For immediate release
Pittsburgh, PA – August 16, 2011 – Well-known local activist Mike Ference will stage a series of protests beginning September 11, the 10th anniversary of 911 and targeting local institutions and individuals associated with the abuse of children and young adults.
“For two decades I have called on certain institutions and individuals to come forward and take responsibility for their roles — active or passive — in child sex abuse,” Ference explains. “This is the last call — if they don’t do the right thing in the next couple weeks, then I will ‘out’ them at a series of protests where I will publicize incriminating details from my 22-year investigation of such cases. Abusers who have harmed children and individuals who knowingly covered up the crimes will be named — I want everyone in our community to know who the bad guys are.”
Ference began his investigation in 1989 after his son was shot on a school bus by a boy who then committed suicide. Although grateful that his son survived, Ference was disturbed that an investigation into the shooting was quashed or botched at every turn. Agreeing that the case had been prematurely closed by the McKeesport police, William Scully, then Public Safety Director in Clairton, gave Ference notes on the case and encouraged him to continue investigating on his own. A central starting point was the possibility that the shooter had been sexually abused by a local Catholic priest.
Ference’s initial investigation has inspired a lifetime of activism against child sexual abuse and cover-ups. He has written extensively on the sex abuse scandal within the Catholic church, amd has consistently emphasized that such abuse can’t happen without a lot of other community stakeholders “looking the other way.”
The first protest is scheduled for noon, September 9, on the steps of St. Paul ’s Cathedral in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Ference believes that Oakland , Shadyside and the surrounding areas have been prominent spots for Pittsburgh Catholic clergy to abuse children and teenagers.
Additional protests are in the planning stage. Ference says UPMC Hospital in Oakland is a likely site because of its handling of a clerical abuse case involving Greg Witkowski. He is also considering the police departments and municipal buildings of McKeesport , Clairton, and West Mifflin , which were all central in his initial investigation. District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette were also mentioned as stakeholders who have been more interested in protecting the church hierarchy than punishing abusers and defending children.
For more information on the September 11 protest or other upcoming events, call Mike Ference at 412-233-5491, or email mike@ferencemarketing.com.
7 comments:
It ain't just the Church; it's our government not doing its job to protect its citizens.
I'm glad to see citizens taking to the streets!
Good for you, Mike Forence!
If you read about this type of corruption, it's the same stuff as the guardianship racket. And some of the same people are involved in both scams.
Read the words "cover-ups" and "looking the other way." Sound familiar?
Thanks for the encouragement. All I ask from supporters is to pass on the link to this site.
God Bless America, what's left of it.
Mike Ference
Anonymous is correct when he/she says the scam is being repeated by the same people. All it takes is one party control of an area, state or region. All the administrative jobs or like positions that concerned relatives or whistleblowers would contact have long been compromised. That's why there's so much neptism in government. The most likely places for corruption and abuse to occur are in institutions where the residents/patients/prisoners/etc. have little or no control over their lives.
For years, the catholic church made tons of money in their orphanages and other so-called caregiving agencies.
Remember the good old days when government officials, the mob and all the other bums were content to skim on asphalt or paving jobs on our interstates. Sadly, the real money to be made nowadays is with human trafficking. It takes many forms and when you can get the federal governmnet to pay for human trafficking like in hospitals, nursing homes, private prisons and juvenile detention centers, the money just pours in.
And, there is no one who will help. What's going on is common knowledge. Go to your state attorney general and they pass the buck to a corrupt county district attorney.
In the case of the attempted murder of my son, it was even worse. Elected officials, police, law firms all benifitted from the cover up. Some advanced their careers, other swere appointed to lucrative jobs, etc. Even the media knows to distance itself from these types of crimes. Truth be told, I can only name two people who actually helped me in my investigation who were in a position to provide proper advice.
One is being persecuted by Allegheny County DA Steven Zappala. The Zappala Crime Family, as I like to refer to them, control much of PA. Little, if anything, can be done to stop the Zappalas from thier money-making schemes. I refer the readers to the Cash for Kids scandal in Luzerne County. Steven Zappala owned two private juvenile detention centers in PA. Two judges sent over 4000 or 5000 kids to these centers for over 2.7 million dollars in bribes. Needless to say, Zappala was never charged and according to one of the judges who was recently sentenced to federal prison for his involvement, Greg Zappala was never even questioned by FBI agents. One more think, Greg Zappala's father was a former PA Supreme Court Chief Justice. Not the type of family I would want to blackmail or extort money from. I guess I should end this by asking: Believe it, or not.
Mike Ference
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