LilMtnCbn
05-20-2004, 06:34 AM
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20040520.shtml
Justice for little Angelo
Thomas Sowell (archive)
May 20, 2004 | Print | Send
Little Angelo finally got justice, though he died too young to even know what
justice meant. Angelo Marinda lived only eight months and it took more than
twice that long to convict his father of his murder.
Tragically, the policies and the mindset among the authorities responsible for
the well-being of children -- the practices and notions that put this baby at
risk -- are still in place and more such tragedies are waiting to happen.
Little Angelo came to the authorities' attention just 12 days after he was
born, when he turned up at a hospital with broken bones.
How would a baby less than two weeks old have broken bones? And what do you do
about it?
Many of us would say that you get that baby away from whoever broke his bones
and never let them near him again. But that is not what the "experts" say.
Experts always have "solutions." How else are they going to be experts?
The fashionable solution is called "family reunification services." The
severity of little Angelo's injuries would have made it legally possible to
simply take him away and put him up for adoption by one of the many couples who
are hoping to adopt a baby.
But no. Through the magic of "family reunification services" parents are
supposed to be changed so that they will no longer be abusive.
A social worker told the court two years ago that the San Mateo County
Children and Family Services Agency "will be recommending reunification
services, as the parents are receptive to receiving services." The fact that
little Angelo's sister had already had to be removed from that same home did
not seem to dampen this optimism.
At the heart of all this is the pretense to knowledge that we simply do not
have and may never have. There are all sorts of lofty phrases about teaching
"parenting skills" or "anger management" or other pious hopes. And children's
lives are being risked on such notions.
Little Angelo himself apparently knew better. After months in a foster home,
he was allowed back for a visit with his parents and "had a look of fear in his
eyes" when he saw them.
But "expertise" brushes aside what non-experts believe -- and little Angelo
was not an expert, at least not in the eyes of the social workers who were in
charge of his fate. The fact that he had returned from a previous visit with
bruises did not make a dent on the experts.
Social workers thought it would be nice if little Angelo could have a two-day
unsupervised visit with his parents at Christmas. It was a visit from which he
would not return alive.
Now, more than 16 months after the baby's death, Angelo's father has been
convicted of having literally shaken him to death. Incidentally, there were
experts who testified on the father's behalf at the trial, one of whom gave
testimony that contradicted what he himself had written in a book. This expert
had never seen little Angelo, dead or alive.
The time is long overdue for us to stop pretending to know things that nobody
knows -- not even people with impressive letters in front of their names or
behind their names. Whether these experts are simply cynical guns for hire or
really believe their own theories and rhetoric is beside the point.
Unsubstantiated theories are no foundation for risking the lives of the
helpless.
How anyone could break the bones of a newborn baby is something that people
may speculate about. But to claim to know how to turn such parents into decent
human beings is reckless. And to risk a baby's life on such speculation is
criminal.
It is too bad that only one man will go to jail for this crime. There ought to
be room in a cell somewhere for the social workers and their bosses who made
this murder possible in the face of blatant evidence about the dangers that an
infant could see, even if the responsible adults refused to see.
The pretense of knowledge allows judges, social workers, and others to "do
something" by sending people to "training" in "parenting skills" and other
psychobabble with no track record of success. And it allows children like
little Angelo to be killed.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
Justice for little Angelo
Thomas Sowell (archive)
May 20, 2004 | Print | Send
Little Angelo finally got justice, though he died too young to even know what
justice meant. Angelo Marinda lived only eight months and it took more than
twice that long to convict his father of his murder.
Tragically, the policies and the mindset among the authorities responsible for
the well-being of children -- the practices and notions that put this baby at
risk -- are still in place and more such tragedies are waiting to happen.
Little Angelo came to the authorities' attention just 12 days after he was
born, when he turned up at a hospital with broken bones.
How would a baby less than two weeks old have broken bones? And what do you do
about it?
Many of us would say that you get that baby away from whoever broke his bones
and never let them near him again. But that is not what the "experts" say.
Experts always have "solutions." How else are they going to be experts?
The fashionable solution is called "family reunification services." The
severity of little Angelo's injuries would have made it legally possible to
simply take him away and put him up for adoption by one of the many couples who
are hoping to adopt a baby.
But no. Through the magic of "family reunification services" parents are
supposed to be changed so that they will no longer be abusive.
A social worker told the court two years ago that the San Mateo County
Children and Family Services Agency "will be recommending reunification
services, as the parents are receptive to receiving services." The fact that
little Angelo's sister had already had to be removed from that same home did
not seem to dampen this optimism.
At the heart of all this is the pretense to knowledge that we simply do not
have and may never have. There are all sorts of lofty phrases about teaching
"parenting skills" or "anger management" or other pious hopes. And children's
lives are being risked on such notions.
Little Angelo himself apparently knew better. After months in a foster home,
he was allowed back for a visit with his parents and "had a look of fear in his
eyes" when he saw them.
But "expertise" brushes aside what non-experts believe -- and little Angelo
was not an expert, at least not in the eyes of the social workers who were in
charge of his fate. The fact that he had returned from a previous visit with
bruises did not make a dent on the experts.
Social workers thought it would be nice if little Angelo could have a two-day
unsupervised visit with his parents at Christmas. It was a visit from which he
would not return alive.
Now, more than 16 months after the baby's death, Angelo's father has been
convicted of having literally shaken him to death. Incidentally, there were
experts who testified on the father's behalf at the trial, one of whom gave
testimony that contradicted what he himself had written in a book. This expert
had never seen little Angelo, dead or alive.
The time is long overdue for us to stop pretending to know things that nobody
knows -- not even people with impressive letters in front of their names or
behind their names. Whether these experts are simply cynical guns for hire or
really believe their own theories and rhetoric is beside the point.
Unsubstantiated theories are no foundation for risking the lives of the
helpless.
How anyone could break the bones of a newborn baby is something that people
may speculate about. But to claim to know how to turn such parents into decent
human beings is reckless. And to risk a baby's life on such speculation is
criminal.
It is too bad that only one man will go to jail for this crime. There ought to
be room in a cell somewhere for the social workers and their bosses who made
this murder possible in the face of blatant evidence about the dangers that an
infant could see, even if the responsible adults refused to see.
The pretense of knowledge allows judges, social workers, and others to "do
something" by sending people to "training" in "parenting skills" and other
psychobabble with no track record of success. And it allows children like
little Angelo to be killed.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
