State Harasses Mother of Overweight Boy

Columbus, NC (TLS). Joyce Painter, a resident of Polk County, North Carolina, in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, finds herself in a nightmare with the state concerning her 10-year-old son. Painter, who has multiple health problems and is in a wheelchair, is under the threat of losing her son unless he 'loses weight.'

I kid you not.

The Department of Human Services of the State of North Carolina sent a social worker to investigate Painter after an anonymous source tipped them off due to the excessive weight of Painter's son.

The young boy weights 250 pounds.

But rather than investigate a possible physical malady that has led the boy to gain such weight, the state sends out its Gestapo to harass the mother instead.

I am very familiar with this part of the country, having spent part of my formative years in these mountains, particularly in nearby Saluda. This area is truly the garden spot of the earth and home to the finest human beings one can find anywhere on the planet. This is a very unlikely place to find the long tentacles of the food police who work for government entities that are as intrusive into the private lives of citizens as the KGB and the Gestapo.

Yet right here in God's country, the jackbooted government thugs are busy at work attempting to build a case of child abuse against Joyce Painter--all because her son weighs too much.

Painter has taken her son to numerous physicians seeking help. He has been placed on various and sundry eating programs designed to help him. So far, nothing has worked. Therefore, according to the state of North Carolina and their commie-nazis, the problem must be the mother who is obviously slipping the child treats, candies, and snacks he isn't supposed to have.

News sources report that the N.C. Department of Human Services sent an investigator to the local Ingle's Supermarket where Painter buys groceries. According to store employees, the investigator inquired as to whether or not Painter had bought candy, junk food, and other treats.

When Painter was informed of the investigator's visit to her supermarket, she stated that she felt like she has been tried and found guilty by social workers before her side of the story is adequately checked out. It was then that Painter called a local TV news station, WSPA-TV in Spartanburg, SC.

WSPA sent a reporter and news cameras to the Painter home in order to be present for a meeting Painter was supposed to have with a DHS Social Worker. When the state official arrived, she stated that she could not conduct the meeting with a camera crew present 'due to confidentiality.'

Yet DHS investigators paid no attention to Painter's 'confidentiality' when they approached her local grocery store and asked for information about her buying habits.

WSPA-TV reports that an employee of Ingle's Supermarket contacted them about the investigation, and stated that the DHS officials were not at all concerned about the boy or his mother, but were obviously attempting to build a case against Mrs. Painter.

The employee went further to describe the entire state-initiated witch-hunt as an 'outrage.'

We need a witch-hunt, alright. And it should start with the N.C. state government, particularly DHS.

This case is a perfect example of government power at work. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and those who have been brainwashed into thinking that government is the ultimate watch-dog over citizens obviously believe that it is entirely reasonable to harass, threaten, investigate, and even potentially remove a child from his mother, all because of the boy's weight.

The Liberty Sphere has warned time and again about the creeping crawl of government power. This is but one nightmarish result. The very same people who tell us we cannot buy and use handguns tell us we cannot smoke in public or eat at restaurants that serve up too much fat. But it never stops there. The food police are now part of the massive government surveillance of individual citizens who have no record of illegal activity.

Do you have an overweight child? Better be careful if you live in North Carolina. You could lose your child and be thrown in jail.

Let's get down to the nitty gritty, shall we? The social workers involved in the harassment of Joyce Painter should be immediately fired, period, end. An investigation should ensue into government corruption in the Department of Human Services. Heads need to roll over this one.

Just as we have seen with the massive corruption in the judicial system in North Carolina, apparently it does not end there. The poisonous tentacles of collectivism are reaching deep into the lives of private citizens with no end in sight, unless we stand up and put a stop it it NOW.

This outrageous behavior on the part of government elitists is ample proof that Jefferson was right about government. The smaller the better. And even then it is to be feared and kept in check.