● You know how family policing agencies say they never, ever take children away or keep them in foster care on their own? Remember how they say: “a judge has to approve everything we do”? Apparently, there’s an exception: If the judge orders a child returned to a mother who had never abused or neglected that child, but the family police just don’t feel like it. Oh, and then they lie under oath about who’s responsible.
All that is according to a judge in Kentucky. The Louisville Courier Journal reports that the judge held the state family police agency in contempt – and urged authorities look into criminal sanctions against agency employees she says lied under oath. She also filed a complaint with the Kentucky Bar Association against the agency’s lawyer.
In other news:
● WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina, continues its excellent reporting on the harm done to children and families by hidden foster care in that state.
● Prof. Dorothy Roberts and members of Rise discuss Prof. Roberts’ new book, Torn Apart at Revolution Books:
Rise has more about the event here.
● Two lawsuits deal with the harm done to children when hospitals rush to judgment.
--In Illinois, the Chicago Tribune reports, a hospital confused a Black child’s birthmark with a bruise. According to the lawsuit, without even minimal investigation, the hospital rushed to call in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. DCFS is in full foster-care panic mode – which helps explain why they promptly inflicted a so-called “safety plan” – actually a form of hidden foster care -- on the family.
--According to a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, a hospital
reported to family police authorities a
mother who had just given birth for allegedly using methamphetamine – after a
single drug test that can’t distinguish between meth and the mother’s Vyvanse –
a legally prescribed amphetamine. The Allentown
Morning Call describes the trauma inflicted on this family – and others. The story is one more illustration of the
harm done by the so-called “plan of safe care” provision of an odious federal
law, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
● At last: Some skepticism from local media about Pittsburgh’s use of what amounts to computerized racial profiling in family policing. For more context, see this AP story.
● WHYY
Public Radio reports on a hearing held by the Philadelphia City Council Special
Committee on Child Separations in which the commissioner of the city’s family
policing agency responded to the committee’s report. Here’s
some context on that report.
● And, as The Appeal puts it in this story: “A judge finally called bs on ‘shaken baby syndrome.’”
