The “Child Welfare” Stasi

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Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Guns, Kids & FL Dept. of Children & Families

From copblock.org

As Jeff Gray greeted his son exiting the school bus, he could tell something was up. Soon after, Jeff received a call from Colleen Hagan, who invited herself to his house. It was then that Jeff was told he was under investigation, due to a call made to the hotline for Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF). The caller – whose identity was kept secret by Colleen – accused Jeff of owning and shooting guns.

Despite being thrown into such an undesirable situation, Jeff, who’s no stranger to making transparent the actions of those who claim to serve and protect, recorded the interaction.

Colleen told Jeff that before she called him, she’d not only visited his son Marcus in middle school, but also went to the nearby elementary school, where she spoke with his two younger children, Melissa and Michael.

Her actions, she justified, were due to a “report generated” by the DCF hotline – a 24/7 that Colleen herself noted was “constantly taking phone calls” about “any concerns.”
Though Colleen attempted to lessen Jeff’s rightful dismay at the situation by differentiating between “good calls” and a “false report,” the full text of that hotline generated report as taken by her colleague, was merely:

Dad has a lot of guns in the house. Dad shoots the guns out back. He has a lot of guns. Police come to the house to see dad and protect Marcus, Melissa, and Michael.

Less than three dozen words were supposedly sufficient to reach the standard of a “good call” and thus grounds for Colleen to act as she did.

Also, Colleen failed to follow up with the local police to see if, in fact, they had ever responded to Jeff’s house due to any firearm-related issue. It seems like that would be a course of action to take prior to talking with Jeff’s kids and showing up at his residence. But then again, Colleen works for a coercion-based monopoly and doesn’t have to satisfy customers so why bother, right?

According to the DFS website:

“Any allegations a child was abused or neglected by a caregiver will be investigated . . . When parents can’t, don’t or won’t protect their children, the Department of Children & Families steps in to help.”

The report cited by Colleen mentioned nothing about abuse or neglect – it only referenced firearms.

Is owning guns a crime? Is it grounds for some unknown bureaucrat to disrupt your children’s lives and perceive you guilty until proven innocent?

Also, Colleen communicated to Jeff that he’d never be told of the callers’ identity – doesn’t he have the right to face his accuser?

As Jeff noted:

“I believe this is a malicious attempt by somebody to harass me because this – baseless allegations that I do not shoot my guns in this neighborhood. I am very safe with my children with the guns. Like I said, they’ve been through the Eddie Eagle course, they know about firearms, and firearms safety. . . And I don’t do anything to endanger my children. And now I’ve got DCF in my house. . . Just because you guys got a 1-800-hotline that somebody can call, and its anonymous, and they can just say whatever they want to.”

What are the ramifications to this inquisition by Colleen, who, though she may claim and actually believe she’s doing noble work, is so perversely incentivized that families like the Gray’s, and according to DCF figures, 15,000-20,000 other families, are investigated each month? Might it be likely that good families aren’t just investigated by their local government agent but in some cases, ripped apart?

Especially when considering that Colleen and her colleagues act with even less accountability and oversight than those folks wearing badges (though, the file-a-form-so-we-can-investigate-ourselves mantra sounds similar).

Do you desire that actors operating in a claimed monopoly (government) provide you with food? Safety? The same inherent faults that would apply to those goods and services apply too to the area of protecting kids.

Yes, it’s desirable that kids not be neglected, but the incentives inherent in the DCF model – a monopolistic structure based on violence – only points to metrics like calls taken and investigated, which fuels mission creep and the harassment of good people, such as Jeff Gray and his family.

Have some thoughts about how this unfolded? Feel free to call Colleen or her supervisor Natolya Ivory:

Natolya Ivory – (904) 797-8100
Colleen Hagan – (904) 955.7670

14 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t consider the welfare/warfare stasi to be even of the same species as myself. All the geographical, racial, religious, societal, authoritarians are abhorrent abominations outside of my comprehension or empathy.

    For me they are more extinct than Australopithecus, I care not the specifics of their decline and disappearance, or seek justice, comeuppance, or even documentation of how exactly they cease to be. I have no dogs in any of their fights.

    I know Colorado City AZ, Hilldale UT, Eldorado TX, Westcliffe, CO, Bountiful, BC, & Pringle, SD and other places have had their Communal trusts stolen, been put under marshall law, and are having their power grids and water sources shut down for bogus environmental reasons.

    I will not in anyway cohabitate, breed, or interact with them and their putrid slave grids. A rancid homogenous swisscheese Rube Goldberg hellhole, the whole lot.

    “From the remotest past which Science can fathom, up to the novelties of yesterday, that in which Progress essentially consists, is the transformation of the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.”
    – Herbert Spencer

    The FLDS seem just some families picking pecans, not whatever the neo-authoritarian-anderthal media jackals of the airwaves are saying.
    I have become literally autistic to their teleprompted barkings and webs of lies, of BIG MEDIA & BIG GOV and thankfully so.
    http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=23284250

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-Day_Saints

  2. Why the hell did he let the bitch in his house?
    “Show me a warrant. Now show me your badge. Now show me you’re a sworn officer. No? Fuck off.”

    It astonishes me that people respond to these thugs and invite them in; haven’t they watched any vampire movies?

    I make the analogy not to be funny; I’m serious. These DFS/CPS people are psychic vampires. They derive enjoyment from pulling apart families. In Texas–and most other states–kids are seven times as likely to be sexually abused in CPS “care” as they are at their supposedly dysfunctional homes.

    I suspect everyone on this site knows this…but we have to do a better job informing others to stop being so god-damned naive and tell these people to take a hike! They don’t have the authority to “question” you. They’re not even sworn officers. Would you respond if your secretary called you and requested a “home inspection”?

    • That sounds great. Just like the other day when the state guy came by to “inspect” the generator storage tank. Since I happened to drive up when he was there I got to show him all the fuel logs and history, too. When I told him I didn’t have anything from 2011 on, since we now keep them electronically on a server, he went ahead and handed me a documentation request form.

      All because some idiot with a leaking fuel tank fouled a stream somewhere, some time in the past.

      For some reason I keep thinking of this scene:

    • Agreed 100%. I always wonder why these people don’t invite them in, get them down in the basement, lock the door, and explain to them the consequences of their actions. Scare the living daylights out of them so they wouldn’t dare come back to your house ever again.

      Until we do that, they’ll keep coming. Until every time we see a cop beating someone who’s handcuffed and on the ground, and we intervene, disarm him, take his radio and his pants and send him scurring on his way, nothing will change.

      • @Don and @Annon:

        Don that’s a fine strategy. But I’d add one thing–innocently ask for their driver’s license to “verify their identity” before letting them in; take a picture with your cell phone.

        Then remind them you know where they live.

        These people need to feel real anxiety; not that any of us would act aggressively, but the psychology of their predation needs to change.

        I wish Anonymous or another hacker group would get with it and publish a giant database of every gov employee’s address, from senators on down to the city janitor.

        After all, isn’t Obomber all about “transparency”?

        • Absolutely Meth. Use the same fear tactics against them. Hell I’d ask for a credit report as well. I mean, if they’re having trouble meeting their feduciary responsibilities then they might be tempted to lift something of value from my house while they’re in it.

          Isn’t that what we’re told?

          • CPS: are you Mr. Cooper?
            Me: are you from CPS?
            CPS: yes
            Me: do you have kids in your house?
            CPS: sir I’m here to investiage a complaint.
            Me: Ma’am, I’m investigating you. Why are you avoiding the question?

            Just like with the cops. Turn take control of the conversation. Never answer a question because anything you say WILL be used against you.

        • Yea, they know that trick too. You get handed a business card as they introduce themselves, and should have a photo ID displayed (if they don’t then all bets are off). They don’t have to show you any other identification.

    • Texas CPS is notorious. Remember that mormon sect that got raided years ago? What exactly happened to all the kids they kidnapped?

      • They were returned after a huge hew-and-cry. I think it was around 400 children, removed at gunpoint, as a reaction to one anonymous unverified phone call…from an unbalanced women with a history of such hoaxes.

        But it was for the children, of course. Never mind their anguished cries for mommy as they were removed from loving homes; they’ll take care of THAT little problem with some nice Risperdal and Prozac at the loving shit-encrusted roach-writhing child-raping foster homes.

        It was the first time I’d contemplated an overt action…I briefly fantasized about going to one of those homes, grabbing the kids, and returning them to the parents like a reverse underground railroad.

        The judge in that case is another example of the archon-ridden predator-eyed harpies who run this country, a kind of mini-Feinstein.

        I hope she has a scorching case of herpes and an insatiable sex drive.

  3. Well, it’s not any different than getting an anonymous 911 call and having the cops man-handle you as they did to me. I had the displeasure of speaking to a fellow this weekend who’s own brother was an ex-cop and he told me that someone pointing a finger, as I did to the bully cop, is viewed as a “threatening” gesture! Can you believe that shit?! Cops are gun-toting pussy thugs!

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