The Worst Day of Your Life
There's a knock on the door, it's not the police, it's CPS, and they're here to take your children...
The family court system in the United States is notorious for being the most feared, the most seemingly corrupt, and the most strongarmed branch of law and litigation one can find oneself entangled in. Last night, I sat down for a conversation with Jonathan Howe, a public defender in the Bronx Family Court System. Until I met Jonathan, I never even realized that there were public defenders in family courts. When you grow up in wealthy white suburbia, you think of family court as a place to settle divorce and alimony hearings, not the battleground for the heart and soul of America’s children and Parent’s rights.
I grew up with this privilege, I grew up in a wealthy white suburb halfway between Boston and Providence. I wasn’t a good kid by any stretch of the imagination, I acted out. I stole. I fought. I lied. I cheated. I didn’t do drugs, but I sold them. I wasn’t always a Libertarian and didn’t always have the great respect for other people’s property rights that I do today. I got arrested. A lot. Yet here I am, 32, and with no criminal record to talk about. Because my mother had means, she had money, and yes, probably in no small part because I’m white, and didn’t live in the city. When I was 22, I finally ran out of luck, or so I thought, and finally got caught on camera for something that should have landed me at least a few months to a year of jail time. But instead, my public defender got me a plea deal and probation with my record wiped clean after 6 months. Because the Judge didn’t want to ruin my future, I was going to college and joined the Army.
Had I grown up in Brooklyn, or The Bronx, or had my skin maybe had a darker hue to it than the blend of Irish and Italian that’s so common on the south shore, I likely never would have even gotten that far. Child Protective Services lays claim to what should be the noblest mission of government agencies, to ensure the safety and welfare of children in dangerous living conditions. But their mandate is often fulfilled with a zealotry that leaves far too much to question. Once family courts are involved in the life of a child, you have no constitutional rights. You have no right to representation, no right against self-incrimination, no right against a presumption of guilt, and there is no burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt for the state to make any given day the worst in a parent’s life.
The way I acted out as a kid, they would have needed no further excuse to take me away from my mother, and shuffle me into a system that seems designed to perpetuate a system of neglect and abuse fostering criminal outcomes in the children it’s supposed to protect. The hour I spent with Jonathan talking about the intricacies of the system, and its inherent abuses, only reinforced my desire to see it end and gave me a new appreciation for what he does. As a lawyer, and a public defender, he not only helps people navigate the complexity of the criminal justice system against all odds, as someone who specializes in family court public defense, he does so where his clients have no rights and are fighting from behind from the start, just to get their kids back from the state who shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.
Jonathan’s campaign for congress became almost a side point of our conversation, as there is just so much to cover when opening the can of worms that is New York’s Family Court system. But the more we talked the more it became clear, that a candidate like Jonathan is exactly who New Yorkers need representing them. Someone with experience actually representing them against the overbearing state. I look forward to having Him on again in the future to dive deeper into the weeds on Family Courts, but in the meantime, check out his campaign at Howe2022.com
Subversive #68: “Defending Liberty” feat. Jonathan Howe
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Jonathan Howe is a cat herder, a libertarian, and a Public Defender, and he’s running for congress against AOC in NY-14. What’s his story, and how did he end up where he is today? Join us live for a discussion about Jonathan’s path to Liberty, and an inside look at New York’s family court system.
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