In researching for related items about the last post Fathers 4 Justice meet Minister as Civil Disruption Looms I looked for pieces on Fathers 4 Justice. I found a webpage reported as on the BBC website but it wasn't there. You get
Page Not Found.Maybe I'm paranoid or...
This might be because you typed the web address incorrectly. Please check the address and spelling ensuring that it does not contain capital letters or spaces.It is possible that the page you were looking for may have been moved, updated or deleted.
So I went to the BBC search itself. BBC Search for "fathers 4 justice". The third item down is Caped crusaders stand up for dads except it isn't there. There's a cached version which includes
Police crackdownLooking around this is the only place on the BBC website that mentions the raids. The arrests are mentioned elsewhere but not the raids. The raids are mentioned in other places. Yahoo Police raid "superhero" fathers in protests
The F4J protests have caused traffic chaos as the authorities closed roads beneath the demonstrators on safety grounds.
In response, the police have begun a crackdown on F4J, arresting demonstrators and raiding the homes of a number of those involved.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens had earlier said: "We have got to put a stop to this type of event that causes incredible inconvenience [and] costs an awful lot of money."
"The Spiderman stunt involving the crane also had the added complication of health and safety implications," the police chief said.
Mr Stanesby seems unconcerned, though.
"I've been tortured, that's what it feels like," he says. "If I was put in prison at the moment it'd be a relief from all this."
"I want to be a proper dad to my daughter, and I won't give up until I'm allowed to be."
Police said raids had been carried out at addresses in London and in the south and west of the country.and London Evening Standard Arrests halt fathers' rights demos
The group campaigning for the rights of fathers separated from their children has called off protests planned for today after police raids on the homes of its members.Now maybe there's a minor problem with one webpage on the BBC site or maybe the BBC doesn't want to say that the fathers are being treated badly in any way, in other words it's just a bunch of men complaining about nothing. Maybe I'm paranoid or maybe they're out to get me. Probably both.
Here is the cached version on Google.
In his spare time, Jolly Stanesby dons a Spiderman costume and climbs tall buildings - from 100-foot cranes to the Royal Court of Justice.
It is a strange compulsion - but this is more than just a hobby.
Rather, it is a new form of political demonstration carried out on behalf of Fathers 4 Justice (F4J).
F4J is calling for radical reforms of the ways child access is decided, claiming courts are inherently biased against fathers.
The group has threatened ongoing civil disobedience unless its demands are met, and irate fathers - all dressed as superheroes - have been spotted dangling from tall buildings all over Britain in recent days.
Absolute nightmare
Mr Stanesby, speaking to BBC News Online after a week of protests at Plymouth's Tamar Bridge and London's Blackwell Tunnel approach road, explained: "All dads are superheroes to their kids."
The protests are not easy - he did not get much sleep during his week on the Tamar Bridge - but he believes they are the only way of bringing the issue into the spotlight.
"We live in quite a selfish society... we like to get on with our own lives, but this affects everybody," said Mr Stanesby, from Ivybridge in Devon.
Head to head
Matt O'Connor, who founded Fathers 4 Justice following a "pretty horrific experience" in the family courts, agrees.
"The injustice was so shocking that I felt compelled to do something to try and bring around a change in the law," he said.
Mr O'Connor says the current system is too adversarial.
"It puts you head to head - it's a winner takes all thing," he said. "To prove who's the best parent you have to prove who's the worst."
The attention won by F4J's caped crusaders has brought the group two meetings with Lord Filkin, the junior minister for family justice at the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA).
"What we want to see is a blueprint for family law," says Mr O'Connor.
"Family law doesn't just need tinkering with," he said.
"We're after a total and fundamental top-to-tail revolution, to change the way we've been thinking about children and families."
But while the DCA confirmed Lord Filkin had held "private, low-key discussions" with F4J, it suggested major legal reforms were unlikely.
Christina Blacklaws, chair of the Law Society's Family Law Committee, concurred, saying that changing the law was less important than educating and informing parents.
"It's not about fathers' or mothers' or parents' rights at all, it's about children's rights, and that's embodied in the Children's Act," she said.
"We would say that it's not the law that needs amendment, but maybe the application of the law."
Ms Blacklaws said any changes would come about "not because of the publicity that Fathers 4 Justice have caused, but because this is a concern that anybody involved in the family justice system has".
"We all have the same concern, which is that the system works well for children," she said.
Serious reform
Some fathers' rights campaigners have refused to give F4J's radical demonstrations their full support.
Jack O'Sullivan, a spokesperson for the Fathers Direct support group, said: "We agree that the family court system needs serious reform."
But he added: "We're not advocating the reforms they're advocating."
"There is room for peaceful protest in our society," he said. "But the danger is that this type of conflict makes it more difficult for some people to listen to justified complaints."
Police crackdown
The F4J protests have caused traffic chaos as the authorities closed roads beneath the demonstrators on safety grounds.
In response, the police have begun a crackdown on F4J, arresting demonstrators and raiding the homes of a number of those involved.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens had earlier said: "We have got to put a stop to this type of event that causes incredible inconvenience [and] costs an awful lot of money."
"The Spiderman stunt involving the crane also had the added complication of health and safety implications," the police chief said.
Mr Stanesby seems unconcerned, though.
"I've been tortured, that's what it feels like," he says. "If I was put in prison at the moment it'd be a relief from all this."
"I want to be a proper dad to my daughter, and I won't give up until I'm allowed to be."
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