IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST MERCIFUL, THE MOST BENEFICENT ASSALAM-O ALAIKUM
Anyone close by Jacksonville, FL to look into this? If you can do something, please let me know and I will try to collect some moeny for them. -- Nauman Faridi TROUBLED FAMILY IS SPLIT AS NEIGHBORS ASK WHY By Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Times-Union, 4/11/2002 http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/041102/met_9110979.html Jacksonville police know Riccardo Young as a bad father, a man who let 11 children live in squalor and ran when authorities came to his house. His neighbors say they never met that man. The Young they described was a tireless worker and family man who kept his kids fed, healthy and happy -- even in a tiny, crowded box of a house with no electricity or running water. And they don't understand how life turned so bad this week for an East Arlington family they described as religious, loving and devoted to one another. "What happened just wasn't right," said Kevin Stafford, fuming a day after social workers put the children in emergency shelters and police locked up the children's mother on child-neglect charges. "The kids looked clean to me, they looked well-fed," said Joian Hopke, whose home backs up on a yard where the family cooked meals over a fire in a metal trash can. "He was really a nice guy, very polite. We never had any problem." Judges and prosecutors may decide whether the family will live together again. The wife, Antoinette Young, was in jail yesterday with a $25,000 bond, and police indicated they would seek an arrest warrant for Riccardo Young. But to determine the family's future, authorities will have to understand how a couple that seemed devoted to children ended up raising them in an aging cinder-block home that the city condemned. That started about five months ago, when the Youngs moved from New Jersey to a rented house on Airport Terrace Drive, a stone's throw from Craig Municipal Airport. The entire 13-member family moved into an 828-square-foot home, a building with one bathroom. "The only thing we worried about was the kids -- all those kids," Hopke said. "We were counting the kids and how many there were. Me and my husband were like, 'Dude, it's time to stop'." Antoinette Young, 39, stayed busy at home riding herd over eight boys and three girls, ranging from age 3 to 16. She was the quieter of the couple, often seen hanging laundry in the backyard, wearing a head covering that reflected the family's Islamic beliefs. Her husband of almost 20 years was a talker with a Yankee accent, neighbors said, a courteous man who stopped to visit as he regularly walked the neighborhood two blocks off St. Johns Bluff Road. Riccardo Young, 46, who was known to some as Rafik, was a car salesman who hopped from job to job in the maze of auto dealerships near Regency Square. He sometimes had weeks where he made good commissions, but lately he was short of money, the neighbors said. His own car was broken down, and he could be seen walking home late at night, both arms full of grocery bags. The family walked through the neighborhood together, and at times Riccardo Young took his sons to the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida, a couple of miles away. "He was a very nice man," said Aatif Barbari, the center's custodian, who said he didn't know of the family's problems. Whatever else was going on at the home, the family's electric bill wasn't being paid. Since the power was turned on in late November, there had been no payments at all, and the bill had climbed to $378, said Bruce Dugan, a JEA spokesman. Last month, the JEA cut off electricity, which also stopped the backyard pump that provided the home's water. Someone rigged the wiring to get electricity back, but the JEA noticed and seven days ago a workman shut off service again and locked the power box. There wasn't much choice, Dugan said: "If they had said to us, we're having a lot of trouble, can we work out a payment, that would have been different." With no water for a week, Stafford said, Young had come to his home each day to fill 20-gallon Gatorade vats that he carried back to the tiny, crowded house. He said Young had asked welfare officials for help, but was told he made too much money… On Tuesday, case workers from the Florida Department of Children and Families came to the house after someone reported the children were living in squalor. Police were called too, along with building inspectors. The city condemned the property that day, and social workers decided to take the children from their parents, a police report showed. The report said Young told his children to run away when he heard they would be taken, and that he ran off too. All but one son, described as either 16 or 17, eventually returned. ACTION REQUESTED: Florida's Department of Children and Families has tentatively assigned the Young family's case to a non-profit agency called the First Coast Family Center. They will help the family get better housing and possibly a new job for the father. Donations can be sent to the family can through them. Send donations to: First Coast Family Center For the family of Riccardo Young Attention: Connie Fussell 2747 Art Museum Drive, Suite 100 Jacksonville, FL 32207 Please let CAIR know if you send a donation so that we may follow-up on the case. 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