CPS Kidnapping and Persecution of Oath Keepers?

Not so fast....

Update (Oct. 15/10): According to an article posted at Infowars yesterday, Jonathan Irish has informed Jones that his infant daughter has been returned. He says he can't divulge any details due to a gag order, but he now claims that CPS investigated him only because he was confused with another man with a similar name who actually does have a record of domestic violence. As with everything else in the case, I don't know what to believe because there simply isn't enough information being provided from which to draw firm conclusions.

Jones has an intense hatred for social workers, particularly those employed by Child Protective Services (CPS). He has stated that social work was invented merely as a front for eugenics and racism (which would have been quite a shock to Dorothy Day, Jane Addams, and the other early social workers who did so much to help impoverished immigrants and their children). He has stated that most family court judges are sadistic pedophiles. He has stated that half of CPS workers are pedophiles.

His experiences of CPS must be quite different from mine. When I was growing up, several friends were abused or neglected by their parents, and CPS turned a blind eye. One girl was raised by a mother who would make Joan Crawford look like a freaking saint, but after one weekend in a foster home, CPS decided that because the girl wasn't a complete train wreck yet, her mother must not be so bad. She was returned to her own home, and never received another visit from a social worker. In other words, she was condemned to several more years of hell. In another family, three siblings were allowed to remain with their mother even though a social worker knew there was no food in the house. Another family plagued by alcoholism and incest never even received a visit from CPS. If social workers are really the crazed Stormtrooper thugs Jones portrays them to be, they have a strange way of showing it in certain parts of the U.S.

On Friday's show, Jones' guests were a New Hampshire couple who claim that their newborn was removed from their care solely because the father, Jonathan (John) Irish, is a supporter of the group Oathkeepers. His fiancee claims the CPS began investigating them after finding a gun in their car, even though she had a concealed carry license for it. They were told Irish belonged to a militia.

If accurate, this would be disturbing story. But the problem is, we don't have enough information to judge its accuracy. As one commenter at a Snardfarker site, Patty Kearon, pointed out: "The most important information is missing from this case. Nobody has posted any of the most important information needed to draw any conclusions. We all need to see the petitions that brought the older children into CPC custody. CPS had already taken their first 2 children into custody. We need to see the disposition reports, permanency reports and other documents such as police reports. And are the case plan requirements based on some documented substantiated abuse? We no [sic] nothing about these things which are very important pieces of information. Somebody get this needed information on the web, and then after reading it all, then I will give you my honest opinion. And anybody who makes a judgement without this information is just as bad as the people you are making judgements about".

Other commenters mention that Irish's Oath Keepers affiliation was only one of several reasons listed for the intervention, that Irish has a history of domestic violence, that Irish may not actually be affiliated with Oath Keepers. Irish himself mentioned to Jones that the CPS report lists reported abuse of his fiancee, but denies he is abusive.
Undoubtedly, many babies have been born to Oath Keepers, yet there are no other reports of newborns being removed from these families.

A Concord Monitor article has this to say: "Court records show an ongoing investigation into charges that Irish abused Taylor and her two-year-old child", and "according to an affidavit provided to Irish by the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, state officials took the child because of Irish's long record of violence and abuse."
The affidavit also says that Rochester, New Hampshire police have documented a "lengthy history of domestic violence" between Irish and his fiancee, that a judge determined Irish abused his fiancee's two older children, that he failed to complete a court-ordered domestic violence course, and that a hearing was held last month to terminate the fiancee's parental rights over the other two children for these reasons.

It seems there's much we're not being told by the New Hampshire couple. Jones didn't ask the couple any questions; he accepted their story at face value, even referring to the social workers as "wolves", "fascists", "monsters", and "kidnappers". When Irish made a vague, confusing statement indicating that his fiancee's husband (not ex-husband, as Irish calls him) is listed as the baby's father, Jones instantly interpreted this as some sort of ploy on the part of CPS - without seeking any additional information. Any other interviewer would have asked some tough questions at this point, if only for clarification. Instead, Jones solicited donations for the couple's legal defense.

The mislabeling of Oathkeepers as a "militia" can probably be straightened out in court later this month. But what about the other issues that Jones did not address? It strikes me as irresponsible to give unconditional support to this young couple when we have no idea what's going on in this case. It's not a good idea to hold them up as examples of "persecution against Libertarians and conservatives" until more is known. As the Monitor article points out, many of the supporters rallying around Irish and his fiancee heard about the case at second or third hand, and know nothing about the abuse allegations.

At the end of his interview with Irish and his fiancee (I have not used her name here because it is given variously as Taylor and Janvrin; I don't know which is her real name), Jones admits that CPS has also failed to intervene in clear-cut cases of abuse and neglect. Strangely, though, he seems far less concerned about this than about the alleged persecution of a small number of allegedly innocent parents, and what he sees as widespread corruption in social work and the "adoption racket".

Addendum: Stewart Rhodes, the founder of Oathkeepers, has a much more balanced and rational take on the case, as an article re-posted at Infowars shows. He realizes that Irish's Oath Keepers affiliation was not necessarily the dominant reason why the child was removed, and acknowledges that other issues were presented in the affidavit.

Weirdness Roundup

It wasn't easy to go back to listening to Alex Jones after he tried to pin the Holocaust Museum attack on the ADL, but I downed some Mylanta and braved his Sunday broadcast. The show must go on.

Here are a few "highlights" from Sunday's show and from last week's broadcasts:

- Finally!! After declaring at least half a dozen times that The Matrix is based on actual military documents, Jones mentioned his source of info: A 1958 Pentagon paper. He didn't give any other specifics, but he did say the paper involves microchips, which were brand-spanking-new at that time. While I still can't find this document, I did find a reference from another Pentagon paper released in the late '50s, which indicates the Pentagon might not have had the most realistic expectations when it came to computer tech. It envisioned a computerized "troop-carrying missile" that could "loop through outer space" and deliver an entire platoon of troops 500 miles behind enemy lines with pinpoint accuracy, all in the time it takes to deliver a pizza.
Somebody was smokin' the good stuff.

- Jones isn't particularly fond of Glenn Beck. Or gay men.
Jones had a hate-on for Glenn Beck even before Beck changed his mind about the FEMA concentration camps. I'm not sure why - they talk about the same stuff. Anyway, after Beck declared that James Von Brunn might have been a "hero" to the 9/11 Truth movement, Jones' bile reached whole new levels. In just two hours of his moneybomb broadcast, he referred to Beck as "maggot-infested rotten cheese", an "effeminate gremlin" who "goes to hundreds of bathhouses a day", a latent homosexual, and a CIA shill. He also said, "That little bastard is an antichrist" and "The spirit of 1776 will not be defeated by a fairy".

- "Bombardment!!" Jones claims that some schools are banning dodgeball and tag because eugenicists began planning our demise 80 years ago. They don't want our kids to be physically fit.
Explain for me, then, why the most heavily funded extracurricular activities in U.S. public schools are sports programs, why JFK introduced phys ed to public schools some 30 years after eugenicists supposedly decided to weaken the nation's children, and why the government spends millions per year on nutrition and fitness campaigns aimed at kids.
In reality, dodgeball and tag have been banned in a few schools because a handful of psycho gym teachers and junior-high hormone cases were getting overzealous. Kids were coming home looking like Rihanna after a date.
Besides, ducking and scurrying isn't exactly exercise. If it was, I'd give up my gym membership tomorrow and just ask friends to throw stuff at me.

- Jones is a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut.
At least that's what he said to a caller. But when the caller told him about an upcoming film adaptation of "Harrison Bergeron", he said, "I haven't read that book."

- Jones on David Carradine's ex-wife, who said he was into "dangerous" sexual practices: "Until I got older, I didn't realize the penchant a lot of women have for just making up wild stories."

- Jones on Child Protective Services: "There is nothing more dangerous than a truancy officer, or a CPS worker, or a foster parent. PERIOD."
And: "Most family judges are pedophiles." Half of all CPS caseworkers are also pedophiles. Jones has seen judges get looks of sadistic relish on their faces as parents cry, gnashing their teeth in malignant ecstasy. They are all demons. He saw one of the CPS "gremlins" in a Target parking lot once, and almost had heart palpitations from being so close to pure evil.
Jones implied that CPS corruption isn't due to some bad apples; social work itself is inherently flawed. It was invented by eugenicists and racists.

Jones and many other Texans are outraged by Senate Bill 1440. This bill actually protects parents accused of abusing their children, by giving judges the authority to hear from them before their children are questioned. Until now, Texas law has always let CPS get investigative orders without even notifying parents.
The problem lies with an amendment to the bill that allows CPS to transport a child for purposes of an investigation without a hearing or parental consent, if there's a "fair probability" of abuse. In plain English: CPS workers can remove a child from his home to be questioned if there are clear signs of abuse, and the removal requires only an affidavit. Prior to 1440, parents could refuse to release their children for questioning, and the matter would be turned over to police (who also couldn't remove children for questioning without parental notification).
To Jones, this means CPS can just swoop in and take your kids for absolutely no reason at all. It's illegal search and seizure at best, legal child abduction at worst.

For the record, I can understand the concerns about this issue. I don't like to see parental rights and Fourth Amendment rights undermined. However, the notion that this bill was designed solely to give pedophiles and child-sellers easier access to kids is ludicrous; I have no doubt it's a well-meaning effort to protect kids by making the tough tasks of social workers a bit easier. Whatever the level of CPS corruption in Texas, I see no reason to believe that "most" family court judges and half of all CPS caseworkers are pedophiles. Also, while there are certainly some bad foster parents out there, I question Jones' statement that most foster kids "live on antipsychotics and a sandwich or a hot dog per day while the foster parents go to Vegas."