Laura Knaperek: Liiiiiiiaaar

Republican state representative Laura Knaperek (R-Tempe) has been passing around the same screed in the Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Star, with sensationalist headlines like "Arizona children are unsafe" and "Governor's policies put state's kids at risk."

Won't someone think of children!

Here's the centerpiece of her rant, which is about how that evil Child Protective Services lead by nasty witch Janet Napolitano is killing children:

When Gov. Janet Napolitano declared war on families and started yanking kids out of their homes into government-funded and -regulated institutions, the situation for kids in Arizona became worse than ever.

Nearly 10,000 children have been taken from their homes, with about 6,500 in foster homes and another 1,500 in a group- home setting. Of these, 280 are suspected runaways, children taken from bad homes and put into situations they found intolerable. Arizona's rate of removing children from their homes is twice the national average. Maybe most astonishing, between April 2004 and March 2005, 13 children under state care died. Six of those children hadn't reached their first birthday.

How can you tell when a Republican is lying? The press are taking notes.

Well, State Rep. Pete Hershberger (D-Tucson) wrote in to The Republic to set the record straight:

State Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-Tempe, painted a picture that doesn't connect to reality in her column Monday, "Governor's policies put state's kids at risk."

She refers to 13 children who have died over the past year while in the state's care. Every one of those deaths is tragic; but Knaperek misleads your readers. What she failed to say was that none of the children died as the result of abuse or neglect suffered after they came into the state's care.

Here are the facts:

• Four of the children died of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) after having been exposed to drugs - the reason the children were removed from the homes in the first place.
• Five others died from medical complications resulting from treatment of existing conditions, including three who died of heart defects.
Three died as the result of accidents, including a child who drowned.
• And, tragically, one committed suicide.

Losing a child is a reason for sorrow. Blaming every child's death on the state distracts from the real issues and makes it harder to effect real changes.

More twisted information:

Knaperek faults the system because 280 children are listed as runaways. The real story lies behind the numbers.

The vast majority of children are located within days because of the efforts of law enforcement and Child Protective Services workers. Most of these runaways are 16-to 18-year-olds who have significant behavioral or mental health issues resulting from abuse they suffered in the homes from which they were removed.

Knaperek stated her displeasure with another number - the 10,000 children who are currently in out-of-home care. While no one can be happy that so many are not safe living at home, we should find comfort in the fact that these children have been taken out of harm's way.

When CPS decides to remove a child from the home, it is either because the child has already been harmed at the hands of his parents, or assessments of safety and risk show that the danger of harm is imminent. Removing children from dangerous situations must be the state's priority.

It's pretty damn shameless for Knaperek to twist these family tragedies into a partisan attack against both the Governor and CPS. The fact that she has to deceive the public with these figures shows just how desperate she is.

Why exactly does this state representative have an agenda that includes blasting CPS for protecting children? That's what I'd like to know. Does she really think children should remain in abusive homes?

PS: Showing that she has no shame at all, the Daily Star version of Knaperek's opinion piece included the following:

Not included in those numbers is 16-month-old Emily Mays, who died in August while in a Southeast Side Tucson foster home. An autopsy did not reveal the cause of death, and police are investigating it as a homicide.

News flash: The autopsy was inconclusive nobody knows yet how Emily Mays died. With a grieving family and no hard facts yet in the case, it is simply unconscionable for a politician to prop up Emily's corpse for partisan purposes.

Disgusting.