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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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To: RogerFGay
=>BWAAAHAAAHAAHA

Very intellectual, Roger. This enhances your credibility. First, you trot out the tale of some miscreant who holds people hostage in the belief we'll feel sympathetic towards a violent person. Then you slide down into this.

I suspect you are only here to whine and have no ideas on fixing the inequities.
41 posted on 08/22/2002 9:20:41 AM PDT by Home By Dark
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To: Raymond Hendrix; Centurion2000
No, the kids aren't helped by lifelong interest payments. Besides that, there's interest collected on the money passing through the system. That was how processing was supposed to have been paid for. Who keeps the interest payments is anybody's guess. In the game of "public private partnerships" it's likely a politicians relative or someone who gave generously during the last campaign. The fees and interest charged are now nothing more than a question of greed. The child support system learned that it can get away with whatever it wants to do, no matter how arbitrary and destructive.
42 posted on 08/22/2002 9:21:49 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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Comment #43 Removed by Moderator

To: Motherbear
You sound like you want to be fair and reasonable, but you also sound like you want to be a social engineer. Most often the reason payments are not made is because the person who has been ordered to pay them cannot. It is morally and constitutionally wrong to punish someone for not doing what they cannot do.
44 posted on 08/22/2002 9:35:35 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
Ah, I see you've met the self-proclaimed guardians of all that is good (for the state that is), that being RGSpincich and Cultural Jihad.

Him and CJ always gloat when the state takes kids from their parents, and here they obviously see nothing wrong with shooting a father over child support either...

45 posted on 08/22/2002 9:46:19 AM PDT by FormerLurker
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To: RogerFGay
=>It is morally and constitutionally wrong to punish someone for not doing what they cannot do.


What would you say to the people who say they cannot get out of bed before 6 AM? Or say 25 miles is too far to commute? Or say that a particular kind of work is too "ordinary" for them?

"Cannot" for a lot of people translates to "won't bother".
46 posted on 08/22/2002 9:51:04 AM PDT by Home By Dark
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To: FormerLurker
And they're pretending to be conservatives. CJ threatened to sick the FBI, the CIA, and the forum administrator on me because she disagrees. You must recognize it, the approach to life that defines the extreme left.
47 posted on 08/22/2002 9:51:40 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
Morales then entered a house in the neighborhood

I'm sorry the homeowner didn't have a gun handy. Could've saved his family four hours of terror.

48 posted on 08/22/2002 10:01:06 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido
Here's an idea. Just round up a thousand guys at random, stick 'em in a parking lot, and let whoever wants to open fire on them. Would that make you happy?
49 posted on 08/22/2002 10:06:34 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
You must recognize it, the approach to life that defines the extreme left.

Actually, that bunch could legitimately be called right-wing extremists, as they're huge supporters of the WOD also...

Either extreme favors injecting government intervention into our lives. Social engineering would never have gotten this far if BOTH sides of the House and Senate hadn't voted for it.

50 posted on 08/22/2002 10:09:36 AM PDT by FormerLurker
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To: FormerLurker
That involves definitions of left and right that are both at the extreme left. I've discussed this aspect of the popular model of the political spectum at great length. The idea that nazis are far right is only relative to the commies in a universe in which only nazis and commies exist.
51 posted on 08/22/2002 10:13:00 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
Here's an idea. Just round up a thousand guys at random, stick 'em in a parking lot, and let whoever wants to open fire on them. Would that make you happy?

Um, no. I have a better idea. Arm homeowners and teach them defensive tactics. Then they can shoot intruders in the act.

Now that would make me happy.

BTW, any word on how the this guy's former hostages are doing?

52 posted on 08/22/2002 10:13:14 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: RogerFGay
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.
Fair enough. And I cannot in any way condone your support for "men" who take neighbor families and kids at childcare centers hostage at gunpoint and who murder people in a courtroom.
53 posted on 08/22/2002 10:15:11 AM PDT by drjimmy
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To: Home By Dark
"Cannot" for a lot of people translates to "won't bother".

A few comments from you about blacks and Jews and I'm sure we'll have you pegged. When the economy last picked up, people left the welfare roles. It always happens that way. Of course the politicians claimed welfare roles dropped because of welfare reform. They lied.

Jobless claims ease
54 posted on 08/22/2002 10:17:58 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: Larry Lucido
Um, no. I have a better idea. Arm homeowners and teach them defensive tactics. Then they can shoot intruders in the act. Now that would make me happy. BTW, any word on how the this guy's former hostages are doing?

The hostages were never harmed. I'm guessing they knew the guy and never felt they were in danger, but that's just a guess. BTW: Are you suggesting that Catalino Morales' major mistake is that he didn't take aim from his second floor bedroom?
55 posted on 08/22/2002 10:21:14 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: drjimmy
Yeah right. That was my main point -- not. Besides being irritated by your support for a dictatorial police state, I'm thinkin' you should have tried harder in school to learn to read. You have a serious comprehension problem.
56 posted on 08/22/2002 10:23:08 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
=>"Cannot" for a lot of people translates to "won't bother".

A few comments from you about blacks and Jews and I'm sure we'll have you pegged. When the economy last picked up, people left the welfare roles. It always happens that way. Of course the politicians claimed welfare roles dropped because of welfare reform. They lied.


Whatever are you rambling about?

You've never known lazy, unmotivated people?
57 posted on 08/22/2002 10:23:20 AM PDT by Home By Dark
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To: Home By Dark
You've never known lazy, unmotivated people?

I've even met stupid people. Should we shoot them too?
58 posted on 08/22/2002 10:26:52 AM PDT by RogerFGay
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To: RogerFGay
=>You've never known lazy, unmotivated people?

I've even met stupid people. Should we shoot them too?


Do you have death by firearms on the mind this morning?

Are you going to offer your thoughts on a fair, just system for raising the children of divorced people, or are you going to keep dodging by darting into these silly comments about shooting stupid people?
59 posted on 08/22/2002 10:33:38 AM PDT by Home By Dark
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To: FormerLurker
Him and CJ always gloat when the state takes kids from their parents, and here they obviously see nothing wrong with shooting a father over child support either...

  I believe they were trying to arrest him over the child support. They shot him over holding a family hostage and attempting to shoot the police. Slight difference.

Drew Garrett

60 posted on 08/22/2002 10:35:18 AM PDT by agarrett
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