I smell a clusterf#@k coming

CANTON - In the wake of the beating death of a 4-year-old Canton girl last month, local legislators are proposing a law that would require police notification of suspected child neglect or abuse.

The whole story is

here

.

Though I can't positively say, I thought that the Department of Children and Family Services was already required to report any "criminal activity" to the local gendarmes. If that's the case, then this proposed law is basically lip service...something that politicians are so good at. If it's not the case, I can forsee one, gigantic clusterfuck. Something else that politicians seem to be so proficient at creating.

But it looks good on paper, doesn't it?

The DCFS representatives said the agency receives around 300,000 hotline calls per year, and it would be impractical for the agency to notify police of every call, Leitch said.
"The system's supposed to be about protecting the Kathryn Westerfields of the world, not the bureaucracy," he said.

Uh huh. Riiiight.

If the 'system' is supposed to be about protecting children, then why in the hell is it ALREADY fraught with "bureaucracy", red tape and caseworkers who's only goal is to suck the ole system for all it's worth? Why is it the ultimate goal of DCFS to return these poor, abused children to homes where you just know the abuse will continue? Why do so many legitimate complaints of child abuse get essentially ignored, yet the unfounded claims, like the parent who smacks his kid on the ass (gasp!) in public when they're misbehaving, get investigated to the nth degree?

I have a good friend who is a caseworker for DCFS. I KNOW for a fact, that he tries to do the right thing. I think he's in the minority. And I think that many times, his hands are just simply tied by 'bureaucracy'. I dunno...I think it'd be like going to work every day and beating your head against a brick wall. I suppose his reward is the rare times he's actually allowed to save a child.

Personally, I rank child abusers right down there with child molesters...lower than the scum on the bottom of the barrel of humanity. Once proven guilty, I think they should be given one of two sentences...life in prison or death.

The sticky part is the 'proven guilty'.

But this law they're trying to pass...I dunno. I think DCFS is gonna resent being forced to report to the police. I think the police, who are already usually overtaxed with other problems, are gonna resent the additional 300,000 phone calls from DCFS.

And MORE little, innocent kids will fall through the cracks and die.

If Rep. Leitch really wants to do something important...something that will actually save more of the Kathryn Westerfields of Illinois, he should call for a complete and total revamp of the whole damn DCFS system. Cut out the deadwood and the red tape and the bullshit. Stop trying to place these abused kids back in the same situation. Simplify the system. Develop mandatory sentences for abusers.

And REALLY cut out the "bureaucracy", not just blow about it.