Devoted dads need support NOW
July 28, 2006
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Posted by ANCPR
| Devoted dads need support NOW |
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To celebrate the National Organization for Women’s 40th anniversary this summer, NOW President Kim Gandy has proudly recounted many successes, saying the group is “never giving up the dream of full equality for all.”Unfortunately, NOW’s dogged opposition to joint custody and shared parenting contradicts that ideal. Kids love, want and need both their parents. When divorcing parents cannot agree on custody arrangements, as long as both parents are fit, they should each be allowed to share in parenting their children. It is not surprising that research shows that children of divorce fare better under joint custody than under sole custody. Along with divorce attorneys, NOW is the largest organized group fighting shared parenting legislation. They’ve issued numerous warnings, including one that says fathers’ groups seeking joint custody laws are “using the abuse of power in order to control in the same fashion as do batterers.” In their statements the words “husband” and “father” are generally preceded by the word “abusive.” Using these scare tactics, NOW has blocked shared parenting bills in several states this year, including New York. Even feminist firebrand Martha Burk notes, “With close to half of all marriages ending in divorce, it’s impossible to believe that the majority of divorcing fathers are violent, and it would be wrong to base public policy on the notion that they are.” The Families and Work Institute found that fathers now provide three-fourths as much child care as mothers do – 50% more than 30 years ago. It is clear that fathers have embraced the call for more involvement in their kids’ lives. Despite an ever-expanding workweek, children today benefit from receiving more hands-on fathering than ever before. And although fathers are more directly involved in their children’s lives, their bonds with their children also are more fragile. In the late 1970s, in a departure from its initial stand encouraging shared parenting, NOW began promoting sole custody in divorce cases. In most divorces mothers are awarded sole custody of the children, and most postdivorce parenting schedules offer fathers and children less than 20% of their time together. NOW obviously sees no problem with this. Men who don’t provide for their families are not respected, yet courts treat fathers who do work hard to support their families like absent parents. Over the past four decades America has come a long way in redressing the grievances of disadvantaged groups, including women, African-Americans, Latinos and gays. The most glaring civil rights violations in America today are those suffered by divorced dads, many of whom have been pushed out of their children’s lives without justification. It’s time for NOW to reexamine its misguided stand against shared parenting and to bring its policies into line with its stated ideal of “full equality for all.” McCormick is the executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children. Sacks’ columns on men’s issues appear regularly in U.S. newspapers. Originally published on July 27, 2006 |
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News Release
Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department
Steals from Parents and Their Children
July 28, 2006
I am writing to you regarding a news story about an extremely corrupt and malicious government agency that, for nearly a year, has actively engaged in harassing me, along with stealing my money without cause. As noted above that agency is the Los Angeles County Child Support Services Department (LACCSSD).
Before I proceed, I want to mention that since my ex left me six years ago, I have made every child support payment to her, as required by the court, on time. I have never been late, nor have I ever missed a payment. I have paid her directly without any intervention from any government agency until February of this year when LACCSSD launched their full-scale vicious attack on me by fraudulently claiming that I was as much as six month in arrears. This was done even though I have been on full-time disability for the past six years and have only been able to hold down a part-time job. I have done everything feasible (and more) to stop this abuse including, but not limited to:
• Numerous phone calls, personal visits, to LACCSSD
• Filing Court actions against them – one of which resulted in a “a stay on the enforcement of the [nonexistent] arrears pending the next court date†on July 7, 2006. This stay was implemented on April 17, 2006. LACCSSD has ignored this court order.
• Numerous letters and terrific assistance from my Assemblyman, the Honorable Todd Spitzer to halt some of the actions taken against me by the state (as a direct result of the vile behavior of LACCSSD).
• Assistance from a Fathers’ Rights Group, United Fathers of America (http://www.unitedfathers.org/ )
• Hiring an attorney at great personal expense
• Filing complaints against LACCSSD attorneys, Lori A. Cruz and Dennis Coe for their ongoing unethical actions against me with the, so far useless, California Bar Association.
• Etc, etc.
LACCSSD has intentionally and viciously ignored all attempts to cease their malicious behavior that continues, to this very day, and is subjecting me to great financial and other harm.
As noted above, I have been harassed by Los Angeles County Child Support Services for nearly a year, on bogus charges that I have been “behind†in my child support payments. The facts of this matter are:
1. I have never, in six years, missed a child support payment nor have I ever been late.
2. I have primary legal custody as a direct result of the actions of their deadbeat mother. Over the years, I have spent thousands of dollars on my children to overcome harm to them caused by their mother.
3. On January 16, 2006, Lori A. Cruz, chief attorney for Los Angeles County Child Support Services, ordered my part-time employer to garnish my wages based on Cruz’s unfounded and completely fraudulent claims that I was in arrears. She did this without a court order and without cause. It should be noted that all of my divorce and custody proceedings had always been held in Orange County. LA County did not get involved until recently: I’m a resident of Orange County. As all proceedings, meetings, visits, etc., now have to be held in LA Co., I am forced to drive great distances in order to deal with LACCSSD’s abuse.
4. I made numerous attempts to stop this abuse only to be subjected to incessant rude treatment by LACCSSD thugs.
5. When numerous attempts to get LACCSSD to justify their unfounded actions against me failed, I was forced to file action against Los Angeles County Child Support Services for their abuse and originally appeared before the court, pro per, on April 17, 2006. At that time, Dennis Coe and his employer were instructed by the court to “a stay on the enforcement of the [nonexistent] arrears pending the next court date†on July 7, 2006.
6. At the first hearing, Dennis Coe knowingly and fraudulently presented false information in the form of an “audit†that showed I was in arrears.
7. Due to the severe ongoing harassment by Coe and LA County, I was forced to retain an attorney, at my own personal expense, to combat his grossly unethical behavior.
8. Instead of abiding by the court order instructing Coe to cease and desist his harassment of me, Coe elected to escalate his vile attacks and these have continued to this very day.
9. On July 7, 2006, Coe and my attorney reached an agreement that stated that I had OVERPAID my child support as of April 17, 2006.
The following facts document Dennis G. Coe’s and LACCSSD’s intentional, malicious, and ongoing actions against me, that are in direct opposition to the court’s order of April 17, 2006 that have cause me great personal and financial harm.
• May 9, 2006 – I was forced to write another letter to my state assemblyman, the Honorable Todd Spitzer, because the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC) had been falsely notified that I was “in arrears†on my child support. The CTC had notified me that they were proceeding to have my credential revoked as a direct result. I had already written to Assemblyman Spitzer because LA County had already fraudulently reported me to the California State Child Support Services, which was trying to garnish my wages a SECOND time (LA County had already done so, without cause, months earlier). The Assemblyman’s office was finally able to put a halt to that abuse.
• May 2006 – I was fraudulently reported to the three Credit Bureaus as being more than 60 days in arrears on my child support. (During the past six years, I have NEVER missed a single payment – not one – and I have the canceled checks to prove this fact.)
• May 24, 2006 to Present – I was laid off from my part-time job (where my wages had already been fraudulently garnished) and applied for unemployment. I have now received four (4) unemployment checks (two of them were just received) and every single one has had money stolen from me because of LA County’s actions. Coe was notified of this by my attorney on July 7, 2006, as well as in two separate letters since then.
• July 2006 – When I discovered that my credit rating had been damaged by Coe’s refusal to abide by the court order as well as the fact that his claim that I was in arrears was completely fraudulent, LA County continued to refuse to correct the matter when contacted by the Credit bureaus.
• July 2006 – Even though hundreds of dollars had already been stolen from me by Coe, my attorney instructed me to pay the full amount of my July 2006 child support. I did that and that check has already been cashed.
• July 24, 2006– I recently submitted both my Federal and State Income taxes for 2004 & 2005. While I received my Federal tax refunds, I did not receive my state refunds until a few days ago. Not surprisingly, I learned that 100 percent of my 2004 tax refund had been stolen and that more was stolen from my 2005 tax refund. In addition, my tax refunds were delayed because of Coe’s actions. I have also just received letters from the State Franchise Tax Board stating that their actions were based upon the fraudulent reports of LACCSSD
• Even though my attorney has also written two letters in the past month to Dennis Coe, one of LACCSSD’s attorneys who has abused me, Coe even refuses to respond those letters.
As noted, at no time have I ever, in six years, been behind, “in arrears,†“in non-compliance,†etc. with my court ordered child support payments. Not only have I always made these payments, as required, but I have spent thousands upon thousands of dollars, over and above, what I am required to in order to support my children (which their deadbeat mother hasn’t done). These facts are fully verifiable by my canceled checks and numerous other records.
I am now writing to you in order to ask that you do a news report on the vile actions of LACCSSD that are harming innocent fathers and their children. As noted, this has already caused me great financial and other harm. The ongoing grossly unethical and illegal actions by LACCSSD that have, and are continuing to, cause my family severe harm that must be stopped. Please do not hesitate to contact me, my attorney, or United Fathers of America for additional details regarding the abuse I’m being subjected to. As noted on LACCSSD’s website (http://childsupport.co.la.ca.us/), their alleged “mission†is
“to improve the quality of life for children and families of Los Angeles County by providing timely, accurate, and responsive child support services.â€
I can testify that that statement is nothing but a blatant lie. As I’m now out of money (as LACCSSD has stolen it) and can’t afford the basic needs of my children, I urge you to report on this story – there must be tens of thousands of other innocent fathers who are also being abused by these government thugs.
Please post your horror stories at:
http://stopfatherabuse.org/horrors
[“Over the past four decades America has come a long way in redressing the grievances of disadvantaged groups, including women, African-Americans, Latinos and gays. The most glaring civil rights violations in America today are those suffered by divorced dads, many of whom have been pushed out of their children’s lives without justification. It’s time for NOW to reexamine its misguided stand against shared parenting and to bring its policies into line with its stated ideal of “full equality for all.â€]
I guess if it’s time for NOW to recognize “divorced dadsâ€, then perhaps it’s time for ACFC and Glenn Sacks to recognize the rights of unmarried fathers. All we seem to hear about from Glenn and company is the victims of the divorce industry.
One third of all births in the U.S. are to single females. There are just as many victims of our family courts that were not married. Tell me Mike and Glenn; are the children of unmarried fathers less important than the children of married couples?
Don’t be hypocrites. All the victims of our family courts deserve the equal protection of our laws, not just the victims of the divorce industry.
Who gives a crap what NOW thinks anyway? They are nothing more than a hate group on the same level as the KKK. The only difference is they have more people that show up to vote at elections.
I think you should care more about what potential supporters think, instead of worrying about what NOW thinks.
Kevin Merck
“It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice”.
Thomas Paine