Texas CPS director murdered

ABC News reports:

The program director of the Victoria, Texas, office of the state's Child Protective Services had said she was scared about threats she had received only days before her body was found in a field in a rural part of the southeastern Texas county.

Victoria County employees discovered the body of 53-year-old Sally Blackwell off a paved county road on Wednesday while investigating an unrelated report of trash dumping. ...

Crimmins described a recent incident last week when "a couple of individuals" with a current pending case paid a visit to the Victoria office of Child Protective Services. Blackwell was in a meeting, and one of her assistants spoke to the visitors in the reception area, Crimmins said. The individuals apparently "raised their voices" but left before security was called.

"That is the incident that is being talked about. That is the only one that we at the agency know that happened," Crimmins said. ...

Kincaid said there were several "persons of interest" in the ongoing investigation.

"Any time you take children away from people, people are not happy," Kincaid said. "There are potentially other issues."

Threats Not Uncommon for Social Workers

Employees of Texas Child Protective Services "investigate reports of possible abuse and neglect of children, and, if necessary, place children in foster care." According to an agency statement, "new and current employees receive training about workplace violence, dealing with difficult or hostile clients, visiting clients in the home, and personal security."

"The nature of the work is such that threats are not uncommon," Crimmins said. "You are personally investigating, knocking on doors, and trying to find out if cases of child abuse and child neglect can be confirmed. It is a very high-stress job."

My advice is to not even raise your voice with these creeps, or you will be a suspect. I first met the CPS agent in my case when she showed up at my house with two armed cops from the local sheriff's office. My kids were in school, so the cops had nothing to do with the kids.

Attacks on agents are very rare. It is not high-stress because of that. The stress comes from the fact that CPS is doing something that millions of Americans think is evil. They wreck family and impose their prejudices on others, and they do it without due process. They vindictively punish those who stand up for their rights and the rights of their kids.

The Santa Cruz Sentinel has another story about a new protest movement, and the local branch, occupysantacruz.org:

Occupy Santa Cruz is a nonviolent movement for accountability in the United States government and our economic system. We will gather in solidarity with the ongoing protest in New York City, Occupy Wall Street, and the growing number of cities (now over 300) whose people will no longer sit back watching corporate and special interests run their government. We are citizens of the United States, and this country is ours. We will take it back.

Occupy Santa Cruz will not tolerate calls to violence, drugs or illegal activity (property destruction etc). Please find a different place to debate those topics, and if you become aware of any topics of this matter PLEASE let us know so we can take the proper actions against instigators. Thank you so much!

They have a public meeting downtown today, at 6:00 pm. They have gained a lot of momentum rapidly, and a lot of press coverage. We should watch them, and learn from them. Note that they do not intend to get destroyed by a few bad apples making violent threats or actions.

The picture may look strange, but it is a familiar sight in Santa Cruz. It is a sea otter.