Administrator’s Note: Leon is busy getting us news updates and family law reform in Charleston. He was at the Walter Scott Funeral today. Some media are steering clear of the fathers’ rights issues so we will give you the news as it’s  happening here at Leon Koziol.com. Think of this site as the concerned parent’s portal to the issues affecting all Americans today. In fact, we know of media visiting this site to learn of cutting edge information which our followers have been getting all along.

Well he didn’t have a media pass while coming upon a congressman giving an interview surrounded by cameras and reporters from all across the country. But how was Leon Koziol to know? So he just joined the interactions. 

Leon had paid his respects to family members at the funeral for Walter Scott inside the W.O.R.D. Ministries Christian Center when he came upon a crowd outside. The pastor inside had just taken aim at the state’s unjust child support practices and  Charleston Congressman James Clyburn was giving his take on it.

Frustrated that no one was raising father discrimination as an overriding issue, what we have called the “elephant in the court room,” Leon cut in with  questions: “Isn’t there a serious issue of fathers’ rights here?” he began. It continued with an exchange concerning “draconian support collection practices” as Leon described it. 

Congressman Clyburn responded with a quip about his lack of authority in his own household. Eventually the Congressman admitted candidly, refreshingly but also surprisingly that he felt a bit uninformed on the issues raised by Leon. Yet, if you’ve been following our site, especially our recent posts, these practices are the cause for Walter Scott’s panic and flee from the scene of a simple traffic infraction. As we all know now, it led to his execution on April 4, 2015.

In the next interview featuring a family attorney, legislator and family representative, it was reaffirmed contrary to yesterday’s late media reports that in fact a “bench warrant” for support had been outstanding during the traffic stop. This prompted Leon to state that if sophisticated media was in conflict over the warrant, how could anyone expect Walter Scott to know of its existence.

A family representative explained that Walter was a wonderful father but job difficulties had caused him to fall behind in support. It landed him in jail a number of times. South Carolina has some of the most draconian “debtor prison” laws in the country. A father is prosecuted after only five days of delinquency and can be sentenced to a year in prison without committing any crime.

The impact on  minority fathers is particularly devastating in this southern state. Local government and law enforcement responses were commended by the family (as we did in yesterday’s post). In response to another media question, the family representative stated that no definite conclusion of racial motive had yet been made due to a “lack of clear evidence.” 

We will keep you updated on these fascinating developments. Whether a media pass was required to participate in this conference is still not known, but you can see now the profound benefit of secondary media and the internet which you folks capitalize on to help inform the public of all the important issues. Please share today’s post: http://wp.me/pXgi5-Pj