Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 15: DCFS, Pepper Spray, the Social Safety Net

The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is overworked and underfunded.  DCFS case workers are also put into dangerous situations.  In January an Illinois DCFS case worker was stabbed to death while conducting a welfare check in Sangamon County.  A bill to provide them with the ability to carry OC spray or Mace passed the Illinois Senate unanimously.

In the current world of guns everywhere and the NRA forcing the passage of laws to allowing wanton and reckless concealed and open carry I'm surprised more case workers haven't been murdered.  Of course, guns are most often used by domestic abusers to murder their families before turning the guns on themselves. 

As a mandated reporter, by law, I must report suspected child abuse or neglect.  I've accompanied DCFS case workers to calls but, unfortunately where I work mission creep has settled in and I've been required to call the DCFS hotline in almost every incident involving a juvenile.  This is not what the system was designed for, nor a good allocation of limited state resources, even if the DCFS call taker puts the incident into a no response category.

One of the problems with the modern 911 system is Police respond to every type of call; be it a village ordinance violation, medical emergency, child custody exchange, or a customer upset over a bill and poor service.  Many times these are not police issues, sometimes they require a mediator to keep things civil but, don't more often than not it's not a Police matter and I have to refer the matter to the proper authority or department.  Even worse some police officers don't want to or are terrible at handling these issues; because of a variety of factors like training and education but also annoyance and boredom.  And when they show up they make matters worse, ratchet up the tension, and sometimes this can be fatal.

So, what's a solution?  Well, multiple services from a fully functioning municipal, county and state bureaucracy staffed with dedicated workers.  But, that type of functioning apparatus has been demonized and attacked by Republicans and conservatives as SOCIALISM! Nanny State!!! for decades, and most importantly a functioning Social Safety Net costs money (i.e Taxes).

Everybody in America wants services and Nobody in America wants to pay taxes.  Now many think taxes suck because you don't have kids but, taxes are the price of civilization.  Of course, when you are struggling with low wages and hellish working conditions at the Amazon Fulfillment Center, seeing money come out of your slender paycheck does hit hard but, of course it is the very rich who have caused this problem by shirking their responsibility.

The Capitalist Class and Very Rich don't see much use in a viable, working Social Safety Net because they don't need it.  The 1% can hire security so they don't need a police force for themselves (the rich do want a violent racist police force keeping the poor and the Other in check), they don't need state funded child support, they sometimes don't need public water, they don't need public defenders, they don't need snow plows.  The Rich see little ROI (return on investment) on a fully funded, comprehensive, liberal democracy.  They never signed the Social Contract.  The Rich have only need of a domestic police force to quell dissent at home and a war machine to open up foreign markets for exploration.  Everything else the government spends money on is superfluous and wasteful.