The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez *TRIGGER WARNING*

[ThePolishWombat]

Started watching the first episode today when the baby napped, and I think it’s fair to say, even the first 5 minutes made for some the three most horrific tv I’ve ever watched
Anyone else started it??

@Crabonastick I really struggled with whether to watch it all. It's hard going, but it's incredible that one journalist brought this all to light. So many people didn't listen to him, didn't see him, and should live with that on their conscience. Such a horrific family to have been born into, poor little boy.

Still got to watch episode 4 but ive been in tears through each episode. So many failings by so many people, that poor poor boy. Made me physically sick to think all this was going on right under their noses, even in pictures the teacher took you could see how bad he looked and after all the reporting she did to the social workers nothing was done, ignored time and time again. It's okay for them to say teacher shouldn't have let him go home bla bla but it was the social workers duty to take him from the situation. The teachers hands would have been tied. So distressing that in this day and age this could happen quite so obviously and he was just made to stay at the hands of evil to die

@Wannabangbang I agree, though I really do feel uncomfortable with the teacher. I'd like to think I would have phoned the police if social workers did nothing. There just was too much passing the buck, and that's how it managed to carry on.

The sheriffs turning up, not filing reports or falsifying them - I cannot understand. They put him in their car & threatened him. An 8 yr old boy! On the say so of those two reprobates.

There's a security guard in later episodes who I really felt for. And the first responders and the ER nurse.

The ER nurse at the beginning of the first episode had me sobbing. Especially when they said they celebrate his birthday 💔

I commented on the other thread about this tragedy. I’m from California. That region where Gabriel was from (and Anthony Alvarez), the Antelope Valley, is just a crime-riddled drug-filled cesspool. It’s a junkie’s paradise. It’s bad.

That also really got me, the sheriff taking him into his car and telling him to stop lying. How the hell was this allowed to happen, i haven't watched it all yet but i wonder if all the people involved knew the mother and mother and were doing a cover up as it doesn't make any sense, any of it. One thing about the teacher that was weird is not once did she cry in that whole interview, how can you not be bought to tears having known this boy and knowing what happened to him,. Awful

I've no words.
R.I.P. Gabriel.

its truly heartbreaking so many people faiked him, i wonder though.... his mum and bf look like gangbangers tbh, maybe an element if fear in reporting them, repercussion wise? im not trying to justify but im. just wondering in my head why so many adults in a position to do the right thing didn't, i like Hatami the prosecutor when he spoke about his abusive dad, but he loved him. I grew up in DV, i felt that, very relatable.

so many typos, spelling mistakes urgh sorry.

That's what i was wondering, maybe part of a well known gang

thebaffler.com/bad-behavior/gabriel-fernandez-simulation-california

This article offers some insight into the mentality of the social worker.

@TheVanguardSix I was really surprised to see the jury members (esp the guy who opposed stuff) - not at all representative of that area.

The teacher not seeming emotional (esp in court!) was bizarre. I know I'm a cry baby, but I wouldn't be able to talk about Gabriel without tears if I had even known him vaguely.

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a bit with Gabriel's biological father & the DA which is really powerful.

Those in authority, with the ability to deliver change, choose protecting their jobs and safety over protecting vulnerable children. It’s that painfully, selfishly simple.
This is a gang-infested region of, not just L.A, bit California. The Inland Empire is full of gangs. They did a sort of ‘gang cleansing’ of South Central L.A. the 90s and they all moved out to San Bernadino, Antelope Valley... former redneckville dust bowls during my childhood. Now they’re just drug-ridden ganglands.

@TheVanguardSix just from seeing the footage of the area it looks fucking desolate. The security guard is the only one shown who put Gabriel before his job. Imagine working in child protection & not giving the remotest fuck about these children.

Jury members are almost always from out of town. They won’t choose locals. That’s how it works with local murder cases. Too many locals will know the perpetrators and will be biased. So they select jurors from further afield.
I haven’t watched the documentary. I only know about this case from reading about it over the years.
But are you talking about that one juror who felt that the mother’s boyfriend needed to be heard? That guy? Unbelievable right?

I should watch this documentary. I’m avoiding it because just reading about this case gave me nightmares.

Yes it’s a terribly grim area. My mom and her family emigrated to L.A. from Ireland in 1961. My uncle ‘married a girl from Palmdale’. So we used to drive on through Palmdale with the cousins and god it was like something out of The Grapes of Wrath. It’s like the 1930s depression never left. Now it’s like Breaking Bad.

@Crabonastick the ER nurse got me too

And as others have said, i kind of felt like I had to see it through to the end. Gabriel deserves, at the very least, for people to listen and see what he went through - not a single person did that for him while he was alive, and the few who did try to help (like the security guard in the welfare office) were shot down by bureaucracy in its most vile form.
The thing that makes the whole thing even more heartbreaking for me, is that he was taken care of and loved by the gay couple for the first half of his life, and then was ripped away from them into the hell that was the custody of his “mother” - and I use that term in the loosest sense of the word.

@TheVanguardSix yep. That guy. I'm surprised he went on the documentary!

It's a tough watch, but there is a lot of stuff on there that's so compelling.

For those that haven't finished it, the teacher gives an impact statement at the sentencing and it's clear the effect that it's had. She just has a face or a demeanor that doesn't look over emotional. Possibly hardened by a lot of what she deals with on a daily basis. It's clear though that even in an area of poverty and with massive social issues, Gabriel still stood out.

@WaxOnFeckOff I’m glad I’m not the only one struggling with how I feel about the teacher.
On one had I can see how something like this must have affected her.
But on the other hand I’m almost wanting to scream at her that she could have, and should have done so much more to save him

I think that she really tried but the bureaucracy and the failure of those she reported to have a much bigger share of the blame here (together with the actual perpetrators).

I'm not sure what expected her to do? It's not like the movies where she can just not allow him to go home and take him home to her loving family really.

She could have called the police who no doubt would have escorted him home, him already being badged a "naughty boy" who tells lies and causes his parents hassle. She could have called social work again and we know what a waste of time that was. She could have taken him to hospital maybe? But it's not like it's NHS that means you can just walk in is it?

On the scale of who is most to blame here, she comes way way down the list in my view.

Queen I realise it was you I was chatting with on the other Gabriel thread. Sorry for repeating myself!

I thought the teacher could have done more....... until the end. Her statement and seeing her with her own son, you could see how devastated she is

Oh yeah!! I’m in no way saying that the teacher holds a huge amount of responsibility - but every single adult that had the power to save him, didn’t do enough.
Also, where were his grandparents while the abuse was happening? Didn’t he live with them when he was first removed from the gay couple?