Where do the children of Walter Scott go to obtain recourse for the murder of their dad by a Charleston, South Carolina cop?

 

 

Administrator’s note: Draconian child support practices, unconstitutional debtor prisons and discriminatory treatment of fathers in our nation’s divorce and family courts have raised tensions to unprecedented levels with fatal consequences to non-criminal victims and law enforcement.

By Dr. Leon R. Koziol

You can get a debt satisfied if the money is there to collect. But when you exploit criminal enforcement authority to collect it, a whole new dynamic sets in. People don’t make the justifiable connections when a good father is shot dead by a cop due to a child support warrant during a traffic stop for a bad tail light. 

So why did Walter Scott flee the scene? It’s an easy question to answer if you’re a father who has been through the discrimination and oppression commonly practiced in these courts. This father fled because he knew, as most fathers do, that fair treatment will not occur in divorce or family court. When fathers are saddled with unjust obligations, expect the victims to react erratically. 

Now, when a family judge signs a child support warrant, it may become a death warrant for abused fathers and unsuspecting victims. Such extreme measures are routinely executed with little or no concern for the severe consequences. This obsession with money, described in numerous posts here at Leon Koziol.com, is raising tensions to unimagined levels because our government continues to suppress long overdue reforms.

Attorney Malik Shabazz, president of Black Lawyers for Justice, made it plain to media in Charleston this past week that black victims “hunted down like deer and dogs” are going to start shooting back. He got an enthusiastic applause from an angry crowd which should have all of us very concerned. Self defense is an inalienable human right to oppressive government practices and a central theme behind our Second Amendment. 

But does this apply only to African-American victims? What about the black cop who assisted in the Walter Scott murder? In another set of circumstances, this same black cop, or indeed any cop having a bad day, may find personal justification for killing a fleeing white victim. How many more killings, suicides and health impairments can be expected when looking at the escalating family court ordeals emerging across our country? 

All fathers and families should be very alarmed by the ominous signs here. To be sure, the atrocity which is quickly fading in South Carolina with no meaningful reform in sight indicates that more needless violence can be expected to both whites and blacks, victims and law enforcement. The ominous signs are not limited to one geographic area or circumstance. 

In my own home town in upstate New York, a white officer was shot dead by a father hiding in a garage during a domestic incident. The complaining party was long gone from the scene but a stand-off with police ensued. Maybe it could have been resolved through careful intervention or the passing of time. Instead the father facing gunfire with non-fatal elements perceived himself to be in danger of losing his life and returned fire with reverse consequences to those experienced in Charleston. 

Countless situations like these all across America require meaningful inquiries and reforms. The needless carnage to families of all victims is what inspires us to action. Please join our efforts. Encourage people you know with the proper concern and resources to support our cause for family court reform. It may be a black father one day, you or me the next, but any family member regardless of background can become a victim without warning.

Dr. Leon R. Koziol

Civil Rights Advocate

(315) 796-4000

Coming tomorrow: our newest series entitled “Kendra’s Chronicles” will begin a personal side to the tragedies of children who suffer from parental alienation and family court injustices. We have had many compliments and requests regarding a continuation of the earlier series entitled King’s Chronicles.” Rest assured it has not gone away but necessarily interrupted by our Charleston trip and will return soon.