The allegations against L.B., made by an anonymous caller at 4:45 a.m. that day, were false. These included that she was a stripper (she worked at a home for people with disabilities); that she used drugs (none were found, and a drug test was negative for all substances); and that an abusive man lived with her and that she owned “machine guns” (after an exhaustive search and interrogation, both claims were deemed baseless).

In fact, L.B. has never been found to have committed any type of child maltreatment, ACS and court records show.

Yet the anonymous caller, whom L.B. believes to be a former acquaintance with a grudge, has continued to dial in to New York’s state child welfare hotline. Each time, this person or possibly people make outlandish, often already-disproven claims about her, seeming to know that doing so will automatically trigger a government intrusion into her domestic life.

And ACS obliges: Over the past three years, the agency either has inspected her home or examined and questioned her son at school more than two dozen times. Caseworkers have sought a warrant for only three of these searches, most recently in August. All of those requests have been rejected by judges, according to court records.

  • mindbleach
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    The first time is justifiable. The first five or six, maybe. After months and months of the same shit at all hours from a familiar voice that’s been proven to lie over and over - this is a crime, the caller is the criminal, and you are their complicit partner if you don’t track that fucker down and nail them for the harm they’ve caused.

    Three years in, either the cops do not give a single shit what they’re doing to this woman, or they feel great about it.