|
Kidnapping Plot Robs
Father's Rights Group of
Credibility
Recently, the media decried
www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,181995,00.html
 an
alleged plot by fathers' rights extremists to
kidnap Prime Minister Tony Blair's 5-year-old son
Leo. Subsequent reports have skidded from outrage
to skepticism, from the death of an organization to
the birth of a movie deal. What actually happened
and what does it mean to the fathers' rights
movement?
On Wednesday, the front
page of the UK newspaper The Sun
www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2006020727,00.html
announced 'Plot to kidnap Leo Blair. Cops foil
Fathers 4 Justice extremists'.
The F4J group
www.fathers-4-justice.org/
is world renowned for pranks that involve
flamboyant costumes and for making security police
look like idiots. For example, news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3652502.stm
last September an F4J member dressed as Batman
breached security at Buckingham Palace to unfurl a
banner from one of its balconies.
His protest, along with
other F4J stunts, was intended to publicize the
need of estranged and responsible fathers to have
equitable access to their children. Indeed, one of
F4J's stated www.fathers-4-justice.org/campaign_objectives/index.htm
"campaign objectives" is to "establish a legal
presumption to contact" for all parents.
Skepticism quickly
surrounded the Sun's report of a kidnapping
plot. The Guardian, a competing newspaper,
called it www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1692232,00.html
" self-evident tripe" and wondered why, if the
report were true, no arrests had occurred. The
Telegraph asked why police were "blathering" to
the Sun "when all [other] stories
about the security of the Prime Minister and his
family are rightly blanketed in official
secrecy?"
Conspiracy theories have
floated. For example, the report was payback by a
humiliated police force, members of whom had
infiltrated F4J and pushed for violence. Or, the
story was politically planted on the same day that
Blair's Government declared a radical new plan
www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2006/01/20/do2001.xml&sSheet=/portal/2006/01/20/ixportal.html
to rein in "absentee fathers who fail to pay for
their children's upkeep." The government proposes
to turn that debt collection over to private
companies from its much-criticized and disliked
Child Support Agency.
On the other hand, the
Sun's editor and staunch feminist Rebekah Wade
might just be getting back at men's rights
activists who crowed when she was www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=367490&in_page_id=1773&ct=5
arrested for assaulting her husband.
Whatever motives may lurk
in the shadows, one thing is clear. The alleged
kidnapping plot itself seems to have consisted of
vague pub chatter that was reported to or overheard
by authorities. The police later said they did not
take the 'plot' seriously because they didn't
believe F4J could pull it off.
Nevertheless, F4J's
founder Matt O'Connor www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182102,00.html
disbanded the UK group within hours of the
Sun's report. O'Connor told Channel 4 News that
the group could not continue due to negative
publicity from the incident. (The Dutch branch has
suspended operations but it is not clear how other
branches will ultimately respond.)
O'Connor also claimed that
voices of rage had started to dominate and destroy
the fathers' rights campaign in England. He told
the www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2023161,00.html
Times that "extremists" had wanted to "take
out" opponents by running them over with cars and
"about three months ago there was a serious threat
to firebomb a Cafcass (Children and Family Court
Advisory and Support Service) office." He spoke of
a father who threatened to commit suicide in front
of Tony Blair
What does this mean to the
fathers' rights movement, especially to the
branches of F4J in the www.fathers-4-justice.us/
United States and www.fathers.ca/
Canada which still
operate?
One meaning is as a
cautionary tale against using violence as a
strategy for social reform.
Unless revealed as a
set-up, the alleged kidnapping plot discredits the
UK group and validates the worst predictions of its
enemies. The plot justifies repressive measures of
control: for example, the private and more
efficient collection of the child support debts
that F4J believes are unjust unless coupled with
reasonable child visitation. Indeed, the very
spectre of violence may have erased much of the
progress achieved by earlier non-violent
activism.
Perhaps this is why
O'Connor admitted to Channel 4 that F4J had been a
failure and news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4622880.stm
told the BBC, "I am very angry and upset that this
organisation has been undermined by the very people
it is supposed to serve." The people to whom he is
referring are presumably the estranged fathers who
choose violence as a strategy.
Meanwhile, an added twist
has heightened skepticism about F4J, the alleged
kidnapping plot, and O'Connor himself.
The London News
www.fathers.ca/
announced last Friday that Disney-owned Miramax has
bought the story rights to a proposed F4J movie
that O'Connor says "will be tragedy but…very
funny." The script will end with the demise of F4J.
The deal has www.thisislondon.co.uk/films/articles/21483390?source=Metro
reportedly been in the works for at least two
years. O'Connor is also working on an
autobiography.
And, so, one last
conspiracy theory arises. Was the kidnapping plot
and media-soaked collapse of F4J just another
flamboyant stunt to promote a movie and a
book?
I doubt the truth will
ever be known. Even the comparatively
easy-to-verify reality of the 'kidnapping plot' is
unlikely to emerge since no one seems interested in
an investigation.
If an investigation does
occur, the victim it will reveal is probably the
man-on-the-street. He is the average and
responsible father who is estranged from his
children. He gets up every day with a hole in his
heart and tries to summon enough stamina to plead
one more time with the family court or a government
bureaucrat to see his son or daughter. This man
needs compassion, solid arguments, publicity and
justice…not violence.
It is this man that
violence as a strategy damages the most.
©2007, Wendy
McElroy
* * *
Wendy
McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com
and a research fellow for The Independent Institute
in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of
many books and articles, including her latest book,
Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the
21st Century. She lives with her husband in
Canada. E-Mail.
Also, see her daily blog at www.zetetics.com/mac
Contact
Us |
Disclaimer
| Privacy
Statement
Menstuff®
Directory
Menstuff® is a registered trademark of Gordon
Clay
©1996-2023, Gordon Clay
|
