[IP] follow up Snapshot of breast feeding mother grounds for arrest for "porn" by Texas police

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Bob Drzyzgula <bob@drzyzgula.org>
Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 13:43:37 -0400
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Snapshot of breast feeding mother grounds for arrest for
"porn" by Texas police

On Fri, Apr 25, 2003 at 07:07:24PM -0400, Dave Farber wrote:
> 
> If these facts are right and the Dallas Observer is a decent paper , then
> one should avoid Richardson like the plaque. I thought texans respected the
> family.
> 
> Dave

Dave,

Follow-up:

 http://dallasobserver.com/issues/2003-04-24/buzz.html/1/index.html

 Touching a Nerve

 State walks away from breast-feeding case

 COMPILED BY PATRICK WILLIAMS
 
 patrick.williams@dallasobserver.com

 Finally, Buzz brings you some sort of good news. The state
 of Texas, in its all-too-finite wisdom, has bowed to eons
 of mammalian evolution and decided that breast-feeding
 your child is not a sign of unfit parenting.

 This is particularly good news for Jacqueline Mercado
 and her boyfriend, Johnny Fernandez, who have regained
 custody of their 1-year-old son Rodrigo. Last week,
 Dallas Observer staff writer Thomas Korosec reported
 ("1-Hour Arrest") how Mercado and Fernandez ran afoul of
 the law for the dastardly act of taking a photo of their
 boy suckling at Mercado's breast. Last fall, the couple
 had the photos developed at a local drug store. A clerk
 there saw the image and called Richardson police. Long
 story short: Mercado and Fernandez wound up indicted for
 "sexual performance of a child" (though the case was
 later dropped by Dallas County prosecutors), and Child
 Protective Services took away their two children and
 ordered all sorts of onerous counseling and tests.

 You might wonder what sort of twisted upbringings Texas
 bureaucrats must have had to see breast-feeding as a
 sexual act. Our readers certainly did. We received upward
 of 50 letters from people in the States and Canada,
 all sharing one thought, summed up by this writer:
 "That parents could have their children taken away from
 them because of photos of a 1-year-old breast-feeding
 is horrible beyond words." (One writer from Alabama
 described it as "jack-booted thuggery." It's a proud
 moment in Texas history when residents of Alabama are
 appalled by our heavy-handed government.)

 At the time the story ran, Mercado and Fernandez still
 hadn't regained custody of their sons--Mercado is the
 mother of a 4-year-old from a previous marriage--and the
 state was demanding they take lie-detector tests at their
 own expense before they could get them back. One of the
 couple's lawyers, Steven Lafuente, says that since then
 the state has essentially walked away from the case. No
 polygraphs were required, though the couple will attend
 a few parenting classes, he says. The oldest boy is still
 with his biological father, and a private custody dispute
 is brewing there, but no one is still calling Mercado
 and Fernandez deviants.

 Now, lest you think we're being too tough on CPS for
 its idiotic handling of this case, know this: Buzz
 generally sympathizes with the agency. Their overburdened
 caseworkers have jobs we wouldn't take for 10 times the
 pay. Dealing with child abuse--real abuse, we mean--has
 to be inconceivably grim. One mistake, being either too
 stern or too lenient, can have terrible consequences. So
 it's hard to smack them. Hard, but not impossible. Buzz
 asked Lafuente if anyone in officialdom had apologized
 to the family.

 Nope.

 Now that's indecent. Damned jack-booted thugs. Why
 can't someone with CPS send a letter, a note, a
 friggin' Hallmark card saying, "We made a mistake. We
 apologize." Just try it, CPS. Really, it's not hard to say
 "We're sorry." A child could do it.

 dallasobserver.com
 originally published: April 24, 2003


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