Says a spokesman for the county to a Denver Post reporter.
Yes, yes. They only snatch children from their parents when it's in the child's best interest, even if they're wrong in doing so.
A newspaper columnist has revealed the startling case of an 8-year-old boy who was taken while he was playing outside his Colorado home by police and social workers who then informed his parents what they had done.
The report comes from Denver Post columnist Susan Greene who documented the case of Josh Raykin, who eventually was returned to his parents after being held in county custody for a week with no communication with his parents. At the resolution, Greene reported, a judge simply decided there no reason to believe the allegations of abuse.
The nightmare-inducing experience for the child began when authorities in Arapahoe County "snatched" him following an abuse allegation made by cousins whom the family had not seen for months, since they were placed into foster care because of abuse allegations in their own immediate family...
"Mother, father and son were forced to sit on their curb as neighbors watched and whispered, and deputies waited for a case worker to arrive. Josh, complaining he was hungry and cold, started hyperventilating," Greene wrote. "Once the social worker came two hours later, he wouldn't release the boy to his aunt nearby, nor tell the Raykins where he was taking Josh. Instead, he told Melanie to pack a bag for the boy she had never once left once with a sitter."
The columnist reported the child spent a week with a foster family who "took away the Pokemon toothbrush and stuffed toys that his mom had packed for him. They shut off his shower after five minutes. And most days, he says, they made him wash toilets with a washcloth."
In the meantime, the parents endured a sleepless week, made telephone calls and met with lawyers.
"Human Services refused to allow them even one phone call to tell their only child they loved him, were fighting for him and would come for him soon," Green wrote.
At some point, we as a society are going to have to rein in these police actions.
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