Man Who Set Himself on Fire Did So In Name of Father's Rights

UPDATE: Man Who Set Himself on Fire at NH Courthouse Did So In Name of Father’s Rights

Posted June 20, 2011 8:52am by HVnews

Tags: domestic violence, father's rights, New Hampshire, Self-Immolation, suicide, Thomas Ball

Just before the weekend started, a man from Holden, Mass., walked up to the main door of the Keene, N.H. County Courthouse, doused himself with gasoline and lit a match.

He was pronounced dead on the scene. Authorities tried to wash away the fresh scorch marks, and for the next few days, journalist and authorities in New Hampshire have been attempted to piece together the story of how Thomas Ball, 58, went from being the father of three children to being the latest person to engage in self-immolation for a political cause.

Ball’s trouble began with the courts. On his Facebook page, he lists himself as the leader of the Central Massachusetts Chapter of the Fathers’ Rights Movement, and from all available evidence he was “embroiled in legal battles over how much he owed his ex-wife for their three children’s medical bills.” A court date was set for June 24th to settle these issues. According to Free Keene:

Thomas James Ball, born 2/21/53 and his wife at the time, Karen Louise Ball (maiden name Primiano), born 3/2/65 had begun divorce proceedings about a decade ago. It was alleged that Ball had committed domestic violence against his 4 year old daughter at the time, Melissa. Karen had called Monadnock Family Services after the incident and was allegedly told that if she did not report the incident to police, that she would be arrested for child abuse. She called Jaffrey PD out of fear of what the government people would do to her family (steal her kids if they were both arrested) and because of their mandatory arrest policy in domestic violence cases, Thomas was arrested. He was found not guilty of simple assault in Cheshire Superior Court, despite slapping his daughter multiple times and causing bleeding. The Jaffrey PD apparently admitted that pressing forward as a domestic violence case was a mistake. His wife’s testimony shows he did not have a history of violence. Thomas figured he’d get to see his kids again after the not guilty. He figured wrong. The court continued to press for counseling at Monadnock Family Services (MFS) prior to allowing Thomas unsupervised visits with his kids. Of course, this is a huge racket for MFS, who likely is paid for every one of the cases they are sent by the court, either by the people involved or by the state of NH.

Thomas claimed Monadnock Family Services misinformed Karen when she was told that she better call the police or she’d be arrested for child abuse. He outlines the history of the case in question in his lawsuit against MFS from 2006. Here’s the PDF of his claims. The court dismissed the case against MFS primarily on a statute of limitations technicality.

Thomas’ odyssey with Cheshire superior court’s “justice” system stretched for an entire decade of his life, and despite making child support payments and having unsupervised visitation with his young son, he was unable to have unsupervised visitation with his two daughters, not because he was considered a danger, but because he refused to attend counseling as ordered by the court. Why did he refuse? Because the location of the counseling was to be Monadnock Family Services, the very same agency that he believed was responsible for escalating the situation and intimidating Karen Ball into calling the police in the first place. He wanted the decision on unsupervised visits to be made by the court, but the court kept passing the buck to MFS, therefore he did not participate, as he felt the case worker had a vendetta against him, as she allegedly refused to meet with him until he “changed his attitude”.

In 2009 he lost his job and was unable to continue making child support payments. As a result, Karen filed for a hearing on contempt of court, which the court scheduled for 6/24, next Friday.

Apparently, rather than take his fate to the court, Ball decided to end his own life in a dramatic fashion. But before he died, he sent a “manifesto,” if you will, or a last letter to the Keene Sentinel newspaper. The letter finally sheds light on a situation the tiny New Hampshire town has been grappling to understand.

The letter depicts a man pushed to the brink by a system he had little control over, a system which he felt was unjust, a system that was certainly not looking out for his best interests.

It also depicts a man who seems slightly unbalanced, the type of man that would rather set himself on fire and die rather than figure out a way to pay his wife the $3,000 he owed her for child support.

The letter outlines Ball’s struggles with his family, involving a divorce and restraining orders, as well as his dissatisfaction with the way he had been dealt with by courts and police officers following an arrest in April of 2001, which is referenced above when Ball slapped his four-year-old daughter after she wouldn’t stop licking his hand. That arrest seemed to be the tipping point for everything that happened in Ball’s life afterwards.

Here’s an excerpt of that letter.

This country is run by idiots.

The police sergeant Freyer screwed this up from the get go. When I got the Court Complaint form the box was checked that said Domestic Violence Related. I could not believe that slapping your child was domestic violence. So I looked up the law. Minor custodial children are exempted. Apparently, 93% of American parents still spank, slap or pinch their children. To this day I still wonder if Freyer would have made this arrest if it had been the mother that had slapped the child.

Labeling someone’s action as domestic violence in American in the 21st century is akin to labeling someone a Jew in Germany in the 1930′s. The entire legal weight of the state is coming down on him. But I consider myself lucky. My family was destroyed. But that poor bastard in Germany had his family literally annihilated.

Arrests are mandatory for the police in New Hampshire for domestic violence. That is not law. That is police department policy. Laws come from the Legislature and the Governor’s office together. God only knows where these policies come from. The State’s Attorney General also has a mandatory arrest protocol for domestic violence. I call these policies, procedures and protocols The Second Set of Books. You never cover the Second Set of Books your junior year in high school. That because we are not suppose to have a Second Set of Books. This is America-we have the rule of law.

We’d reprint the entire letter, but it is long. Like Tolstoy on a bender long. But it’s worth reading simply because if Thomas Ball was willing to set himself on fire in the name of father’s rights and a confusing court system, then it’s probably a conversation that this society needs to have.

It also raises the importance of mental health check-ups, because if Ball was seeing the right doctors or therapists, it’s possible this tragedy could have been avoided. It’s possible Ball might have felt he had other options to fix his crummy situation aside from the dramatic one he chose.

There is nothing more tragic than a person that is given the slight push they need to do something so drastic, so incredibly full of hate for themselves, their situation, and a government bureaucracy that was probably over-stepping in the name of doing their jobs.

(image courtesy of Free Keene’s Ian Freeman)

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Posted June 20, 2011 8:52am

Maria
It is definitely a conversation our country needs to have. To say that Ball set himself on fire because he “would rather set himself on fire and die rather than figure out a way to pay his wife the $3,000 he owed her for child support” is myopic in the worst way. It is indicitive of a man who has been driven to the brink by a morally bankrupt system that callously seperates (mostly male) parents from the thing that they hold most dear in all the world – their children.
Yes, he could have hunkered down and dug in the this most recent helping of you-know-what that the system was serving him. But, after 10 years of eating it, a person gets fed up. Many, many men choose to bow out of their children’s lives altogether rather than continue to be degraded, demeaned, and demoralized by the family court system.
I ask you – what is more precious than our children? Should we really be so shocked when men don’t quietly stick their tail between their legs and allow their children to be forcibly removed from their lives – and then be forced to pay for the pleasure of it or end up in jail? I’m not.

Maria
PS… let’s not forget that Ball was a Vietnam vet. Aren’t we all familiar by now with the injustices that vietnam era soldiers were subjected to when they returned? How many vietnam vets are homeless? Our government and society have failed them miserably.
How many times to we expect a person to get screwed over before they break? Why are we so shocked at what he did? Instead of being shocked and blaming him, we should be pointing the finger at ourselves. Our society lit that match. We failed Ball, and his children.

Cecil
Maria, if you’re are truly outraged at what happened to this man I commend you partially. I doubt you are however. It has been way too little, way too late on the part of women when it comes to misandry. I find it hard to believe that you give a damn, or aren’t overjoyed to hear a man lost his kids, was raped financially and then killed himself as a last desperate plea to prevent others from facing the same.
One or two comment online do not a movement make.
I will say to you the same thing I say to my wife. To condone is to commit. If this mattered you would move against it before these things happened. There is an epidemic of boys and men killing themselves, I am doing everything I can to encourage more to do so. Maybe if a few thousand men and boys do this, in a day, it might seem relevant enough for people like you to speak out about, even when it is not an anonymous internet comment.

American Patriot
Feminists and government have got to realize that one day there will be payback for this kind of thing. These evil people (feminists and government parasites) can not continue forever to abuse citizens and deny them their god given rights to their own children and get away with it forever. One day the U.S. economy will collapse because paper systems ALWAYS do. And when that time comes, may god help us all. Surely the feminists and government blood-sucking parasites are smart enough to realize that making enemies of their own citizens has its consequences? And that their brutal enforcement can not last forever. At least this is how I see it anyways. Now when Tom Ball’s children grow up, they will come to learn that it was bad mommy who called the police on daddy who killed himself because of her desire for selfish control and what she did to take an unfair advantage over daddy. In the end she will lose her children anyways and rightfully so. They will come to hate her for it. Feminists, remember this, you can only abuse men while you have government thugs to help you. And because those same government thugs have used a paper system, it will come crashing down one day and the dollar will not buy you the police state thuggery you now enjoy because they will all be unemployed and looking out for themselves in a collapsed economy of their own making. Then you will see things change and you will not like the change that is coming to this country. All those abused fathers and abused children will come back to haunt you in ways you have never even considered before. Just remember you asked for it- and it shall be given unto you. Change. You asked for it.
i on the ball patriot
I just googled the google news section for; “new hampshire man immolates self”. Got ONLY fifteen results, six or seven were non related. There’s your problem Scamerica – subservient emasculated lap dog press in addition to the blatantly scam ‘rule of law’ which is loaded with legions of morality for sale losers. This story should be global for its import. The dialogue needed is about the entire corporate two tier ‘Just Us’ system.
I agree with Maria, coverage here is myopic at best.
Deception is the strongest political force on the planet.
Robert O’Hara
“We’d reprint the entire letter, but it is long. Like Tolstoy on a bender long. But it’s worth reading simply because if Thomas Ball was willing to set himself on fire in the name of father’s rights and a confusing court system, then it’s probably a conversation that this society needs to have.
It also raises the importance of mental health check-ups, because if Ball was seeing the right doctors or therapists, it’s possible this tragedy could have been avoided. It’s possible Ball might have felt he had other options to fix his crummy situation aside from the dramatic one he chose.
There is nothing more tragic than a person that is given the slight push they need to do something so drastic, so incredibly full of hate for themselves, their situation, and a government bureaucracy that was probably over-stepping in the name of doing their jobs.”
Yes it was a long letter and it is a debate that our society is long overdue in having. But there are very powerful forces out there keeping this issue under wraps and the proof is the all but complete lack of coverage this case has had in the national media. If I were to set myself afire I would have written quite a diatribe as well. His last written words are worth a read and everyone should read them.
Mental health professionals are NOT what this man needed. He needed justice and got nothing but exploitation of him and his children for the states ends. It is incredibly insensitive, to say the least, to suggest that this was just a little mix up in a man’s life that could have been dealt with by a little professional help. He had his children taken away from him and his life ripped apart. How much can you expect any man to take?
This is not a case of just a few bureaucrats taking some liberties this is a systemic problem. There has been a war against fathers raging for nearly 40 years now. It is deliberate and has been lead by a group of extremely hateful bigots, gender feminists, and supported by the full weight of the state.
This man was just that, a man. And I as a man am deeply offended at any minimization of the injustice this man went through or the pain it caused him.

Cecil
What tragedy? It is a man who burned alive, not a person. There was also no ‘injustice here’, rather one small piece of justice was finally done. Something with a penis expired in excruciating pain, after years of pain beforehand. That is justice, right?

Anonymous
Sad.
Anonymous
Sounds like he did the right thing by killing himself, because we certainly do not need more abusive men walking around. Good riddance!

Netethics07
Sounds like written by an abusive, extremely self-righteous woman.

Anonymous
Sounds like someone named Netethics07 should shut their ignorant mouth and let the adults talk.

Billjackson
Look at your own dam comments, you are by no means an adult

Anonymous
Don’t hate me because I have better morals than you. Just get better morals.
Tim
What a fuckin cocksucker you are. A man is railroaded by the family court star chamber and lights himself on fire, and you mock him and spit on his charred body. Fuck you.
Anonymous
He slapped a little child in the face, not me. Fuck HIM and fuck YOU for sticking up for him.
Tim
I dont know what your threshold for heinous is but I sincerely doubt he reared back and pimp slapped his kid; more likely as she attempted to lick his hand again after he verbally warned her twice to stop, he flicked his wrist to give her some negative feedback, and split her lip, which is surprisingly easy to do if your knuckle traps the lip between her teeth just right.
I have had my lip split just by looking down at something over someone and them rising up and head butting me accidently, your teeth are shaped to tear meat, they can do the same to your lip.
But all that aside, he did not contest that charge, the reasons for his self-immolation have to do with how the courts were treating him in post-divorce proceedings.
So why don’t you ‘do some more reading’ before you run your mouth about things that you are obviously ignorant.
Anonymous
If he loved his kid, he would have done the treatment classes/counseling. He not only abused he child, but refused to take the steps needed to have the visitation he wanted.
Tim
and this is precisely why he resorted to the action he took. he doesn’t have to prove the state he loves his kid; that is a violation of our freedoms, when men and women are forced at gun-point to prove they love their children. It removes any form of agency or personal autonomy from the individual and replaces it with government autonomy. By making him a felon, they equated his slap with the most brutal of assaults, including rape. He did not agree with the Domestic Violence charge, this is why he refused counselling. As if said, he was not even tried; there was no jury of peers. He was simply convicted, full stop. Why do you have zero compassion for this man? A man, I will remind you, who had no prior record and was a military veteran.
Anonymous
I have no sympathy for him because I don’t for one second believe this is the first and only time he abused his kids. I don’t give one flying FUCK if he “agreed” with the fact that he committed a crime. Everyone’s innocent if you listen to their own words. I have zero tolerance for child abuse because I KNOW what it does to children. And don’t lump him in with veterans. My dad is a vet and he would NEVER lay his hands on a child. I know plenty of veterens who never bloodied little girls’ faces.
Tim
It is your job to be impartial, isn’t it? When you say, you don’t believe for one second this was his first and only time he abused his kids, what are you basing that on? A hunch? A gut feeling? Answer the fuckin question, asshole. We don’t do that this in this country. The presumption is innocence. I didn’t make that up – that’s the law. Innocent until proven guilty. Lady Justice is blindfolded, correct? So you are willing to send him to the gallows…on your own feelings? You have no friends on this blog, asshole. Take a look around you – you’re isolated. If you are willing to spit on an innocent man’s charred body and laugh, I can only hope you burn in hell. No man deserves a felony record for slapping their daughter, even if it draws blood. Punching, kicking, yes. Slapping, no. That isn’t abuse. Abuse is being found guilty without due process and without a jury. You are the lowest of the low, scumbag. Fuck yourself. You don’t know a damn thing about family court, do you?
Anonymous
It’s not my job to do anything because I am not on a jury. Wow you are really ignorant. As far as having friends here? HAHA! Dear fucking GOD why would I want friends like you? You are the scum of the earth and everything that is wrong with the world today. I would spit on you, not be friends with you. How does it feel to be worthless?
Cecil
Let me just point out that the other women here don’t seem to have a major beef with this person, at all.
Anonymous
That means nothing to me. I don’t care what idiot men OR idiot women think.
Try again.
Bohica
You’re a special piece of shit, aren’t you? fucking useless impotent tool. LOL
Anonymous
Well, let’s see here. I was here condemning child abuse, and you think I’m an idiot. That means that you’re either a child abuser yourself, or you defend them. Either way, you should just kill yourself.

Charles
The Universe is not going to let you forget that you said that.

Anonymous
Well I figure the human brain only remembers so much. I’ll probably forget it eventually, realistically speaking.
You, on the other hand, will always be a douchebag..

Billjackson
no TFYWYA you are the douche bag read your own dam comments you abusive sack of excrement

Anonymous
Me: condemning child abuse
you: defending child abuse
Who is the sack of excrement now?
uh, YOU!
Tiredofsickomoms
popping out children w/o financial abilities should result in jail time.
Anonymous
Perhaps, but then so should putting your dick in someone and helping to create the kid if you don’t plan to take care of it.
Not to mention the fact that this doesn’t really have much to do with this case, which at its heart, is about an entitled and abusive man who quite obviously didn’t care much about his own children.
Rick
TFYFWYA:
Are you the former Mrs. Ball? Seems you have a strong beef with this or something.
Anonymous
No. I’m someone who is tired of slimeball child abusers acting like THEY are the poor little victims.
Bohica
So, did you enjoy being sodomized? LOL
Anonymous
That doesn’t even make sense. You must just think about sodomy all the time. It’s OK. Just stop f*ucking your dog’s ass and you’ll be OK.
Cecil
You: Relishing the death of anything with a cock.
Us: Having souls.
Anonymous
Wow, you must be quite brain damaged as I never ONCE said that I thought all men should die. Abusers are who I have a problem with.
ps. Make sure to look up all words in the dictionary before replying as you seem to have trouble with the meanings of words.
Bohica
Women abuse and kill children more than men do, it’s a fact.
Bohica
You have no idea what happened, and we all know it. dickless.
Anonymous
If I had a dick, I’d be a hermaphrodite. That would be OK with me, because you’d still be an idiot.

Bohica
Oh, the irony of your comment. LOL

Anonymous
Don’t use words you don’t understand, asswipe.
Don’t you have a child to abuse or something?

Michelle C
How much to people expect his wife and children to take, for that matter. It is a tragedy, he needed help. The courts tend to give primary custody to the person who was the primary caregiver prior to the end of the marriage. That’s not the woman’s fault, nor was the assault on the child. It’s one thing to discipline, another to injure. Even worse, it seems she had little control over the situation and it’s rather disturbing to see it claimed the ex-wife was the problem, really looks to me like he was the controlling one and now everyone has lost out. Life is like that, things will never always go entirely the way you want, you’ve just got to make the best of it. In this case, you can only lay the blame so far away, he was only ordered to attend counselling (which might have actually helped him) which is really not so much if you want to be with your children. The courts don’t order supervision or deny access for nothing, so if this was ordered it’s for a reason and when a person is denied access or custody it’s usually because they’ve proved themselves unworthy.
Sadly, it’s not that hard to characterise the letter as a big “poor me”, while things may have not have gone well for him, he hurt his child and nowhere does he take any responsibility for that action or address that in many violence cases there really is a problem there that needs to be dealt with even if he feels his particular case was wrongly handled. He acknowledges that “after six months of me not lifting a finger to save this marriage, she filed for divorce.” That’s the action of someone when it’s obvious it’s a irreconcilable breakdown and nothing is going to change. The shame is, if he’d tried they possibly could have moved past that event. He also acknowledges that he wasn’t doing the right thing for his children and paying his child support so they eat but then complains that it’s a financial stress ignoring that the children would experience the same or worse if the father doesn’t meet their obligations. The “government” and “feminists” make great shadowy, amorphous targets for anger to be directed at, but it doesn’t solve a thing and lets it all fester. Rather than doing that, perhaps it’s time for men to man up, and say if this happening, if people are killing themselves over this what are *we* doing and how do *we* deal with it rather than playing the blame game and making out to be victims of a faceless system.

Robert O’Hara
What this man needed was justice and to be in his childs life without the intrusion of the state. He did not lay blame on his wife in his letter he laid it on the family court system and if you had read it you would know that.
He indeed did take responsibility for what happened to his daughter-he was put on trial and found NOT GUILTY OF CHILD ABUSE! But in his letter he articulately describes a “second set of books” involving the presence of court counselors who have an obscene amount of control over the lives of litigants in family court with absolutely not accountability to the law or anyone for that matter. The particular councelor assigned to the case denied him access to his child simply because she didn’t like him. Is this right?
How dare you tell this man to ‘Man Up”! You have no idea what he went through and you are doing nothing but discarding the fact that his family and life were deliberately destroyed by the family courts. You actually think that these are “amorphous” targets for angry men who are simply bitter because they didn’t get their way and are acting like children? What happened to this man was a systemic and deliberate destruction of his family plain and simple.
Mark718
You are completely wrong, and you are part of the problem. I hope most fervently you never have children, as I can guarantee you will get divorced, your sons will be drugged as having ADHD and never graduate from high school, and your daughters will be promiscuous.

Anonymous
I had no idea that one man could personify ignorance and stupidy as much as you do. Wow. Kudos man. Must have taken you a while to get this schtick down.

Bohica
Remember, cut the long way next time you shrill, irrational, histronic fat slob. LOL

Anonymous
Just because you want to die doesn’t mean everyone does. Also, the fat thing is wonderful, because I know that people like you like to throw insults at people that actually apply to themselves. You must be a real tub of lard.

Cecil
Not me, I hope you have sons. You will tell them how much they don’t deserve. They will grow up and date a woman just like you, and I will hand them the gasoline and matches myself.
Just as people like you support and enjoy what happened to this man, you will enjoy it when it is your own. It’s not like it was a person who died, just a man. Any way he was treated, or what he did or didn’t do, it is ok for him to feel like he has to burn to death. I mean, that is what men deserve, isn’t it? More men torch themselves, it leaves more room for people in the world.
I also guarantee his ex doesn’t feel guilty, she is probably masturbating to the image of him burning as I write this. Undoubtedly the best moment of her life.

Mark718
Mental health checkups? Are you nuts? I’ve been through the divorce courts, so have most of my friends. I empathize completely with this guy. Like him, my loyalty to the US is gone, never to return. Family courts are evil. They almost destroyed me, they almost destroyed my children, and they did destroy Tom Bell.

Anonymous
Slapping little children in the mouth repeatedly is what’s evil. And then refusing to take responsibility and own up to your actions makes it worse. What a sad man you are and how little integrity you must have to sympathize with an abuser.
Do you abuse your own children? That’s the only explanation for it.

Amfortas
So every man wronged by the courts must be a child abuser?
“And then refusing to take responsibility and own up to your actions makes it worse.”
Why didn’t the blacks “take responsibility” for their own actions and accept their lynchings instead of complain?
Why didn’t the Jews “take responsibility” for their own actions and accept the Holocaust instead of complain?
Some guy in the thread tells you how the courts treated him and you try to rationalize it by saying he must be a child abuser even though you’ve never met this person. You really are sick.

Anonymous
I never said every man, I said this man. God damn you lot are fucking stupid. I’m starting to think you don’t even read my comments. You just jump in here with your brain dead 2 cents. Go back to flipping hamburgers or something.

Isnult
You jumped in with your brain dead 2 cents enough for all of us.
Anonymous
Hi. You must be confused. See, I was here condemning a child abuser. These other people were here to stick up for him. So, as you can plainly see, you’re quite wrong.
Johnny
You actually didn’t say “this man”. Don’t you read your own comments? Or at least look at them?
Anonymous
It’s quite clear who I was talking about in the context of the conversation.
Bohica
You ignorant, illiterate, histrionic, shrill fat cut, shut you gash.
Anonymous
You’d never speak to me this way in person. You’d be too busy quaking with fear. Go ahead and let it all out, you know you’re a little fucking WIMP.
Cecil
Any man who doesn’t agree with your stance on men being vile abusers, who deserve everything they get, or who doesn’t obey women at all turns is stupid. Wow, I’ve never heard that one before.

Tiredofsickomoms
What don’t you understand about the court finding him not guilty? I’m sure you are a lazy mom popping out kids for checks. I say if the mother cant raise the children w/o financial support JAIL them

Anonymous
He was found not guilty, but it was still a condition, in order to keep his parental rights, that he attend counseling in order to have the visitation rights he sought. He refused to attend the counseling, proving that his own ridiculous ego and false sense of victim-hood was greater than his love for his children.
For the record, I do not have and will not have children. But thanks for playing.

Bohica
That’s what obesity does to losers like you.
Anonymous
No, that’s what being responsible does. It IS possible to keep from breeding like rats, contrary to what your parents apparently believed before slamming together like whales and bringing YOU forth from their loins.

Anonymous
This man slapped a 4 year old little child until her mouth bled. The civilized world has no use for such men. All of you defending him and mourning him should be ashamed. It is indeed a sad case, but not because he is dead.

Mark R
He did one thing wrong and you think that justifies breaking up the family? According to the mother’s testimony there was no prior record of violence. I can understand a note being made in a file if such a thing were reported, but arresting a man and sending him through the courts for one such instance is an overreaction by the state.

Anon21
It actually doesn’t matter if we think it justifies breaking up the family. His wife came to believe that, and that was her choice. This man couldn’t accept that she made that choice, and that government agencies were supporting her in that choice, and so he killed himself in horrific fashion, in order to make some obscure political point and in order to inflict terrible and completely undeserved guilt on his ex-wife.
I just hope his ex-wife realizes that this was in no way her fault, that this guy was both deeply disturbed and a scumbag. I hope she can find the strength to move past the damage that this pathetic person did to her life and her children.

Johnny
…If the wife hadn’t overreacted none of this would have happened. If the state didn’t have a money farm with that horrible business, this wouldn’t have happened. The man was disturbed, yes, but the wife does shoulder blame as well.
Cecil
So he burns to death and it is poor wife? Please explain that to me Anon21. He had no choices, and no support. I hope you have sons, a man you pretend to love and so on. There will be more of this, I support men in doing it. I know it will be a pure joy to you and your kind.

Amfortas
You are one sick, disgusting piece of sh*t. It takes very little force from a slap to cause bleeding, even less considering this was a 4 year old. It was one time event with no prior record of violence, and you think that justifies what happened? The civilized world has no place for scum like you, please set yourself on fire.

Anonymous
“It takes very little force from a slap to cause bleeding, even less considering this was a 4 year old.”
Well then perhaps he shouldn’t have slapped a 4 year old. You think I am scum yet YOU are the one defending this. Do you also slap children? People like you are what is wrong with the world today, asswipe. I have NEVER hit a kid.

Bohica
What the fuck do you know about kids, fatso? Hmmmmmm? Are you a womyn? LOL

Cecil
But it is o.k.when a woman does it?
Just admit that a man setting himself on fire after suffering for a decade makes you moist.

Anonymous
I didn’t say it was OK if a woman did it. In fact, I would say the same thing if this were a woman.
And frankly, I should hunt you down and murder you for making that kind of disgusting comment. I am your better and you should treat me as such. Bow down slime boy. Lucky for you I’m already busy today.

Bohica
“Better” at what? Getting kicked out of an all you can eat buffet? How’s it feel not to have your GED, fatso.

Anonymous
haha, so you are not only fat, but also did not graduate HS. You reveal so much about yourself with your posts.

http://profiles.google.com/womblefish69 bob smith
The saddest thing about Thomas Balls story is that he isn’t the only one.
Thousands of men have commited suicide after being dragged through the family court. What terrifies people about Thomas Balls story is that his letter clearly shows him to be an intelligent, sane man, pushed beyond breaking point.

Heather
A sane man who slapped a four year old in the mouth until it bled, refused to pay his portion of the Children’s medical bills, went on long ranting diatribes about the courts and then set himself on fire in front of everyone as his final abusive act in this world. Yeah, he sounds like dad of the year. Sane? You have pretty loose standards for the word.

Tiredofsickomoms
And was found not guilty in court. Why cant the mother take care of the child? If mothers are not capable of caring for the child w/o money give the child to the father. So tired of moms collecting checks. Talk about responsibility bringing children into this world w/o being able to care for them pretty sick.
Anonymous
At least one other person gets it.
The fact that these men are so desperate to defend this slimebucket says VOLUMES.

TFYFWYA has daddy issues
After reading all your responses on here, it seems quite clear that you have Daddy issues.
My suggestion to you is to shut your ignorant mouth, because until you’ve dealt with it first hand, you have NO IDEA what this system is like.

Anonymous
My dad is an awesome dad who did not abuse me.
You, on the other hand, are here defending child abusers.
What does that say about you?
It’s also incredibly amusing to me that you went to the trouble of registering a name based on my name. How little you must have to do with your time and what a loser you must be in all areas of life.
Please continue to be stupid and jump like a monkey for my amusement.
Jump, monkey! Jump!
Bohica
Your mom was a beard for your fag dad.
Anonymous
hahaha, ok, now that’s just funny. Even my dad would laugh at that.

Liberty&JusticeForAll
After reviewing Thomas Ball suit against Monadnock Family Services, it appears that they were the culprits here (at least according to Ball) and It would have been so easy for the Judge in this case to simply arrange for an alternative to making Thomas Ball submit to his tormentor Monadnock Family Services. I think if Thomas Ball had been able to afford a lawyer that played golf with that Judge it might have had a better outcome.
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Rick
Toms death was a common tragedy, one we do not even record in the USA. Our government refuses to record the number of deaths of Fathers denied their basic fundamental rights. This we ignore in our news cycle.
On the other hand our current news cycle is full of the truth, a truth we do not want to speak of also. We watch amazed, as a woman who most likely killed her own child in Florida, is prosecuted. She did not slap. She did what hundreds of woman have been recorded doing. A fact that our own governments statistics show. That 85% of all child abuse is by woman. But we continue to try and play the blame the man game so as to prevent Fathers their place of dignity. Sad blind foolish people.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CFLHXA6H2V6VDJJKE25LF436IM Adam Wilson
http://www.orderofmelchizedek.com/psychiatry.htm
Kevin
Another person pushed over the edge by ill thought through legislation and pursued by non thinking bureaucrats
Engdb
Lots of informed people on this American tragedy ..write to me i’m doing a documentary.
Dave ENGDB@aol.com

Aileen (Huck) Haeata
well, i would like to help Dave………..this is the comment I just posted. God help us all! We are gaining strength here in New Zealand – I am in contact with others in britian and plan to come over (also to Scotland) to gage the suffering in my ancestors homeland as well.
there’s more to it than that, I too through despair, heartache and injustice came to the conclusion to make a statement about the insanity of the family court circus – to light myself with petrol on parliament steps (new zealand) only three weeks ago. my inner voice persuaded me I would probably live, and with my face melted off wouldn’t be much good to anyone as I would scare people with my looks – instead I decided a march on foot of the north island gathering signatures for my petition to the house of represenatives was a far less painful option. I pulled out due to injury after a week. I am now continuing gaining ground with others doing positive pro-active actions to expose the atrocities against children, parents, grandparents in this and other countries. The gentleman that crisped himself was uneducated that physical violence towards a child is unnecessary, he needed support NOT persecution. Where was the support for the family to successful separate in marriage, but still work together as a family – to heal??? Many parents become suicidal, men mostly go through with it, many mothers end up having more children to replace the children that have been traded in the court system. I choose to change the system and do everything I do in the memory of ten amazing years I was a mom to Owen and Kamryn – the most amazing kids on the planet. I choose to change the system so that other good moms and children don’t suffer like we and thousands of others have throughout the generations. IT MUST STOP . I’ve got maori and scottish descent.
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Aileen Haeata
there’s more to it than that, I too through despair, heartache and injustice came to the conclusion to make a statement about the insanity of the family court circus – to light myself with petrol on parliament steps (new zealand) only three weeks ago. my inner voice persuaded me I would probably live, and with my face melted off wouldn’t be much good to anyone as I would scare people with my looks – instead I decided a march on foot of the north island gathering signatures for my petition to the house of represenatives was a far less painful option. I pulled out due to injury after a week. I am now continuing gaining ground with others doing positive pro-active actions to expose the atrocities against children, parents, grandparents in this and other countries. The gentleman that crisped himself was uneducated that physical violence towards a child is unnecessary, he needed support NOT persecution. Where was the support for the family to successful separate in marriage, but still work together as a family – to heal??? Many parents become suicidal, men mostly go through with it, many mothers end up having more children to replace the children that have been traded in the court system. I choose to change the system and do everything I do in the memory of ten amazing years I was a mom to Owen and Kamryn – the most amazing kids on the planet. I choose to change the system so that other good moms and children don’t suffer like we and thousands of others have throughout the generations. IT MUST STOP . I’ve got maori and scottish descent.
Elizabeth Shunk
The sarcasm from the writer of this article is utterly inappropriate. This is NOT just a simple matter of a Dad that “went off the deep end” as it seems the wrighter is nudging us to believe.
The issue with Child Protective Services is a nationwide problem. So is Parental alienation… False allegations run rampant. Yet no one seems to want to take a stand against the destruction caused by these agencies that are supposed to help families.
I personally can understand how finding another way out would be preferable than having to deal with either CPS or an alienating ex-spouse. I would not wish CPS on my very worst enemy.
If you have never experienced the horrors of Parental Alienation or CPS then you really have no right to be sarcastic about it. It is a sad, destructive cycle that just keeps going.

Cecil
The CPS and FC systems are designed to help women damage those big, evil nasty men. There is no problem. No people were harmed, only fathers. Allegations cannot possibly be false, men are guilty of such things by default. Alienating a child from it’s dad is therefore a good thing by default. The ex, being female and thus unblemishable cannot be faulted, she is ultimately the victim in all matters at all times.

Rick
Reading through all this talking it is no wonder why fathers are let down over and over. You have some here that are screaming he was abusive and deserved this, others are defending him because many can see how he got there. The end result here is very sad. This was not the way for him to protest his thoughts and now his child will not have that father around. The courts do need to wake up though. They do not have all the best interest of our children at heart like they claim. It take so much more than money to raise a child. The new babysitter of video games and internet for our children does not mean you can let them raise the children today. Kids are not as active as they once were and this is because of the parent they call the best fit just pushing them off to the side and letting these raise the children. Many times there is another parent who is willing to take the child out to fish or camp or just out to do things at the park and allow them to be a kid. Many states are pro-mother and the father who is clearly the better fit does not have a chance and will get denied visitation over and over and the relationship between the father and child gets lost.
Yaits
Last paragraph – That was not a slight push – Wrtiter, and with respect – Do you know how it feels like been Alienated from your children PLUS all the other troubles as well?

Anonymous
All he had to do was attend classes, and he could see he kids.
He refused. He obviously did not love his kids.

LeonardH
I have some news for the writer of this article- You have absolutely NO CLUE what you are talking about, which makes your opinion pretty useless.
Ball’s self- immolation had very little to do with “fathers rights”. And characterizing the family court system as “confusing” may be the best minimization ever.
Suggesting that psychiatric intervention might have helped, shifts the entire subject.
The first problem the writer of this article shares with the majority of Americans, is utter cluelessness about what family court has degenerated into. My article “What Happens in the FOG”- http://exm.nr/hfjvl9 – details the unconstitutional courts of No Due Process.
In fact, what Ball and hundreds of thousands more of us are fighting are some of the very same reasons our fore-fathers fought the Revolutionary War.
When I first heard of Ball’s suicide, frankly I feared the next thing we were going to hear about was how many of his enemies he had dispatched to Hell before he fragged himself.
So I felt some relief to hear that he kept the damage to himself in the form of self-immolation. Used to be, that was considered the sort of protest that REALLY got people’s attention and decide “Wow, if things really are THAT BAD, maybe we should FIX IT”.
Thomas Ball, in his last act, was trying to EDUCATE the placid masses what the system has become for parents and families.
American Family Rights Association is also trying to educate families. Not only in HOW to Fight CPS, but WARNING OTHERS how bad the system is BEFORE it happens to YOU.
It’s a lot worse than you think it is.
Leonard Henderson, co-founder
American Family Rights
http://familyrights.us
“Until Every Child Comes Home”©
“The Voice of America’s Families”©

Robert Barnier
It is exactly the same in Ontario Canada. We need to work together to put a stop to our governments actions “Terrorism”

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Admin
I read these comments and think their might be hope for us yet!
Anonymous
You can kick a dog so many times!
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Victor
So a man slapped his four year old daughter in the face several times and made her mouth bleed. But he was acquitted despite the admitted assault. It sounds like the court made a huge concession to a quite violent, disturbed man, as they merely insisted that he attend counselling – something that could have greatly benefitted his and his childrens’ wellbeing. At this point the (either arrogant, immature, spoiled or mentally ill) man threw a tantrum in a terrible but perhaps characteristically violent way. This case has nothing to do with misandry at all. It’s about a man failing to adjust to a changing world in which he no longer the centre. You seem to imply that preventing further violence is akin to castration but that in turn implies that violence is an essential and innate part of masculinity. It is not.
Bohica
This is why I had a prenuptial agreement in my 1st and only marriage. It’s why I obtained a divorce and will never remarry again. Why should I when I make a significant sum of money, am good looking and very fit and prefer women 10 years younger, or more, than I am.

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