Google map of the state of Pennsylvania
by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
Although the change.org petition displayed below ended five years ago, with 130 signatures, it is well worth reading for Aussies. It shows yet again how similar are the child-stealing cases in US, UK, Oz, and Europe.
More tellingly, it shows how UNWILLING the government and the courts are to help children! This must stop. Stop. Stop.
According to the authors of the petition:
“The current system of child protection and the family court system has ignored reports of child abuse, punished protective parents and placed child victims in unsupervised contact or custody of abusers, issued gag-orders that force parents and reporters of child abuse into silence, and court cases have been sealed to prevent adult victims from seeking justice in civil cases.”
You may recall that at least one Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania took seriously the fact that the bishops, who turned a blind eye to child abuse by priests, were very guilty as to the child’s life outcome.
That diocese decided that the names of schools must now be changed from “The Bishop Such-and-Such School” if that bishop – no matter how long ago – appeared to have turned a blind eye.
In 2015, a different group, called the “Pennsylvania Stop Abuse Team” composed a petition directed (via change.org) at Pennsylvania state attorney general Kathleen Kane. It points to the bad court practices that we are so familiar with, and which cause untold suffering. These are enumerated in my book Reunion: Judging the Family Court.
The Pennsylvania Stop Abuse Team also writes:
“Our children deserve the love and support of their families and to be free from abuse — not court-ordered into the custody of abusers.
“Protective parents who report the abuse of their children should be free from persecution, retaliation, and loss of custody. Family law cases must not be used as an income initiative for judges, lawyers, GAL’s, and custody evaluators, as cases are prolonged for years, financially devastating the litigants.”
[GAL = guardian ad litem, similar to ICL, Independent Children’s Lawyer, in Australia. That is, a person supposedly speaking on the child’s behalf, but don’t you believe it.]
The Pennsylvania petition is not, of course, for a Royal Commission. It is for a Grand Jury investigation – a good idea! You will note that it has a unique sales pitch. It talks about the proven work of “the Quincy Solution” where reforms of the family court led businesses to increase their revenue – just because courts did the right thing!
I print the change.org petition here, about 50% abridged.
THE PETITION
We the people, who are residents and/or who have been litigants in the State of Pennsylvania, request our representatives to appeal to the Attorney General Kathleen Kane to convene a Grand Jury to investigate the current corruption, fraud, and violations of civil rights within the judicial branch and to investigate the illegal practices of child protective services agencies.
THE SAFE CHILD ACT
Barry Goldstein is the author of the Quincy Solution. Recently, Goldstein has written the Safe Child Act that been introduced into Hawaii’s state legislature (HB1701). Barry Goldstein practiced law for 30 years in New York. He served on the Board of Directors of My Sisters’ Place, one of the leading domestic violence agencies in the country for 14 years.
The intent of the legislation is for courts to stop using practices that have proven so harmful to children.
The findings specifically challenge the widespread assumption by court professionals that contested custody are “high conflict” cases. Instead the law makes findings based on current research that most contested custody are really domestic violence cases in which an abuser is seeking custody to maintain control after his partner left him.
This different understanding is critical because it encourages the use of accountability against abusers and to make him stop instead of pressuring his victim to cooperate with him. An attorney should have an easy time challenging the uses of flawed “high conflict” approaches because the legislature is telling the courts those approaches are harmful to children.
… unqualified professionals fail to recognize valid complaints about domestic violence. This frequently results in punishment of the mother for trying to protect her children. …
The legislation also finds that unqualified professionals often rely on the myth that women frequently make false allegations of abuse. This leads to the rejection of many valid complaints without a fair hearing.
The Quincy Solution (quoting Barry Goldstein) — Enormous Benefits to Businesses
[This section is still part of the Petition for a Grand Jury]
News coverage of the domestic violence issue has tended to focus on the direct physical harm to women. Many people, including policy makers are unaware of the money that can be saved by ending our tolerance for men’s abuse of women.
The largest source of savings is in health care costs. These costs involve not just treating the immediate injuries, but the lifelong affects from the stress of living with an abuser.
…. We also spend over one trillion dollars on crime costs. Most crime is not related to domestic violence, but 25% of police calls are connected to domestic violence and a single murder costs the criminal justice system $2.5 million. Children who witness this abuse are more likely to commit a variety of other crimes….
The Quincy Solution is a group of best practices originally used in Quincy, Massachusetts that have been shown to dramatically reduce domestic violence crime. The Quincy Model helped the community enjoy several years with no murders, and substantial reductions in other crimes.
The reduction in crime would also provide significant benefits [including] from savings on law enforcement, the courts and prisons. When women and children are able to live their lives free from abuse and therefore reach their economic potential, governments will receive more tax receipts and save money in services like food stamps, unemployment and disability.
Reduced crime will also reduce expenses for insurance and security. The reduction in domestic violence and child abuse will reduce substance abuse which is a major factor in automobile accidents. Reduction in domestic violence crime will improve the productivity of workers. They will have less absences and better ability to concentrate while on the job.
Most gun related violence in the workplace is related to domestic violence. More commonly, abusers call or visit their victims at their workplace and harass them there. This not only distracts workers who are victims, but also requires the time of supervisors and human resources offices.
The failure of custody courts to recognize and respond effectively to domestic violence has encouraged these unspeakably cruel tactics. In many cases victims are forced to use their savings that were intended for the children’s education and their retirement in a desperate attempt to protect their children from abusive fathers.
They also borrow money from family, friends and their credit cards in their often futile attempt to save their children.
Businesses lose money when debts are discharged in bankruptcy. … The victims also have less money to spend as consumers.
–end of quote from the Change.org Petition
In Part 1 of this series “Don’t Steal Children,” I emphasized the participation of government in child stealing – whether by active involvement through family courts, or by holding back on arrest of the perpetrators.
Four categories of “Government Stealing” were identified: mind control, blackmail, the supplying of inmates to privatized prisons, and the economic exploitation of children – be it for slave labor, organ transplants, or medical experimentation.
I omitted the incentivizing, by federal funds, of the breaking up of families (though this was noted in an earlier article on payments made for forced adoptions). The Pennsylvania group stated in their petition “Federal funding initiatives and bonuses promote child removal from loving and protective parents.” How true and how outrageous.
Barry Goldstein, in Hawaii, asked for, and got, legislative change. The Pennsylvania Stop Abuse Team sought a grand jury to investigate the relevant crimes. They said:
“We ask for the voices of abused children and the parents who plead for their safety to be heard. Evidence, research, and witness testimony [from a Grand Jury] will prove the existence of this widespread crisis for protective parents and their children. Verified evidence of child abuse must be criminally charged, not investigated by child protective services agencies.”
Recall from Part 2 of this series, that Wilfred Wong listed several cases in the UK in which child abusers were specifically charged with, and convicted of, satanic ritual abuse. It is not impossible for the law to work!
We need to get over our too-low expectations.
