CPS Seizes Baby From ‘Occupy Dallas’ Site

[kpete]

Source: CBS

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A homeless family living at the ‘Occupy Dallas’ camp said that they will find a new place to stay in order to keep their baby. CBS 11 News was on the scene as officers with the Dallas Police Department and Child Protective Services took custody of the 9-month-old boy on Thursday afternoon.

Brian and Cathy Carpich said that they met with CPS and were told that the camp was, in their words, an unhealthy living environment. The couple cannot get their boy, Zachariah, back until their living situation improves.

There were plenty of tears coming from the family after they returned from a meeting with a woman who they called their CPS caseworker. “It’s not against the law,” pleaded Brian Carpich. “We’ve not broken any laws.”

.......................

“We’re already in a program for housing,” explained Carpich. “They’ve basically screwed up, because the child was part of us getting housing, which we’ve been waiting for since March.”

Read more: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/11/04/cps-seizes-baby-from-occupy-dallas-site/

[county worker]

1. Now it is against the law to be homeless it seems.

Your an unfit parent if you are forced to live on the street. Why can't they find someone who could take them in until they get their own place?

[Kali]

13. now?

[Rabblevox]

2. rat fucking fuckers. the child was loved, cared for, and no signs of neglect/abuse. How fucking...

DARE they????

[Lint Head]

3. This is over reaching on the CPS's part. Tearing apart a family is despicable.

OWS is being declared unhealthy? Being homeless is unhealthy. The authorities are now labeling the Occupation unhealthy when all the while the authorities are making it unhealthy with their strong arm tactics.

[DaveJ]

4. This is how we are kept in servitude

They say it's "for the children." It costs a lifetime of work to probably, never even own a home, but keep the land owners rich. There was a time all one had to do was work hard, grow food, build a home. No longer, now no matter what we are owned.

[onpatrol98]

5. Odd story...

What an odd story? I mean...was CPS driving by and saw the baby. Did they see the baby on television? How did they know the baby was there? I wonder if someone turned them in. That's very prevalent. Sometimes calls come from well meaning neighbors. Sometimes calls come in from people with a bone to pick. I do hope their child can be returned to them.

[rainbow4321]

9. The family was being followed by CPS pre-OccupyDallas

They fell off the radar and officials could not find them, the last time CPS saw the baby and the parents was mid-September.
At some point, the parents moved to the camp--which would have mid 2nd or 3rd week of October since OD's first day was, I believe, Oct 6th, the OD group spent a night at the JFK memorial and then moved to Pioneer Park for a few weeks before moving to City Hall grounds (per an agreement with the city).
Haven't heard when exactly it happened, but someone from the camp notified CPS that there was a crying baby at the camp (all night, every night). That is how CPS found the family. As far as I know/have read on OD facebook/twitters, the occupiers had NO idea that the family had an open CPS case. They were just concerned about the baby's welfare given that the temps here have dropped to the 30's at night.

When CPS showed up, so did the local media. Police and other officials then went around the camp looking for other babies/children who may have been staying at the camp but none were found.


Please see this link for an update of OD's status and what measures that the occupiers are putting into place to keep their camp safe for ALL occupiers and supporters.

http://www.occupydallas.org/update-state-our-occupation

[Kali]

14. the crying all night, every night is a concern

[CTyankee]

25. It could be one of those colic situations where the child cannot be calmed.

Or it could be that the child was hungry. In either case, some help from medical and social welfare agencies could be helpful. If there were no signs of abuse, there are much better ways of dealing with such a situation...

[appleannie1]

6. That baby is clean, looks well fed and was dressed properly. If they wanted to do something for the

child, moving the family into temporary housing or a shelter would have been a much better option.

[alp227]

7. CPS=government-sanctioned vigilante justice

The justice system should consider criminal suspects innocent until proven guilty and make a clear distinction what's legal and what's not. Obviously these parents couldn't be prosecuted under any law since keeping a messy home is not inherently a crime unless prosecutors can prove a child is being harmed there.

[Odin2005]

8. Fascist bastards!

:grr:

[harvey007]

10. Texas justice

Seems like these CPS folks never hesitate to snatch children away from poor people but won't touch the wealthy and powerful who abuse their kids -- like the (videotaped) Texas judge who used a leather belt to sadistically beat the crap out of his child.

[cutlassmama]

15. Yep, basically that's it. This has been going on for YEARS, way before OWS

here in Texas.

[unkachuck]

11. "...they will find a new place to stay in order to keep their baby...."

....the system will screw with innocent people they deem problematic anyway they can....

"There were plenty of tears coming from the family..."

....how can you respect or support a government and system that does this needlessly to their own people?

[EFerrari]

12. So, this was a political removal.

[sabrina 1]

16. This is a cruel society.

Sometimes I wonder if it can ever be changed. Maybe the good people, and there are many of them, need their own country. I'm not sure we can ever have a decent society trying to share it with the cruel, authoritarians who somehow got control of everything here.

I'd love to see them isolated with only themselves and their ideas to contend with.

[CrispyQ]

17. So they'll find the child a home, but not the family.

This country has some seriously fucked up values.

May that family find a way through this.

[msanthrope]

19. The father's criminal record may keep them out of public housing.

It's a tough spot for them to be in, but a baby should not be in a tent.

[msanthrope]

18. After a 14 year old was sexually assaulted by a registered sex offender at Occupy Dallas,

I suspect that CPS isn't taking a tolerant view of children in the camp.

[Occulus]

21. Yes or no question: is Occupy Dallas taking place in a public space?

[msanthrope]

22. Who cares where they are? The 9-month-old's health and safety comes before his

parent's First Amendment rights.

This is black letter law. You can advocate all you want. But when you subject your 9-month-old to sleeping outside in a tent in 30 degree weather, then the doctrine of parens patriae comes into play.

I'd like to know what the father's criminal record is. I wouldn't be surprised, either, if Occupy Dallas were the ones who called CPS.



"The meeting started a few hours earlier, after police – who assisted CPS agents – took the small boy away from his parents. Police explained that they were acting on an “open child welfare case” dating back to September, but that a call from within the downtown Dallas camp prompted Thursday’s actions. “The complaint was a child in the encampment that was pretty much screaming and crying all night, and folks were concerned about it,” said Lt. Anthon Williams with the Dallas Police Department.

“My wife and baby get clothed every day,” Brian Carpich continued to argue.

Carpich acknowledged having a criminal history, but contended that his son had all of the essential diapers and necessities, and that their tent even received heat. Still, the parents unwillingly turned Zachariah over to authorities. After meeting with CPS, they returned to the camp without their son."

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/11/04/cps-seizes-baby-from-occupy-dallas-site/

[Fumesucker]

23. So before the parents went to Occupy Dallas the child was sleeping indoors?

[msanthrope]

24. Who knows? Apparently they've had a case with CPS since 2010.

I hope that baby is sleeping somewhere with heat, is getting medical care, etc. I also hope the parents can regain custody, if they are fit.

[wordpix]

20. think about why these parents are homeless in the first place

Bad schools that did not teach them skills, corporate moneymongers who do not pay their taxes to support schools, poor children and families, social programs that have been cut back due to the previous reason, no jobs to be had while corporate execs and lobbyists are paid millions each year---they are all possibilities.