by Shavana Abruzzo
That hundreds of strangers would form a sea of grief outside a funeral parlor – waiting for hours in the bitter cold to catch a glimpse of a dead child in a casket – speaks volumes about the heartache stirred by the death of tormented Brooklyn girl, Nixzmary Brown. The mourning stretches beyond the perimeters of this city for stunned folk, whose attempts to reconcile the tragic life of a God’s child have rendered disgust and condemnation for the two fiends, who went under the guise of her parents. Even a beast would shy away from inflicting the type of brutality suffered by Nixzmary at the hands of her cruel dog of a stepfather, Cesar Rodriguez, who showed no mercy as he beat the seven-year-old to death for taking a yoghurt out of the refrigerator. Even an animal would be hard-pressed to ignore what must have been the heart-wrenching screams of Nixzmary as she turned to the woman, who bore her – Nixzaliz Santiago – and begged her for help in the final moments of her rotten, short-lived life. The frightened, neglected and abused girl’s tear-filled pleas fell on deaf ears, for Nixzaliz Santiago went to bed instead – to end what must have been just another routine day for her tortured daughter. Unhealed bruises. Ongoing beatings. Forcible use of a litter box as a toilet. Feeding her cat food. Deeply etching the foreboding shadows of dread and premature agedness upon a nubile face and body. That’s what Cesar Rodriguez and Nixzaliz Santiago did to their little angel. Each of these monsters have been slapped with a string of charges – capped by second-degree murder indictments for both – for their depraved indifference towards their defenseless child. As with other heinous cases of the Big Apple’s victimized children, the blame-flingers are having a field day as they finger the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) for its lack of foresight, hindsight and just about every other mode of culpability. Sad to say, but the buck does not stop with nonchalant municipal workers, who do not rise to the job of safeguarding the hordes of mistreated youngsters on their rosters. The buck does not stop with strangers, burdened with heavy workloads, shoddy supervision and little sense, or command, of accountability. The buck should not stop with other, easier targets. The sordid, grim, hard-to-swallow fact remains that Nixzmary Brown subsisted in a living hell, mercilessly crafted – and entirely created – by the uncaring and deranged sub-humans, who are now behind bars for her persecution, maiming and murder. The buck stops with them. Absolutely. Unequivocally. Mere words will never express the remorse felt by decent people over the senseless loss of yet another defenseless and wronged youngster, who can finally rest in the peace she always deserved. E-mail“A Britisher’s View” at BritView@courierlife.net. All letters become the property of Courier-Life Publications and are subject to publication unless otherwise specified; please include your name, address and daytime telephone number for verification.
