Father Torches Car in Protest Over Child Support

Anchorage Daily News ^ | October 18, 2002 | Tataboline Brant

[RogerFGay]

CHILD SUPPORT: Officials say suspect had threatened staff before.

Two floors of the 19-story Atwood Building were evacuated Thursday morning after a man parked his blue Mercedes near the building's entrance, doused the car with gasoline and set it ablaze.

[ppaul]

I suppose then it's completely justified for men to get child support enforcement workers, no matter where they try to hide.

Proving what, pray tell?
And the logic behind that, other than stupidity?

[MadIvan]

If this fellow is paying too much in child support, this is hardly the way to show his displeasure. We have representative government in Britain, America and Ireland for a reason: namely, so we don't have to set fires to our Mercedes Benzes in the parking lots of the bureaucracies.

The first duty in order to maintain civilisation is to be an exemplar of civilised behaviour as a citizen.

Regards, Ivan

[Aracelis]

After he kicked the back window out of the patrol car, he was hobbled and put in another patrol car.

He should have hired my ex's lawyer.

[A_perfect_lady]

It is divorce more than anything else which invites the state to interfere in areas in which it has no business... You men want an easy way out. Work on your marriages more, and you won't have to deal with these problems in the first place.

That's a bit self-righteous. No-fault divorces are easy to get and women are usually the ones who file. Considering how bitter feminism has made women, I often sympathize with men who married gals whose expectations were unrealistic and who rarely know themselves at all. Men are over a barrel lately. I'm actually glad to be female as we have the advantage right now and many of them use it rather ruthlessly.

[RGSpincich]

Here we go again. Roger in defense of a loon.

[ppaul]

You men want an easy way out. Work on your marriages more, and you won't have to deal with these problems in the first place.

Yeah.
We need to be more sensitive, eh?

[RogerFGay]

Well, I'm not a divorced woman myself, just (well at least I thought) a rational woman (well, at least when I have my hormones under control *L*)

Well, obviously the rational and extremely obvious interpretation is that the guy who protested sees what's happened to him as being very, very wrong. $50,000 is a lot of money. That's generally one of the ways that rational people can tell that the amounts being ordered as "child support" are irrationally and arbitrarily high. Since the article does not provide sufficient information about the case (and I wouldn't trust that writer to provide it) we don't know if that was for one month or two or some other length of time. What we can reasonably assume is that Jed Magby has been denied effective due process, that the state is acting outside its legitimate interest and powers by enforcing the order, and that there have been horrific personal consequences for Jed Magby.

[RogerFGay]

Proving what, pray tell?
And the logic behind that, other than stupidity?

No, age-old wisdom. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword. Violence begets violence. Destroy the lives of millions of men and then harass them continually, and somebody's going to kick your ass. It's common sense.

[Catspaw]

Here we go again. Roger in defense of a loon.

And an arsonist. Let's add in criminal damage to property, and if he was in a frothing rage, probably battery to a police officer or two. Nice....

[Happygal]

Jolly right too :-)

[RogerFGay]

Well Ivan -- you obviously don't have a clue. What does "representative government" have to do with this? Are you claiming that the government is representing Jed Magby?

[Happygal]

Yes $50,000 is a lot of money.
Mercedes Benz don't come cheap either last time I had a look around the showroom.

[AntiGuv]

Having been there and done that sometimes doesn't allow one much objectivity...

Similarly, having not been there and not done that sometimes doesn't allow one much wisdom...

[ppaul]

Violence begets violence. Destroy the lives of millions of men and then harass them continually, and somebody's going to kick your ass. It's common sense.

Common sense?
You actually believe that office workers in a state bureaucracy are committing "violence" against deadbeat dads?
Whew!

[rolling_stone]

Well if it is his own car and he doesn't put in a claim to his insurance company, he is probably only guilty of disturbing the peace or lighting a fire in city limits without a permit or some such nonsense. I detect a man who has run out of hope...

[MadIvan]

No, I'm saying that Jed has to get a grip on himself and use the institutions of representative government to get the bureaucracy under control. Setting his car on fire does nothing in particular towards this end.

Ivan

[ppaul]

Yes $50,000 is a lot of money.

Yeah.
And it means this slacker hasn't paid any support for his kids for a long friggin' time.
Classic deadbeat.
And obviously very stupid too.

[Catspaw]

I'm so glad you feel his pain. It's not everyday that one can find someone who defends a person charged with 1st degree arson. Take it up with the cops, the prosecutor--and eventually, the judge and jury that'll hear the case.

[RogerFGay]

Yes $50,000 is a lot of money.

Yes, that's about 15-30 years worth of child support. Could be more depending on parenting arrangements. But I'll bet he isn't 15-30 years behind in the payments he's been ordered to make.

Mercedes Benz don't come cheap either last time I had a look around the showroom.

Depends on the model and year. But even if he can afford a nice car, certainly a rational person wouldn't justify a court ordering someone to pay an unjustifiably high amount to someone else, just because of the sense that he can afford it. If that's the way government power works, they can take everything you and your family and your decendents have from you, without justification.

[rolling_stone]

So he resorted to non violent rioting like other protestors have done in the past, something also representative of America, when the govt doen't listen, sometimes you have to shout...