Monday, August 16, 2004

A Family Law gladiator goes down fighting in NJ
The "Number of days without Family Law tragedy" counter is reset to zero - again
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/u-v/untershine/2004/untershine081804.htm

Jim Untershine, GZS of LB, 08-16-04

The parent's rights movement is mourning the loss of a respected activist who refused to quit fighting and refused to shut up (although he was ordered to do so by Judge Kieser, before ordering him to be locked up). Wilbur Streett succumbed to "Lou Gherig's disease" shortly after his release from jail for not paying money to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) agency that reports to the New Jersey Attorney General. CSE also answers to the Department of Health and Human Services and was responsible for bringing charges against this terminally ill parent. Tommy Thompson may soon be asked to count the parents who have died under his care and why this is not considered an epidemic.

My only personal contact with Wilbur Streett was limited to an e-mail / phone call exchange with regard to my article entitled "Misdirected Anguish", which explored the suicide of Derrick Miller in California. Wilbur informed me that "More men die from divorce related suicide every year than died at 9/11. The entire issue made it to the Surgeon General because of a discussion that I had with Dave Roberts. The real acts of 'Domestic Terrorism' is the destruction of the American family by the law profession along with the government for profit and reward."

Deaths related to the Family Law experience are difficult to ascertain. Not because the total body count is negligible, but because agencies are negligent in counting them. The system used by State Attorney Generals fail to categorize parent vs. parent homicides / suicides provoked by Family Law injustice (see "The Human Cost of Raising Children").

The death of parents and children due to the threat of Family Law injustice also escapes quantification. For more than a year we have heard commentators and attorneys fumbling around with the homicide statistics that would force us to suspect Scott Peterson for murdering his pregnant wife Lacy. We were almost allowed to hear the only plausible motivation for the murder from a criminal defense attorney on FoxNews - "Child support, child support, child support - He was looking at 18 years ...". Why was this attorney cut off in mid-sentence when she finally solved the puzzle? Why are we being led to believe that Scott Peterson killed Lacy because he was having an extramarital affair in a no-fault divorce state?

A Texas District Attorney asked Clara Harris why she would kill her husband for having an affair, when she could do "like every other woman - get his house, car, kids, and make him wish he were dead." Although this is the same rant that every man hears when their wife finally decides to divorce, only recently has it become apparent that this is not just a hollow threat but an inescapable certainty. The collateral damage that is motivated by Family Law injustice is not exclusive to divorce but also extends to paternity establishment.

The following agencies could provide crucial data that may allow deadly States to be recognized.

  • Attorney Generals must identify the cases involving parent vs. parent homicides, allowing the Lacy Peterson / Bonny Lee Bakely / Lori Hacking / David Harris / Sandra Levy numbers to be counted and scrutinized.

    • The FBI reports 32.1% of the 3,251 female homicide victims were killed by their husband or boyfriend across the nation in 2002 (18.5% husbands, 13.7% boyfriends).

    • The FBI reports that the above victim / offender homicide statistics exclude Florida and Washington DC.

  • Civil courts must identify the cases involving the death of a family member, allowing the Nicole Simpson / Louis Joy numbers to be counted and scrutinized.

    • Civil Courts controlled 48.3 million family members across the nation in 2002 (13.4 million custodial parents have custody of 21.5 million children).

    • Civil Courts demand money from 11.3 million fathers across the nation in 2002 (84.4% of the 13.4 million noncustodial parents).

  • CSE must identify the cases involving the death of a family member, allowing the Wilbur Streett / Derrick Miller numbers to be counted and scrutinized.

    • CSE demands money from 17.2 million breadwinning parents across the nation in 2000.

    • CSE reported $84 billion child support arrearages across the nation in 2000.

The death of a breadwinning parent ordered to pay child support reduces the Civil and CSE caseload by one and reduces that child support arrearage to zero. Does the CSE accounting system report this change in account balance as a collection allowing them to profit from this death?

A parent vs. parent homicide forces the surviving children into Foster Care, which allows the State to receive much Federal funding and allows a lucky stranger to receive maintenance payments, Medicaid, and a $10,000 tax deduction for each child. The surviving parent is responsible for repaying the Foster Care maintenance and child support arrearage if they were ever released from jail.

While Tommy Thompson attempts to heighten our awareness regarding obesity of children, Mad Cow disease, and the West Nile Virus - his cohort Wade Horn has unleashed a firestorm against American families in an attempt to harvest their children for profit.

"The real acts of 'Domestic Terrorism' is the destruction of the American family by the law profession along with the government for profit and reward." (Wilbur Streett)