Major AP story: Divorced fathers snap under pressure

[ANCPR]

Hello,
A major story (see below) has been distributed by AP today on the issue of
the injustice of Family Courts and its connection to recent violence
committed by frustrated fathers in which I was quoted.  It's tragic that it
takes incidents like those discussed in the article to bring this issue to
people's attention.

Apparently, I struck a nerve (this article appears nationwide in many other
publications, not only the Washington Times) when I said, "...when you cause
this much pain to so many men, there are going to be repercussions.  A
certain percentage are going to crack."  I had already done two radio
interviews on this issue today, and lined up two more for later,  before I
had even had the chance to read the article myself.

This might be an excellent time to contact your local media to voice your
opinions, and to relate your experiences. You can get all the contact
information you need at http://www.ancpr.org/mediacenter.htm.  You just
enter your zip code, and up comes a list with email, website, and phone
numbers for all the local papers, radio stations and television stations in
your broadcast area.  Strike while the iron is hot.  Let these people know
how your divorce affected you psychologically as well as financially.  They
need to hear it more often. They will be especially ready to listen today
and in the next few days.  Don't be afraid, just do it.

Wishing you the best,

Lowell Jaks, ANCPR
http://ancpr.org
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____________________________
>From : http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021125-19281832.htm
November 25, 2002

Divorced fathers snap under pressure

     ASSOCIATED PRESS
     One divorced father committed suicide on the steps of San Diego's
courthouse, another set his car afire outside Alaska's child-support office.
Others, in an all-too-common scenario, killed their ex-wives, their
children, then themselves.
     Men who snap in such violent ways have few defenders. Yet fathers'
rights groups, joined by a few academic experts, see a common denominator in
these recent bursts of rage, and ask whether America's family court system
could be partly at fault by deepening the despair of many divorced men.
     "None of these guys are poster children," said Lowell Jaks, president
of the Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights. "But when you cause this
much pain to so many men, there are going to be repercussions. A certain
percentage are going to crack."
     Mr. Jaks has even distributed newspaper articles to his organization's
members noting the problems with child custody and child support that
angered John Allen Muhammad, accused of being the Washington-area sniper,
and Robert S. Flores Jr., who killed three University of Arizona nursing
professors before killing himself.
     "Some guys kill themselves, some snap and go out and kill others," Mr.
Jaks said. "You can dismiss them as crackpots, you can say we need more
protection for women, but it's not going to take away the problem."
     Frustrations over child support and visitation figured in several
recent violent incidents across the country. Among them:
     . In San Diego, a man upset by a court ruling on overdue child support
fatally shot himself in January on the courthouse steps. Witnesses said
Derrick K. Miller Sr., 43, who was carrying court documents, told a guard,
"You did this to me," before killing himself.
     . In Anchorage, Alaska Jed Magby, 43, set his Mercedes afire in October
outside the offices of the state's Child Support Enforcement Division,
apparently because of claims that he owed $55,000 for out-of-state child
support orders. He faces charges of arson and criminal mischief.
     . In Erie, Pa., Stephen Trieber, 33, was sentenced to death in October
for killing his 2-year-old daughter by setting his house on fire in order to
get out of paying $250 a month in child support.
     . In February, James D. Smallwood Jr. killed his three children, who
lived with his estranged wife in Throckmorton, Texas, but were visiting him
for one night. Smallwood drove back to Throckmorton with the dead children
in his car, then killed himself when he heard sirens approaching. A judge
ruled earlier that Smallwood, who had been accused of making threats, could
have the children on "quasi-supervised" visitations.
     Augustine Kposowa, a sociologist at the University of
California-Riverside, has conducted studies concluding suicide rates among
divorced men are much higher than for divorced women or married men. He
attributes the difference to what happens in family courts.
     "The man loses his marriage, then he loses a second time when child
custody is granted to the woman," he said. "Unless something is done, by
examining family laws and having new policies to aid men, the situation is
bound to get worse."
     Extrapolating from Mr. Kposowa's research, fathers' rights activist
David Roberts contends that child-support orders - part of what he calls
"the war on fathers" - contribute to the suicides of more than 5,000
divorced fathers each year.
     Outside the fathers' rights ranks, others acknowledge that divorce and
custody procedures are often imperfect.