“What is the attitude of the DCFS when confronted with over 3,000 mistakes they made? Spokesman Kendall Marlowe ‘acknowledged that mistakes are made, but he said the vast majority of people…were placed there properly… he declined further comment.’
“The DCFS chief administrative law judge Meryl Paniak said, ‘A lot of what happens at these hearings is it becomes a legal process, not… whether it happened or not, but whether enough evidence is presented.’
“Not a hint of apology, not a whiff of promise to a better job. In one word, arrogant.”
Ned Holstein of Fathers & Families has an interesting post on a new outrage by Illinois officials. Surprise, surprise–state officials put thousands of people on their child abuse registry who should not have been there. They offer no apologies, only saying that most of the people on the list belonged there, as if that makes it OK that 3,000 people were wrongly listed. More evidence that authorities treat the widespread problem of false abuse allegations very lightly.
Holstein writes:
“The Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois reports that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) ‘wrongly placed more than 3,000 people on the State’s official list of child abusers over a five year period…’
“Why should the family court reform movement care about what happens to child abusers? After all, a lot of these parents are less-than-perfect, and they probably did something wrong, you say.
“The reason we care is that non-custodial parents are often up against the same problems as men and women falsely accused of child abuse: arrogant, self-righteous government officials who have been given too much power and are accountable to no one.
“Listen to the complaints of the victims and their attorneys and you will hear a familiar echo.
“Nick Brunstein, one falsely accused foster parent said of child abuse investigators, ‘…the bad ones have the power of God and with the stroke of a pen they can ruin your life.’ Sounds pretty much like a GAL or a family court judge doesn’t it?
“Diane Redleaf, executive director of the non-profit Family Defense Center in Chicago said, ‘We see so many cases where the basic rules are being ignored completely by the state investigators.’ This too has a familiar ring.
Continue reading here.
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lieweary said,
May 23, 2008 at 9:27 pm