Neighbors of Castro say they told police about horrific evidence of abuse — naked women crawling on leashes, banging on windows for help — years before the rescue came. Elsie Cintron, who lives three doors down, told USA Today her daughter once saw a naked woman crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard, prompting her to call police. “But they didn’t take it seriously,” she said. Cintron also said she once saw a little girl gazing out of the attic window.

According to USA Today, another neighbor, Israel Lugo called police about two years ago after his sister told him she heard a woman who seemed to need help banging on a window at Castro’s home. “When his sister looked up, she saw a woman and a baby standing in a window half covered with a wooden plank. His sister told him and Lugo called the police.”  Lugo told USA Today officers knocked on the front door, but when no one answered, “They walked to the side of the house and then left.” Neighbors also told USA Today they saw Ariel Castro walking a little girl to a nearby playground.  Lugo says he, his family, and neighbors called the cops three times between 2011 and 2012.

Women who lived in a nearby apartment building made a third call to police after seeing three young girls crawling all fours, naked, with dog leashes around their necks. “Three men were controlling them in the backyard,” said USA Today, “The women told Lugo they waited two hours but police never responded to the calls.”

According to the  Atlantic, “Police have only visited the address twice: Once in 2000, for a fight in the street (there were no arrests), and a second time in 2004, when Child Protective Services conducted an investigation related to Ariel Castro’s job as a bus driver. (He inadvertently left a sleeping child on his bus, but it was a ruled a honest mistake and no charges were ever filed.)”

In case you thought for a moment that cops ‘serve and protect’ anyone but the ruling class.