Richard Thomas had sole custody of his two teenage sons for two years until the day in 2007 when they visited their mother and never returned.

Today, Thomas’ sons are in foster care while he fights to regain custody. His battle began when his boys were visiting their mother and she decided to drop them off at a police station with instructions to say they had run away from home. The police believed their story and contacted the Department of Children and Family Services, Thomas said.

What is wrong in all this business, is that a father has to prove his worth to meddling bureaucrats.  There should be an assumption of fitness.  The burden of proof should always lie with the person making an accusation of unfitness.  But investigating parents, just to be sure, is wrong.  This suspiciousness leads to a very unfriendly atmosphere and eventually will lead to the destruction of the nuclear family.  I believe there is a growing body of people in the U.S. who think that this is a good thing.

via Vigil promotes shared parent visitation rights :: The SouthtownStar :: News.

A fathers’ rights campaigner who spent hours on an M25 gantry dressed as Batman has been jailed for six months.

Fathers 4 Justice activist Geoffrey Hibbert, 48, of Farnborough, Hampshire, spent seven hours on the overhead sign near Heathrow Airport last August.

ANCPR Says:

These guys continue to get headlines.  All the legislative action by various fathers rights groups over the last 20 years have done next to nothing, but at least these guys have got people to take notice and talk about this issue.

via BBC NEWS | UK | England | London | ‘Batman’ protest father is jailed.

The two protesters left a banner on one of the cranes

Two men from the group New Fathers 4 Justice (NF4J) have staged a Father’s Day protest by climbing cranes dressed as Banana Man and Captain America.

ANCPR Says:

These guys have managed to keep in the news.  It may be irritating to police and cause some traffic nuisance, but this is an important cause, and people need to feel uncomfortable about what their legislatures and courts are doing.

via BBC NEWS | UK | Wales | ‘Superhero’ fathers climb cranes.

Arrests after fathers’ rights ‘fart gas attack’

By James McKeigue
15/12/2008

TWO people, one of them a 41-year-old man from Epsom, have been arrested following a “fart gas attack” by fathers’ rights campaigners on trade union offices in south London.

The Real Fathers For Justice group confirmed it targeted the premises of Napo – the trade union for family court staff – claiming those that support the family laws system “stink”.

The Metropolitan Police said officers were called to Chivalry Road, Clapham, at 1pm on Friday.

A spokeswoman said: “Two arrests were made… two men, 41 and 44-years-old, were bailed to return for questioning at a later date.

“Nobody was injured,” she added.

Real Fathers For Justice spokesman Mike Kelly said: “We attacked this union because we wanted to get the message across that the biased family laws system and those that support it stink.”

He also promised more fathers’ rights protests in the future.

Westminster The husband of Harriet Harman, the Deputy Labour Leader, described his horror, alarm and distress at what he thought were burglars trying to break into his home, who turned out to be fathers’ rights protesters.

Jack Dromey, the Labour Party treasurer, told the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London that he had been woken at the family home in Herne Hill, southeast London, in June by loud thumping as two Fathers 4 Justice campaigners, Jolly Stanesby and Mark Harris, both from south Devon, climbed up on to the roof of the house dressed as comic book heroes to make a demonstration. (more…)

A member of the board of directors from a chain of abuse shelters contacted us last week. They brought forth a total of 187 current and former employees who are willing to testify to the abuses of shelter residents, falsification of funding requests, embezzlement, padding of resident numbers, sexual harassment of residents, and others throughout a chain of abuse shelters in Florida. We can not disclose the name or location (beyond the state) of this chain of shelters.

The witnesses said that they can prove every item we exposed in our piece, “Congressional Guidelines for Abusing Women” and more, including specific grants violations under HUD, VAWA, VOCA and others.

 True Equality Network has been requested to manage the deposition of the witness, due to the witnesses’ distrust of the legal system. TEN has agreed to do this. In order to accomplish this project we are going to need to find a few attorneys willing to help depose the witnesses – pro bono, raise money to cover running expenses and set-up a temporary office in Florida to run the operation from (this could be a extended stay suite or the like or a borrowed apartment, home, or office space) for approximately two months. For security reasons the temporary office can not be shared space.

Additionally, the witnesses have requested that we find an investigative reporter to work with them to document this story. We need your help to locate all of the above.

Stay tuned for updates…

Yours truly,
Terri Lynn Tersak
President & C.E.O.
True Equality Network
 
member - Affiliate
R.A.D.A.R.: Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting
 
P.O. Box 14214
Research Triangle Park NC 27709
919.442.7200

http://www.True-Equality.org/
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http://www.mediaRADAR.org/

Judith Lucas of the NJ Star-Ledger is the reporter that wrote this piece of YELLOW JOURNALISM trash about “Operation Falcon” (see below).

Here’s a quote, so you’ll understand the outrage:

“Sheriff’s officers, marshals and county police scoured the state last week for violent fugitives and sexual predators — and parents who are months behind on their child support. ”

She’s essentially putting child support obligors with sexual predators and violent fugitives.

Here some comments from Bruce Eden, and then follows the article below, along with the article’s author email.

Bruce Eden writes:

She didn’t take the time to contact any fathers rights organization leaders like myself to show the injustices of the entire draconian child support enforcement system, and that in NJ the Supreme Court, in the 2006 ruling of Pasqua v. Council, 186 N.J. 127 (2006), and Administrative Office of the Courts require that Directive #18-06 be followed before any CIVIL child support DEBTOR can be arrested (e.g., ability to pay hearings, right to indigency hearings, right to appointed counsel hearings). The fact remains, that child support is a CIVIL matter where there is NO PROBABLE CAUSE to arrest. According to the United States Courts of Appeals and United States Supreme Court, probable cause to arrest can ONLY EXIST in CRIMINAL cases; it does not exist in CIVIL cases.

Therefore, anyone arrested and falsely imprisoned for a CIVIL child support DEBT ( in violation of the NJ Constitutional PROHIBITION, Article I, Section 13, which says that there can be NO IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT in ANY action) , has legal recourse for civil rights and monetary damages against those who arrested and falsely imprisoned them.

Again, we see the newspapers doing the “dirty work” for law enforcement and government violations of rights, but the innocent public be damned. This is nothing more than irresponsible, YELLOW journalism.

Bruce Eden, Civil Rights Director
DADS (Dads Against Discrimination)–New Jersey & New York Chapters
973-616-9558
b_eden@verizon.net____________________________________________________________

Newark, NJ–From State roundup results in 1,600 arrests–Operation targets violent fugitives, deadbeat parents and sexual predators (Newark Star-Ledger, 6/17/08):

Sheriff’s officers, marshals and county police scoured the state last week for violent fugitives and sexual predators — and parents who are months behind on their child support.

By Friday, there were more than 1,600 arrests.

“There is no question, we go after these people because they raise public awareness,” U.S. Marshal James T. Plousis said. “We have to keep the word out there: If you are wanted, we are going to catch you.”

Alleged gangsters and businessmen alike were pushed into unmarked police cars over the course of the week…

In Union County, 42 parents from towns including Rahway, Roselle, Linden and Summit were arrested Tuesday through Thursday. All had to come up with immediate cash or face jail time. The county collected $4,413 in support payments from them…

Today, with Maureen Kanka at his side for an 11 a.m. news conference in Trenton, Plousis will highlight the successes of the weeklong operation.

Kanka’s daughter, Megan, was raped and killed by a sexual predator who lived in their neighborhood. Her death gave birth to Megan’s Law, which requires local governments to notify residents when a sexual offender moves into the vicinity.

Marshals helped with the county operations, assisting sheriff’s and county officers in arresting 1,020 people who were reported behind in their child support…

Morris County Sheriff Edward Rochford, who also serves as president for the Sheriffs Association of New Jersey, said: “It’s tough. The economy is tanking, but you’ve got to take care of your children.”

A few points:

1) Isn’t it lovely how law enforcement and the media lump fathers who are behind in their child support in with violent criminals?

2) Given that there are violent criminals out there, why are we wasting police resources going after fathers who are behind in their child support largely because they’re poor?

3) Child support enforcement officials love to pretend that “deadbeat dads” are living high on the hog with their sports cars and trophy wives. Yet let’s examine this sentence–”42 parents…were arrested…All had to come up with immediate cash or face jail time. The county collected $4,413 in support payments from them.” In other words, these men paid everything they possibly could because they wanted to avoid jail, and the amount they paid is a whopping $105 each. Where are the high-flying deadbeats we’re always told about?

4) One official did have a few brain cells firing. Morris County Sheriff Edward Rochford said: “It’s tough. The economy is tanking, but you’ve got to take care of your children.” Gee, you think? Funny how everybody is so worried about the recession and our economic woes, yet the minute you say “deadbeat dad” all that stuff goes out the window. Rochford, to his credit, is apparently something of an exception.

5) The reporter, Judith Lucas, can be reached at jlucas@starledger.com or (908) 527-4011. Perhaps readers could attempt to enlighten her a little as to the problems faced by child support obligors.

A fathers’ rights campaigner has been arrested after he ended his protest on top of a Newcastle city bridge.

Real Fathers For Justice demonstrator Simon Anderton scaled the Tyne Bridge in the early hours of Sunday, where he unfurled a banner reading: “Happy Father’s Day” and tied a dummy with its head in a noose – intended to represent a father – to the arch of the bridge. (more…)

The Fathers 4 Justice activists, named as Mark Harris, 46 and Jolly Stanesby, 41, from Plymouth, climbed onto the house in south London dressed as Captain Conception and Cash Gordon.

The group, which campaigns for fathers’ rights, said two more unnamed members were inside the building and had unfurled a banner from a bedroom window which read “A father is for life, not just conception”.

Miss Harman and her husband, Labour party treasurer Jack Dromey, were said to be inside the house at the time. (more…)