If you can watch this video without shedding at least one tear--especially during the last 2-3 minutes of it--you need a personality check...Seriously. This video gives us all hope that if we can somehow get more judges like Chris Melonakis placed in positions to oversee the machinations of the various "Child Protective" "Services" (CPS) departments around the country, it may not matter, too much, what CPS tries to do to harm families and children.
(Judge Chris Melonakis.)
Check out this link:
Sadly, the good judge is simply recounting a situation that mirrors hundreds and thousands of others very much like it all across the Western world. You'll notice that as a district court judge, though, he is not involved, directly, in the evil and un-necessary quasi-court system that has sprung up over the past few decades in the USA primarily to enable CPS to run circles around the rights of the people and the requirements of proper judicial procedure. It would seem that in Adams County (pop. 440,000..just northeast of Denver) that district court oversaw the entire "juvenile court" system in Colorado's 5th largest county. Thank goodness for that.
If it were not for this good judge, many more children would have died in Adams County. Although Judge Melonakis has retired from the bench, he is still involved, now, in trying to clean up the mess that is/was Adams County CPS, and in so doing has struck upon the expansion of volunteer stakeholders, involved with the courts, as a way to enforce accountability from CPS. See this additional link:
https://www.casa17th.org/news/article/The-Gift-of-CASA-Through-the-Eyes-of-Judge-Melonakis.html
Here is an excerpt about the volunteer Case Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program that seem to be working wonders in holding CPS caseworkers accountable:
"... CASA volunteers brought an additional oversight to insure the safety of children involved in the system. Not only were there additional eyes and ears available to make certain that a child’s environment was safe so that a child could avoid many of the historical problems in dependency and neglect cases, CASA volunteers provided the court with an additional level of accountability for the agencies charged with supervision and placement of children. CASA volunteers brought independent opinions to the court, at times contradicting what the governmental agency was reporting or recommending. The consequence was better provision of services to ensure child safety and, where possible, familial reunification or preservation."
While, we would all like to see the quasi-courts eliminated, the seizure-incentive systems dismantled, mandatory reporting requirements revised, and the government's role in "child protection" greatly reduced or eliminated altogether, the establishment of active and effective CASA-like programs across the West would be a great intermediate step towards real reform. VOLUNTEERISM is so successful, because the money element that has corrupted CPS systems so thoroughly is eliminated, and the people dealing with children on a volunteer basis are ALL there because of a sincere desire to actual help people.
In the mean time, I hope we can get Judges like Chris Melonakis elevated all over the country, and the judges who have been corrupted either by money or other even more perverse motivations removed from any connections with CPS, or at least demoted to traffic court..lol...