The Case of a Child Abuse Case

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i met the woman who was at the centre of the case, and we became friends. The woman's name is jessica lanahan. She had three little girls, who were ten, nine and seven years old. A few weeks after she had taken this restraining order, 20 second 19 99, the kids were playing outside. From what she told me, jessica was in the house, and theyo know how kids are, they don't talk, they scream. So they screamig at each other, and they're playing, and all a sudden is very quiet. She looks out the window, no kids. She knew immediately sim has this history of being abusive. And

Since the massacre that took the lives of 19 schoolchildren in Uvalde, Texas, people across the world began to ask versions of one question: why did police wait outside the door instead of protecting the kids?

It's not the first time this question has come up. Two years ago, as she watched police respond to the protests that followed the death of George Floyd, Producer B.A. Parker wondered: what are police for? With the help of our Producer Sarah Qari, she found that the United States’ Supreme Court had given this a most consequential and bewildering answer.

We decided to re-air this episode to shed light on how a case from 2005 upended our assumptions about the role police are meant to play in our lives.

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