Here are a group of articles which appeared on www.WorldNetDaily.com detailing the incredible intrusion of SWAT teams into a home to take custody of their child because a local judge did not like the way the child was cared for after an unreported incident of horse play.

Is this health freedom? Is this freedom? Is this OK with you? It certainly is not OK with me and is not tolerable!

Can you think of a better time than right now to make sure we nip this atrocity in every bud it has put forth? That’s what the Natural Solutions Foundation is all about and that is why we need your help and support. Sign up now for our Health Freedom eAlerts and give generously to make sure we have the resources for this battle which needs to be fought on so many fronts!

Yours in health and freedom,
Rima E. Laibow, MD

Monday, January 7, 2008

POLICE STATE, USA
SWAT officers invade home, take 11-year-old at gunpoint
Cops demand boy go to doctor because of fall during horseplay
Posted: January 7, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh

© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com
Nearly a dozen members of a police SWAT team in western Colorado punched a hole in the front door and invaded a family’s home with guns drawn, demanding that an 11-year-old boy who had had an accidental fall accompany them to the hospital, on the order of Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak.
The boy’s parents and siblings were thrown to the floor at gunpoint and the parents were handcuffed in the weekend assault, and the boy’s father told WND it was all because a paramedic was upset the family preferred to care for their son themselves.
Someone, apparently the unidentified paramedic, called police, the sheriff’s office and social services, eventually providing Leoniak with a report that generated the magistrate’s court order to the sheriff’s office for the SWAT team assault on the family’s home in a mobile home development outside of Glenwood Springs, the father, Tom Shiflett, told WND.
(Story continues below)
WND calls and e-mails to Garfield County Social Services were not returned, and Leoniak, who earlier served as a water court clerk/referee, also was not available.
Sheriff Lou Vallario, however, did call back, and told WND he ordered his officers to do exactly what the magistrate demanded.
“I was given a court order by the magistrate to seize the child, and arrange for medical evaluation, and that’s what we did,” he said.
According to friends of the family, Tom Shiflett, who has 10 children including six still at home, and served with paramedics in Vietnam, was monitoring his son’s condition himself.
The paramedic and magistrate, however, ruled that that wasn’t adequate, and dispatched the officers to take the boy, John, to a hospital, where a doctor evaluated him and released him immediately.
The accident happened during horseplay, Tom Shiflett told WND. John was grabbing the door handle of a car as his sister was starting to drive away slowly. He slipped, fell to the ground and hit his head, Shiflett said.
He immediately carried his son into their home several doors away, and John was able to recite Bible verses and correctly spell words as his father and mother, Tina, requested. There were no broken bones, no dilated eyes, or any other noticeable problems.
The family, whose members live by faith and home school, decided not to call an ambulance. But a neighbor did call Westcare Ambulance, and paramedics responded to the home, asking to see and evaluate the boy.
The paramedics were allowed to see the boy, and found no significant impairment, but wanted to take him to the hospital for an evaluation anyway. Fearing the hospital’s bills, the family refused to allow that.
“This apparently did not go over well with one of the paramedics and they started getting aggravated at Tom for not letting them have their way,” a family acquaintance told WND.
“The paramedics were not at all respectful of Tom’s decision, nor did they act in a manner we would expect from professional paramedics,” the acquaintance said.
So the ambulance crew, who also could not be reached by WND, called police, only to be told the decision was up to the Shiflett family.
The paramedics then called the sheriff’s office, and officers responded to the home, and were told everyone was being cared for.
Then the next day, Friday, social services workers appeared at the door and demanded to talk with John “in private.”
They were so persistent Tom ended up having to get John out of the bathtub he was just soaking in, to bring him to the front porch where the social workers could see him, the family reported.
Then, following an afternoon shopping trip to town, the family settled in for the evening, only to be shocked with the SWAT team attack.
The sheriff said the decision to use SWAT team force was justified because the father was a “self-proclaimed constitutionalist” and had made threats and “comments” over the years.
However, the sheriff declined to provide a single instance of the father’s illegal behavior. “I can’t tell you specifically,” he said.
“He was refusing to provide medical care,” the sheriff said.
However, the sheriff said if his own children were involved in an at-home accident, he would want to be the one to make decisions on their healthcare, as did Shiflett.
“I guess if that was one of my children, I would make that decision,” the sheriff said.
But he said Shiflett was “rude and confrontational” when the paramedics arrived and entered his home without his permission.
The sheriff also admitted that the injury to the child had been at least 24 hours earlier, because the fall apparently happened Thursday afternoon, and the SWAT attack happened late Friday evening.
Officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association reported they were looking into the case, because of requests from family friends who are members of the organization.
“While people can debate whether or not the father should have brought his son to the ER – it seems like this was not the kind of emergency that warrants this kind of outrageous conduct by government officials,” a spokesman said.
Tom Shiflett said when John was evaluated by the physician, “they didn’t find anything wrong with him.”
He said the paramedics never should have entered his home, but they followed his wife in the front door when she came in.
“My attention was on my son,” Shiflett said.
He said the SWAT team punched a hole in his door with a ramrod, and the first officer in the home pointed a gun right in the face of Tom’s 20-year-old daughter.
“I don’t know where social services ever got started, or where they got their authority,” he said. “But I want to know why we have something in this country that violates our rights, that takes a parental right away.”
He said he saw a multitude of injuries in Vietnam, and while he recognized that his son needed to be watched, he wasn’t willing to turn his child over to the paramedics.
With 10 children, most of them older than John, it’s not as if he hasn’t seen a bruise or two, either, he said.
“Now I’m hunting for lawyers that will take the case … I’m going to sue everybody whose name was on that page right down to the judge,” he said.
Mike Donnelly, a lawyer with the HSLDA, told WND the case had a set of circumstances that could be problematic for authorities.
“In Doe V. Heck, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals held that parents have a fundamental right to familial relations including a liberty interest in the care, custody and control of their children,” he said.
He also said many social services agencies apply “a one size fits all approach” to cases, regardless of circumstances.

Follow-up story on this atrocious case:
POLICE STATE, USA
Mother warns community about ‘Nazi’ home invasion
Officers told her ‘rights’ were ‘only in the movies’
Posted: January 10, 2008
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

The mother of an 11-year-old boy abducted by SWAT team members and taken to a hospital after he was bruised while horsing around is warning members of her community of the “Nazi” tactics she endured, including a statement from the officers that her “rights” were “only in the movies.”

The case involves Jon Shiflett, who injured himself while trying to grab the handle of a door on a car his sister was driving. He slipped and fell to the pavement, hitting his head. His parents treated him for the injury and rejected paramedics’ demands that they be allowed to take him to a hospital.

Nearly 36 hours later, SWAT team members broke into the family home in western Colorado near New Castle and took Jon to a hospital, where a doctor said the family should keep ice on his bruise, exactly the treatment the family already had been providing.

Tina Shiflett, Jon’s mother, has written a letter to the editor to a local newspaper, the Post Independent, “to awaken, alert and appall any who read it and hear the bells ringing.”

“A fully armed SWAT team broke into our home, slammed my children to the floor face down with their hands behind their backs and shoved a gun in my daughter’s face and handcuffed her…” her letter said.

In a separate letter to WND, she elaborated a little more fully.

(Story continues below)

During the attack, she wrote, “One (officer) grabbed my daughter Beth (18 years), who also had a gun to her face, slammed her down and kneed her in the back and held her in that position… My sons Adam (14) and Noah (only 7) lay down willingly, yet they were still forced to put their hands behind their backs and were yelled at to keep their heads down.

“My daughter Jeanette was coming out from the back bedroom when she was grabbed, drug down the hallway, across a couch and slammed to the ground,” she said. “The officers then began throwing scissors and screwdrivers across the room (out of our reach, I suppose) and going through our cupboards.

“I asked if I could make a phone call and was told, ‘no.’ My daughter asked if that wasn’t one of our rights. The reply was made, ‘That’s only in the movies,'” she told WND.

It was some unidentified person, possibly a paramedic who had been refused permission to take Jon Shiflett to the hospital as she wanted, who provided information last week that convinced a magistrate to issue a court order that Jon be taken into state custody and examined by a doctor.

He was taken by SWAT team members dispatched by the sheriff to the family’s home at 11 p.m. at night, and they punched a hole in the front door and held guns on other children in the family in order to take Jon.

“The armed men in black masks took my terrified son against his wishes to Grand River Hospital, where he was examined by a doctor and interrogated by Social Services. No evidence was found that he had not been properly taken care of. Upon his return, we were told to keep ice on his head,” Tina Shiflett’s letter to the editor said.

“To the SWAT Team members … how far will you go in ‘just doing your job?’ If you feel no guilt busting into an innocent family’s home, traumatizing young children and stomping the security found therein, will you follow more horrific orders?” she wrote.

“May I remind you that in Nazi Germany, outrageous, monstrous crimes were committed by soldiers ‘just doing their job?’ What will be next? Where will this stop?” she wrote.

“Fathers, mothers, families and countrymen, I challenge you to consider our story and ask yourself the question, ‘If this were my family, what would I do?’ For it very well could be you … next!”

Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario told WND he simply ordered his officers to do exactly what the magistrate demanded.

“I was given a court order by the magistrate to seize the child, and arrange for medical evaluation, and that’s what we did,” he said.

The situation developed at the Apple Tree Mobile Home Park near New Castle last week when Jon Shiflett was horsing around and fell. Tom Shiflett carried his son home and put an ice pack on his head, while examining him to see whether his mental faculties were there. The boy correctly recited Bible verses and spelled words, the parents told WND.

But paramedics were called by a neighbor, and when they arrived, Tom Shiflett let them see his son, but refused their demands that he be taken to a hospital. The paramedics then apparently lobbied the city police, the sheriff’s office, social workers and eventually the magistrate in order to get their way in having Jon taken to a hospital.

Jim Bradford, a court clerk in Garfield County, said it was a juvenile matter and he could not comment on any aspect of the case, and he declined to allow WND to leave a message for Garfield County Magistrate Lain Leoniak, who signed the order.

But participants in a forum at the Rocky Mountain News, which carried reports subsequent to the WND report, seemed to agree with Tina Shiflett.

Wrote ItsJustMe, “Welcome to the coming socialist police state.”

Said “mrNiceGuy,” “Police man shoots man in heart at a distant range, is not charged. Police cover up the events that proceed (sic) the death of someone in their custody, no one is charged. Police enter wrong apartment and shoot an unarmed man thinking a can is a weapon, no charges filed. But a kid bumps his head and his parents deem him to be ok – knock the door in and start cuffing people.”

“I cannot describe the feeling of having your child abducted, taken from your care, not knowing what will happen to him, and if he will ever be returned back into your arms again,” Tina Shiflett wrote in the separate letter to WND. “I record this by my own hand in hopes of awakening anyone who would read it to the injustice of our police depart (sic), social services and court system. But above all to glorify my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose reign is supreme over all this earth…”

The letter clarifies that the family did, indeed, cooperate with officers who arrived about 11 p.m. on that night.

“Between 10 and 11 … a sheriff came to the door. My husband met him at the window and he began to question my husband. My husband spoke with him and answered all his questions. The sheriff then said if Tom would just let him speak with Jonathan (our 11 yr. old son) this whole matter (story following) would be closed,” she documented.

“Tom said, ‘You are saying, ‘If I let you speak to Jonathan this whole matter will be closed.?’ Then Tom called for Jonathan to come to the window,” she said.

“As soon as Jonathan was visible to the sheriff, a SWAT team appeared shining lights on Jon’s face and others were bashing at the door with a ramming device. My daughter resisted and pushed against the door to stop them as she didn’t know who they were. I told her to back up and not try to fight them. They then entered our home, held a gun to my daughter’s face and others of them, five or more, rushed into the living room and physically forced my other children to the ground.”

“We were told Jonathan would be taken to a hospital near us for evaluation, and then questioned by the human resources. At this point Jonathan was scared, crying and shaking. We asked if we could accompany him, or follow them to the hospital. We were warned not to try to follow him or come to the hospital or criminal charges would be pressed against us.

“Our son was returned to us at 2:30 a.m. Saturday morning. In all this was not one shred of evidence found that we had done anything wrong or that Jon had not been properly cared for at home,” she said.

“what the?” was KarlSpackler’s comment on a forum at the Denver Post.

And “mamm354” added, “Whoever it was that gave the order to do this should be thrown in jail. Illegal assaults on our privacy is why we need the second amendment. I don’t see the police being this aggressive against illegal aliens but they approach their work with this level of zest against citizens!?!?! Heads should roll for this.”

Lynn Rennick, the social services director in Garfield County, has said her office is required to intervene when it receives a report about “possible mistreatment” of children, but she didn’t comment on any such report in this case, who may have filed it, or what it might have said.

A spokeswoman for WestCare Ambulance, which reportedly responded to the call, also refused to answer any questions about the case, saying all issues were considered patient confidentiality issues.

Ross Talbott, the owner of the Apple Tree Mobile Home Park who rents to the Shifletts, called the SWAT team actions “gross irresponsibility and stupidity.”

“Is this Russia? I don’t know what we’re coming to when they think your kid needs medical help and they send a SWAT team,” he said.

Here are some reader comments filed on www.WordNetDaily.com on this developing medical fascism:

“ItsJustMe” commented, “Welcome to the coming socialist police state.”

Said “mrNiceGuy,” “Police man shoots man in heart at a distant range, is not charged. Police cover up the events that proceed (sic) the death of someone in their custody, no one is charged. Police enter wrong apartment and shoot an unarmed man thinking a can is a weapon, no charges filed. But a kid bumps his head and his parents deem him to be ok – knock the door in and start cuffing people.” “mamm354” said, “Whoever it was that gave the order to do this should be thrown in jail. Illegal assaults on our privacy is why we need the second amendment. I don’t see the police being this aggressive against illegal aliens but they approach their work with this level of zest against citizens!?!?! Heads should roll for this.”

But Wait! There’s More!
Here is another story posted by the same source of a New Jersey infant being kidnapped while in hospital by the State authorities in New Jersey and having their parental rights severed without a Court proceeding. Who is next? Whose children are next?
Parents fight state for 8-month-old son
Claims of abuse for undiagnosed condition trigger custody battle
Posted: October 15, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

A New Jersey family is hoping for a court hearing today to regain physical custody of their 8-month-old son, who is being detained now at Morristown Memorial Hospital on the order of the state Division of Youth and Family Services.

“The only thing the family appears guilty of is standing up to the heavy handed approach of the Sussex County office [of the agency],” said Mike Donnelly, a lawyer with the Home School Legal Defense Association.

Gabriel Stansfield was born to Doug and Sally Stansfield eight months ago with spina bifida. He was evaluated by several experts at his birth, including Dr. Catherine Mazzola at Morristown Memorial, and has had numerous maintenance visits to the family’s pediatrician with no complications, his parents told WND.

However, the family told WND, he was taken to the Morristown hospital a little more than a week ago because the tissue around the shunt installed to divert fluid from his brain had changed in texture, and they wanted to prevent any significant complications.

After five days in the hospital, doctors diagnosed Gabriel with a colon obstruction, and treated him for that. But while the baby still was in the hospital and with no notice to the family, a social worker from the Sussex office arrived on the family’s doorstep, demanding admittance to interview Gabriel’s six siblings, outside of the presence of their parents, regarding Gabriel.

Kevin Ryan, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Children and Families, which runs the Division of Youth and Family Services

The news hit like a bombshell that the parents were being investigated by the state Department of Children and Families, run by Commissioner Kevin Ryan, on allegations of abusing Gabriel, who after treatment for the blockage was in good health and otherwise ready to be discharged.

First, Sally Stansfield dealt with the social worker.

“You can’t come into my house,” she said, so the social worker called a police officer, who arrived and told Mrs. Stansfield that she must allow the social worker in, and she didn’t need a warrant.

Sally Stansfield refused, based on HSLDA advice that such an intrusion was a violation of her civil rights. And after talking directly with Donnelly, the officer and social worker left.

(Story continues below)

The family then talked to hospital officials, who said not only had they been told “of the DYFS situation,” but they warned the state agency was planning to stop the parents from taking their son, even though medically he was being discharged. The parents immediately directed the hospital to prevent the physician they suspected of generating the complaint, Mazzola, from being involved in their son’s treatment in any fashion.

Hospital workers also informed the parents their parental rights had been terminated, which in New Jersey requires a court order.

Rob Seman, a spokesman for the hospital, declined to comment on the situation, and WND telephone calls to the state agency went unanswered.

“This is an egregious accusation,” Doug Stansfield told WND.

The parents, unable to believe a court order actually had been issued, went to the hospital Saturday to have Gabriel discharged, and took their lawyer, Janet Porro, with them. They asked for the discharge process to be done, and hospital workers again told them their rights were terminated.

The family’s lawyer asked to see the court order and the hospital failed to produce one, instead providing a copy of the state form that allows a child to be evaluated for three days.

Their lawyer noted the state law requires such documentation to be filed with a court on the first day there is any suspicion of abuse, and said the child can be held for three days for the state to prove the case.

“They knew because it was Saturday, we wouldn’t be able to challenge it in court right away,” Sally Stansfield said. “We could have caused a scene, but decided to wait until Monday [today].”

“We are gathering information to prepare for court,” Sally Stansfield told WND. “This is ridiculous. This never should have happened.”

Among the information they’ve assembled is Gabriel’s medical history. “We have a list of medical care we have provided over his eight months of life, [including] four visits to his pediatrician, two assessments for a government program, monthly physical therapy and two reviews from a neurosurgeon,” Sally Stansfield told WND.

Doug Stansfield said he believes Mazzola was miffed at the family for not following her exact requirements, which included multiple visits with her, and instead following the recommendations of their own pediatrician, who thought fewer visits to fewer specialists was within reason.

Donnelly told WND in addition to being advocates for homeschooling nationally and helping members with disputes with local education authorities, the HSLDA is committed to helping members defend 4th and 5th amendment rights in the context of social services investigations.

While non-homeschooling matters are not automatically addressed by the organization, “in circumstances where there is a clear violation … HSLDA may, as we have done in the past, choose to take the case in an effort to establish a legal precedent,” he said.

“Most social services agencies apply a one size fits all approach to investigating allegations regardless of what the allegations are. Even if the allegations have nothing to do with abuse, they often insist on interviewing children. Even if allegations have nothing to do with the safety of the home, these workers demand to come in. Why? In some cases because they blindly follow the policy protocol established by the agency, regardless of the circumstances. These ‘fishing expeditions’ are used by case workers to see if there is ‘anything else going on’ that they ‘should be concerned with’,” Donnelly said.

“In the case of the Stansfields, members of HSLDA, it appears that a conflict between the hospital specialist and the family has resulted in a heavy handed approach which may violate the family’s civil rights,” he said. “In Doe v. Heck, the 7th circuit court of appeals held that parents have a fundamental right to familial relations including a liberty interest in the care custody and control of their children.”

He said Gabriel has been cleared medically and should be returned to his family, “where he can receive loving care from his mother, father and siblings” instead of being detained in a hospital.

“The hospital has also continued to allow the offending specialist to treat Gabriel, even though the family has expressly forbade the doctor to be involved in Gabriel’s treatment as they are seeking a new specialist whom they can trust to work with them,” he said.

“No credible evidence of any kind has been provided showing that Gabriel is being neglected or at risk of harm in being released to his family who have been caring for him since his birth eight months ago,” he said.

In an e-mail request to friends for prayer support, Doug Stansfield said, “This isn’t over yet … We will most likely end up in court. This can happen to anyone. This case stems from Dr. Mazzola saying that we did not follow her medical protocol after he [Gabriel] was released from the hospital back in January.

“Admittedly, we did not. We spoke with our pediatrician about her protocol and he didn’t think we needed to follow it directly. Therefore, we have been taking Gabriel to see the pediatrician whenever he got sick.”

“For one doctor to have the power to unleash this fury on my family and cause the emotional trauma of having state troopers at my doorstep and to wonder whether or not the state was going to take them away!!!” he said. “A doctor that doesn’t know my family at all and has never met them or been to my house can make one phone call which will cause this much harassment is outrageous and shouldn’t be allowed to happen.”

The child was returned to his parents on October 18, but the New Jersey Child Welfare system is still deeply involved in the family and the home despite the fact that there was never an issue of abuse or neglect, just an apparently miffed doc who did not get the respect, or the income from the visits, that she felt was due her.