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Update from the UK / Syracuse Update - Murtari sentenced to jail
From: Webmaster (webmaster@AKidsRight.Org)
This is a message from a mailing list, members@kids-right.org Unsubscribe instructions at bottom of message. ====================================================================== Good People & People of Faith, This message contains information on: 1. Update from the UK - Spiderman arrested in reform effort. 2. Syracuse Update - Murtari sentenced to jail. 1. Update from the UK - Spiderman arrested in reform effort. ----------------------------------------------------------- The following news links from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3236541.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3231281.stm reports on a continuation of events we described in an earlier list message regarding "Batman & Robin." (http://www.kids-right.org/archive/archive2003/0034.html) http://photos.iwanttoseemykids.com/index_2003_10_31_spiderman.htm http://www.mirror.co.uk/voiceofthemirror/ >From THE MIRROR - EDITORIAL (Favorable coverage in a major UK paper) Thursday 6 November 2003 10:37am "SUPERHERO TO THE DADS DENIED KIDS" DAVID Chick's protest on a crane at Tower Bridge dressed as Spiderman infuriated motorists trapped in the gridlock below. But to thousands of fathers across the country he's a hero. Like him, they are being denied the right to see their children even though a court has granted them access. For whatever reasons, ex-wives and partners seem to be able to ignore such orders with impunity. Something is seriously wrong when the law cannot help fathers caught in this living nightmare. Dads have a right to see their kids and play a part in their upbringing. Children have an equal right to see their fathers. To deny them this - whatever happened during the marriage or partnership - is cruel and vindictive. After all, there are too many irresponsible men who do not care a fig about the children they have fathered and try every trick to wriggle out of paying child support. So to penalize dads who do care is madness. David Chick was right to raise this issue. Many believe the police made the situation far worse by closing so many roads around the crane. Ironically, their over-reaction gave his protest a massive boost. Let us hope the plight of such fathers will be taken much more seriously in future. >From http://www.thisisbrightonandhove.co.uk/brighton__hove/news/NEWS4.html David Chick spent 45 hours on top of a crane Dad's 200ft crane protest by Lilly Peel Desperate dad David Chick was back on the ground today after a bizarre 48-hour protest at the top of a 200ft crane.Mr. Chick, 36, from Burgess Hill, brought work at one of the capital's busiest building sites to a standstill and closed a four-lane road when he scaled the crane. He said it was a bid to draw attention to the plight of "forgotten" fathers, adding: "I did it for my daughter and all the other fathers betrayed by the legal system." Mr. Chick, who has only seen his two-year-old daughter Lauryn for 62 hours in the past 17 months and not at all since February, had planned to stay above the London skyline for seven days but clambered down after 45 hours at midnight on Monday, sunburnt but satisfied. He said he realized his protest was affecting the site workers, who were not getting paid. He said: "I felt I'd made my point, and didn't realize quite how much chaos I was going to cause. I didn't do it to make life difficult for others, just to get my message across." Work on St Katherine's Way at St Katherine's Dock, near the Tower of London, was brought to a halt when Mr. Chick was spotted on Sunday afternoon. He had hauled himself and two bags of banners, water and food up the crane at 2am. Once installed at the top, he unfurled the ten hand-made bed sheet banners spelling out his plight in letters crafted from black tape. Back home in Burgess Hill today he worked on paperwork to continue his legal battle to see two-year-old Lauryn. Mr. Chick chose to come down after talking to a Scotland Yard negotiator and a member of action group Fathers for Justice. He was not charged. A police spokesman said they would not be taking the matter further. He said: "Police had no power of arrest as he was on private land. We will send a detailed report to site owner Taylor Woodrow for civil redress if they wish." A spokeswoman for Taylor Woodrow said: "We're not going to prosecute. Mr. Chick came down of his own accord. We felt he worked well with the police and the protest ended peacefully. We are comfortable with the conclusion." Mr. Chick has not heard from his child's mother since his stunt and has no way of contacting her. He said: "I'm 99 per cent certain she'll have heard about it. I've had phone calls from friends of mine where she lives in Surrey supporting me, saying 'Nice one, Dave,' as they know the hell I've been going through in the last 18 months. "I wanted to be close to the Houses of Parliament but there weren't any cranes nearby so Tower Bridge was the next best. It was hard work. I had ten double sheets and a dustsheet in one bag and eight liters of water and some food in another. They were fairly heavy. It took me two trips.I had to put my arms through each handle with the bag pressed against my chest as I needed both hands for the ladder." For the planned week-long protest he had packed some Viennese whirls, Penguin bars and Marmite. He added: "I've got quite a red neck. I brought sun cream but my hands were so black from the oil on the crane I didn't want to rub it on me." Mr. Chick split from his girlfriend when daughter Lauryn was ten months old. In October 2001 a court order allowed him to see Lauryn for two hours a week but this was reduced this year to two hours every two weeks. He said: "Lauryn's everything I live for. I want everyone to know of the injustice to forgotten fathers. The legal system is an institutionalized social scandal. In the Family Court, a man is considered reactionary if he objects to having his character murdered and his children and property stolen by his wife" 2. Syracuse Update - Murtari sentenced to jail. ---------------------------------------------- On Monday, November 10th, John Murtari was sentenced to a 35 day jail sentence by US Magistrate Judge DiBianco. For more details and background see http://www.AKidsRight.Org/actionc_syr The site will be updated with a mailing address once we have one. ================================================================== To unsubscribe from this list at anytime, send email to Majordomo@kids-right.org with the following 1 line in the BODY of the message (Subject is ignored). unsubscribe members
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