David, I used to do a fair bit of Child and Family Protective Services Act "defence" (ie: acting for parents) work way back when I practiced law in the 80s and 90s. I've seen first hand how much power the Children's Aid Societies have in court and the things the law lets them get away with.
Rules of evidence, hearsay rules, procedural rules all go out the window if deemed to be "in the child's best interest". Hell, even murderers and rapists are entitled to get their Charter Rights (you'd call it the Miranda Warning in the US), but not the parents in a child protection prosecution. One minute a social worker is urging you to bare you soul to help your child, the next moment she's on the witness stand reading a transcript of the interview into the court's records. I could go on but we don't have time. Suffice to say that child protection authorities have more power than most realize; certainly more than the police. Cheers, frank --- Original Message --- From: David Parsons <[email protected]> Sent: December 28, 2011 12/28/11 To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Bad news for Frank Frank, there's nothing stopping anyone from making a false report about anyone to CPS and having your kids taken away as a protective measure without any proof or evidence. No video required. There will always be ways to game the system. You don't need to be convicted or even go to trial, just hassled and harassed. On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 2:38 PM, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > > > --- Original Message --- > > From: Larry Colen <[email protected]> > Sent: December 28, 2011 12/28/11 > To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Bad news for Frank > > Larry: > > You walk into Macy's, the camera scans your face, looks it up on google and > as you face a video screen an ad pops up telling you that silly hats are on > sale on the third floor. > ******* > frank: > > Right. And here's what scares the hell out of me: The cops show up at my door > one night with a search warrant. "Mr. Theriault you're under arrest for the > theft of a Nepalese yak herder's hat from Macy's today. We have you on video > and our face recognition software (purchased from Google Surveillance and > Security Division) has confirmed it was you. The gps on your phone led us > right to your door. And now as we stand at your doorway we see you have a > different coloured hat of the same type hanging from your well-stocked hat > rack. Like yak herder's hats do we? You have the right to remain silent, > anything you say may be held against you in a court of law..." > > "But guys, I was nowhere near Macy's today!" > > "Sorry, you're coming with us." > > "But with this wiry cyclist's build I won't last three hours before I'm > somebody's bee-otch!" > > But seriously it's a very short leap from using such technology for so-called > benign commercial purposes to security or police purposes. >> > *********** > > Larry: > > It's more important to do things to keep those sorts of people out of power. > I'll spare you my boring diatribe about money, power and positive feedback > loops. > > ********* > > frank: > > But one of the joys of democracy is that once in a while (or more.often!) a > jerk gets elected on a "law and order" ticket. We have such a mayor right now > in our city after eight years of one of the most progressive mayors ever. Our > current guy would just love to suspend civil liberties and throw every > suspected criminal in jail. With such technology so close to available I > quake to think of the possibilities. > > Cheers, > frank > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- David Parsons Photography http://www.davidparsonsphoto.com Aloha Photographer Photoblog http://alohaphotog.blogspot.com/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
