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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

HB 4067 Fails Children and Fathers

Here is the language that I sent to me State Rep concerning the latest putative father bill that was introduced.

 

 

Honorable State Representative Callton,

 

Recently HB 4067 has been introduced and assigned to the Families, Children and Seniors committee. The bill is a start but does not go far enough to protect the rights of children and putative fathers or unknowing fathers to have a parent-child relationship. Please modify the bill by inserting language that does not require both parents to agree to the acknowledgement of a relationship so as not to give veto rights to either parent. Also please insert language which would not limit the amount of time a father has to file an action but instead gives him 1 year from when he discovered the possibility that he may have fathered a child. Finally there should not be any language in the bill that blocks actions when a mother is married to another man and there should be language that ends child support when a man is discovered to not be the father.

 

Sincerely,

 

Monday, January 24, 2011

Fathers and Families: In 2011, We Resolve to...

 

 

View this email with images
Be sure to add glenn@glennsacks.com to your address book or safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox.


Fathers and Families

In 2011, We Resolve to...

December 27, 2010

...Reform the Family Law System!

It is time to change the family law system, and Fathers and Families is doing it. In 2011 we have the opportunity to make major changes but we can't do it without you—please remember to make your tax-deductible contribution before the end of the year by visiting fathersandfamilies.org/give

Our work and our victories have real consequences for families everywhere. For example, before Christmas we heard from two Southern California fathers who were able to prevent their kids from being moved, one to New Jersey, the other to Colorado. 

Why were they able to win? 

Because the organizations that think custodial parents should have all the rights and noncustodial parents none twice tried to legislatively destroy the state's improved case law on move-aways, and twice we helped defeat them. Because of these victories, today the four children involved in these two cases each have two parents in their lives instead of one.

Every person reading this email benefits to some degree from this vital work—help fund it by going to fathersandfamilies.org/give.

The new year brings a new beginning. Recently Brent, a longtime Fathers and Families member, began to enjoy a new beginning with his 19-year-old daughter from whom he'd been alienated since his divorce. The daughter was living out of the country but, unbeknownst to Brent, had been in touch with her half-brother. 

One day Brent got the phone call that hundreds of thousands of alienated parents dream of—his daughter said she'd moved back to the same city as Brent, and wanted to meet her dad for dinner. A joyous reunion followed.

Fathers and Families has been one of the leading forces in the struggle to get family courts to stop custodial parents from alienating their children against the noncustodial parents, and many of you have taken part in our campaigns on this issue. Help fund this work through your gift at fathersandfamilies.org/give.

In 2010 Fathers and Families proved that making change is possible, as we passed seven different family court reform bills and blocked several bad bills. We can win this battle but only if we continue to build a strong organization, and funding is key. Thanks in advance for your support.

Together with you in the love of our children,

Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director

Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder and Chair of the Board

P.S. If money is tight now, please consider making a small monthly gift by going to fathersandfamilies.org/give. We also accept PayPal.

 

Join Fathers and Families

Fathers and Families
Fathers and Families is a family court reform organization with a comprehensive strategy, an impressive history of legislative and fundraising success, and the largest reach of any advocacy group of its kind:

This email contains a promotional message from the non-profit organization Fathers and Families.
© 2010. Fathers and Families. All Rights Reserved.




This message was sent from Glenn Sacks to darricksf@achildsright.net. It was sent from: Fathers & Families, 20 Park Plaza, Suite 628, Boston, MA 02116. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below.

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Fathers and Families: In 2011, We Resolve to...

 

 

View this email with images
Be sure to add glenn@glennsacks.com to your address book or safe sender list so our emails get to your inbox.


Fathers and Families

In 2011, We Resolve to...

December 27, 2010

...Reform the Family Law System!

It is time to change the family law system, and Fathers and Families is doing it. In 2011 we have the opportunity to make major changes but we can't do it without you—please remember to make your tax-deductible contribution before the end of the year by visiting fathersandfamilies.org/give

Our work and our victories have real consequences for families everywhere. For example, before Christmas we heard from two Southern California fathers who were able to prevent their kids from being moved, one to New Jersey, the other to Colorado. 

Why were they able to win? 

Because the organizations that think custodial parents should have all the rights and noncustodial parents none twice tried to legislatively destroy the state's improved case law on move-aways, and twice we helped defeat them. Because of these victories, today the four children involved in these two cases each have two parents in their lives instead of one.

Every person reading this email benefits to some degree from this vital work—help fund it by going to fathersandfamilies.org/give.

The new year brings a new beginning. Recently Brent, a longtime Fathers and Families member, began to enjoy a new beginning with his 19-year-old daughter from whom he'd been alienated since his divorce. The daughter was living out of the country but, unbeknownst to Brent, had been in touch with her half-brother. 

One day Brent got the phone call that hundreds of thousands of alienated parents dream of—his daughter said she'd moved back to the same city as Brent, and wanted to meet her dad for dinner. A joyous reunion followed.

Fathers and Families has been one of the leading forces in the struggle to get family courts to stop custodial parents from alienating their children against the noncustodial parents, and many of you have taken part in our campaigns on this issue. Help fund this work through your gift at fathersandfamilies.org/give.

In 2010 Fathers and Families proved that making change is possible, as we passed seven different family court reform bills and blocked several bad bills. We can win this battle but only if we continue to build a strong organization, and funding is key. Thanks in advance for your support.

Together with you in the love of our children,

Glenn Sacks, MA
Executive Director

Ned Holstein, M.D., M.S.
Founder and Chair of the Board

P.S. If money is tight now, please consider making a small monthly gift by going to fathersandfamilies.org/give. We also accept PayPal.

 

Join Fathers and Families

Fathers and Families
Fathers and Families is a family court reform organization with a comprehensive strategy, an impressive history of legislative and fundraising success, and the largest reach of any advocacy group of its kind:

This email contains a promotional message from the non-profit organization Fathers and Families.
© 2010. Fathers and Families. All Rights Reserved.




This message was sent from Glenn Sacks to darricksf@achildsright.net. It was sent from: Fathers & Families, 20 Park Plaza, Suite 628, Boston, MA 02116. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below.

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Monday, January 17, 2011

FYI: Changing Child Visitation (Parenting Time Modification) in Mich

Posted by: "Doug Dante" dougdante1@yahoo.com   dougdante1

Sun Dec 19, 2010 5:17 am (PST)

http://kidsshirt.net/interestinglykids/changing-child-visitation-parenting-time-modification-in-michigan-just-became-easier.html

"The Michigan Court of Appeals issued a new published decision on December 3,
2010, Shade v Wright, Mich. App Docket No. 296318 (2010)which held that it
ought to be, and now is due to this case, less difficult to change the
parenting time schedule than it is to alter custody. This case stated that in
order to decrease or boost child visitation with a parent there is a a lot more
relaxed burden of proof concerning a change of circumstances or correct trigger
as a threshold issue than there is with custody. The court went further and
stated that typical life changes such as those described above are correctly
considered when deciding this issue.
"In the Wright v Shade case cited above, the change that allowed the mother to
change the child’s visitation with the father was that their daughter had began
high school and her schedule of activities changed. This is precisely the sort
of change that trial courts specifically can not consider in order to change
custody. Several trial courts and friend of the court referees also believed,
before this opinion, that this was exactly the sort of change of circumstances
that they could not contemplate in order to allow a change to either improve or
limit child visitation. Those courts and referees that believed this were
wrong and hopefully they will now follow this case when thinking about these
problems simply because Wright v Shade is binding precedent."

 

Darrick Scott-Farnsworth

Executive Director www.AChildsRight.net www.daddyblogger.com 

Cell 269 209-7144 or Nextel DC ID 130*112*19287

True Conservative: Pro-Life, Liberty and Property

 

Thursday, January 13, 2011

EJF newsletter - Domestic violence - essay on ideology versus reality 12/12/10

 

Introduction

     Erin Pizzey's 1974 book Scream Quietly Or The Neighbors Will Hear, written after she opened a refuge (shelter in the US) for abused women in 1971 in Chiswick, London, England, is widely credited with bringing the problems of family violence to the world's attention.  But when she dared to point out that 60 of the first 100 women who entered the refuge were as violent, or more violent than the men they left, and publish a book about Violence Prone women, radical neo-Marxist feminists (for brevity I use the synonym "redfems" as defined by the essays found here) drove her into exile.

      Pizzey's observations about female violence in intimate relationships was substantiated by Straus, Gelles, and Steinmetz in their 1980 book Behind Closed Doors. Since then Prof. Martin Fiebert has compiled an annotated bibliography that examines 275 scholarly investigations which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their male partners.  The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 365,000 and Pizzey's early observation is now firmly established.

    In dealing with domestic violence the justice system is, or should be solely concerned with physical violence in an intimate relationship that is purposefully, intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or negligently inflicted on a family member (mens rea). When such violence is repeated in order to control the actions or behavior of an intimate partner it is described as "battering." Battering clearly fits the definition of a criminal act and may be subject to control by intelligent laws.

     It should also be realized that in a free society there is often little that laws can do to control what has come to be known as "emotional abuse." Attempts to control such problems in intimate relationships within the justice system are more dangerous and destructive than the issue.

      Note that in any discussion of intimate partner, or domestic violence there must be a clear distinction made between "battering," and "family conflict."  Family conflicts, while common, for the most part are not, and must not be the province of the law in a free society.

     But domestic violence is an issue too readily corrupted by emotions and feelings to be confined by logic and reason. That has opened the door to manipulation by radical groups for their own purposes  and financial gain.

 

Ideology

   In How Feminists Tried To Destroy The Family Erin PIzzey outlines how the issue of domestic violence was co-opted by radical neo-Marxist feminists (redfems). Domestic violence is a propaganda minister¹s dream subject. It is common enough that the reality essential to all good propaganda is evident. Men who beat their wives are universally reviled. Conversely, abused men are readily mocked and derided. Radical feminists, longtime students of communist-propaganda methods, quickly snapped up the issue as their own as Pizzey describes. The cry of ³wife beater² degrades men and can be blamed on the hated patriarchy, which redfems accuse of subjugating and enslaving females. And any man who denies the accusation is faced with the classic paradox.

     Redfem ideology conforms to the arguments of Engels and Marx that class distinctions and oppression first arose between man and woman in monogamous marriage. Therefore, "class struggle" began when men discovered, or insisted on (a) the recognition of their fatherhood, (b) enslaved women in marriage, (c) created the patriarchal family, and (d) established private property. Thus, according to Marxist theory, the family is the root cause of female oppression and radical feminist ideology evolved from that. Lenin put it bluntly: "Destroy the family and you destroy society."

      The redfem propaganda effort was greatly aided by California Assemblyman James A. Hayes who passed a ³no fault² divorce law in 1969.  Ignoring the the failure and destruction resulting from the Russian Effort To Abolish Marriage  ³no fault² divorce quickly became the national standard virtually without debate or question. The destabilization of families resulting from "no fault" divorce brought even more attention to bear on the issue of domestic violence.

      Though criminal domestic violence, that might be proven to a jury, as distinguished from family conflicts, only affects a very small fraction of the population (~0.2% a year, BJS Family Violence Statistics, p. 1), through unrelenting propaganda by 1994 the Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  State legislatures, including Colorado, followed suit.

       VAWA is based on the pretense that women are naturally and solely victims entitled to tax-paid legal and financial assistance while men are naturally batterers who are not entitled to even due process protections.

       One basis for this irrational law is a statement by Gloria Steinem who asserted that "The patriarchy requires violence or the subliminal threat of violence in order to maintain itself...The most dangerous situation for a woman is not an unknown man in the street, or even the enemy in wartime, but a husband or lover in the isolation of their own home."  Redfem analysis thus states that a patriarchal society is a direct cause of domestic violence against women.

      Thus, to remold men into the redfem concept of a New Man it is necessary to destroy the patriarchy and all men who practice it.  To do that VAWA and state laws, supposedly passed for the protection of women against their spouses, removed virtually every protection an accused man had under the rule of law.

 

Believe the victim

       First we were admonished that we must "believe the victim" so that a mere allegation now became proof, and hearsay became evidence. Perjury became the rule, subornation of perjury permitted and encouraged, and actions of victim's advocates unquestionable. Arrests of any male so accused became mandatory and warrants were deemed unnecessary.

      Men are to be considered guilty unless they can prove their innocence, and if they deny they are abusers and batterers they are simply in denial and guilty by dint of being male, particularly if they are in a patriarchal marriage.

 

Only men are violent in intimate relationships

       In the face of all evidence to the contrary, redfems claim that women are only violent in self defense. To insure the man was arrested even though the woman was the violent partner, primary aggressor laws were added.

 

Throw the bum out

      Ex parte restraining (protection) orders were provided to any woman who claimed to be in fear, might suffer emotional harm, or any other claim a victim's advocate can come up with, that prevent the man from returning to his home and children, or any other location or condition designated on the order.

      Such orders are often delivered at night with the man given 15 minutes to pack and get out. A warrantless arrest and jail are mandatory if the order is violated and the woman can have the man repeatedly rearrested simply by claiming he has violated the order. Frequently men so accused are denied the right to a trial by jury.

       Restrictions on the jurisdiction of the court disappeared.  If a restraining order is needed against a man living on the other side of the country it is likely no judge today would dare deny such an ex parte order based on nothing more than an unquestioned and unsubstantiated statement the woman was "in fear."

 

Give the police virtually unlimited powers

      Police responding to calls for a domestic disturbance were given unabridged powers to enter and search homes and property. Men's property and children are taken from them without a chance to defend themselves or present evidence in their defense. They are ejected from their homes without prior notice on such pretexts as there was a possibility of emotional harm to the woman if he stayed. Men are denied the right to confront their accuser and the assistance of counsel. Punishment and incarceration occur before a trial and often without one. And men accused of domestic violence are subjected to public censure and ridicule and sentenced to reeducation classes.  Men so accused lose their jobs, security clearances, professional licenses, and ability to even rent an apartment after being summarily ejected from their homes.

 

Define every crime as domestic violence and eliminate due process

        To insure that the accusation of domestic violence applied to all men the definition was expanded beyond all reason by making it an add-on charge for any crime. So shoplifting, DUI, throwing a box of crayons against a wall, or virtually any other imaginable action by a man are all domestic violence under current laws if a woman says so. And to make sure prosecutors didn't waver they are prohibited from plea bargaining to a charge that does not include the DV rider. Thus, domestic violence became the most common crime in Colorado (at least 26% of all charges in 2009). Bail bonds were set ever higher. In at least one case bail was set at $1 million for a misdemeanor and bonds of tens of thousands of dollars for misdemeanors became common.

     The right to keep and bear arms is now lost for life if convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.

     All meaning was lost to the concept of double jeopardy and the same charges of violence or abuse can now be brought multiple times in the same court, or in other jurisdictions if it pleases the woman.  "Judge shopping" has become an art form as a result. Nor is there any discernible meaning now to a statute of limitations. Accusations from incidents that may, or may not have occurred decades ago can now be used against a man without any evidence or witnesses being needed.

 

Provide billions of dollars only to feminists who agree with this ideology

      Under these draconian laws billions of state and federal dollars became available each year to any group that claimed to help abused women or children (male children under 12 only, please). But nothing was done for abused men except to scorn them and deny they existed.

     Most of the applicable laws in Colorado are posted here.

 

Do such draconian measures work?

 

 

What measurable effects have the domestic violence laws had?

 

Effects of mandatory arrest ‹ fewer 911 calls, more homicides

     The first impact of the 1994 laws in Colorado Springs I noticed was a radical drop in the number of domestic disturbance calls to police. A bar chart showing 911 domestic disturbance calls in Colorado Springs from 1990 to 2004 shows an immediate drop after the 1994 passage of these draconian laws. Nor did mandatory arrest result in a significant long term increase in number of arrests. Data are now available for twenty years in Table 72 and the percentage of 911 domestic disturbance calls continues to decrease. >From 1990 to 1994 7.2% to 8.7% of all 911 calls in Colorado Springs were for domestic disturbances. After 1994 the percentage continually drops and by 2008-2009 only 4.1-4.5% of 911 calls are for domestic disturbances. These results have now been replicated in other cities.

      Clearly, after 1994 women became more afraid of the police than they were of their intimate partners. Unfortunately, those who likely needed help the most were apparently most afraid to call 911 due to the draconian response. Families want, and occasionally need a peace officer, not the NKVD to enforce cruel social engineering demands that their loved ones be destroyed and taken over by the State.

      The tragic consequences of these actions were confirmed by Radha Iyengar who pointed out in a 2007 paper that in the 19 states, including Colorado, who had adopted the VAWA mandatory arrest policy, domestic violence homicides were 60% greater than in states without mandatory arrest.

      VAWA also results in the death of many women as a result of redfem ideology that claims women are only violent in self defense and allowing abusive females to file torrents of false allegations against their abused partners.

      In 1975 the number of men killed by intimate partners was roughly equal to the number of women. One of the ironies of VAWA is that in giving women means to leave an abusive relationship the number of male homicides that result from domestic violence is now less than half the number of female murders. By refusing to recognize that females are equally violent in intimate relationships and providing equal relief for men, too often they see themselves with no way out but spouse murder.  The redfem "solution" to this fact is to demand the passage of even more draconian laws and more funding, thereby compounding the problems and furthering their agenda.

 

Increased female arrests

     Another unintended impact of VAWA was an increase of female arrests for domestic violence. Before these laws were passed only about 5-8% of DV arrests were of females. After VAWA female arrests (male victims) have averaged 20-23% since 1999 (Table 69), a nearly fourfold increase.

      The redfem response to this "injustice" was to lobby for the passage of "primary aggressor" laws that instruct the police to arrest that big, ugly, hairy guy bleeding in the corner instead of the petite young lady standing there with the knife in her hand.

 

Sixth Amendment rights restored

     Except in cases where they seek revenge or vengeance, or in custody disputes, women have always been notably reluctant to testify in court against their intimate partners. Most deeply regret ever having called 911 in the first place.  So in a large percentage of DV cases the women simply don't show up for the trial. Prosecutors then would proceed using evidentiary standards, as they do in murder cases, and convict the man on the basis of the 911 call, police statements, photos, etc.

     However, in a 2004 ruling in Crawford v. Washington the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors could not thus subvert the intent of the Confrontation Clause in the 6th Amendment, namely the accused shall have the right ..."to be confronted with the witnesses against him." Now if the woman, or man, who is the accuser does not show up for trial the prosecution must dismiss the case for lack of a witness unless, of course, the accuser is dead, in a coma, etc.

 

Coercion and torture of defendants

      When these laws were first passed there was a tendency for men to treat a criminal DV charge like any other misdemeanor and accept a plea bargain. However, as the dire consequences of a domestic violence conviction became known the resistance increased.

      To deal with the overwhelming numbers of DV cases prosecutors resorted to ever more draconian methods of coercing a guilty plea from defendants. A popular method is adding on charges to the original complaint to make a trivial "push and shove" case sound like felony menacing by Jack the Ripper. They would then offer a plea bargain for misdemeanor simple assault.

      Another step was to initiate programs usually known as Fast Track in which, after a sleepless night or two in jail, defendants were required to enter a plea before ever being allowed to consult with a defense attorney.  And defendants who refused to take the plea bargain were often told they would be kept in jail until trial, six months away. That tactic was particularly effective with active-duty military whose PTSD/TBI had gotten them arrested.  Among others, efforts begun in 2000 by the Equal Justice Foundation to correct this injustice began to take effect and from 2000 to 2008 the number of defendants in Colorado Springs who accepted a plea bargain during Fast Track dropped from 60% to 28% (Table 63).  By 2010 EJF flyers on Domestic Violence-The Facts and Protection Orders-The Facts were being downloaded over 30,000 times a year by a public increasingly disturbed by VAWA injustices.

      In June 2010 the Colorado 4th Judicial District Attorney was finally convinced to shut down the Fast Track program here. Hopefully, other jurisdictions are also halting this gross violation of due process.

      But Fast Track is humane compared to the methods many prosecutors used to coerce a guilty plea from men accused of beating their wives or girlfriends. In a December 2007 EJF newsletter, Taken Into Custody, Tortured, and Outraged, I reviewed the common practice of torturing men so accused, typically by inducing hypothermia. Waterboarding was the only method of torture I found no evidence for in U.S. prisons.

 

Add-on charge makes everything and nothing domestic violence

      In most jurisdictions the crime of "domestic violence" is an add-on charge to any other crime one can imagine. As a result there are now huge numbers of DV cases in the courts.  In Colorado during 2009 nearly 19,000 misdemeanors, or 26% of all misdemeanors, were domestic violence.

      It would be insane to believe that a quarter of all crimes in Colorado, or any other state, were the result of intimate partner violence in a given year. One-in-every-four male/female relationships are not violent  every year as anyone not blinded by dogma can easily observe.

      As noted above, women rarely want to testify against their spouse or boyfriend and mainly just want the whole thing to go away. As a result if a man or woman accused of domestic violence simply pleads not guilty and demands a jury trial their case is likely to be dismissed and approximately 95% of DV cases set for trial end that way. In FY 2010 there were 69,695 misdemeanor cases in Colorado, 18,402 of which were for domestic violence, but only 821 jury trials for misdemeanors.

      If the case does go to trial and the defendant has a competent criminal defense attorney, the apparent odds for conviction are less than 1% in misdemeanor cases. In felony DV cases approximately 36% are convicted at trial.  Overall the average conviction rate for defendants charged with domestic violence is about 30% of the cases, and virtually all those convictions are the result of plea bargains.

      Of course if the defendant is obviously guilty then they may be better off to take a plea bargain. But that decision should never be made without prior discussion with a competent defense attorney. If the wife or girlfriend are strongly opposed to testifying, it was mutual combat, self defense, or the accuser has severe mental problems then it is foolish to take a plea bargain.

      The low rate for DV convictions has negative implications for justice. Those men and women who are actually violent and should face justice quickly learn to game the system and are rarely punished. Conversely, individuals caught by the hysteria currently surrounding domestic violence, who have no experience with the "justice" system and mistakenly take a plea bargain without any awareness of the dire consequences, have their lives, families, and children destroyed for a typically minor incident.

       Redfems have not sat idly by while it became ever more difficult to get a criminal conviction for domestic violence as due process has been gradually restored despite their propaganda and extravagant public funding.  VAWA also initiated the unrestricted use of ex parte (without the other party) civil restraining orders. While the order is civil, violation is a crime under Colorado and most other state laws and results in an immediate warrantless arrest with no proof required, and hearsay is admissible. A bad joke states that cell phones were invented for women to report restraining order violations. So while criminal DV cases were markedly declining between 2005 and 2009, in that same five-year period violations of restraining orders increased from 365 in 2005 to 5,113 in 2009. Table 59 makes it clear this was a coordinated effort throughout Colorado supported by public funding.

 

Persecution of disabled veterans

      One of the cruelest perversions wrought by VAWA is the destruction imposed on disabled veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or traumatic brain injuries (TBI) incurred in the endless wars of the new millennium.

       Every manifestation of PTSD, the irrational anger, thrashing around and fighting during the horrific nightmares, the flashbacks of dreadful events, the sleeplessness and self medicating with alcohol or drugs so they can sleep, impotence that leads to fights with their intimate partners, difficulty concentrating or focusing, dissociation from actual events, hypervigilance, and an exaggerated startle response are all indistinguishable from intimate partner violence.

      Military wives tell me of huge bruises on their thighs where their husband kicked them during a nightmare.  Or they startled or tried to wake their lover and he came up swinging and knocked her across the room. The veteran may put his hands around her neck and choke her during a flashback but has no memory of it later.  The wife or girlfriend may be very frightened by his reckless and dangerous driving, skills that kept him alive in combat. The drinking and inability to sleep often lead to arguments and fights.

      Among other problems moderate to severe TBI often impacts speech and language skills, and wounds may involve the jaw, tongue, vocal cords, or speech centers of the brain itself. Motor skills may also be affected by their wounds and they may stagger when they walk, for example. Convulsions and seizures may also make them appear crazy or drunk in public or private, which may result in their arrest.   They may also be combative when accosted, aggravating the problems they have dealing with police.

       When called, frontline police officers often have little choice but to arrest men and women suffering from PTSD/TBI, but PTSD and TBI are not domestic violence.  These disabled veterans need compassion and treatment, not a criminal conviction that will destroy whatever chances they may have for reintegration into society.

 

False allegations

      VAWA legislation also encourages large numbers of false allegations to gain advantage in a divorce, custody dispute, jealousy, for revenge or vengeance, for theft of property, or simply out of spite. Estimates of false allegations show that at least 25-50% of all DV cases rest on false allegations and in area like Colorado Springs (CO 4th Judicial District) two thirds of the cases are the result of false allegations by any reasonable measure.

 

Families and marriage destroyed

      The redfem ideology is clearly succeeding in its objectives to destroy families and marriage, i.e., the patriarchy.  In 1995, the year after VAWA was passed, 42% of all DV cases reported by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) involved married victims (Table 76). But by 2009 only 29% of victims were married. Notably, the number of victims in a common-law relationship remained relatively steady at 6-10% over the 15-year sampling period in Table 76.

     Table 77 makes it obvious there is an inverse correlation between the number of marriages and the number of restraining orders. Thus, the coordinated statewide effort between 2005 and 2009 to increase the number of restraining orders, and arrange that they be violated, can reasonably be interpreted as a direct attack on marriage in accordance with redfem ideology.

 

 

Reality

      The destruction of the patriarchy, now well advanced as redfems demand, implies a reversion to the more primitive state of matriarchy.  It is of interest to note that I have found no evidence that any matriarchal society has ever advanced beyond a Stone Age level of technology.

       Erin Pizzey wisely observed that "Any country that has tried to create a political solution to human problems has ended up with concentration camps and gulags." And within the past century Marxist regimes have slaughtered over 100 million people in failed attempts to establish the New Man, or metrosexual men in today's jargon. That history is well displayed in the recent film The Soviet Story. Before we begin stacking and bulldozing the bodies into mass graves here we must reverse the descent into neo-Marxism, which inevitably fails and always kills millions.

 

What we have learned

     In examining the problems of families and intimate partner violence some simple facts emerge from study after study:

 

€ The safest place for a child is with their biological father; conversely, the most dangerous place for a child is in the home of a single mother.

 

€ The safest place for a woman is in her home married to the biological father of her children.

 

€ Men and women are equally violent in domestic relationships with 25-30% of intimate partner violence being exclusively female on male, 50% mutual combat (it usually takes two to tangle), and the remaining 20-25% exclusively male on female violence making it the least of the problem.

 

€ In younger couples women are two to three times as violent as their male partners.

 

€ Lesbian partners are the most violent of all intimate relationships.

 

€ On average, there are as many mentally disturbed women as men.

 

€ While biology requires sex to create a child, civilization requires marriage and families to raise the child.

 

€ Under current laws and practices a man has to be functionally insane to marry and a drooling idiot to sire a child, the antithesis of civilized necessity.

 

€ The well-intentioned efforts of many to reduce family violence has been perverted by radical neo-Marxist feminists to virtually eliminate families. By 2010 over 40% of children are born to single mothers.

 

     In cases of violent personality disorders, e.g., psychopaths, borderline personalities, and malignant narcissistic exhibitionists there is no known cure. The suffering partner must recognize the need to leave that relationship as swiftly as possible and move as far away as circumstances allow. Society must also ensure the symptoms of such personality disorders are widely taught and to recognize that they occur as often in women as in men. And experience shows that in such cases intervention by the police and courts in the present manner is more likely to increase the violence than solve the problem.

 

What can reasonably be done

      If we ignore the redfem ideology there are a number of steps that might easily be taken to both reduce intimate partner violence and restore justice.

 

€ A simple change in the current mandatory arrest language from "shall arrest" to "may arrest if there is probable cause to believe the offense was committed knowingly, intentionally, recklessly, or negligently," i.e., mens rea can reasonably be established before a jury.

 

€ Limit "domestic violence" to actual cases of violence. For example, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation defines domestic violence to include only crimes involving homicide, forcible and non-force sex offenses, aggravated and simple assault, intimidation-non force, and kidnapping.

    That would greatly limit the current abuse and false allegations as well as making it more likely actual batterers would be convicted.

 

€ Repeal primary aggressor laws. They serve little purpose in practice, are very gender biased, and frontline officers in a domestic situation are challenged enough with sorting out details in the midst of a family fight without this added burden.

   We must trust our frontline police officers with doing the right thing and making the right decisions to the best of their ability without mandating they should arrest the male.

 

€ Teach police officers, prosecutors, and judges the facts about intimate partner violence rather than redfem propaganda. Within a year frontline police officers have usually learned the truth about violent females but prosecutors and judges are still trying cases through a feminist lens and thereby denying equal justice to defendants.

 

€ Use only the restraining order included in the dissolution of marriage act when the underlying issue is a divorce or custody dispute. The language in C.R.S. § 18-6-803.6(2) should serve with rare exceptions.

    That would largely eliminate the current use of restraining orders as a "silver bullet" to gain custody or the upper hand in a divorce or custody battle as is all too common today.

 

Eliminate the issuance of ex parte temporary restraining orders. It is quite clear that if there is real danger the issuance of such orders is more likely to inflame the situation than provide real protection.

    When there is need for a temporary order the provisions for an emergency order as defined under C.R.S. § 13-14-103 should suffice. After that bring both parties before the court and give each a chance to be heard as centuries of due process require.

     In my experience it is the denial of a chance to be heard that most inflames men about such orders. Being woken in the night and thrown out of one's home without notice or warning is certain to enrage anyone and justice demands better.

 

€ Limit the time on restraining orders. In Colorado at present a permanent domestic abuse restraining order is for life and the respondent cannot even ask for a modification for four years. Most states limit the time period to one or two years and most disputes between couples are settled in less time than that.

     Under current law I hear repeatedly from men and women where 10 years have gone by, the other person has moved to another state, or even that they've reconciled and are living together again but the restraining order is still in place and they can't afford to go back to court to get it removed.

      A time limit of one year seems reasonable with the petitioner able to ask for a one-year extension if needed. Such simple reforms would greatly reduce the prevailing gross abuse now so prevalent with such orders.

 

€ Expand veteran and mental health courts to deal with the exploding numbers of PTSD, TBI, and other mental health issues now coming before the courts. As noted above PTSD/TBI in a combat veteran almost certainly looks like domestic violence under current laws yet it is almost impossible to prove both mens rea and actus reus beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury in such cases, nor should we be trying.

    Veterans, and other citizens with such mental or physical health issues need an evaluation so the prosecutor and judge have a reasonably quantitative idea of the individual's condition and how it was acquired. The evaluation must be done as quickly as possible after the veteran or citizen is intercepted by law enforcement in order to minimize additional trauma. And it is important to recognize that combat veterans are unlikely to admit they have a problem until law enforcement intervenes. One suggestion I've seen that holds merit is that an evaluation be a condition of bond for military veterans.

     In many cases an evaluation will recommend immediate treatment. My understanding is that the courts already have the authority to order such treatment when indicated. The change I would make in current practice is to defer prosecution as provided in Colorado under C.R.S. § 18-1.3-101 while the veteran or citizen is treated. If treatment is reasonably successful, or ongoing with good attendance, the charges would be dismissed if the situation warrants. The present present practice of "catch, convict, and release" all too often simply leads to more violent crimes as the Rolling Stone article describing The Fort Carson Murder Spree amply demonstrates.

      The savings from reduced recidivism already seen in drug courts is certain to more than cover the costs of implementing restorative rather than punitive justice in these cases.

 

€ Remove absolute immunity from victims advocates. Under C.R.S § 13-10-107 victims advocates with just 15 hours of training are granted absolute immunity from questioning about what they may have discussed, advocated, or done for a domestic violence "victim" even if that involves criminal activity.

 

€ Remove marriage from control of the State. Clearly State-sanctioned marriages are quickly disappearing and the State has no overriding interest in the relations between individuals. Further, marriage is basically a contract and society would be better if the marriage contract were enforced as such.

     Men and women interested in a conjugal relationship would enter into a contract according to the tenets of their religion with the terms of the contract, especially as related to children, spelled out in advance. Courts would then only intervene if the terms of the contract were broken as they do now under contract law. The State might offer a model marriage contract but would not issue licenses as it does now that puts men, women, and children under the thumb of dysfunctional "family" courts and makes divorce lawyers rich.

 

    Such simple reforms as proposed here would greatly reduce costs for jails, prosecutors, and courts as well as enhance justice. They might even further reduce domestic violence, which was decreasing long before VAWA.

     As the Equal Justice Foundation has long promoted, lets fix the problem, not the blame.

Charles E. Corry, Ph.D., F.G.S.A.

President, Equal Justice Foundation

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The good men may do separately is small compared with what they may do collectively.

Benjamin Franklin

 

--

Parental Custody Protected By US Constitution

 

Parental Custody Protected By US Constitution

Bruce Eden

 

As to divorce and similar (cohabitation, etc.) situations with child custody involved, 96-98% of all custody "awards" in this country are flatly unconstitutional, and this has been going on for soooo long (almost 4 decades now), that even the last couple/few employment generations of judges and attorneys don't even know what the real law is anymore, and just conduct "business as usual", violating parental rights every day of the week, simply because most of them actually don't even know any better...  If you are a so-called "noncustodial" parent, the *real* law and legal facts directly relevant to you are these three (3) points:
 
1) At the very moment of live birth of a child, BOTH natural (bio) parents are *immediately* and *automatically* vested with total and full custodial rights, including all aspects of both "physical" and "legal" custody.  Interestingly, a stillborn child is never actually in the legal custody of anyone, but that's a whole 'nuther story.  The point is that BOTH you AND the other natural parent *already HAD* full, pre-existing, totally-vested custodial rights to your child(ren), from the very moment of birth(s)...  the same as every other pair of natural parents out there in America.  You BOTH already HAD full child custodial rights, long before any court ever got involved...  That's main point # 1.  Know it.  Remember it -->  You already had *pre-existing* custodial rights to your child(ren), loooong before any court ever got involved  That includes ALL custodial rights, i.e., often referred to as those two familiar parts, i.e. again, "physical" custody and "legal" custody, or, actually, every possible aspect of "custody" you can ever think of.  As a natural parent to any live born child, you ALREADY had FULL custodial rights, all of it, every bit of it, from the very moment of the given child's live birth, automatically.
 
2) The next main point, # 2, is over one hundred years of *absolutely consistent* U.S. Supreme Court rulings, in that the State (or any agent/arm of the State) absolutely can NEVER interfere, remove, take away, inhibit, etc., your well-established, fully vested, pre-existing custodial rights to your child(ren), without FIRST finding you *seriously* unfit (and that is only allowed by full due process with what is known as "clear and convincing" evidence), in order to even have the first possible "compelling state interest", to even BEGIN to question whether or not the State could even think about interferring with your *pre-existing* custodial rights...  See various "biggie" parental rights cases, like Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982) [ http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0455_0745_ZO.html ] and others..  The singular point of all these cases is that the State (and no part OF the State) can EVER even begin to question the superior right of parents to raise their own children without the State's interference in any manner, without the State FIRST establishing "clear and convincing" evidence of some VERY serious issues of parental unfitness, i.e., very serious abuse, very serious neglect, and/or something else that is reasonably related to *very serious* parental unfitness.  Letting the kids stay up too late, or drink too much chocolate milk, etc., just doesn't cut it.  We're talking about *serious* stuff, and ONLY serious stuff...  It is *irrelevant* that most of these particular biggie cases are in regards to various CPS type stuff. The rulings of parental rights ALWAYS being superior to the State, and the mandates that the State *must* have very serious compelling reasons to even first *think* about interferring with pre-existing rights, applies to ALL natural parents, regardless of the type of court scenario.
 
3) What happens then -- what *really* happens -- in virtually every single domestic relations (divorce and similar) case with any children involved, then, is that the State (the family court judge) is ACTUALLY allowing one parent to RETAIN and KEEP her/his pre-existing custodial rights, but actually TAKING AWAY the exact same equally-shared custodial rights of the other parent, i.e., YOU...  And, so, what explicitly makes this unconstitutional, is that the state family court DID *remove* or *take away* your PRE-EXISTING custodial rights to your child(ren), but WITHOUT ever finding you seriously unfit.. and also doing that ONLY by establishing clear and convincing evidence of serious parental unfitness.. and also doing THAT under full due process procedures (full discovery, witnesses, cross-examination, etc., etc., etc... even a jury if timely claimed...).  And, since the State never even began to **lawfully** question - let alone prove - your well established rights to CONTINUE to raise your children, unfettered, uninterferred with, etc., then the family court judge's act in summarily REMOVING your **pre-existing** FULL custodial rights to your child(ren), while still allowing the OTHER parent to RETAIN and KEEP her/his exact same, equally-shared FULL custodial rights to your child(ren), was patently discriminatory, patently unlawful, patently unconstitutional, and flagrantly in direct violations (multiple..) of your own individual due process rights... It was, in fact, even criminal.  Oh, yes -- see 18 USC 241 and 242, which at least one of them, if not both of them (i.e., the opposing attorney, the guardian ad litem against you, the other parent, etc.) does apply.  Oh, yes it does, under the real law, honestly applied.
 
The same unconstitutional wrongdoing is routinely done in 96-98% of all other "family court" (divorce and similar) cases across the nation, every day of the blessed week... (in the other 2-4% of cases, the court DID - somehow - allege, and even reasonably prove, to the level of the due process-required clear and convincing evidence, that at least one of the parents WAS seriously unfit, at least enough to reasonably terminate their continuing parental rights that they once HAD without previous question, you see, so the end results in those fewer/rarer cases is at least *reasonably* compliant to the constitutional requirements).
 
Over one hundred-plus years of MANY consistent rulings by the US Supreme Court, on virtually every conceivable aspect of parental rights, STILL ensures that everyone typically, inherently and instantly knows that every regular common parent on the street HAS full and complete custody to their child(ren).  Of course, this is exactly why still-married parents (who have NEVER been "granted" or "awarded" custodial rights to their OWN child(ren) by any court, whatsoever...) can instantly and LEGALLY make all sorts of everyday binding decisions regarding their child(ren), such as medical exams and treatments, schooling, religious, any activity, what time to make the kids go to bed, and everything else under the sun.  NOBODY ever even *thinks* of questioning the absolutely superior and well established, fully legal custodial rights of EITHER the mom OR the dad, in any of those situations (i.e., still married parents, or cohabitating parents who have never been involved in a family court, or a single parent who has never been involved in a family court, etc.), precisely BECAUSE they ALREADY HAVE full legal custodial rights --- those fully vested, fully legal, absolutely superior custodial rights to their own children were ALREADY and automatically "in them" from the very moment of live birth, too, and that's the way it has ALWAYS been...
 
If any one (or both) of these such parents (who have never been involved in a family court) takes their kid to the doctor, then neither the doctor, nor anybody in the doctor's office/staff, even BEGINS to question whether or not that parent HAS full legal rights over that sick child...  If any one of these such parents wants to enroll their kid in school, neither the principal, nor any staff, nor any teacher, even BEGINS to question whether or not that parent HAS fully established legal rights over that child, and therefore the unquestionable legal right to enroll the kid in school.  Etc., etc., etc....  precisely because the custodial rights over a child are ALREADY established at the very moment of birth, and EVERYONE knows it, and everyone knows that's the way it has ALWAYS been, too.  This is a well-established, universally-solid truth, and everyone already knows it!
 
So, then, you finally begin to understand the raw and horrible, totally unconstitutional problem going on in today's "family" courts -- the public myth and misperception is that once the mom and dad are "now" facing each other inside a family court proceeding, everyone (including modern judges and attorneys) MISTAKENLY believe that it is all going to be about "he said, she said" stuff, and all of that sub-par nonsense, in order to see WHICH parent will be "awarded" or "granted" CUSTODY...
 
BUT THAT IS FLAT, DEAD WRONG!!!
 
Yes, the actual reality is that BOTH of those same parents ALREADY HAVE custody, and the State does NOT have any form of custody of the child(ren) in question.  You see, the State has absolutely NO power or authority or jurisdiction to give away ("grant", "award") something that IT does NOT have (custody of the child or children in question) to ONLY one parent who *already* HAS full custody of the same child or children... and yet still take AWAY the *pre-existing* custodial rights from the OTHER parent, without even once so much as alleging (let alone proving by constitutional hurdles..) any *serious* forms of parental unfitness, serious enough to even BEGIN to start questioning *whether or not* that other parent's pre-existing and STILL-fully-vested custodial rights should be, "now", somehow, suddenly taken AWAY from him/her...
 
By the way, again, when I say "serious" allegations of parental unfitness, I am not just whistling dixie -- these allegations must be of such COMPELLING reasons, of such a very high, very strong, and very serious nature, that the local prosecutor or district attorney would even stand a fairly good chance at achieving a criminal conviction, in a full-blown due process criminal trial, with discovery, etc., and finally having a jury of your peers CONVICT you, under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" threshold of evidence...  I am talking about SERIOUS allegations, because the "clear and convincing" evidence threshold is just about one gnat's hair short of the level required under the "beyond a reasonable doubt" evidentiary standard.... they are VERY close to the same HIGH level of proof threshold as required by law.
 
Do you see the flagrantly unconstitutional wrongdoing that is going on everywhere, everyday???  It is smack FULL of unlawful gender discrimination, everyday, everywhere (REGARDLESS of which parent gets "awarded" or "granted" custody.. it is STILL discrimination *between* the two different-gendered parents..), it is smack FULL of violations of equal protection of the law, everyday-everywhere, it is also smack FULL of violations of *individual* due process rights (as to the victimized parent, still typically the dad in most cases, yet more moms are being violated nowadays, too..), and it is also often smack FULL of "class discrimination", to boot, in all those situations where ONE parent has an attorney, and the other parent is being routinely violated in everything under the sun, simply because they are acting pro se...
 
Again, in some 96-98% of ALL "family court" cases across this country, every day of the week, 1/2 of the citizen-parents ARE being unconstitutionally violated in more ways than you can shake a stick at....  And, those multiple types of DUE PROCESS violations ARE, in fact, fully solid *federal* grounds / causes of action for:
-- civil damages against the State, the given judge (for necessarily acting OUTSIDE of their lawful scope and authority).
-- civil damages against any opposing attorneys, (and guardian ad litems, "custody evaluators", and/or "counselors", who also just happen to be licensed attorneys..) -- all of whom are mandated by law NOT to unconstitutionally infringe upon the rights of any opposing parties or third parties, etc....
-- civil damages against your OWN attorney, for flagrant MALPRACTICE in utterly failing to have been at least minimally competent enough to have PROPERLY raised (let alone adequately defended..) your *pre-existing* custodial rights (which are *superior* to "mere" Constitutional rights, remember), absent very *serious* allegations of parental unfitness.
-- etc., etc., etc.
 
 
Therefore, if YOU are a so-called "noncustodial" parent, and there was never any full due process determination of VERY serious parental unfitness, using "clear and convincing" evidence, then YOUR parental rights (which are, again, SUPERIOR to "mere" Constitutional rights, i.e., which have *at least* the same legal hurdles required to overcome..) WERE violated, the "award" or "grant" of child custody to the OTHER parent is and was a total fraud upon the court (any judgment based upon fraud is VOID, by the way..), and you HAVE extremely SOLID grounds to have everything turned around, and WITH very significant civil damages, to boot.
 
Not sure about "fighting city hall" all by yourself?  Fine -- get together with a few other "similarly situated" parents (so-called "noncustodial" parents, all victimized by the same State, or better yet, by the exact same County..), and simply agree to file a federal classaction lawsuit together.  Why not?  The actual, real law and facts are totally and completely on YOUR side...!

 

Bruce Eden is the director of DADS (Dads Against Discrimination), New Jersey and New York chapters, Fathers Rights Association of New Jersey, PO Box 4075, Wayne, NJ 07474 (973) (http://www.dadsamerica.org/NJ/nj.htm)