Posters of deadbeat parents on pizza boxes

[The Straight Story]

Posters of deadbeat parents on pizza boxes
By Lisa Cornwell
Associated Press

Takeout customers at some pizza parlors in Butler County are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms: wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.

The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.

"It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," Brown said. "I told my husband that the agency should put a small version of our posters with pictures of parents wanted for nonsupport on pizza boxes. He just looked at me and said I needed a vacation."

Enforcement agencies across the country use a variety of methods to locate support scofflaws and collect past-due payments. Virginia has issued subpoenas to cellular phone companies seeking addresses and phone numbers. California's Kern County seizes and auctions parents' vehicles, with proceeds going to the children, said Kay Cullen, a spokeswoman for the National Child Support Enforcement Association.

State child support agencies collected more than $23 billion in child support for 17.2 million children in 2005, but the cumulative past-due child support since the agencies were first formed more than 30 years ago is $106 billion, Cullen said.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070326/NEWS01/703260376

[ShortnFiery]

1. What a novel idea. I love it! :-) n/t

[Syrinx]

2. I don't know...

It sounds kind of "fascistic" to me. :shrug:

[Truthiness Inspector]

5. Why? n/t

[Syrinx]

7. on its face n/t

[Truthiness Inspector]

9. Care to elaborate?

Sometimes "n/t" doesn't quite do it.

[Ninja Jordan]

17. Um, maybe the idea that it's nobody else's business?

just a guess

[marshall]

22. It's everybody's business

Protecting children IS society's business--making sure they are properly cared for and supported by their parents. Everybody has a stake in the next generation, that's why even those without children support the school system in their area through taxes.

[Ninja Jordan]

23. Fair enough, but would you support green license plates for sex offenders?

It's being proposed in Ohio, and it falls along similar logic (protecting kids).

[marshall]

26. That's apples and oranges

The deadbeat parents are not being made to WEAR a mark of shame or affix it to their car. A fairer comparison would be having sex offenders' names, addresses, and photos in an online database. Our society seems to have accepted that as a necessary means of curbing sex crimes on children.

[Ninja Jordan]

27. Yeah that's true.

Sometimes I just think we're headed down a slippery slope with some of this stuff.

[Firepit 462]

29. I think a man or woman that abuses a child, or rapes a person,

should be made to wear a sandwich board declaring what the abuse conviction was, and ring a bell to bring attention to themselves anytime they are in public. Allowing a child molester to "fade' back into society puts more children at risk. A rapist is not human in my eyes.

[havocmom]

30. Absolutely! If someone is wanted.... they sorta blew the chance at privacy

when they stopped making support payments to the point they become wanted.

[AllegroRondo]

34. so what about people like me?

who through a MISTAKE BY THE STATE was believed to be over $20,000 in arrears?

It took me years and lots of lawyer fees to get that straightened out. What would me recourse be when my nighbors, friends, or worse yet my employer gets my face on a pizza box?

[marshall]

36. I'm sure not all those child molesters are guilty either

There's a story behind every face, and undoubtedly there have got to be one or two who are wrongfully accused or system mix-ups. But that doesn't mean the baby should be thrown out with the bathwater. The answer is to have oversight and make as sure as possible that information is accurate. But even the best oversight is not going to prevent a mistake once in a while, that's just life in an imperfect world.

[napi21]

3. I think it's a GREAT idea! I remember when they first put

missing children's pics on milk cartons, and that worked out great too! The sad thing is, I haven't seen a "milk carton" in my grocery store for a long time! All they have now are plastic bottles of some shape, color, and size. I think it's GREAT to put this stuff on pizza boxes, in fact, the pizza box should also have the missing kids pics on too.

[Matariki]

6. From the article

"Many circumstances can cause people to get behind in support payments, but that doesn't make them deadbeats,
"Widespread public shaming also can devastate the children, said Michael McCormick, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.
"Think how children feel to see a parent on a wanted poster and know their friends might see it," he said."

[Matariki]

4. This is disgusting. How freaking medieval.

Isn't public humiliation unconstitutional and banned by the UN? What next - stockades, scarlet letters, scold's bridles? Or just some dumbshit reality tv show?

Surely there are more civilized ways to enforce the law?

[Swamp Rat]

8. "Or just some dumbshit reality tv show?"

I vote for that one.

[MadHound]

10. I hear you, this is insane.

Public shaming was one of the reason's that we actually developed our system of jurisprudence, to get rid of it. Sad to see how many people now want to bring public shaming back. What's next folks, stocks on the town square so you can toss rotten vegetable at them in their misery?

Come, join the twenty first century.

[B Calm]

11. I like to see them put pics of republican crime family members on boxes!

[mac56]

12. Best idea I've read in a year.

:thumbsup:

[Ms. Toad]

13. Let me ge this straight,..

>>"It suddenly dawned on me that most people running from the law don't eat out, they order pizza," <<

So...the deadbeats see themselves on the pizza box when they order pizza and turn themselves in? Or is the pizza guy supposed to recognize them and wrestle them to the floor and hogtie them until the authorities can be summoned?

[AllegroRondo]

14. I dont like it - heres why

My state claimed I was a "deadbeat dad" for over 3 years, that I owed over $20,000 in back child support, and threatened to garnish pay etc etc.

The problem, they were wrong. I have full custody of my daughter. But the state refused to believe anything a father might say (or any paperwork he has). It took 3 years and thousands of $ in legal fees before they finally realized they had made a mistake.

What recourse would I have had if friends, neighbors, or my employers had seen my face on a pizza box?

[ComerPerro]

25. hell, that's just one aspect of it

one thing people seem to forget or not know is that not every "deadbeat dad" is a deadbeat.

Child support is extremely expensive in some cases. Often it forces someone who has lost their car, their home, and most of their possessions to pay for the life they used to live AND a new place to live, a new set of utility bills, a new mode of transportation, and the basics for survival. Sometimes, it can't be done. All for children they in some cases rarely or never get to see.

Some "deadbeats" are barely getting by, and can't afford the payments.

[KansDem]

28. Take a look at the photos of "deadbeat dads" in the local post office

Most, if not all, of the occupations listed read "laborer," "truck driver," and the like. And many of the outstanding monetary judgments are in the mid- to high 5 digits. It's not unusual to see someone who is probably making minimum wage owe $50,000. You know there's no way for them to ever get out from this debt. The state will be after them constantly for the rest of their lives.

It could be that putting their faces on pizza delivery boxes will be inefficient as well. How many people order pizzas to go compared to the rest of the population on a given day?

[The2ndWheel]

15. More creative than Britain at least

Although their surveillance society makes more sense. We're slowly trying to do it in crazy ways. Britain just puts the camera's up everywhere and calls it a day.

[Bunny]

16. This is screwed up, and I say this as someone who frequently

does not receive child support from my daughter's father. He is nearly always in arrears on his child support payments, but there is no way I want his face on a pizza box.

How do you think that would make my kid feel, when her friends order a pizza and there's his face on the box? That is effed up.

[Le Taz Hot]

18. This is terrible.

My husband currently "owes" $12,000 in child support, at least according to the county. 'Course, the caveat was that we weren't notified that his child support amount changed to $900.00 per month (for ONE child) until 10 MONTHS after the ruling. Here's more:

1. The amount was based on money he was making 8 years ago. He hasn't made that kind of money for a LONG time.(Checked the job market lately?)
2. We're still being charged even though she turned 21 in September of 2006.
3. Whenever they take monies (from his paycheck and income tax), he DOES NOT EVER get credited. Why? We were told that everything is handled by different agencies and the right hand doesn't always know what the left hand is doing.
4. My husband paid all child support up until his daughter turned 18. He WAS in good stead.
5. We've been trying for 9 months to get a hearing in Court. We're still waiting.

Now, according to the criteria, my husband would be on the "deadbeat parent" pizza boxes. Fair? I don't think so!

I can give you LOTS of stories like this.

[Beelzebud]

19. America is becoming unrecognizable.

I think Lady Liberty's bloated corpse was floating around the submerged New Orleans, and hasn't been around since.

[Ninja Jordan]

32. UFO's still exist, though.

;)

[blondeatlast]

20. "The Scarlet D?" Great literature in school has a purpose.

I'm no deadbeat sympathizer by any means, but if this is the best we can do to combat the problem, the nation's children are in dire straits indeed.

[philosophie_en_rose]

21. Lame. I want a pizza, not a useless shaming device.

I really have no sympathy for deadbeat parents. However, I don't see the point in sending their pictures on pizza boxes.

Why hinder the parents from getting jobs with pointless flyers?

[WindRavenX]

24. Horrible, horrible

Just like the idea to mark sex offenders with special license plates, it's nothing more than public shaming. And, it gives people perhaps a false sense of security.

[regularguy]

31. I'm trying to imagine one good thing about this idea..

I got nothing. What a stupid plan.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. What regularguy Said!

I see no value in this.
The Professor

[Celeborn Skywalker]

35. Stupid idea.

I never believe in public shaming.

[Horse with no Name]

37. If I ordered a pizza with someone's picture on it

That would be the last time I ordered a pizza from that establishment but not after a long letter of disapproval to the offending company.
It is not extraordinary to think that,because of the job market, that the person who delivers my pizza may very well be pictured on the box.