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Another Man Down in the War Against Fathers
FatherMag.com ^ | August 22, 2002 | Roger F. Gay

Posted on 08/22/2002 6:45:01 AM PDT by RogerFGay


Another Man Down in the War Against Fathers

August 22, 2002
By Roger F. Gay

America's Most Wanted put it like this:

Catalino Morales is wanted for the attempted homicide of five deputy sheriff’s in Allentown, Pennsylvania and for failure to pay back child support.

On Saturday, morning, December 9, 2000, eight deputies in Lehigh county Pennsylvania broke into Catalino Morales' home to serve an arrest warrant charging him with failure to make child support payments. According to the deputies, Morales barricaded himself in a second-floor bedroom and fired two shots through a closed door. He then shot out a back window, jumped onto a flat roof, and onto the ground where it is alleged that he shot at a deputy. The deputy returned fire but no one was injured. Morales escaped the immediate area.

Police say Morales then entered a house in the neighborhood and held a family of four hostage for several hours. The standoff ended when one of the residents managed to wrestle the gun out of Morales’ hands and Morales fled the scene. A massive hunt ensued, including search dogs, helicopters, and Allentown police; to no avail.

On the night of June 20, 2001 a SWAT team in Hartford, Connecticut surrounded Morales in a housing complex and shots were fired. No policepersons were injured in the encounters. Morales was hit by three of 25 police bullets, permanently damaging his hand and his leg and endangering the lives of the nearby residents.

He is a father. He is a man. He is allegedly behind in making "child support" payments.

It is unlikely that the child support system will be put on trial in defense of Catalino Morales, but it should be. Under heavy influence from a profit-driven collection industry the process of determining the amount of child support ordered and enforcement practices have changed dramatically within the past fifteen years. Political corruption is rampant and obvious not only to those who have studied the system closely but to many fathers who have been forced into subjugation by it.

Millions of men are treated arbitrarily and unfairly to a degree that compromises or destroys their chance to maintain themselves, let alone get on with a normal life. Many cannot do what the system requires them to do. Add to that years of harassment and threats from a long list of strangers, including half-witted pimple-faced high school drop-outs trying to collect to make a commission and female bureaucrats, possibly former welfare mothers, who revel in the opportunity to emasculate men. There is no escape, no reason. Every politician says so. Men and women with more power than moral character constantly remind them that this is what fatherhood is all about.

Then other strangers arrive with guns and invade their homes with the intent of taking them prisoner. They are experiencing the horror of a dictatorial police state.

Catalino Morales is one of many canaries in the child support coal mines. Year after year we watch the canaries die yet the workers are not allowed to leave. Those among us who have the opportunity to communicate are morally obligated to pass the word. This system must be abandoned as quickly as possible whether the masters wish it or not.

In the early 1990s, millions of fathers first experienced the suspension of constitutional law in domestic relations courts and the transition to enforcement of arbitrary en masse central political decisions. The new system seems designed to ruin men's lives. Decisions are arbitrarily based on statistical projections that have no basis in reality. State governments are encouraged to take as much from fathers as possible in order to increase the amount of federal funds they receive. "Public-private partnerships" formed with private collection agencies that benefit from higher child support awards and greater debt. Industry representatives control much of the policy making process, including the design of most formulae used in setting child support amounts.

With so many people involved, there has been a predictable variation in reaction to the change. The early 1990s saw the rise of the fathers rights movement, class-action lawsuits, a surge in the number of appeals filed against child support orders, and new national conferences on fathers issues. State and federal politicians were lobbied constantly to fix or abandon the new laws. Members of the Washington State Legislature received thousands of pairs of baby shoes from fathers trying to make a point.

There were also reports of increases in suicide and violence. The early 1990s saw news reports of the first of the early morning raids on communities to round-up hundreds of dads to cart them off to jail. It saw shootings in courtrooms, lawyers and judges taken bloody to ambulances, and fathers barricaded in their homes surrounded by police.

In Dallas, a lawyer representing himself in a divorce case pulled a semi-automatic weapon from his briefcase and opened fire. While one father was barricaded in his home threatening suicide if police came too close, he was telephoned by a reporter who wanted to turn the conversation over to a police negotiator. Feminist groups protested, saying the government must not negotiate with terrorists. News coverage on such incidents ended. Billions of dollars were spent increasing security in courthouses.

Despite the best efforts of ordinary citizens, the system got worse. Fathers rights advocates were largely cut off from making their appeals through traditional media that continued an enormous propaganda effort against the so-called "deadbeat dads." By the mid-1990s politicians were confident that the public couldn't get enough. Child support was on the political agenda in every election year. Politicians in both parties continually promised to make life tougher for fathers and passed law after law to do so.

By the late 1990s life had become so desperate for a few divorced men (in more than one country) suffering psychologically from the loss of their children and constant harassment that they took guns into day-care centers and held children hostage. Do you now understand how it feels, they asked before being gunned down by police snipers.

Due to the enormous weight of one-sided reporting on the child support issue, many people are still quite unfamiliar with the problem. It is easy to find people who believe that errors can be corrected and orders adjusted to circumstances by a quick visit with a family court judge or through some simple administrative process. They have been brainwashed into believing that men generally avoid what are presumed to be fair and reasonable obligations to their children. It is difficult for them to understand that millions of ordinary citizens are fighting for their survival in the midst of a constitutional crisis.

The Constitution of the United States and the constitutions of the states define a system of checks and balances. Unreasonable orders are to be corrected on appeal. Unconstitutional laws are to be overturned by the judiciary. These are necessary safeguards against harmful, intrusive, and corrupt government behavior. But during the past twelve years the system has not functioned as designed. Everyone in government connected with child support, including judges, receive financial rewards for maintaining the centrally planned system and courts and prosecutors have cooperated to an amazing degree. This has created a situation in which no legal remedy for arbitrary and oppressive orders and overly zealous enforcement measures exists.

Some orders are so high as to be life threatening. They do not leave the person who is ordered to pay with sufficient income to support himself. Lives have been lost. But to create the order is not enough. Once bound, the system constantly threatens and harasses fathers who are unable to meet their arbitrarily assigned "obligations." Just give the situation more than two seconds thought. If you do not think that the system caused Catalino Morales to fire a gun and run for his life you do not pass elementary applied probability. You do not understand humans.

Unless the corruption in the system is dealt with and those abusing power and influence arrested and jailed, there will be more gunfights and more men brought down in the war against fathers. Some will no longer have the compassion for life that Catalino Morales displayed. Their instinct to fight when threatened will win out over flight. They will aim at police before firing and not relinquish their weapons to hostages. We will all be guilty if we do not hold those responsible for the child support system as we know it today guilty of conspiracy.

Copyright © 2002 Roger F. Gay


Roger F. Gay is a professional analyst and director of Project for the Improvement of Child Support Litigation Technology. He has also been an intensive political observer for many years culminating in a well-developed sense of honest cynicism. Other articles by Roger F. Gay can be found at Fathering Magazine and Men's News Daily.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: childsupport; constitution; fathers; policestate
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1 posted on 08/22/2002 6:45:01 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: JimKalb; Free the USA; EdReform; realwoman; Harrison Bergeron; Orangedog; Lorianne; Outlaw76; ...
Never leave a man on the battlefield.
2 posted on 08/22/2002 6:45:49 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
Thanks for posting this. My brother pays $300 per month for the rest of his life for kids that are over 20. This is a lifetime interest payment made to the state of California. Not one penny goes to past due child support. He lives in his car in order to keep the payments up. I guess they would call him a dead beat dad.
3 posted on 08/22/2002 7:02:33 AM PDT by Raymond Hendrix
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To: RogerFGay
This is just like the "why they hate us" whining after Sept. 11. Yes, the "system" made Catalino Morales invade a neighbor's home and hold a family of four hostage with a gun, and it was the "system" that is to blame for "shootings in courtrooms, lawyers and judges taken bloody to ambulances."

And this is the worst twaddle of all: By the late 1990s life had become so desperate for a few divorced men (in more than one country) suffering psychologically from the loss of their children and constant harassment that they took guns into day-care centers and held children hostage. Do you now understand how it feels, they asked before being gunned down by police snipers.
What about the child molester who himself was molested as a child? By all means we must support him, because after all he was just trying to say to his victims "Do you now understand how it feels?" Catalino Morales and the others described in this article are not real men. Not even close.
4 posted on 08/22/2002 7:05:05 AM PDT by drjimmy
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To: RogerFGay; Admin Moderator
If you are going to be self-promoting yourself here, then try to do so without the hyperbole about Stalinism and how the Constitution is now dead and how the state is equally at guilt as the cop-killer is, as you did on the other thread. It only serves to marginalize yourself.
5 posted on 08/22/2002 7:08:09 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: drjimmy
Your points are well taken, and it is a shame this article has taken the "it's the system's fault these victims have turned to violence" tack. But the article does bring up some vital issues. This is one of those cases where you have to chew up the meat and spit out the bones.
6 posted on 08/22/2002 7:09:50 AM PDT by Skooz
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To: RogerFGay
Add to that years of harassment and threats from a long list of strangers, including half-witted pimple-faced high school drop-outs trying to collect to make a commission and female bureaucrats, possibly former welfare mothers, who revel in the opportunity to emasculate men.

The choir has left the building and this is pure dribble. Address the real problems and leave out the hype.

7 posted on 08/22/2002 7:16:53 AM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: RGSpincich
Maybe Roger gets a commission based on the number of outlandish hypes he writes.
8 posted on 08/22/2002 7:18:57 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: RGSpincich
this is pure dribble

I think you mean drivel.

9 posted on 08/22/2002 7:22:01 AM PDT by HIDEK6
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To: drjimmy
You flunk elementary applied probability. You don't understand humans. And I cannot in any way condone your support for runaway dictatorial government that refuses to play by the rules.
10 posted on 08/22/2002 7:30:08 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: Cultural Jihad
You flunk elementary applied probability. You don't understand humans. And I cannot in any way condone your support for runaway dictatorial government that refuses to play by the rules.
11 posted on 08/22/2002 7:30:31 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RGSpincich
You flunk elementary applied probability. You don't understand humans. And I cannot in any way condone your support for runaway dictatorial government that refuses to play by the rules.
12 posted on 08/22/2002 7:30:46 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: HIDEK6
I think you mean drivel.

Thank you, I do.

13 posted on 08/22/2002 7:31:45 AM PDT by RGSpincich
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To: RGSpincich
Roger F. Gay is a professional analyst and director of Project for the Improvement of Child Support Litigation Technology...

Hosted by geocities.com, no less. Real 'professional,' that.

14 posted on 08/22/2002 7:38:26 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: RogerFGay
Good grief. We all know that, for the most part, the system is unfair to fathers paying child support. I know because I am one.

However, you could've picked better examples than cop-shooters and kidnappers - sheesh. I really don't have pity for these guys. The article portrays fathers who can't keep up with payments as mentally unstable.

15 posted on 08/22/2002 7:38:59 AM PDT by kidd
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To: kidd

Maybe Roger is really named Rogerete, from N.O.W. His or her arguments do no justice for the cause he or she claims to professionally represent.

16 posted on 08/22/2002 7:43:40 AM PDT by Cultural Jihad
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To: kidd
Strange choice of heroes around these threads.
17 posted on 08/22/2002 7:44:23 AM PDT by AppyPappy
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To: kidd
I've come to the conclusion that we're all guilty of a great sin against freedom and democracy by looking for perfect men who deserve constitutional protections while leaving the rest on the battlefield. This isn't a Wednesday night TV program. This is real life. The government is acting illegally. We know it and they know it. They shouldn't be breaking into anyone's home to cart men away. And besides, how often do you think we're going to hear about the thousands and thousands of guys who don't shoot and run?
18 posted on 08/22/2002 7:46:45 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
Paying child support and PROUD of it! I love my kid and his mom is cool too.
19 posted on 08/22/2002 7:49:45 AM PDT by Life of Brian
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To: Skooz
No bones about it. I'll be happy to discuss any aspect of the article that you want to.
20 posted on 08/22/2002 8:03:34 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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