The FBI set the Texas standard for destruction of a religious community with their killing of David Koresh and nearly all of the Branch Davidians in Waco in 1993. Texas law enforcement officials--as well as representatives from child and family services--haven't killed any members of the Fundamentalist LDS community in Eldorado, but their path of destruction is nearly as evident. As evidence of their unsurety of their cause, Texas officials have (once again) gone to using the word "compound".I can think of a lot better words than "compound" to describe the FLDS community. How about "community" for one? Or we might say "town" or "society". We can even use the word "enclave". But "compound"? The colloquial definition has come to be fraught with images of siege, fences, and razor wire--a prison camp for lunatics. Use of the word compound is a subtle
Texas officials entered Eldorado in search of weapons of mass destruction, but when they had emerged, their mission had changed to one of "compound building".
attempt to cover up the reality that we don't know very much about a certain society we wish to confront--and that we don't much care to know either.In the past few days, Texas officials entered Eldorado in search of weapons of mass destruction, but when they had emerged, their mission had changed to one of "compound building".
True there was reason to enter the community. A young woman called law authorities and reported that she was being abused "by an adult male to whom she had been 'spiritually married.'" Officials obtained the necessary search warrant for probable cause. When, however, they entered the "compound" their mission changed. Now essentially every woman and child that had lived in the Eldorado community has been forcibly removed. Why didn't Texas officials remove all the men of the community--the alleged perpetrators? Because that wouldn't be conducive to good "compound building".
Ironically,
...Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for Texas' division of child protective services, said "all the children have been safely removed from the ranch."Three years ago, when former FLDS leader Warren Jeffs predicted apocalypse of one sort or another, county Sheriff David Doran paid the "compound" a visit--except that it wasn't known as a compound then. His perspective at the time was
However, Meisner said she "still cannot confirm that we have the 16-year-old girl."
"That it's business as usual." "Things were quiet out there. It was calm." "They just want to live their lives under their religious beliefs."I don't much appreciate the odd religious beliefs of the FLDS community. I can't understand how they would acquiesce to Warren Jeffs' usurpation of power outside the normal bounds of FLDS transfer of authority. I am particularly
perturbed, as Ken Bingham has already pointed out, that the FLDS have taken on the moniker of "Latter-Day Saints" when almost none of their members have ever had anything to do with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But just because they're weird doesn't give Texas law enforcement the authority to metamorphose an incident of abuse into a "compound building" experiment.When a friend of mind seemed smugly satisfied back when the Branch Davidian community received their comeuppance as their property went up in flames, I looked him square in the eye and said, "Richard--you're next."
"Next" has now gotten a lot closer.
Notice the ass-covering spin being provided by the media to justify this outrageous raid:
ReplyDeleteThe "authorities" are "unsure" of the whereabouts of "Sarah"
instead of the more truthful:
The raiders HAVE NO IDEA where the hell the girl is who made the call. They don't even know whether such a "victim" even exists, or whether the call was placed by some impostor seeking to cause trouble.
If NY authorities had committed an atrocity of this magnitude against a community of Hassidic Jews based on some anonymous call, the media would be all over them with anti-semitism, shades-0f-Hitler charges, the families immediately re-united, and the "authorities" roundly condemned.
But these poor folks in Eldorado unfortunately don't have such powerful media allies. In both cases the respective communities dress funny and don't want their children to have anything to do with our morally corrupt and decadent "mainstream", Britney Spears, American Idol, porn-worshipping society. But while that's perfectly OK for the Jews, it is a societal sin of the first order for the poor FLDS!
We children do not belong to the fucking government. We belong to our parents - and not just till we turn some arbitrarily defined age either, but for our entire lives.
The government admits that a child belongs to its mother at least up until it is born, to the extent that her right is recognized to kill that child through an abortion if she so desires. Parents need to re-assert and re-take their absolute rights.
Hmmm.... The Texas officials say they've had a 'mole' in the FLDS group for the past four years and that they have been accumulating evidence for various crimes, including systematic ritualized child rape. One official sort of admitted that they had assembled enough evidence to get a warrant, but were waiting for some event to kick it off. When the call came it, that was their excuse. Now the Feds are involved for a variety of reasons, including transporting children across state lines for purposes of sex.
ReplyDeleteThey may be going way overboard. But the fact is that none of us is privy to the evidence available to the state and federal judges that issued the warrants and court orders. We rely on our justice system, flawed though it is, to provide some semblance of due process. It may take years before we fully comprehend whether these people have been afforded adequate due process or not. It sure seems fishy to take the women and children in the name of protecting them from abuse without charging the men with anything. (One guy was charged with obstructing justice and they want to charge one guy that is apparently on the lamb. But none of the other men has been charged with anything yet.)
I'm all for the live and let live approach. I have relatives that are members of a polygamist group. The folks I've met from their group seem like nice enough people. But they have a hard and fast rule against 'marriage' with minors (i.e. child sexual abuse under the guise of marriage).
You always have to say "minors" because you KNOW that once someone can have a child of their own they are nolonger a child themselves.
ReplyDeleteThere was NOTHING wrong with the men marrying girls who were able to have children. The fact that this country persecutes men who do so shows that we need a brutal revolution of mass bloodletting. ALL who support this pro-women's rights encroachment on these men's lives should die.
Death To women's Rights.
Viva Men's Liberties.
Please God, let Men be angry and destroy this society that hates them and denys them what is good. Let all who are in favor of women's rights suffer for it.
Down, boy!
ReplyDeleteyou are right on with that line
ReplyDelete