State Seizes Two-Year-Old Child From Parents Because They Smoked Pot, Child Dies in Foster Care

Alex Hill spent time in two foster homes in Texas, second foster mother now charged with murder

family photo

Another victim of the war on drugs. From KVUE in Texas:

[O]n Monday night, [Joshua] Hill's daughter Alexandria, or Alex as they liked to call her, was rushed to a Rockdale hospital with severe head injuries, then flown to Scott and White Children's Emergency Hospital in Temple and immediately placed on life support.

Alex was living with foster parents after DFPS removed her from her parent's home last November for "neglectful supervision."

Hill admits they were smoking pot when their daughter was asleep.

"We never hurt our daughter. She was never sick, she was never in the hospital, and she never had any issues until she went into state care."

Alex spent time at two foster homes. Her parents noticed bruises on her body and mold in her bag when they saw her while she was at the first home. Her father says he told Child Protective Services they'd have to put him in jail because he didn't want to return her to the foster home, and in January she was placed in a second home. Alex is now dead, and the foster mother was arrested after her description of what happened to Alex didn't match the injuries Alex sustained. The mother admitted to slamming the two-year-old girl's head and is charged with murder.

Statistics on child abuse in foster care are, perhaps unsurprisingly, hard to come by, but children in foster care may be up to 10 times more likely to die than children in the care of their own parents; one estimate places the number of children who die in foster care in the US every year at about 1540.

Update: KXAN provides more details, including some of the allegations the state apparently based its decision to seize the child on and the fact that the two-year-old was in the care of her grandparents when she was seized; the state determined her parents had "limited parenting skills." KXAN also reports something called "Residential Child Care Licensing" (the station does not identify what that is, but it appears to be a part of CPS) is now investigating the foster home and the service the state used to place Alex in that home.

Comments

[Calidissident]

I literally had to suppress a strong urge to throw my laptop across the room when I read this. Just disgusting.

[Ed]

Not as disgusting as the excuses statists are making.

[Boba Fudd]

Yeah the state-fellators posting on the Austin news site are blaming this on privatization. If only the CPS had stuffed this poor kid in a state mandated closet she'd be okay.

[Ed]

It's why I went looking for foster care abuse stats. Most of the stories stay on the local level but I remember several high-profile cases in NJ and every state has them. Wasn't surprised the feds' reports on child welfare and abuse I found don't break out statistics for foster care

[Boba Fudd]

This will not be reported anywhere but here. Fuck the media,

[Anonymous Coward]

A sample of morons:

Aaron Ireland ? Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The two points I took away from this (aside from the sheer tragedy of it)... 1) Reform marijuana laws now, but more importantly 2) Stop privatizing public services!!! For-profit hospitals, for-profit prisons, for-profit foster care... I'm not anti-capitalism, but there are some things that just shouldn't be profitable or lucrative business and the well-being of innocent children is one of those things.

Then his two points are mind-numbingly stupid. Why does the state even have the power to seize a child for something as trivial as smoking marijuana while the child is asleep (assuming the father is telling the truth). As to the second, the child would likely still be alive if CPS hadn't seized her and placed her in foster care.

Kylie Karen-Sue

Heather, I am sorry for this family. However, CPS workers work just as hard as everyone else. You can not blame them for something the state does, doesn't do, require, or not require. Changes need to be made, but it isn't the workers fault.

Sure it's not the caseworker's fault. They just seized the child, signed off on the foster care order, and allegedly supervised this child right up until she died.

Crackerjack work.

[Ed]

The idea that everyone works "just as hard as everyone else" is just so incredibly moronic.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Yeah, it makes you want to start furiously and erratically linking to Thomas Sowell articles...

[KPres]

"The idea that everyone works "just as hard as everyone else" is just so incredibly moronic."

That comment says so much.

Pity is a socialist's currency. And since they're egalitarians, you can't let somebody have more currency than somebody else!

All must be equally miserable!

[umh]

It's all part of the statist mindset wherein we are interchangable cogs in a benevolent system. I really have no idea of how they can hang onto that belief in the face of day to day experience.

[?J?? de ?guila]

If only the child had died in a state institution, all would be well. Grief counselors all around and free burial services. Jail the pot-head parents to deflect blame. fuck. All hail the Stalinistic child-stealing state.

[KPres]

"For-profit hospitals, for-profit prisons, for-profit foster care."

Yeah, because orphanages worked so well in the past.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Now, now, don't confuse the Statist Idiots by bringing FACTS into this.

[In Time Of War]

Hey, Warty works very hard rowing children out into the ocean and throwing them overboard. The fact that they drown isn't his fault.

[hotsy totsy]

Who is stupid enough to care HOW HARD the CPS bureaucrats work. Nazi guards worked hard too. Yes they deserve prison time.

[Scarecrow Repair]

I detest the idea of faceless bureaucrats making mindless decisions, but the real need is impossible to get: how many foster kids died while in foster care who would not have died with their natural parents, and how many kids died with their natural parents who would have been safe with foster parents.

[db]

There are some real monsters out there that do not deserve the children they have and who should be charged and imprisoned for the things they do. This fact does not excuse the excesses and mistakes of CPS that happen all too frequently. CPS organizations tend to go after the easy ones, which are often not the worst ones, because the worst ones exert extreme psychological control over their families to the point that no one will report their evils.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

Understood, but I'd put the burden of proof on the people who want to take kids from their parents. Unless you're sure you're saving the kid from danger you shouldn't do that.

[wwhorton]

I can't think of a more horrifying example of state power than this.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

But if the children die in their Parent's 'care', that is on the parents. If they die as a consequence of being taken from their parents by some self-righteous government swine, that is on US, because the state (supposedly, anyway) works for us.

[Agammamon]

As a kid who grew up in foster care (both state and private) I can affirm that the private agency was far better than the state one.

Not that my experience was horrible but the state foster parents I spent the most time living with were doing it as a money making thing. There were 5-7 of us at any one time, sharing one (decently sized) bedroom and were not allowed out unsupervised except to go to school and back. I'd hate to think of what would have happened if I stayed until I was 18 and then suddenly had to look for a job and a place to live.

[Agammamon]

"Police say neither Small or her husband had jobs, but were instead planning to foster between five and six children as a source of income."

This should never, never be allowed. At least my foster parents did it as a side-project and had a decent, regular, job (he ran a small construction contracting company).

[?J?? de ?guila]

The State is guilty of child trafficking.

Oh, that's right, it's not a crime when the State does it......

[Zeb]

Nor is it a crime when adoption agencies and orphanages do it. Someone has to "traffic" in the children who are truly abandoned or seriously abused by their parents. Trouble is when the state does it is the inevitable mission creep.

[Death Rock and Skull]

Construction contractors are some of the biggest scumbags of all- especially in underground utilities. They will try to cut corners and screw you any way they can get away with.

[Gene]

You sound a little butthurt. You must have a story or two that might shed light on that sweeping generalization.

[PapayaSF]

I don't see why foster care can't be a job like any other. It's not like the adults involved have an incentive to kill the kids. This seems like a massive failure of oversight on the part of Child Protective Services.

My view of CPS has gotten even dimmer recently. A nurse friend, and her entire hospital department, came under severe scrutiny for months because they were suspected of abusing a child in their care. Signs pointed to the family, but oh no, CPS was sure it wasn't them, it had to be one of the nurses. Long story short: child goes back to parents, child dies of further abuse, Dad disappears back in Mexico, and a bunch of traumatized nurses are told by their superiors: "Oops! Well, if you feel traumatized by the fact that we've acted like you're all child abusers for months, we offer free counseling. And don't tell anybody about this."

[Agammamon]

Because if you're doing this for a job there's little oversight and a HUGE incentive to cut corners. You're paid a fixed sum per child, per month and any costs above that (except maybe medical/dental) come out of your own pocket.
So you cram 6 kids into a bedroom, get 'em up at six in the morning to fieldday the house, send 'em to school and expect them to come right back home - no extra-curriculars allowed because that might impose extra costs and certainly involves taking time out of your day to transport them. Have 'em fieldday the house again when they get home. New clothes only at the beginning of the school year and definitely not more than than the stipend pays for, etc.

[db]

Jeez. I have a friend who had a foster son (recently adopted him) and they took the money they were paid by the state and put it in a fund for him. Paid for all his food and clothes out of their own pockets.

[Agammamon]

And its not a *failure* of CPS oversight which does this. Its the the way the whole system is designed - procedures before results.

[PapayaSF]

Isn't it part of CPS's job to find appropriate foster homes? One in which the children are mistreated as little cash cows would seem like a disqualification, but I don't think that eliminates everyone who does not have a "decent, regular" job. Maybe they're retired. Maybe they're disabled. Maybe they inherited money or won the lottery.

[Dweebston]

I haven't got a problem with for-profit private foster care per se, only with the fact that there is evidently enough of a backlog of children being snatched from their families that any one foster couple can amass a menagerie of other people's children. It should be exceedingly rare, and donuts to dollars says that most crimes requiring the arrest of both parents are trivial administrative matters.

[Fatty Bolger]

Whether for profit or not, it seems to me that the biggest qualification would be, do you really like kids? Specifically, do you like kids that aren't yours? It's like teaching - the most miserable and abusive teachers I've ever met were the ones who didn't like kids. Which makes you wonder why they would go into that profession, but they do. I'm sure the same happens in foster care.

[croaker]

And the worst part is that the nurse can't even sue the scumbags for real damages and mental anguish because of the immunity clauses in the child protection laws. Anyone can freely make an accusation of child abuse without fear that the liar will suffer any consequences.

[hotsy totsy]

The real problem in cases like this is that the child was NOT ABUSED by her parents. The CPS took the little girl because her parents smoked marijuana. They didn't beat her or starve her or hurt her.

And even a two year old is better off "abandoned", than living with monsters she has no defense against.

If I could spit in the face of every CPS worker in the country I would.

[Fluffy]

Wow, 6 kids in a bedroom?

In Vermont if you want to foster you have to have 1 extra bedroom for every kid you want to take in. No making the kids share a room. You can't even have them share a room with one of your own kids.

My wife and I looked into fostering and what happened to you should be impossible here.

[MariaNatividad412]

my roomate's step-mother makes $77 an hour on the internet. She has been laid off for 9 months but last month her pay was $16652 just working on the internet for a few hours. Go to this web site and read more... http://www.cnn13.com

[hotsy totsy]

If that little girl had stayed with her parents, pot smokers or no, she'd be alive today. Not only the foster parents but the CPS workers who placed her there should be put into prison for life.

[ElectroPig]

Google "Overgrow The World" and join the fight to put an end to the FRAUD and DESTRUCTION of human life that is "cannabis prohibition."

Might also want to google "The Fallacy of the Legalize and Tax Cannabis Initiatives" as well.

The key to ending prohibition is not "making it bigger" or "adding more to it" or "making it more complex" or "making it more costly" or "writing in more fines/prison terms/costs" or "hiring new government lackeys to justify raising more taxes" or even "remaning it so it sounds a little bit better, but changes nothing in reality."

The key to ENDING prohibition is to stop pussy-footing around and simply END PROHIBITION.

1) DEschedule.
2) Repeal.
3) DONE!!!

That's prohibition killed on the national level. Then, it's on to the GLOBAL level.

1) Remove cannabis from the United Nations' "Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs."
2) COMPLETE!

Now...the next time you hear some douchebag politician tell you that it'll take decades to accomplish, or that it's going to take a 1000-page document to explain all of the details on how to "stop doing what we already know is wrong, and can't afford to continue even if it had any basis in fact of benefit to human life"...vote for THE OTHER GUY, and never listen to that lying scumbag politician again.

There is a reason that when I walk down the street behind a dog walker that I step around the steaming piles of politician it leaves behind...

[Anonymous Coward]

Her father says he told Child Protection Services they'd have to put him in jail because he didn't want to return her to the foster home, and in January she was placed in a second home. Alex is now dead, and the foster mother was arrested after her description of what happened to Alex didn't match the injuries Alex sustained. The mother admitted to slamming the two-year-old girl's head and is charged with murder.

If this were my child, the foster mother might not make it to a trial. And the CPS caseworker would do well to spend the rest of his or her life looking over their shoulder. How ever long or short that might be.

[Boba Fudd]

A time to kill.

[Anonymous Coward]

As good a time as any.

YES THEY DESERVED TO DIE AND I HOPE THEY BURN IN HELL!

[Boba Fudd]

That's the one.

[H. Protagonist]

I just told my wife that if this happened to us, she'd better prepare for me to go all Carl Lee Haley.

[croaker]

No, too quick and not painful enough. At the very least they should suffer the same injuries as the child. Slow and painful death.

[Virginian]

Yeah, at some point you think people would have had enough.

[Robert]

Wolves are much more pragmatic, as Dr. Klinghammer (who died 2 yrs. ago) demonstrated. When you take away their babies and then come back without them, they search you for them, and not finding them, lose interest. They don't bite you.

[Zeb]

I hope you don't have more than one child.

[hotsy totsy]

Yes indeed!

[Boba Fudd]

Holy shit this is infuriating. Someone, anyone, please tell me that fucking CPS did not take this kid away from her parents because they smoke weed. Surely there is something missing from the story.

[Ed]

If there was something else, whatever it was didn't rise to the level where the state prosecuted the parents for a crime

[Boba Fudd]

Damnit. This is disgusting.

[?J?? de ?guila]

The name of the vile caseworker is missing.

[Gene]

Yeah, maybe some one from anonymous could out em.

[Eduard van Haalen]

There's also a claim that Dad "almost dropped" the child. Which is apparently worse than the foster parent actually *killing* the child. "Oh, no, the parents aren't perfect, let's hand the kid over to a murderer."

[SIV]

RTFA

Alexandria's mother had a medical condition that does not allow for the child to be left alone with her.

The weed smoking is a side issue.

[Dweebston]

Pot seems to be the central issue, at least as a pretext. It sounds as though her parents had a functional arrangement up until the state relieved them of their daughter.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

Sentence-chopping alert:

According to court records, Alexandria's mother had a medical condition that does not allow for the child to be left alone with her.

I'd love to know the source of that claim (court records don't write themselves), which is pretty weak sauce to begin with. CFS can't take a kid away from parents just because they have Down's syndrome, for example, so it's definitely the devil weed here.

[wwhorton]

And wait just a minute. If pot's not the central issue here (it is, but let's just say) then it would mean that CPS removed their daughter because the mother was disabled in some way. There's really no positive way to spin CPS's decision to remove the child in the first place.

[Spoonman.]

Carrying a child to term is about the hardest thing a body does under normal circumstances. What medical condition can someone have that allow childbearing but not child raising?

[DesigNate]

Motherfucker!

[neoteny]

But but but libertarians have no empathy! They're just sore that the state protected that poor child from her evil druggie parents!

We had to destroy the village in order to save it!

[Gene]

Finally the weekend is here, I get home spark one up and the first thing I read is this. For fucks sake does this shit ever stop?

[Dave Krueger]

Those are not their kids. Kids do not belong to their parents. They belong to the whole community. Just ask Melissa Harris-Perry.

[neoteny]

A presidential candidate wrote a whole book about it.

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Are we really at the point where I can't tell the difference between popular commentators, politicians, and fucking Plato?

Don't answer that, please...

[Robert]

Yeah, I think most people would rather fuck Plato.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

Fuck Play-doh? Hell yeah! Before you judge, keep in mind that when I was entering puberty we didn't have all this fleshlight shit.

[Hollywood]

Thanks for the nut punch, goddammit.

[Nazdrakke]

Just.. fucking.. ugh.

[Dave Krueger]

You people need to stop being so critical of agencies like Child Protective Services. I'd be willing to bet that, of all the kids they handle, more survive than don't. Maybe not a lot more, but still more. So lighten up.

[PapayaSF]

Our motto: "Protecting Most of the Children in Our Care."

[Some call me Tim?]

Yeah, it's like baseball, and they're batting over .500 so really we should be putting them in the Hall of Fame.

[wwhorton]

Totally agree. After all, it's not like they're just running around taking people's kids away from them against their will. They clearly know what's best from a parenting standpoint, being officers of the court, and, hell, if 1 out of 10 kids are removed for no good reason and/or placed in an abusive home? Well, shoot, 1 out of 10 kids probably die some way anyhow. A 90% is still an 'A', right?

[Luddite]

To follow along with that brilliant bit of intellectual thought: "well, so what if an innocent man is convicted of a crime he didn't commit? I'd bet that the majority of criminals did in fact do the crime for which they are in prison"

Fuck you Dave Krueger, and anyone else who thinks like you, you sloppy asshole.

[Boba Fudd]

You've got to have you sarcasmometer fully calibrated when you enter the Reason boards.

[Suellington]

Now that is beyond fucked up, Doubt we will hear more than a peep of it from the media after this.

[Robert]

Another death attributable to the evil weed.

[Xenocles]

There should be a service whereby we could match all the Zimmerman death threateners with actually worthy targets.

[Tman]

I'm going to pretend that there is more to this story than has been posted because this is a kick in the nuts of which my nuts can not take.

Jesus.

[CharlesWT]

Some background...

[...]
According to court records, Alexandria's mother had a medical condition that does not allow for the child to be left alone with her. The TDFPS also received allegations that Hill used marijuana on a regular basis and on one occasion Hill almost dropped Alexandria while going down the stairs of the home as he was trying to hand the child to his sister.

During the month of November, Alexandria was being cared for by her paternal grandmother before the State intervened on Nov. 26.

The TDFPS concluded that "Through the assessment of the Department and family members of the parents, it appears the parents have limited parenting skills and need to develop their understanding of being protective of their child. Until these services are offered, the Department does not feel either parent can be the sole caregiver for the child."
[...]
Two-year-old girl dies in foster care

[Xenocles]

Oh, well, as long as there were allegations. Looks like this one was all on the level.

[Dave C]

Alexandria's mother had a medical condition that does not allow for the child to be left alone with her.

What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You'd think these cockroaches would elaborate on what that "medical condition" was.

Sounds like the grandparents were in on getting the kid removed from the parents. Congratulations, assholes, your granddaughter is dead.

[DesigNate]

I guaranfuckingtee you that she had post-partum. And the weed was probably to help mellow her out (and the father decided to partake himself). Dollars to donuts the grandparents are fucking drug warriors who found out about the demon weed.

[Greg F]

You'd think these cockroaches would elaborate on what that "medical condition" was.

HIPAA

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

HIPAA doesn't apply to courts, only medical record holders. If the court ruling was based on the nature of the medical condition it has to be made public.

Of course if the mother admitted that her condition prevented her from being left alone with the kid, then the nature of the condition might not have come up in the proceedings as it was not a matter of dispute.

[PapayaSF]

on one occasion Hill almost dropped Alexandria while going down the stairs of the home as he was trying to hand the child to his sister

"Almost dropped"? OK, that does it: it's off to foster care!

[Some call me Tim?]

Exactly. I'm pretty sure every parent has *almost* dropped a child at some point.

[neoteny]

According to court records

I guess those are family court records, which rarely worth the paper they're written on. It would be interesting to know that
- what kind of "medical condition" disqualifies a parent to have the child left alone with her?
- who made that diagnosis based on what evaluation process?
- who brought this information to the court's attention?

Why did the state intervene when the child was cared for by her paternal grandmother? She is obviously a competent caregiver; she successfully raised a child.

With all due respect: this "background information" sounds like official propaganda justifying CPS's "intervention" -- which led to the death of the child.

I'm not claiming that there's never a situation when a child ought to be taken from the parents. But the bar ought to be very high: basically proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the child is being physically abused; that leaving the child with the parents will lead to repeated intentionally caused injuries or illnesses (starvation, utter neglect of hygiene or the like). "Assesment" of "limited parenting skills" is rather weak justification of taking a child -- even if it doesn't lead to a tragedy like this.

[neoteny]

Assessment, that is.

[MJGreen]

need to develop their understanding of being protective of their child

Oh, now it makes sense. I don't think anything can get a parent to be more protective of their child than taking it away and putting it in foster care.

And considering the father said he'd rather go to jail than see his daughter taken away, the strategy apparently worked! Shame about the kid, though.

[CharlesWT]

[...]
Harris says Thursday morning, Small finally told them the truth.

"She had evidently been frustrated with the child all day long. She had... the child... had evidently gotten up before the Small's did and she had went and got into some food and some water," said Harris. "That is what Mrs. Small was initially upset with her about.... had made her stand in a dark room, according to our reports, for at least three-to-four hours, wouldn't let her sit or anything."

Then around 7:00 that night, the young child, so full of life, was knocked unconscious.

"She actually admitted that she had slung the child down on the floor," said Harris.

Small told investigators she raised the toddler over her head and slung her down toward the floor twice.

"On the third time down she said she lost her grip and dropped the child. Slammed the child down on the floor," explained Harris.
[...]
Foster mother admits slamming 2-year old on head

[ZackTheHypochondriac]

Wtf, the poor girl was probably starving and this psycho tortures her then slams her head multiple times. Oh and she died at the hospital which means she probably suffered for hours.

[MJGreen]

You can make a 2 year-old stand in a dark room for 3+ hours? That's physically possible?

Fucking scum. So glad potheads are getting their children taken away from them and given to responsible, caring (empathetic!) adults like this.

[Metazoan]

Look at how benevolent the State is!

[wwhorton]

Usually when government does fucked up things I just point it out to people and mutter, but this is one of those situations where I'd fully advocate (and as the father would 100% certainly perform) the brutal killing of the foster mother, the CPS agent(s) assigned to the case, the judge who signed off on the initial order, and every single state employee who got in the way.

Ask me again why anyone would need weapons to defend themselves against a tyrannical government.

[hotsy totsy]

but this is one of those situations where I'd fully advocate (and as the father would 100% certainly perform) the brutal killing of the foster mother, the CPS agent(s) assigned to the case, the judge who signed off on the initial order, and every single state employee who got in the way

Send them all off to Saudi Arabia with tattoos that label them as homosexual apostates. Hilarity ensues.

[Paul.]

Death penalty.

[Ted S.]

Instead of having enhanced penalties for shooting a cop, we ought to have enhanced penalties for every single crime the agents of the state commit, down to double fines for remaining parked when the meter expires.

[Zeb]

That's what I've been saying for years. In fact, I'd like to reserve teh death penalty especially for crimes involving agents of the state.

[hotsy totsy]

I agree

[KPres]

For who, the foster mother? Why? She should get manslaughter at worst. It wasn't a premeditated act.

Can't say the same about stealing the children in the first place, though.

[sgs]

Is this one of those actual murder 3 cases?

[Some call me Tim?]

They might not have murder 3 in Tejas.

[ZackTheHypochondriac]

"For who, the foster mother? Why? She should get manslaughter at worst. It wasn't a premeditated act."

serious? she locked a 2 year old in a dark closet for 3 hours and then picked her up and slammed her against the floor 3 times.. because the 2 year old was hungry. They should charge her with as much as they can and lock her up for the rest of her life.

[Edgehopper]

This should be prosecuted as capital murder in Texas.

In Texas, murder is defined in Texas Penal Code ? 19.02 as:

"(b) A person commits an offense if he:

(1) intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual;

(2) intends to cause serious bodily injury and commits an act clearly dangerous to human life that causes the death of an individual"

Both apply here. Premeditation is not required; intent is all that matters, and the foster mother clearly had intent at least to cause serious bodily injury.

In Texas, a murder charge can become capital murder under a variety of circumstances defined in ? 19.03, and the obvious one here is "(8) the person murders an individual under six years of age."

If the foster mother is not charged with capital murder, I will assume that it is because the prosecutor is attempting to cover up for the state's horrendous crimes.

[CharlesWT]

They may have trouble proving intent beyond a reasonable doubt. Was she just trying to scare the child into behaving the way she wished and screwed up? Or did she intend to cause physical injury?

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

As Edgehopper stated, manslaughter only applies to violent acts that were unintentional or which would normally be unlikely to result in death. (such as hitting a pedestrian in a vehicle or beating up someone who you didn't know was a hemophiliac, respectively) Premeditation doesn't require time, just a decision, and this woman decided to throw the child to the ground before she did it.

[CharlesWT]

If she's telling the truth, she was trying to scare or addle the child and screwed up.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

If her intent was to get the kid to stop crying, she didn't screw up at all.

More seriously, I don't think an argument that she didn't realize slamming a kid against the ground three times was likely to cause physical injury is going to fly in court. That's not enough for reasonable doubt.

My guess is that she just wanted the kid to stop crying and didn't give a shit about causing injury. Barring some very convincing evidence on the part of the defense, no other explanation seems plausible.

I would disagree with Edgehopper in that I don't think capital punishment is appropriate here, even if the statute technically allows for it.

[CharlesWT]

My impression from her statement was that she was slamming the child toward the ground, perhaps to give her a severe sense of falling, and did not intend to actually hit the ground with her.

[Edgehopper]

I agree with Tulpa--if you slam a child once, you might pass it off as an accident. If you lock a 2 year old in the closet for 3 hours and then slam her to the ground 3 times, it's pretty hard to pass off as an accident.

To quote from Ender's Game--"What, are you going to tell them, 'I didn't know it would kill Ender...and then I didn't know it would kill Valentine either?'"

I disagree with Tulpa that I do think capital punishment is appropriate, though I'm sure it won't be applied in this case (some juror's heart will bleed for poor foster mom). If you think capital punishment is always wrong, or that it should be reserved for mass murderers and torture-murderers, agree to disagree. What the foster mom did here is surely only a small step down from that, though--it's hard to get too much more evil than having the state give you someone else's 2 year old for money, and then torturing and abusing that 2 year old to death. There's a reason why "the person murders an individual under 6 years of age" alone is enough for capital murder in Texas, and if proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, I have no problem applying the death penalty to such a monster.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

If it was part of a depraved plot to get a foster kid and then kill the kid, then yeah I could countenance CP. But there's no indication that that's the case; it looks more like a case of being annoyed by a crying kid and reacting in a way horribly inconsiderate of the life of the child.

And I'm one of the biggest proponents of expanding capital punishment around here.

[hotsy totsy]

This was a torture murder if I've ever heard of one.

How would YOU like to be shut up in a dark room for three hours because you were hungry, and then Shaq body slams you to the floor til you're unconscious? Because he only wanted you to stop crying!

[Cloudbuster]

"I agree with Tulpa--if you slam a child once, you might pass it off as an accident."

Bull. I've raised five kids and never once "accidentally" (or on purpose!) picked one up and slammed it to the ground.

This woman and all the CPS staff deserve to die horribly.

[Render Unto Caesar]

Child gets up early, eats food, caregiver isolates child while administrating mild torture and later body slams her to death... sounds like someone with superior parenting skills the the "limited" ones of her unhealthy, clumsy, pot smoking parents.

[Luddite]

What a fucking wildebeest. She needs to be beat, hard, with many implements of blunt force trauma. Allowed to heal, lather, rinse, repeat - there are no conditions of torture vile enough for that cunt.

Disgusting.

[Metazoan]

Holy shit this is one hell of a nut punch.

Holy. Shit.

[Paul.]

Perhaps someone working for the state should be charged with aiding and abetting.

[A Serious Man]

People are vile.

[Brian]

State Seizes Two-Year-Old Child From Parents Because They Smoked Pot, Child Dies in Foster Care

If it saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

So, when can we start dismantling the government?

[maureen]

Bentley. I just agree... Kim`s report is incredible, last thursday I got volvo sincee geting a check for $9200 this - 5 weeks past and a little over ten-k last-month. without a question it is the best job I've ever done. I began this nine months/ago and practically straight away brought home minimum $78 per/hr. I work through this website, http://www.Day34.com

[Ted S.]

Doing this to the kids would be less damaging than what CPS did.

Children can recover from being sexually assaulted; they can't recover from being killed.

[Pompey]

Fuuuuccckkkkk!

[Scruffy Nerfherder]

Well this improved my already bitter mood this morning. When and where is the lynch mob forming to run down the CPS agent and the foster care mother?

[Night Elf Mohawk]

...the state determined her parents had "limited parenting skills."

Who the hell has unlimited parenting skills?

[Joe M]

KXAN also reports something called "Residential Child Care Licensing" (the station does not identify what that is, but it appears to be a part of CPS) is now investigating the foster home and the service the state used to place Alex in that home.

Yup, the blame clearly lies with everyone except the government agents.

[db]

Huh, great minds think alike, eh?

[db]

but it appears to be a part of CPS) is now investigating the foster home and the service the state used to place Alex in that home.

What they're investigating is if proper procedures were followed. As long as they were, well, of course no one can be blamed for this two-year-old's death but the foster mother. And that's all these vile fuckers care about.

[Eduard van Haalen]

I think we may have found another use for Texas' electric chair.

[Eduard van Haalen]

CPS' power is based on the supposed predictive powers, but apparently these powers have a key limitation. They can discern that a child would be in danger if in the custody of its natural parents, but they can't predict whether a child will be in danger in the hands of a foster parent.

They should take in their crystal ball back to the shop, because it seems to be on the fritz.

[VG Zaytsev]

This makes Texas sound like a bigger statist shithole than CA.

[Night Elf Mohawk]

Because CPS in CA is the one thing they get right?

[VG Zaytsev]

Never heard of them taking kids for the parents smoking a little pot.

[Scott S.]

Growing some, on the other hand:

http://reason.com/reasontv/201.....isys-story

[VG Zaytsev]

Yeah, but they're dirty stinking hippies.

[Dweebston]

They nailed my sibling and s/o year before last after they argued and she walked around the block to cool down. Evidently the door hadn't latched and my niece wandered out. Rather than rectifying the situation, a neighbor called the police. Cops arrived, insisted on searching the premises, found pot paraphernalia, and after debating whether to arrest daddy and leave mommy with the kids, ultimately decided to charge both for negligence and possession. Kids went to foster care, mom and dad spent the weekend in holding, several thousand dollars later they're out on probation taking mandatory parenting classes.

The system works: good parents who flub once can be rendered great parents after an expensive, traumatic ordeal.

[VG Zaytsev]

Was that in CA?

How long before they got the kids back?

[Dweebston]

Near Santa Barbara. She had the kids back within a week, he was out a little later. The foster mother was very sympathetic and fwiw made clear to CPS that my sister was more than capable of caring for her kids.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

Rather than rectifying the situation, a neighbor called the police.

Under normal circumstances, I would totally agree that the neighbor should have corralled the kid and figured out who the parents were rather than calling the cops... but at the same time, as a penis-bearer, I know that getting within 20 feet of a lost kid whose parents I don't know would be risking my fucking life. I probably would have called the cops too in that situation if I didn't immediately know who the parents were.

[Taco]

I would've demanded to see a warrant before letting them search the house.

[Eduard van Haalen]

Like Valerie said, I can't believe you can make big bucks suing criminally-negligent CPS workers.

[Sevo]

..."the state determined her parents had "limited parenting skills.""

No, "the state" didn't. Some POS bureaucrat did, and that POS needs to be named and held responsible.

[CharlesWT]

On a somewhat related note...

Sources tell News4 the daughter of former D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty was briefly taken into custody by officials from Child and Family Services on Tuesday evening after being found alone in a bathroom at a recreation center.

D.C. police were called to the Upshur Recreation Center in Northwest after a woman who appeared to be drunk tried to claim the four-year-old girl, police said.

Sources told News4 that woman is the sister-in-law of Adrian Fenty. No charges have been filed in the case.
[...]
Former Mayor Fenty's Daughter Returned to Family: Sources tell News4 the girl was found alone in rec center bathroom

[CharlesWT]

The other extreme...

[...]
Eight-year-old Gabriel Fernandez died in May. DCFS records show social workers received several complaints that the boy was being abused but deemed them unfounded. His mother's live-in boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, admitted to injuring the child, while Pearl Fernandez was allegedly in the house and did nothing to defend the boy. Both have been charged with capital murder with a special circumstance of torture.
[...]
"Official documents show that the day Gabriel died, he had a fractured skull, three broken ribs, BB pellets embedded in his chest and groin, cigarette burns on his skin and teeth knocked out of his mouth," the group said in a news release. "DCFS documents show a broad pattern of horrifying child abuse missed by the system until the Palmdale boy was finally killed."
Child Protection Commission begins reforms in wake of Palmdale boy's beating death

[Dweebston]

At one extreme, there's no CPS and no recourse to the state for concerned citizens. Communities intercede either through public shaming, charity, or vigilantism.

At the other extreme, CPS schedules surprise visits to houses, backed by our friendly boys in blue, to ensure children are properly cared for. Nobody, whatever their criminal history, is exempted. Unsatisfactory conditions result in immediate forfeiture; repeated failures result in parental termination. Like all bureaucracies there exists a little-used review board for complaints. It provides few effective safeguards against incompetence or abuse.

I'll take more of the former over more of the latter.

[Eduard van Haalen]

"His mother's live-in boyfriend"

Yes, but family structure is irrelevant, and the government should not in any way encourage stable marriages.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

Bring in the hobbyhorse! Because married people never abuse children, or something...

[Eduard van Haalen]

If you have to beat up a straw man in response, maybe your position isn't as strong as you think.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

It's not a straw man at all. You are claiming (sarcastically) that family structure is relevant, and that "stable" (whatever that means) marriage will prevent child abuse.

[hotsy totsy]

There's reason to believe a stable marriage would lessen child abuse, though not eliminate it of course.

If it would lessen child abuse then it's relevant.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

It would be interesting to see what the evidence was for abuse during the previous complaints. If the evidence was ambiguous you can't really blame CPS for not taking the kid away.

On the other hand, if there was lots of evidence of abuse, and they looked the other way due to laziness or perhaps some special treatment for Mr Aguirre, that's a problem.

[JW]

Urge to kill, rising.

[ant1sthenes]

That was my first thought, verbatim.

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

it hurts to say this but... i'm with you on that.

[MappRapp]

Wow man that makes me very angry,. i say off with someones head

http://www.Anon-Top.tk

[Eduard van Haalen]

In a just world, those "child welfare" bureaucrats would go to PMITA prison (see the movie *Office Space* for that reference). Of course, in a just world, child welfare bureaucrats would be concerned with...child welfare.

[Eduard van Haalen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPcql4FuCK0

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

In a just world, there would be no child welfare bureaucrats because they'd be working at McDonalds as grill-scrapers.

Short of violence against or imprisonment of children -- which calls for police, not social workers-- there's absolutely no justification for the state being involved in the welfare of children who have parents or other natural guardians (grandparents, adopted parents, etc).

[hotsy totsy]

Totally agree with Tulpa here.

[CharlesWT]

[...]
Crystal Swindle allegedly tested positive for drugs, and a CPS case worker was at Swindle's house attempting to remove the 10-month-old child for safety reasons.

According to court documents, Swindle said someone was going to get hurt if they attempted to take the child away from her.

Swindle refused to give up her child to CPS, so authorities were called.

She then punched, kicked, and bit the deputy, according to court documents.
[...]
Woman holding 10-month-old bites deputy

[Tulpa (LAOL-VA)]

That's why they need the suckling mother targets.

[Kyfho Myoba]

You're improving, Tulpa. That was a most intelligent, cogent and pithy comment

[Nan231]

Oh, but their motives were pure and their intentions were all good. But the child died. When are we going to start demanding that government get out of our lives?

I wonder if they found out about the smoking from the NSA? A government that has enough money to build buildings to store our personnel information has too much money. When is America going to wake up.

[Taco]

Just think of it as 4th trimester abortion

[hotsy totsy]

God damn the CPS everywhere. This is the most awful disgusting story I've read this year, and there have been some doozies. I swear if I ever met anyone who would defend this move, I would beat them with a baseball bat.

God damn to hell all statists and progressives. God damn to hell every idiot who claims "children belong to all of us". They deserve to be strung up and clubbed.

[PacRim Jim]

A profound betrayal, both by the parents and by the state acting in loco parentis.

[Cloudbuster]

I swear I'd go on a murderous rampage, starting with the foster mother and working my way through CPS if something like that happened to one of my little girls.

And if I sat on a jury for a father who did the same, I'd never convict.

[Fr?d?ric Bastiat]

You can find the real problem with the cps in this article and many others like it, http://www.massnews.com/past_i.....mayds4.htm
Taking kids from parents is big business heavily subsidized by the Federal Government.

[gaoxiaen]

Unbelievable. But profitable.

[PorkKiller]

I would have found the fuck rat who called the police because he said he 'smelled marijuana' and I would have beat his ugly face in with a ball peen and see how he likes getting abused. And the fat cunt who killed the poor child, I would have caved in her fucking skull with a 2 by 4