SALEM AND WENATCHEE
SOME COMPARISONS*
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| Betty Parris, 9, and her cousin, Abigail Williams, 11, lived in Salem in 1692. | D.E. was 9, and her sister M.E. was 11, in 1994 as the Wenatchee child sex abuse prosecutions got into full swing. | |
| Betty and Abigail lived in Betty's home with her father, Reverend Samuel Parris. | D. E. and ME. live in the home of their foster father, Detective Bob Perez. | |
| Rev. Parris specialized in divine matters, including the ability to detect witchcraft. | Det. Perez specializes in criminal matters, including the ability to detect child sex abuse. | |
| The two girls in Salem were acting up and throwing fits. Rev. Parris interpreted that as a sign of bewitchment. | The two girls in Wenatchee were acting up and throwing fits. Det. Perez interpreted that as a sign of past child sex abuse. | |
| Rev. Parris and his cohorts in the church set off a panic as the towns-people ferreted out witches in their midst. Over 140 were arrested. 19 men and women were hanged. One man was tortured to death by heavy weights. | Det. Perez and his cohorts at CPS are setting off a panic as the towns-people ferret out child molesters in their midst. Over 120 people have been named as child abusers in police reports; about 45 have been arrested, and at least 12 sent to prison so far, some for 20-year terms or more. | |
| Rev. Parris enjoyed a measure of prestige and power in Salem as a result of his "expertise" in matters of witchcraft. | Det. Perez enjoys a measure of prestige and power in Wenatchee as a result of his "expertise in matters of child sex abuse. | |
| One of those arrested in Salem was Dorcas Good, a 4-year-old girl, who spent nine months at Boston Prison in heavy shackles. | Some of the children in Wenatchee have been wrenched from their homes and locked in a mental hospital in Idaho, where they were drugged and given "therapy" (interrogation) until they confessed that their parents or others were molesters. | |
| Salem residents believed that groups of witches frequently held secret rituals, inflicting illness and death on innocent people. | CPS workers believe that groups of child molesters frequently hold secret rituals throughout Wenatchee, inflicting sex abuse on innocent children. | |
| Some people in Salem questioned the witch hunt, but only a few spoke out publicly, for fear of being arrested. | Some people In Wenatchee question the child sex abuse prosecutions, but only a few speak out publicly, for fear of being arrested. | |
| The accusers in Salem stood to benefit financially from their actions. Generally the accusers were from families which had insufficient farm land to support themselves. Those arrested for witchcraft were in many cases landowners whose property would be forfeited upon conviction. | The accusers in Wenatchee stand to benefit financially from their actions. Some can collect many thousands of dollars from the Crime Victims' Compensation Fund. Foster parents with "special needs" children (including those who were sexually abused) are paid significantly more than other foster parents. Both CPS and the prosecutor's office receive additional state funds to battle the increasing problem with child abuse in Wenatchee. | |
| Several years later, those responsible (including Rev. Parris) gave a public apology. Massachusetts paid reparations to the families of those who had been wrongfully convicted and executed in Salem. |
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Contributed by:
Martha A. Churchill, Attorney at Law, 1995 73 W. Lewis Ave., Milan, MI 48160-1035 (734) 439-4055 Fax: (734) 439-4056 |
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