Tuesday, June 30, 2015

MUST READ: Ordered to live with an abuser: How and why American family courts fail children

This is a GREAT article written in the Philly VOICE by Amy Wright Glenn on June 28, 2015. One of the reasons why I love reading alternative newsweeklies - They do not cower to the bullies of family courts, lawyers, and big corporations.

I use to work for one and witnessed an expose similar to this exposing a corrupt politician. The politician attempted to slap a lawsuit for more than the paper was worth to shut the story up, and the newspaper was in no financial means to go into legal battle. Money rules and it rules in family courts too. Your children belong to the government and the family courts treat them as property.

Harsh right? Well read this expose and be enlightened to the atrocities committed against our children and citizens every day.

Quote from "Ordered to live with an abuser: How and why American family courts fail children":
While dozens of well-respected organizations work tirelessly to improve the legal status of those escaping domestic violence and abuse, the damning fact remains that America’s children are too often treated as property to be divided between contentious parents in family courts. Furthermore, the courageous parents who flee with their children from violence risk losing custody of the children they fought so hard to protect.
Joyanna Silberg Ph.D., executive vice president of the Leadership Council on Child Abuse & Interpersonal Violence, asserts that family courts, in general, are “horrifyingly uninformed” when it comes to how domestic violence and/or child abuse manifests in people's lives. The “signs and prevalence of violence” are rarely understood or appreciated. Tragically, this results in courts routinely ordering children to live with abusive parents.
How is this possible?
Silberg has served as an expert witness relating to allegations of abuse in family courts in more than 27 states. She explains that the “underlying paradigm” in family court law is of “equal distribution” and this viewpoint impacts everything -- particularly how children are treated. Generally, family courts regard it as in “the best interests” of a child to facilitate or mandate equal time or contact with both parents.
We cannot afford to fail America’s abused and neglected children. A restructuring of the family court paradigm is in order. 
But what happens when one parent and/or child is a victim of another parent's violence? In such cases, equal time and distribution do not create a wise paradigm to consider, nor are these principles in any way supportive of a child’s best interests. Certainly, the Immortan Joes of our world do not deserve unsupervised visits with their “property” while non-abusive parents risk losing custody for failing to “facilitate contact.”
According to Silberg, most Americas are “shockingly unfamiliar” with the paradigms guiding family law and many abused mothers are aghast to discover that simply telling the truth about their own or their child's experience “often works against them.” Because abuse allegations are hard to prove, abusers can easily frame a mother as “a manipulative woman” and tell the judge that she has a “long history of lying.” If abuse isn't proven in court, this only reinforces the misconception that the victim isn't trustworthy.
....
However, wisdom does not represent the prevailing trend – even for those who have legitimately been admitted to, and received support from, domestic violence shelters. Silberg recalls: “In my last 20 years of experience with family court, I have never once seen the fact that a woman went to a domestic violence shelter be successfully used as proof of existing abuse.” 
Furthermore, some judges have been known to view the support given at a domestic violence shelter as “a tactic of manipulation” on the part of a parent who is not “giving a child over to facilitate contact.” 
....
“One of the main reasons why mothers don’t leave abusers relates to the fear of the loss of custody,” states Sue Julian, former team coordinator for the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 
To read the FULL article by Amy Wright Glenn from the Philly VOICE, Ordered to live with an abuser: How and why American family courts fail children, please click here

The United States is in current dire economic crisis with the worst economy since the Great Depression. Yet, by society and our government repeatedly ignoring the 24yrs worth of statistics with same or worsening results, taxpayers currently spend over one trillion dollars on health care, crime and economic loss annually as a result of domestic violence with an additional estimated cost of $8-10,000,000 BILLION in frivolous legal abuse by our family courts.

In Massachusetts, data has repeatedly shown that Fathers who actively seek custody obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70% of the time” (New England School Of Law, 1990).[iv]  This statistic is the same across the country as documented through various studies by the Department of Justice and the Association of Judges and over the years has shown a drastic increase of custody to fathers to a rate as high as 85%. 

Since the Gender Bias Study has been published in 1990, not much has changed in Massachusetts. Starting with the Gender Bias Study in 1990 to the Fox News Report “Lost In The System” interview with former Family Court Judge Salcido in 2013, billions of dollars are being spent on domestic violence programs in a broken system. The system now compared to 1990 is not much safer if at all for victims especially when confronted with family court judges who routinely discriminate and punish victims and protective parents for trying to protect their children from abuse as you will see.

My story is just one of many listed in all this statistical data enthralled in one of the worst legal battles in the history of Massachusetts involving many aspects that would make a great movie plot. I won’t belabor the facts behind my case due to the fact, when my story is told (backed with facts) it is usually overwhelming for the listener or reader. However, I can provide you evidence and proof of everything from corruption, cover-ups, theft, extortion, as well as depriving me and my children a loving relationship since 2007 for speaking out about the abuse perpetrated upon me, my family, and other families alike despite state DCF and appointed supervisor testimonies and evidence to corroborate my story.

I have never been declared an unfit parent. I am not an alcoholic nor drug abuser. I have never been convicted of a crime. I have never abused my children. My only crime in the eyes of family court, is trying to protect my children from an abusive father.

My case started out as a domestic violence case, and I have had little to no contact with my children since September 2007 AFTER I went to court seeking protections from abuse. If you wish to learn more about my case or about the general problem in Massachusetts, I would be happy to provide you with names, numbers, and documentation to back up my story and claims. I would even consider being a guest on any radio or tv shows if permitted to discuss the systemic problem in general, not necessarily my case. (Bonetzky-Joseph, n.d.)
Alone we are silenced. Together we can create postive ripples and waves of change. Our children ... our nation ... our taxpayers are depending on us as adults to DO something to protect them and end the court licensed abuses and trillions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to batterers. 
To read the FULL article by Amy Wright Glenn from the Philly VOICE, Ordered to live with an abuser: How and why American family courts fail children, please click here.

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