[US Patriot]

In recent years we've heard a great deal about missing and exploited children. As any parent can testify our heart goes out to that family, when ever a child is missing. It's your worst nightmare come true.

What if the state removes a child from their home without just cause? Without following proper investigative procedures? What if the state then takes further unfair advantage of a family by publicly charging a parent with kidnapping?

If you think it can't happen. Think again.

As a previous foster child, who has witnessed first-hand the games social workers play with the emotions of children and their parents, I wish I could tell you it's a rare occasion, but that would be a lie.

A quick glance on the Child Abduction Section of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's website will show the truth.

Child abduction is a serious and traumatic crime. While everyone has become aware of frightening "stranger kidnappings," abductions are most often carried out by people who know the child. The District Attorney's Office is committed to combating both types of abductions and to protecting the custody rights of parents and legal guardians throughout Los Angeles County.

While I certainly can sympathize with any parent who's child is missing. One parents rights do not take precedence over the others'. This is why divorce is such a terrible thing. A child can not be split in half. In most cases, the non-custodial parent is not a threat to the well-being of the child.

Let's focus on those cases where the child has been "kidnapped" from the state. The child has been ripped from their mothers arms, the only security he/she has ever known and placed into foster care.

A reasonable person would argue, that the parents must have done something wrong. The state doesn't just come in a steal a child for no apparent reason.

You are right, of course.

Government Supported Kidnapping

The state doesn't just take a child for no reason, they take them for a much more sinister reason. Money! We aren't talking just a few bucks here and there. We are talking about a billion dollar industry, compliments of our Federal Government.

Warehousing children has become big business over the past twenty years.

For fiscal year 1998, Federal expenditures to States for major child welfare programs exceeded $4.5 billion. This figure includes child welfare services, foster care, adoption assistance, and family preservation and support, but excludes Medicaid dollars, an important source of treatment funding for children and families.

Parental Abduction

Every last child on display has been abducted by a parent, not a stranger.

It's a perfect racket, really. Children are abducted by "caseworkers" on a flimsy excuse such as having a "dirty house" or "educational neglect," then placed in foster care. The state receives money for each child placed into the system, they are paid again when the child is moved and yet again, when that child is adopted.

The worst part is that low or modest income families are most often targeted, in courts set-up to prevent justice from taking place. Parents are gag-ordered by the judge and prevented from talking about their case -- to "protect the childs privacy."

The parents are often forced to submit to psychological evaluations, at their own expense -- which they most likely can not afford, by psychologists who are on the courts payroll and find in the courts favor every time.

If a family is provided legal council the attorney is often ill prepared at best, in the courts debt at worst, and at times refuses to do even the least bit of research on the families behalf.

Financial Ruin

A family who was barely making ends meet before the children were abducted, now finds themselves in dire straights, putting everything on the line for that chance the court will find mercy and return their children.

If the parents are lucky enough to have the children returned, the family is often totally destroyed. The children, traumatized by their ordeal, are unable to sleep, revert to bed-wetting if they were potty trained, are terrified of being removed again. They often lash-out at anyone and everyone.

Their trust in their parent has been destroyed. Their secure little world has been ruptured. They now know their parent is powerless to protect them. Most will require many years of therapy and life will never again be the same for them.

I have purposely avoided using specific case histories here. Not because they don't exist, because they do, in the hundreds of thousands, each and every year. However, the individual stories are in many cases so outlandish as to be considered fantasy. I can assure you this is far from fantasy and is in fact, a parents worst nightmare.

You are probably wondering what you can do. You can start by questioning every story you see in the media. Ask yourself...What details have they left out? What aren't they telling us? The media puts a slant on every story they report, often omitting vital facts of the case.

If you know someone who has lost their children to the state, be there for them. Lend them moral support. Offer to go to court with them, be a character witness and write letters.

Parents are not perfect and often make mistakes in their parenting. The vast majority are not monsters and want the same things you want for your children.

It is not a crime to be poor. Support parents rights.