was having a very hard time dealing with past abuse, and because nothing else helped her cope, she and her mother decided to contact BACA.
Since Hashbrown's "adoption" by BACA, she and her mother have called members at least five times when they heard things outside their home. One time, somebody even cut the telephone line. First they called the police and then BACA, who was there within 30 minutes and stayed for two days and nights, watching the house and the neighborhood. The startling numbers An estimated 872,000 children were abused in 2004, according to "Child Maltreatment 2004," the most recent report from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. That means about 12 out of every 1,000 children were abused, and that's not counting victims who were too embarrassed or scared to come forward. Nearly 86.5 percent of the abusers were family members, the report stated.
The extensive scope of child abuse is something Cheryl Koch deals with every day. Koch is a forensic interviewer and the executive director at the Children's Advocacy Center of Bastrop County, which works to gather abused children's stories and provides counseling.
The CAC in Bastrop County, which has a population of about 69,932, deals with about 300 child-abuse cases every year; about 95 percent of those are cases of sexual abuse, Koch said. The center recently started working with BACA by giving its pamphlets to children and non-offending family members who are fearful of the abuser.
Koch has seen the difference that BACA makes and said it is a necessary service to the community, because the children begin to exude more and more self-confidence when people support them.
"It's reassuring to the victim to know if something happens, there is somebody to reach out to - to know there is a sense of safety," Koch said. In their own words The effects BACA has on abused children are best conveyed in the words of the children.
Hashbrown smiled as she said how the "big teddy bears" have helped her come out of her shell. She described the days when she would hide behind her mother, quiet and shy. Now she isn't afraid to speak up and can hug grown men, which was uncomfortable before BACA members showed her that not all men are bad. Also, Hashbrown quit dealing with her fear by hurting herself.
"It makes me feel like the world to know somebody is there to help me," Hashbrown said. The BACA mission The enchiladas are scarfed up, and the BACA meeting is about to start back at a Tex-Mex restaurant.
Hashbrown climbs onstage to open the meeting by reading from a BACA pamphlet. She seems a little nervous in front of such a big crowd and stumbles over her words. Torque smiles kindly as he puts his arm around her shoulder and guides her along in her reading of BACA's mission:
"We exist as a body of bikers to empower children not to feel afraid of the world in which they live ..."
BACA Austin, along with other local service organizations, will be at the George Washington Carver Library on Tuesday for the Light of Hope. The event, which kicks off National Child Abuse Prevention Month, starts at 5:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
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