Roger Fredinburg Commentary

By Roger Fredinburg
July 30, 2001
NewsWithViews.com

The Oregon State Police are deep into their investigation of the conspiracy surrounding the recent forced reunion of the Christine family. The Christines, Brian and Ruth, were forcibly separated from their 3 children by Services for Children and families (SCF) just over a year ago when an anonymous tip led police to their motor home in the library parking lot in Grants Pass Oregon

The children were subsequently taken to SCF offices and then to a hospital for unauthorized medical and legally unfounded treatment. At this point no measure of due process as required by law was extended to this family. As I recall Brian was hauled off to jail and Ruth was left standing in the parking lot of the library clueless, penniless and helpless as her family was carted away by police and social workers.

Today, I was asked to come into the Oregon State Police headquarters to answer some questions related to the recent events surrounding this case and questions regarding my on-air interview with Ruth Christine which I believe aired about the first of the year.

The Christines in the past few days had reunited with their children literally at the point of a gun. As the report goes, Brian followed the Social Worker and the vehicle transporting the Christine children to a freeway rest stop where he is alleged to have pointed a gun at the social worker forcibly taking possession of his children and the state vehicle. As it appears he later swapped vehicles and somehow made his way to Montana where he and a day or so later Ruth and the children were captured and await extradition back to Oregon. The charges will likely be interference with child custody and armed robbery as stated to me by Detective Jim Davis of the Oregon State Police.

As I entered the newly constructed State Police facility, I was greeted kindly by Detective Jim Davis and escorted to an interrogation room, you know the kind with the one way glass, Yep, just like in the movies. Davis almost immediately tossed two pictures out on the table 8-1/2 x 11 color photos. They were pictures of the Christine children before and after their rescue by social workers and police

Detective Davis had no way of knowing that I worked in the manufacturing of film for 3M Company for nearly a decade and that my job for much of that time was as a Quality Control Inspector. My job was to test and manipulate photographs to determine the products range and viability for use by customers.

The before photo of the children taken by SCF immediately after their abduction by the state is a manipulated photo intended to show a less than favorable example of just how thin the kids were at the time. The frightened looks on their faces remind me of photos sent to me from holocaust survivors who I've interviewed over the years, with one notable caveat, the holocaust photos weren't manipulated like this picture of the Christine children. This photo has red eye varying grain patterns and fluctuating contrasts, a good indication its been tampered with. It looks like it was done on an antiquated P.C. like the ones you might expect to find in government offices.

The after photo shows happy little girls who are well fed and clean. One girl looks like she is obese now. I would warn the SCF folks that that too is a form of child abuse as many children are taken from their parents for being too fat. I might accuse the SCF of child abuse. You can't put little kids on fattening diets after they have been vegetarians without greatly risking their health.

My impression of Detective Davis is that he's a decent man, a good cop and a gentleman. His demeanor throughout the questioning was calm, thoughtful and his senses razor sharp. I like him, but I pity him because even though he admits that we are losing far too many freedoms, way too fast, he can't see how he himself is contributing to the decay of liberty in America.

I think what he really wants from me is a tape of the interview I did with Ruth Christine. I don't know if I have a copy but If I do he's welcome to it. If any of you listeners to the Roger Fredinburg Show have a copy on tape feel free to send it to Detective Davis.

The discussion did gravitate beyond the mundane subject of the tape and photo and ended up somewhere between interesting and very enlightening

Detective Davis revealed some very important information. When confronted with the issue which peaked my interest in the beginning, due process and the denial of that to people like the Christines in these child theft cases he answered in a way I never thought possible. He actually admitted that he isn't driven by due process, by the Constitution, by court precedent, but by his conscience. That's right, you heard it, his conscience.

I nearly fell out of the chair, right there in front of the one way mirror and just did stop myself from laughing out loud.

When nudged just a bit harder, using typical conservative metaphors and verbiage like mentioning the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, etc., he actually tried to put me in the camp of anti-government types and even attempted to associate my comments with the Militia of Montana.....?

Again, it was about all I could do to keep from busting out laughing. I have never had a positive relationship with one of these groups. Not to suggest there's anything wrong with Militias, but I certainly never fit in with that bunch.

Once again a subtle prodding from the left, a message destined to wreck conservatism. Yep, if you aren't a leftist then you must worship at the church of Timothy McVeigh.....what an insult.

I do understand completely how this decent man, Detective Davis, comes by his views and surrenders to his conscience regardless of what is ultimately the right thing to do. He settles for what appears to be a most immediate resolve, rather than what is lawful and appropriate. After all, he's committed to saving the children.

Who could blame Detective Davis? He's seen things that would make most of us sick. If we saw what he's seen on the job, we would scream for help, demand a solution, charge in and fix it as best we could. He is there when the tortured, maimed and abused children are lifted on to the gurneys and sent off to hospitals for treatment from the abuse and neglect rampant in our society today.

I applaud Detective Davis and his SCF counterparts for rescuing the tormented from their tormentors...except for one small difference...I would be more supportive than most. The problem is that what good they accomplish they achieve through illegal means. They deny due process to parents, ravage families based on anonymous tips and ring the federal cash register dry because there is a federal reward for every successful government child theft. Money for foster care, medical care, and yes, for little bureaucrat do-gooders who make the rules, rig the courts and stack the deck against the unfortunate, innocent parents who get caught in the trap. If you do, there is no way out, no escape. The state is never wrong...right?

Ask Ray Buckey and his family who were wrongly imprisoned for years over the famous McMartin pre-school case in California in the 80s. Ask the families of the Wenatche, Washington witch hunt of the 90s. Dozens of families were wiped out, many were jailed, all were innocent. Ask the Stumbo family in Kings Mountain, N.C., whose two year old daughter chased a cat out the front door into the driveway. She was naked. Some do-gooder sent the child protectors in and this fine family who refused to let the social worker enter their home are engaged in a lawsuit that's headed to the supreme court because a judge decided that the Constitution doesn't apply to social workers.

And there's the problem in a nutshell. The very people for whom the Constitution was written to control, have cast off the bindings of it, in order to create a more perfect world for us all. No accountability, no liability, no rules for the privileged class called government employees. Only rules for the rest of us, made on the fly, as seems to accommodate their conscience at that moment.

The Christine's story isn't the only, the most horrible, or the best example of government out of control. But, it's one example of a growing tendency for government to deny us due process, rig the kangaroo courts and destroy lives, families and communities with the stroke of a pen driven by an anonymous phone call.

These are steps along the way to utter disaster and we need to put up a firewall, stop the creeping assault on our freedoms and save the country for all the children of all the parents across the fruited plain.

What makes the story of the Christines compelling is the fact that the system turned this mild, meek, Christian couple into criminals, not unlike those found on the wall at the post office.

I believe that SCF and police professionals on their leash, judges who were once crooked lawyers, and the whole contrived money making machine, needs to be revamped. A system without due process, accountability, and personal liability on the part of these do-gooders and parasites who currently operate with impunity and immunity must be reformed, and fast.

Two normally good people were bumped off track by zealous money hungry bureaucrats. This young couple is locked behind bars for the foreseeable future and the only reason that they are criminals today, is because the unaccountable government thugs made it so. Pushed them, poked them, demeaned them, and left them with no way out, no alternatives, no reasonable way to redeem themselves. Cornered like wild animals in a cage with an abusive master, they turned on the system and took their children back by force. Good for them...there were no other options available. These aren't dopers, boozers, or losers, they are good people with strong religious convictions who would never intentionally harm these babies. Their vegetarian lifestyle might have been a poor choice, but in a free country we're allowed to make poor choices and sometimes we pay dearly for that freedom

I hope Detective Davis, knowing how these people were wrecked by a government agency out of control, can sleep well with that conscience of his, I know I couldn't.

Roger Fredinburg is a syndicated radio host heard in more than 140 markets nationwide and worldwide on the internet at www.regularguy.com or www.radioamerica.org The show airs from 7PM till 10PM Pacific and 10PM till 1:00 AM Eastern M-F and Sunday nights from 9:00 PM till Midnight PST Midnight till 3:00 AM Eastern. The call-in number to his show is 1-800-510-8255 or E-mail radioroger@aol.com

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