The Underground Conservative

This situation gets more and more tragic.

Now we learn that after the state approved moving Christopher Thomas and his sister to the home of their biological grandparents, bureaucrats at the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare refused to move the children or even respond to the request and rebuffed inquiries by the grandparents.

Two months before police say 13-month-old Christopher L. Thomas Jr. was beaten to death by his foster mother and his 2-year-old-sister was rescued from months of torture, the state approved placing the children in their biological grandmother’s home, their grandfather said Monday.

The children, however, were never moved.

Week after week, the grandfather, Kenny McClellan, said repeated calls to the Bureau of Milwaukee Child Welfare asking to have the children moved from their foster home and placed with their grandmother went unanswered.

Even calls warning the bureau that the siblings might be being abused were never returned, he said.

“This is a professional, public organization?” McClellan asked. “C’mon.”

McClellan, however, was unable to recall the full name of the person that he and his wife say they called.

Attempts Monday to speak to Denise Revels Robinson, bureau director, were unsuccessful. A receptionist told a reporter to call the media number for the state Department of Children and Families, where questions were left in a message bank.

Altogether, three couples have now said they tried to adopt Christopher or have him and his sister placed in their homes after they were taken from their birth mother in March. Two of the couples have said they alerted the child welfare bureau to possible abuse.

What will happen? Probably nothing. If anything, those responsible at the Bureau of Child Welfare will get raises and promotions. Reflective of the Peter Principle.

This following the spectacle at Christopher’s funeral which involved brawling relatives.

The emotional funeral of Christopher L. Thomas Jr. erupted in violence Wednesday as family and friends of the child’s mother and father clashed with each other in bitter frustration.

Christopher’s foster mother, Crystal P. Keith, was charged last week with beating the 13-month-old boy to death and with torturing his 2-year-old sister, who remains hospitalized. Keith is married to the brother of the child’s father, also named Christopher Thomas.

Thomas, 22, who is serving a work release term on a drug conviction, attended the service with several friends and family. He sat in the first row of the Serenity Funeral Home chapel near the baby’s 23-year-old mother, Candace Glover.

From the start, the funeral stirred deep emotions.

Christopher’s child-sized steel casket was open. Mourners gasped, some wept, as they approached him. He wore white formal clothes, a white shirt and a white bow tie. His tiny body was difficult to square with the violence of his death. He appeared doll-like.

As services began, Glover rose from her chair and stood at the foot of the casket. She refused to let go of the casket or be seated.

She rocked back and forth, sobbing, and appeared as if she would collapse.

As the Rev. Jermaine Reed sang “Jesus Loves Me,” he came forward and stood by Glover’s side. He placed his arms around her and held her up. Eventually, with loud cries, she fell to the floor.

Glover cried out “Let me go! Let me go!” as people carried her to the side of chapel. There she lay on the floor, sobbing, as other mourners tried to assist her.

The fight erupted near the end of the service, as people lined up to pass the casket in final tribute.

Several people began to taunt Thomas because of his relationship to the foster parents. He clutched the funeral program in his fists, his eyes closed.

Glover was assisted to the casket. Just as she reached it, the brawl began.

Who threw the first blow was unclear. Thomas was punched on the left side of his face. He was removed from the chapel and taken to a couch, the left side of his face severely swollen, a bloody gash beneath his left eye. Family surrounded the couch to protect him.

In the chapel, chairs were thrown aside and flower displays were knocked over. Several people grabbed the boy’s casket to keep it from being flung down. Glover screamed.

As people cried out for calm, the fight spread to the funeral home lobby and into the street. The lectern with the visitor’s book was knocked over. Someone reported seeing a gun, and stunned onlookers fled the building.

I went to a fight and a wake broke out. Have these people no shame? I realize the birth parents of aren’t the most responsible people in the world. The mother is abusive with mental illness and the father is a convicted felon and a drug dealer. But couldn’t people have put the animosity aside for several hours for the sake of the boy’s memory?

We first blogged about it here. I still maintain that next to the actual murderer, the social worker bureaucracy has the most blood on its hands. There were loving foster homes that these children were taken from for no valid reason other than the concept of race — putting black children with (black) relatives regardless of the environment.

If that is the case — and we don’t know it is but the possibility exists — that’s shameful. And wrong.