Sadly, this is standard MO for this type. If you don't like the reality, ignore or distort the facts. Really, don't address the actual evidence at all! Just rudely and viciously attack the messenger. In fact, given how bullying and abusive he is to a perfect stranger in an email, I suspect he's no stranger to violence against women or children himself.
In fact, I heard not a single word of concern for any of the victims listed in the post to which he referred, which was a list of recent cases involving children murdered by their fathers where a custody, visitation, and/or child support "dispute" was an active, contributing factor. In other words, cases just like the MARK RESCH case. This is telling as to where his true sympathies lay.
Here's the post in question:
http://dastardlydads.blogspot.com/2010/02/rough-summary-of-murders-by-dads-with.html
The Rochester gentleman goes on to rant about Susan Smith. As if this is a trump card. Had to go back to 1995, 15 years ago, to find this case. I'm surprised he didn't mention Andrea Yates. That's the other name these guys are fixated on. You'd have to go back to 2001 for that case. Can you come up with anything better, sir? And by the way, neither of these cases involved an active custody, visitation, or child support "dispute." So they're both irrelevant to the argument at hand.
I have never denied that there are abusive or even murdering mothers. That's foolish. I choose not to collect, report, and analyze these cases, because there are many blogs dealing with "abusive parents" which devote generous attention to these "ladies."However, there are only a few blog sites that focus on murderous fathers, who are mostly ignored by the national media in favor of sensational cases involving mothers (both Susan and Andrea have their own Wikipedia pages.) How many murdering fathers have the same? In fact, cases involving murdering fathers seldom make it out of the local media, even though violent abuse against children, especially homicide, is dominated by fathers. Maybe that's why they don't get attention. The media dismisses father-committed homicides as just another dog-bites-man story.
The gentleman also says that cases involving fathers murdering their children where visitation, custody, and/or child support were a contributing factor are rare. But he presents no evidence to support this assertion.
On the contrary. I have counted over 75 cases in the short time this blog has been in existence (summer 2009). Pull up the "child death" tab below, and go through the evidence yourself. Don't take my word for it. Many are infants killed--usually shaken and battered--by young, never-married fathers during court-ordered, overnight visitation.
That's not including all the murder-suicides which have become an epidemic as of late, 90% of which are commited by men against family members or former intimates.
You see that's the problem, folks. Guys like MARK RESCH are becoming increasingly and distressingly common. And it's not because he lost his job--a common but erroneous excuse. Lots of people lose their jobs, but not all go on to annihilate their entire family or their beat their children to death. Only guys with a special sense of narcissistic entitlement, usually with a history of dometic violence, do that. In some cases, there was not a lot of evidence of what was to come. If the victims sensed something, they kept quiet about it, either out of fear or the concern that they wouldn't be believed.
But in an increasing number of cases, there were cries for help. But it's like so many Cassandras crying in the wind. The courts may grant an order of protection to the mother. Or perhaps they don't. But in an act of total cognitive dissonance, they grant the abuser unsupervised visitation after the mother has left the relationship or marriage. Really, folks. Please think here. A guy with a documented history of violence, perhaps a criminal record, who has vowed "revenge" against his ex-partner is really going to be a kind and loving Daddy? If you say yes, think about that some more after you sober up and take an aspirin.These cases aren't just tragedies. They are utterly predictable results of fathers rights politics and policies as they have infiltrated the family court and criminal justice system over the last 20 years or so. And don't tell me how "oppressed" fathers are western New York. Fathers Rights of Western New York has a long and sordid presence in that part of that part of the state. They have pushed their pet judges into office and infiltrated agencies that provide "neutral" custody evaluations. They promote their own biased psychologists and "evaluators" who ignore the evidence, and in many cases, don't even go through the motions of an impartial investigation. They push mediation with poorly trained mediators who pressure victims into further compromising their safety with the abuser.
I know, as I have documented all of this down in Chautauqua County, New York.
The result is that, anymore, pretty much any whack-job criminal with a pulse gets visitation with a child, so long as he contributed DNA to the existence of said child. Doesn't matter how many times he's been arrested or convicted. That's the "new normal" in western New York and in too many areas across the nation as well.
And now we are reaping the results of these policies. And we will continue to reap these kinds of results until the safety of mothers and children is given priority over the "rights" of abusers and criminals.
If you are a loving father, this doesn't apply to you. But chances are that if you're a good father, you're also a good husband. My father is an amazing human being. He's also been married to my mother for over 50 years. If for some reason the marriage or relationship didn't work out, you might still be a good and loving father. But your case won't end up in court. You know why? Because you will have worked out things with your ex-wife or girlfriend privately. You will have worked very hard on forming an amicable working relationship after the romantic relationship ended. You will support the mother of your children--not threaten her, stalk her, or beat her up. Sounds like common sense to me, but apparently it isn't to too many people.
We do not need coercive efforts by the courts based on the idiotic notion that criminals and abusers will suddenly learn to "cooperate" or "share" with their former partners. They don't. The evidence has become increasingly clear on this.
In other words, the Family Courts have to stop pulling crazy stuff like they did with Resch.
YOU CANNOT ACKNOWLEDGE THAT SOMEBODY IS A CREDIBLE VIOLENT THREAT, ISSUE A RESTRAINING ORDER, THEN TURN AROUND AND GRANT THAT SAME PERSON VISITATION WITH A VULNERABLE CHILD.
That's a schizophrenic policy that literally leads to murder.
I am choosing not to publish the Rochester gentleman's comments. I do not publish comments that include ad hominem attacks or obscenities. Please feel free to comment, however, if you have something constructive and civil to add to the discussion.
Police: Note implies Greece murder-suicide fueled by anger, hatred
Meaghan M. McDermott • Staff writer • February 14, 2010
GREECE — A Greece man who shot and killed his 7-year-old son before turning his shotgun on himself Friday night left behind a pages-long chronicle of his plan for the killing.
The apparent motive: revenge against his estranged wife.
"There was an ongoing domestic dispute, and this act was definitely a very spiteful, very aggressive act," said Greece Police Chief Todd Baxter. "This person was a mean person and was doing this pure out of spite."
But according to Monroe County property records, the occupant of 491 Island Cottage Road is Mark Resch.
A longtime friend of Resch, Joe Bartolone of Greece, told media gathered at the scene late Friday night that Resch was the person who had shot his son and then himself. He said Resch was a 1989 graduate of Greece Arcadia High School and had lost his job with a maintenance company last month.
According to a statement released Saturday by the Greece Central School District, the 7-year-old was a first-grader at Paddy Hill Elementary School on Latta Road. The district will offer counseling for students and their parents.
In a written statement, the boy's teacher, Cathy Carpenter, said he was a wonderful child and was well-liked.
"He loved to learn and explore and was so excited to be with his friends," she said.
Police were called to the yellow-clapboard house on Island Cottage Road about 7:30 p.m. Friday, alerted by a 911 call from the boy's mother asking that they check on the welfare of her son, who was staying with his father as part of a court-ordered visitation.
Baxter said the woman was alarmed by a phone conversation she'd just had with her estranged husband, who told her "you'll never make it here in time" to pick up the boy.
Baxter said the woman had left her husband on Jan. 25, the same day she secured a temporary order of protection against him in Monroe County Family Court for alleged threats against her life.
As part of that order, the man was prohibited from owning any guns, so police removed one shotgun from the Island Cottage Drive home at that time.
The man denied owning any others.
Baxter said police were investigating to see how the man got hold of the shotgun used in the killings.
On Monday, Baxter said, Family Court had issued a permanent restraining order against the man. The order included visitation with his son on some weekdays and alternate weekends, he said.
After the 911 call, police arrived at the home within six minutes. Through a front window, they could see a severely injured child on a couch in the living room.
In an effort to save the boy, officers immediately entered the house, where they found the man dead of a gunshot wound just inside the back door. The child was also dead.
Baxter said police found a long note, written over more than a week, that outlined the man's plan to kill his son.
He would not discuss details of the note, which he called "five or six pages of a lot of hate, anger and spite," but said it proved the act was premeditated.
"He thought about this for more than a week, with no indication to us, his wife or the courts," said Baxter. "He talked about how he was going to do it, and our investigation reveals that he pretty much carried out his plan in how he did it. That kid had no chance."
Police held debriefing and counseling sessions for involved officers and the victim's family on Saturday.
Christopher and Cheryl Irick of Island Cottage Road awoke Saturday to news of the murder-suicide. The couple said they never knew Resch or his family and that the neighborhood has always been quiet.
"That's one of the things that attracted us to here," said Christopher Irick. "And the fact that this happened across from the police station makes it even more shocking. It's such an incredibly sad story."