Naming and Holding A Substack Webinar on Missing Persons
To Build Up Our Writing Community, Now That We Got to Know One Another. Writers Can Utilize Substack and Write Their First Article.
What have you learned from being on Substack? Among the many things that I have learned, it's how to use the Substack platform to write more creatively.
And with less fear.
I've also learned something unexpected and undesirable about people:
There are more mean people out there than I thought, even when one of us is in trouble. And they can get personal. Very personal.
But that’s okay.
I like having my eyes opened.
What have you learned on Substack?
Learning How to Write A Substack Article
No one taught me how to write on Substack. It was only after several months that I realized that there were a plethora of features that went untouched. Over months, I learned more and more.
I don't want you to go through that.
Instead, I had the persisting thought that we can work together to make things better for medical censorship and medical freedom, since it is a passionate topic for us.
Teaching You How to Write on Substack
By no means am I an expert on Substack. But I love to teach, so I thought I could give a free webinar on how to max out on writing for Substack.
My goal is that you can turn your own knowledge, opinions, and observations into your own articles. Then instead of leaving a comment, you can just write your own article, and then post it as a link in the comments. Use your comment as the basis for an article.
Goodness knows, many of you are beautiful writers who express such passion and depth of thought, of knowledge, and of opinion:).
Take your pen and allow your passion to have more expression. You can add images, highlight quotes, even add your own podcast or video.
Building Our Community
Karen Kingston brought many of us together, and I don't want to see us get broken up, separated or scattered. Don't you feel the same?
Karen helped us to further define ourselves, defend our positions, and most importantly to me, she taught us to hold out and hold on to unwavering faithfulness and incessant prayer to Our God.
We can take what we learned about ourselves, and reflect, refine, and redirect it for a larger, creative good.
What Happens the Next Time One of Us is Missing?
When Someone is Missing
Like Dr. Peter and Ginger Briggin showed us on August 20th (see their article below), I agree that we need a system to initiate when someone is missing. See their article below.
Dr. Paul Medhurst, MPP, Ph.D., OKS, is a former police and UN security officer (now retired) with experience in eleven countries and on four continents. At our request, he has prepared a statement detailing best practices for law enforcement upon receiving a report of a Missing Person. His report is reproduced in full at the end of this column.
The countdown to finding a missing person begins the moment someone concerned for his or her well-being alerts law enforcement. Investigators are essentially working against the clock, as with each passing hour decreases the likelihood that the subject will be found.4
Report by Dr. Paul Medhurst NPP Ph.D. OKS
August 19th, 2023 To whom it may concern: At request of Dr. P. Breggin and Ms. G.R. Breggin, this is my statement and professional*5 opinion as regards Missing Persons, specifically the importance of a rapid law enforcement response once a person is identified as missing but is also deemed vulnerable, variously owing to either age, or gender, or physical or mental illness or other affliction, or evidence (or grounds for suspicion) of threat, danger or foul play.
A very substantial number of missing person cases are resolved within a matter of a few days with minimal police intervention beyond taking a report, photograph, and details. These are often almost routine as they not infrequently fit a previous pattern of the missing person indulging in repeat, unannounced absences. In a deal of those cases, other facts are sometimes known, such as accompaniment by a known person of no known doubts or in circumstances that do not give rise for undue or above-average concern; these, and subsequent actions are determined on a case-by-case basis, as sets of circumstances and profiles of the persons are unique or different in at least some ways. Fortunately, most of these cases are resolved without expending substantial police resources needed on other high priorities, given that many law enforcement bodies, especially in rural or low-density populated areas, do not possess the large numbers of personnel required for search-dragnets of this nature.
When a missing person is vulnerable, or there is evidence, or reasonable suspicion, of vulnerability, threat, or danger, it is an entirely different matter. Federal law enforcement may be informed of the case, and assistance and resources requested and forthcoming based on tangible evidence of threat/danger, or, upon suspicion of threat or danger, as the intent & spirit of the law intends, and the assistance is structured to be very rapid. In cross-border cases, governments and embassies often routinely cooperate and respond rapidly, adding political vigour and international protocol behind the federal and / or state investigations.
In cases of vulnerability or threat to the missing person, such response must be immediate, despite other life-threatening emergencies already being dealt with or in motion, saving and protecting life being the primary objective of an efficient police body. Moreover, when police target a specific zone / neighborhood, going door-to-door, taking so-called ‘negative statements’ (the police contact apparently impressing and stimulating the subconscious, memory, and recall of the potential witnesses questioned, but only sometime later), in striving to identify any potential, useful witnesses or leads in a case, it can frequently but unavoidably delay useful evidence-collection for 24 to 48 hours, as witnesses sometimes consciously recall sightings / important leads but only the day after the police visit, or the day after that. Thus, it is one more imperative to react as promptly as possible from outset in missing person cases involving vulnerability, threat, or other danger.
A deal of attention must furthermore be given to the time, as far as can be ascertained, that the person is estimated as having gone missing in order to gauge how far they may have traveled if they were conveyed in various forms of transport, thus formulating the search, alert and observation delineations and areas that can immediately be alerted (e.g., Ports, airports, train stations, freeways, etc.) and to what extent hospitals, mortuaries, hotels, motels and other haunts can be checked by police equipped with name, date of birth and a photo of the missing person. A missing person who is abducted can easily be 50 miles or more distant from the crime scene, and have perhaps crossed state lines within a mere 60 minutes of being abducted.
The need for rapid response is absolute in the risk cases described, and the more rapid the response, the greater the odds are of detection, just as, for example, POWs are more likely to escape after capture, during the first 10 to 30 minutes, but, bearing in mind, detection is also a high police priority so as to prevent any perpetrators remaining at large, committing further crime. Therefore, the importance of rapid investigation and search response in Missing Person cases involving vulnerability or evidence or suspicion of threat / danger is paramount.
Paul Medhurst NPP Ph.D. OKS
paulmedhurst@hotmail.co.uk Cornwall, UK.
References:
1 karenkingston on GETTR: karenkingston Livestream 2023-07-23— note please—when the link is clicked, a video Kingston made dated August 6, 2023, begins playing.
2 karenkingston on GETTR: karenkingston Livestream 2023-07-23 note please—when the link is clicked a video Kingston made dated August 6, 2023, begins playing.
3https://dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/4686/Karen-Kingston-Is-Missing-Part-2.aspx
5 * Dr. Paul Medhurst NPP Ph.D. OKS Professional credentials / experience highlights: Now retired, but with former police and UN security experience in eleven countries on four continents: served in two UK police forces, Surrey and London Met (whose HQ is New Scotland Yard); Instructor, training mid-senior officers of four Scandinavian countries’ police forces for deployment in war zones / UN missions; In Africa temporarily commanded police officers seconded in from 6 nations, engaged on UN security duties; 2i/c of the Management Advisory Unit at UN Office for Drugs & Crime; Field Security Officer posts in several UN peacekeeping Missions; IAEA qualified Instructor for training International Law Enforcement & Intelligence personnel on Illicit Nuclear-Trafficking; Deputy Chief of Security & Safety Services at the UN Offices in Geneva and Vienna (approx. rank equivalent of Lt Colonel and deputising for the rank above me, approx. equivalent of military Brigadier and UK Assistant Chief Constable); Author of a training course on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, adopted by the 188 nations’ Ambassadors of the UN General Assembly and subsequently attributed to having saved police lives in the former Yugoslavia war; Special Advisor for Counterintelligence under the Office of the Secretary-General at Inter-Port-Police; PhD in Political Science (terrorism); Full Professor at the American Military University (APUS/AMU) designing and teaching various Criminal Justice and Intelligence courses; Territorial Army volunteer in the Royal Military Police (V) and The Queen’s Regiment (V) lecturing on IEDs, anti-handling devices and booby-traps; Member of the International Police Association, former memberships in The Forensic Science Society, International Association of Chiefs of Police, The Association of Former Intelligence Officers and The International Society of Explosives Engineers. Co-awarded Nobel Peace Prize (South Lebanon, awarded to all UN peacekeepers in 1988).
We Can Work Together
Components should be organized in a flow chart, step wise approach to include various matters. We can split up topics and create a whole protocol, as there are many considerations.
Considerations for a Missing Person
Prayer
Health matters
Poison control systems
Family support
Social media statements
Family privacy and public knowledge
Processing criminal clues
Keeping a timeline
Communication with family and friends
Hotel or other facility: staff comments
Legal help
Private investigation
Law enforcement
Local and regional politicians
Local and regional government authorities
Private or nonprofit organizations
Missing persons organizations
Missing persons private specialists
Language translations
Physical location discovery
Local geography
Fundraising
Financial costs
When the missing person is found
When the missing person needs medical care
When a missing person needs mental health care
Bringing a missing person back into the US
When a missing person doesn't make contact
When a missing person reunites with family and friends
Foul play, poisoning, and death
Private versus public information
Timing the release of information
Trolls and haters
Bringing light to the darkness
Gratitude and praise to God
What did I leave out?
What Else Do We Need?
I think we need to do this with love, respect, empathy and compassion, emotional control, suppression of infighting, omission of personal attacks, zero tolerance for abusive comments, and positivity that allows for the expression of fear and sadness.
And if someone wants and asks for prayers, we should not be afraid or ostracized because we pray, nor should we condemn someone else for believing in God or prayers.
And the last thing we should tolerate together, is someone questioning our commitment to God or our Christianity.
Because that is what happened to me, and as an ordained minister, I had to draw the line and put out the darkness with light.
I hope none of you ever know what that feels like.
Our Substack Webinar
We can start with a blank slate. Pick your style, add links, images, a podcast, video, quotes, bullet points, or numerics.
These are the features listed at the top of the editing page:
Add Share and Subscribe Buttons
Determine an article title.
Determine a subtitle. Both can be changed after the article is written.
Start writing the text of the article.
Add Subtitles #2 and #3 when appropriate, otherwise regular text.
Insert images. Create your own images on Canva.com
Use break lines.
Highlight body headlines and subtitles with » Hi «
Insert buttons.
Add a poetry block.
Insert a poll.
Insert links.
Insert a podcast.
Insert a video.
Add bullet points.
Add numbers
We can screen share.
We can start by writing an article that shows you the steps and how to accomplish them.
You pull up your laptop, think of an article to write, and get started.
What do you think our teaching webinar should be named?
Remember that if you can not afford to be a paid subscriber, just ask by emailing me at therebelpatient@substack.com. Just be sure to leave me your actual email address, because Substack doesn't reveal it. No explanation needed. Every time I say this, almost no one asks. Please ask, so you can participate:)
Webinar Day and Time
I was thinking of holding the webinar in the next week or so, and recording it. How does that sound to you?
Thank you for your awesomeness!
WHAT I REALLY THINK
What the heck?
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