TIME TO DEAL WITH REALITY?
AMERICA UNRAVELS:
The Road to Revolution or Civil War
II
“Behind this year’s surge is a toxic mix of cuts to social services, unemployment, hopelessness…”
AMERICA DIES YOUNG, POOR AND
ADDICTED!
A Nation Commits Suicide
Child abuse and neglect soar in US military families
Child abuse and neglect soar in US military families
By Shelley Connor
9 January 2017
A recent investigation by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune has uncovered a significant increase in child abuse and neglect among US military families since 2003.
Using Freedom of Information Act requests, the Times gained access to reports from the
Army, Navy and Air Force that reveal that, in many cases, military officials
failed to act upon known or suspected cases of child abuse in military
families.
The reports confirm that child fatalities in
military homes jumped from 14 in 2003 to 38 in 2012; from 2012 to 2014, they
remained above 30 per year until they dropped to 23 in 2015—the last year that
Pentagon records are available. That same year, the Family Advocacy Program
(FAP), a military program aimed at intervening in cases of domestic violence
and child neglect, reported 5,378 cases of child abuse and neglect in military
families.
For years, the Pentagon has maintained that
child abuse is less common and less severe in military homes than it is among
the civilian population. It asserts that its vigilance in weeding out drug and
alcohol users screens out most abusive parents—moreover, service members, the
Pentagon says, are free from the stress of unemployment faced by most
civilians, which decreases the financial strain upon military families.
Most proudly, the Pentagon points to its Family
Advocacy Program (FAP) and the obligation of base commanders to monitor the
welfare of their troops’ families and to order the FAP to intervene in cases
where service members are suspected or known to have abused their family
members.
Despite the Pentagon’s boasts, however, the rate
of child abuse and neglect in the military has risen from 4.8 incidents per
1,000 children to 7.2 within five years. This rise, demonstrated by the
Pentagon’s own records, has occurred even as the number of enlisted personnel
has declined by 10 percent in recent years.
Moreover, FAP personnel point out that these are
only the cases to which its caseworkers are alerted. The Times report quotes Rene Robichaux, who
oversees the Army’s clinical child abuse treatment program, who said, “We get
about 25 percent of the incidents. The rest occur behind closed doors.”
The FAP was founded in the years following the
Vietnam War, when there was a spike in spousal abuse cases amongst returning
military personnel. Previous efforts by the military to intervene in domestic
abuse cases amongst its members had been poorly funded and unenthusiastically
maintained.
FAPs predecessor, the Child Advocacy Program,
was established in 1976 to address mounting incidents of child abuse in
military homes. In 1979, after multiple reports demonstrated that military
service members were responsible for 15 percent of the nation’s total spousal
abuse cases, the program was expanded to include spouses and renamed the Family
Advocacy Program. The program has a budget of around $2 million a year, and is
brandished by the Department of Defense both as a benefit to military recruits
and as a shield against the public outcry against the military’s treatment of
enlistees and their families.
Child abuse and neglect are known to correlate
strongly with deployment. Despite this, base commanders have failed to report
cases of abuse to the FAP. Child welfare advocates have pointed out that there
is reluctance among commanders to address cases of abuse and neglect, because
they can lead to a service member’s discharge. Not only that, these reports can
be seen as evidence of a commander’s incompetence to monitor his or her troops.
Several recent high-profile child murder cases
have also shown that FAP referrals alone are inadequate to address concerns
over child maltreatment in military families.
In the case of 22-month-old Tamryn Klapheke, who
died of starvation on Dyess Air Force Base, the FAP had previously intervened,
along with Texas’ Child Protective Services, after the infant’s malnourished
state was reported by doctors. Tamryn’s father was serving overseas at the
time. Tamryn’s mother, Tiffany Klapheke, cooperated with FAP’s requirements,
making all of Tamryn’s assigned doctors’ visits and completing a parenting
course.
Three months after a social worker had noted in
Tamryn’s file that fatality was likely if she were not fed appropriately, the
family was released from the program’s oversight. Autopsy reports demonstrate
that Tiffany Klapheke had provided neither food nor water for Tamryn for at
least four days before she died.
All branches of the military have increased
staffing for the FAP in recent years. Nevertheless, the program is overwhelmed,
particularly when units return from deployment. A service member might wait for
three weeks or more to speak with an FAP therapist after being referred to the
program. Moreover, the cases that are referred tend to be extreme, demanding
immediate attention. There is an incentive for caseworkers and their managers
to quickly move families through the program in order to work through the
caseload.
In some cases, parents never come into contact
with an FAP caseworker, even when there are multiple, well-documented reports
of abuse.
Such was the case of Talia Williams, a
five-year-old girl living on Wheeler Air Force Base, who died after being
beaten by her father and stepmother in July of 2005. Mrs. Williams had been
reported by coworkers numerous times for remarking that beating children was
acceptable as long as there were no incriminating marks. Her father did not
take such precautions; the staff at Talia’s daycare notified military police
after finding bruises on Talia’s arms and back. Talia had told them that her
father beat her with a paddle when he was angry.
The FAP agent assigned to Talia’s case never
took action; Naeem Williams was sentenced to life in prison for his daughter’s
murder. In 2008, Talia’s mother sued the Army for negligence and wrongful death
in federal court. The Justice Department attempted to block the suit, arguing
that the Army was not responsible for child abuse on its bases. U.S. District
Judge Alan C. Kay rejected the government’s motion to dismiss. Last year, the
Justice Department settled with Tarshia Williams for $2 million—the amount of
the FAP’s yearly budget—in the case of her daughter’s death.
The United States has been at war continuously
for more than 15 years. Decreases in enlistment have meant that enlistees face
multiple deployments. The stress placed on these service members and their
families is well-documented.
Children of service members suffer from anxiety
at a higher rate than their civilian cohort. Behavioral problems,
distractibility, and cognitive impairment among the children of deployed troops
reveals the tremendous strain that their parents’ deployments places upon their
young shoulders. When their parents return, readjustment to civilian life is
fraught with peril. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent among
these service members; added to that is the economic uncertainty to which they
return.
It is wholly unsurprising that child abuse and
neglect are increasing in these families. In fact, the military’s own research,
conducted since the late 1970’s, confirms that this is not a novel,
undocumented phenomenon. The evidence accrued steadily throughout the 1980’s
that spousal abuse was much more prevalent in the homes of service members who
had been deployed, and child abuse, it is well-known, is much more likely in
families where there is spousal abuse.
The military’s use of the FAP as a fig leaf to
hide behind is therefore obviously disingenuous, as is the Pentagon’s
insistence that military families are well-cared for economically.
Many service members, lured to war by the
dangling of recruitment bonuses, are now being forced by the Pentagon to repay
those bonuses, despite serving multiple overseas tours and incurring
significant psychological and financial strain.
The unnecessary deaths of Talia Williams and
Tamryn Klapheke testify to the fact that the United States’ endless wars are
claiming victims on American soil; moreover, they expose the indifference of
the military to the scourge of child abuse amongst its ranks, when addressing
it would endanger the steady stream of soldiers to fight and die for the
interests of American imperialism.
Build the La Raza Democrat Party base with open
borders, no ID to vote Democrat, no E-VERIFY and NO DAMNED LEGAL NEED TO APPLY.
"Republicans
should call for lower immigration to stop the Democrat voter recruitment.
But more importantly, all Americans should call for lower immigration in order
to offer a better opportunity of finding jobs for those millions of their
fellow Americans of all political persuasions who would like to work."
MILLIONS OF AMERICAN
JOBS HANDED OVER TO ILLEGALS ALONG WITH BILLIONS IN WELFARE.... AND THE PARTY
HAS JUST BEGUN!
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY
PLATFORM:
NO DAMNED LEGAL NEED
APPLY!
VIVA
LA RAZA FASCISM? THEN VOTE DEM!
"Republicans should
call for lower immigration to stop the Democrat voter recruitment. But
more importantly, all Americans should call for lower immigration in order to
offer a better opportunity of finding jobs for those millions of their fellow
Americans of all political persuasions who would like to work."
TIME TO DEAL WITH REALITY?
AMERICA UNRAVELS:
The Road to Revolution or Civil War
II
“Behind this year’s surge is a toxic mix of cuts to social services, unemployment, hopelessness…”
AMERICA: NO LEGAL NEED APPLY
REPORT: The assault to finish off
the American middle-class is NOT over
“The report noted that many illegals don't have jobs or have
difficulty in landing good jobs because of local laws.”
“However, it identified several states that have begun easing
employment laws so that illegals can get a job.”
THE IMPACT OF TRUMPERnomics
AND THE MASSIVE TRANSFER OF WEALTH TO THE SUPER RICH
AMERICA: One paycheck
and two illegals away from homelessness.
"The economists found that the pre-tax share of
national income received by the
bottom half of the US population has been cut nearly
in half since 1980, from 20
percent to 12 percent, while the income share of the
top one percent has nearly
doubled, from 12 percent to 20 percent."
SOARING POVERTY IN AMERICA’S OPEN
BORDERS
TRUMPERNOMICS FOR THE SUPER RICH:
“In the US, the working class will confront a government unlike
any other in American history, which will continue and intensify a decades-long
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incoming Trump administration is manned by billionaires, generals and arch
reactionaries. It is a government of, by and for the oligarchy, committed to
destroying every remaining gain won by workers over the past century.”
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