Baby Steps
Law-enforcement once again raided a compound populated with people whose religious views were found to be icky by other people. The bad part about it is that the authorities were preventing journalists from seeing what was happening on the property. And that’s shady. Someone should watch the watchmen. The good news is that nobody was set on fire.
Update: KAG has more and notes a shift from ignoring to doing too much.
Update 2: In comments, everyone is telling me that it goes beyond their religious views being icky and their views amount to abuse. I don’t disagree. Still, I’m happy that no one is on fire.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:17 am
“Yet.”
April 9th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Okay three things. 1) Glad to see the First Baptist Church was willing to help, 2) If any man is willing to take on more than one woman, more power to him. 3) Glad that no one was set on fire.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Fundamental Mormonism is a little more than just “icky” to other people; while I’m okay with the concept of polygamy if it’s practiced by consenting adults, a lot of time the fundy mormon groups are getting into the land of forcing minors into marriages with older men while simply kicking young men out of the community.
On the flip side, someone should have been able to observe the police in this situation.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:47 am
i’m in the camp that thinks these people had likely overstepped the bounds of merely “icky”, for the reasons Ahab mentioned. but i’m also in the camp that thinks cops keeping impartial observers away from what they’re doing, when they’re doing something as high-profile, as intrusive, and as possibly controversial as this, is inherently suspect. cops acting in secret, undercover, to stake out and investigate criminals that may plausibly try to hide their crimes, well, there’s a place for that — but the alleged crimes here would be un-hide-able, if committed. plus, it’s not as if the whole damn world doesn’t know they’re intervening, so why shouldn’t we get to verify their methods are kosher too?
in other words, i second Ahab’s motions. when will newsies start operating stealthed UAVs with stabilized cameras for watching the watchmen? you wouldn’t think they’d have to, but…
April 9th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Yeah, having sex with kids is bad, m’kay?
April 9th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I’m in the “these people are icky” group because of the whole sex with kids and banishing kids bit. There is a line between what is protected religious practice and what is abuse cloaked in faith.
As for the media, I’m a little torn. On the one hand, the media should be able to act as a watchdog for the police, and the police should welcome them as a way to provide an independent record of events.
On the other hand, I don’t trust the media to have the decency to protect the privacy of the women and children being removed from the compound. I mean, some outlets are decent, but others aren’t, and giving exclusive access to a trusted outlet is a great way to cause trouble.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:26 am
As someone who was raised mormon I can truly say that the way they practice polygamy is disgusting in so many ways. What is odd is that they practise it very close to the way the founder of the Mormon faith did.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think we’re making progress. They managed to pull this off without shooting any innocent women or children and noone got burned to a crisp.
It is amazing what high standards we now have for our law enforcement.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Ahab is spot on with the consenting adults piece. The whole not burning everyone alive is good-to-go as well; and yes, I think their religion is strange. There is no shortage of weird religion in this country.
What I find interesting is that when the media is not on your side, in regards to your religion, they start calling your church a “compound” and your religion a “cult.” That’s when you know your screwed.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Every religion other than mine is a cult.
There is a Fourth Amendment problem here, which Texas seems to have (successfully) cirmumvented with an “administrative search”. An anonymous phone call is not enough for Fourth Amendment “probable cause”.
Whatever. If little girls were getting raped at or under age 16, I’ll pay for the slow-burning fire and rope to hang the fuckers over it head down. The poles too, if there are no trees handy.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
The only difference between a religion and a cult is popular acceptance.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
The atf did not conduct the raid. The fbi h&rt is not involved. Keep them out and no body gets killed. Local and state leo’s are much less likely to kill women and children. A pox on the killers at Waco.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
My first comment was ‘at least they didn’t burn it down this time’. I am bothered also by the banning of reporters. If they’re doing it legally then why not let people watch.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Just remember that whatever government does it is not in your favor.
April 9th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
LibertyNews Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I think we’re making progress. They managed to pull this off without shooting any innocent women or children and noone got burned to a crisp.
I’d say that’s only because BATF was’nt there. Hell, they’re probably all tied up looking for the missing guns and laptops.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Does anyone else find it suspicious that the 16 year old girl who sparked this entire raid has yet to be found or even identified? Does anyone yet know whose cell phone the 16 year old used to make the call to outside authorities?
Let’s keep in mind no one has been convicted of anything yet. It wouldn’t surprise me if this whole mess was a setup by someone with an ax to grind against the cult and Texas CPS has over-reacted. Remember the satanic child-abuse panic of the ’80s?
April 11th, 2008 at 2:22 am
I have been very suspicious that “the 16 year old caller” was a fake from CPS. The CPS has been known to get overly aggressive and lacadaisial,,,all at the wrong times. From Fox News Greta thinks much of the warrant could be quashed. Looks to me like they had more game wardens than anything else out there.