Malkin ping!
Posted on 11/16/2004 10:55:36 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Bradley Gene McGee was tortured and beaten to death 15 years ago. Thanks to our senseless courts, one of his callous killers is free to strike again.
Bradley died at the age of 2. It’s the age when a happy boy’s life is preoccupied with Teletubbies, choo-choo trains, Cheerios, sippy cups, and Velcro-strap sneakers with tiny red lights that blink when you stomp your feet. It is also the age for potty-training, when a little boy needs loving parents or guardians with patience, devotion and good humor.
Bradley’s murderers possessed none of these traits. On a summer day in 1989, they punished him for soiling his pants by plunging him headfirst in a toilet. Again and again and again. The man who rammed Bradley’s head repeatedly into the ceramic fixture was his stepfather, Thomas Coe. The woman who covered Bradley’s mouth to stop him from screaming -- the woman who then sat by the bathtub, lit a cigarette and watched the little boy’s torment -- was the woman who gave birth to Bradley, Sheryl Hardy.
Coe and Hardy then dragged Bradley into the living room of their mobile home, where they beat him over the head with couch cushions until he fell to the floor unconscious. Bradley died of massive brain hemorrhaging at a nearby hospital the next day.
To call Sheryl Hardy a "mother" would be an unforgivable desecration of the word. When Bradley was 4 months old, she and Coe took him to a local mall. They left baby Bradley with a pretzel vendor and walked away.
It was the best thing that happened in Bradley’s cruelly short life. Child welfare officials placed him in emergency foster care in Winter Haven, Fla. He was immediately embraced by Sandra "Kip" Liles and her husband. Mrs. Liles has nurtured some 200 abused and neglected children, showering each one with much-needed attention and gentle care. On a Web site dedicated to Bradley’s memory, she posted poignant photos of the cherubic-faced baby’s first smiles and first haircut.
He was, she said, a "heavenly angel." Taken from earth too soon.
When Sheryl Hardy learned that Bradley's foster parents wanted to adopt him, she petulantly petitioned for custody. Sixty-six days after being returned to Hardy and Coe -- the same heartless couple that had abandoned him as a newborn -- Bradley was dead.
At trial, Hardy revealed the horrific abuse she and Coe administered to Bradley. She had forced him to eat his own feces. Made him stand by her bed all night as she and Coe slept. And allowed Coe to punch the little boy’s genitals. The medical examiner reported more than 90 cuts and bruises on Bradley’s battered body.
On the stand, Hardy offered excuse after excuse for Bradley’s torture and murder. She said she was abused as a child and beaten by Coe. The shameless sob stories didn’t work with the jury. She was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 30 years. Coe was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse and sentenced to life in prison.
Due largely to Kip Liles’ efforts, Bradley’s murder led to reform of Florida’s custody and child welfare laws. Parents across the country sent toys and teddy bears and childhood mementos that still adorn Bradley’s gravesite in Lakeland, Fla.
But justice has not yet been served. Sheryl Hardy was released after nine years due to prison overcrowding and moved back to her home state of Illinois. She gave birth to another little boy, now 3. Like Bradley, the child named Billy has been in foster care for most of his life. Like Bradley, Billy has now been put back in the custody of a woman who has no business being anywhere near children. Earlier this month, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to overturn a lower court ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that Hardy was a negligent or abusive parent.
Bradley's battered body and tot-sized coffin should have been proof enough.
The court put its faith in Sheryl Hardy's "rehabilitation" and completion of parenting classes. But the people most familiar with her crimes know best:
''She's an evil person, a murderess,'' Paul Schaill of the Fort Meade, Fla., police department, told the Associated Press. "[Billy] is going to end up dead, too.''
Kip Liles is doing all she can to warn the public: "There is no sound, no cry in all the world, that can be heard unless someone is listening."
Unless more concerned parents open their eyes, ears and hearts, another life may be in danger.
Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and maintains her weblog at michellemalkin.com
Life has been ugly. For a long long time.
There is no maximum limit of the depravity of which human beings are capable. But we still have the capacity to become outraged.
Use it. Only when depravity learns of the consequences of its action, is it encouraged to do the right thing. The right thing, in this case, is to completely inhibit this behavior.
This really makes me feel sick. At what age do liberals actually consider children humans?
When they can transfer their child's welfare dependency off of themselves and onto the state directly (alternately, when the parents' entitlement checks for having children finally run out), or
When the child finally reaches voting age, and registers himself/herself as a Democrat.
It is a wonderful testiment to the Chicago RAT machine. Our greatest enemies are these RAT machines and the RATmedia. Their destruction is crucial to the health of this nation.
I am completely in love with Ms. Malkin, sorry Ann Coulter, my heart is Michelle's, let the weeping and gnashing of teeth begin(sic).
On to this murdering b*&ch. Perfect example of a reason for vigilante justice.
"where's the liberal outcry?!!?" You're kiddin' right? They just see this as a post-natal abortion! THey are probably horrified she got prison time at all!
I am seriously considering raising money to hire a hit man to kill these two, in prison or out--"OZ"-style. I cannot believe they ever survived to the trial. In much better days a mob would have lynched them from the nearest tree.
I hope Ms Hardy departs for her special place in HELL...... soon!!
Nah. Not kidding, just goofy. I forgot to type the sarcasm tag in.
Chalk part of it up to Child Services Agencies, Judges, and parole boards getting nuttier and nuttier.
I'll chip in, but they require the same torture they bestowed upon Bradley before their actual deaths...
What an outrage that Hardy was released. She is a monsters. And the neighbors should be warned.
This is but one page on a webring of Lost Little Angels who were killed by those who were supposed to protect them.
Bradley: 
John, you aren't going to believe this, but I was thinking about this case a few days ago. I often think of it because I remember this precious little boy being torn from his foster mother's arms........kicking, screaming, crying. Can you imagine how she must have felt and the anguish she went through when she found out he had died??? When are we going to rein in these courts who continually give these children back to their "natural" parents only to end up dead?? Just because you have them doesn't mean you need them. A special prayer for all helpless little ones in our society who have no one to turn to. Makes me sick to my stomach!
BUMP!!!!
I feel ill every time I read one of these stories of abuse. What, dear God, has become of our society? I can't fathom this type of treatment of a two year-old.
I agree with your sentiments. I still struggle with the story of a little 9 month or so baby (also in WA state, strangely) who screamed every time the lights went out because she was afraid the man who sexually abused her might come back. That man was facing probation, I haven't heard what happened since. The baby's mother walked in on the abuse and it took her months to report it because she couldn't get her mind around witnessing that evil *(or something like that). These stories don't just affect those involved - they affect all of us who cry that children are being hurt everywhere.. right now.. by those who are supposed to protect them.
BTW - I just posted on the thread a link & pics of Bradley's foster parents who loved him and wanted to adopt him, but were turned down because his "real" mom had "rights."
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