Aging Disgracefully

This post is about the transfer of custody of the Cooper's two daughters from their biological father to Nancy Cooper's parents and sister. The order so transferring custody is here. Now, I don't know Brad Cooper from James Dean, but it is evident reading this order that the court does not either. They have taken this man's children on, as far as I am concerned, no grounds WHATSOEVER. Basically, all that someone has to do is say you are mean or unstable and you can lose your kids.

Point 15 among the findings of fact is particularly chilling: "Considering...the intense scrutiny currently faced by defendant as a result of the ongoing investigation of Nancy Cooper's murder..." In other words, this establishes the precedent that mere suspicion of a crime or investigation of a crime is sufficient to undermine your custody of your children. So now you'll have to surrender your children like your passport. Before you just shrug and accept this, think back for a moment to the kinds of abuses that led our Founding Fathers to expel the Brits in light of this power the State now evidently claims for itself.

The rest of the order basically reads as a bunch of hearsay (not one piece of solid evidence is mentioned). With the phrase "Upon information and belief" (not, mind you, "evidence") a man has lost custody of his kids.

Look, this guy may turn out to be a killer, upon proof of which maybe he should lose custody of his kids (even that gets complicated though: the issue here is the welfare of the kids, and Tony Soprano's kids came out alright). But that's not the point: the loss of custody should follow, not precede, real proof.

This is a very disturbing pattern in our society, and one that concerns me more and more given the changes coming to my life. If this is sufficient legal basis to take your children, then the state has simply exceeded reasonable or decent levels of intrusion on our families . The common thread with that travesty in Texas (the State of Texas should have to pay BILLIONS, the judge should be removed, etc. as the smallest token of recognition for the insult inflicted on the rights of those poor families) is the incredibly low standard of evidence and flimsy basis (mere association with an investigation?) by which the basic sovereignty of your family can trampled by the State.