Texas Judge orders return of illegally seized children

[Christopher Hall]

The removal of these children was, to me, eerily reminiscent of the government overreaching at WACO.

I am happy to see that the judge has ordered them to be returned to their parents:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,361345,00.html

This type of government action follows a predictable pattern of marginalizing people by ridiculing them, repeating ad nauseum fear for children, getting a judge to sign an order directing their removal and then seizing them.

In this case, the removal was allegededly triggered by a call from a 15 year old sexually abused girl named Sarah, who could never be found.

I found this whole matter dubious from the start.

People have a right to be strange and to raise their children as they see fit.

Kudos to the trial judge and the court of appeals judges.

I hope that these people are entitled to sue for damages under Texas or Federal law.

[Christopher Hall]

Now, the Texas Attorney General is investigating the FLDS or YFZ church for violations of criminal laws:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/06/04/flds.i...n.ap/index.html

The search was conducted illegally, as the product of a bogus (i.e. law enforcement) referral (you know, the girl named Sarah that no one can find and no one can trace her supposed call to the authorities), so you would think that the Texas Attorney General would be investigating the Texas Department of Child Protective Services and not the victim of its illegal, overreaching search.

And the illegal raid cost $7,000,000 to pull off, only to be reversed by Texas courts.

These people should be suing the State of Texas and the Texas Department of Child Protective Services for violation of their civil rights.

And now, the Texas Attorney General actually thinks that its office can convince 12 jurors that someone else is the bad guy in this matter.

This is totalitarianism.

It reminds me of the US Marshals' assault on Randy Weaver and his family (at their home in Ruby Ridge, Idaho).

Its agents killed his son and his dog in an attempt to serve a warrant on him for missing a court date (his notice of appearance had an incorrect date) in connection with a crime of which he was acquitted.

Thereafter, a FBI Hostage Rescue Team sniper, following an on the spot change to the FBI's standard rules of engagement, shot and killed Weaver's wife while she held their infant daughter.

Then, the Federal government paid Weaver and his family $3,500,000 in settlement of its crimes against them.

Weaver was acquitted of possessing a sawed off shotgun (or rifle), but convicted of missing a court appearance (for which he served around 6 months).

And guess how much time the FBI sniper, who needlessly killed Weaver's wife, served?

You're right, not one day. In fact, charges brought against the FBI sniper by the State of Idaho were transferred to a US Attorney's office, based on allegations of Federal law pre-emption, where they were dismissed by the US Attorney's office.

I respect the job that law enforcement has to do (including making split-second decisions with life and death consequences), except when law enforcement officers become criminals themselves.

[Don Jeffries]

Christopher,

I agree completely. One point of clarification; the phone call that triggered this entire fiasco actually came from a 33 year old woman, who was totally unconnected to the group and appears to be emotionally disturbed. The young girl couldn't be located because she never existed.

As you noted, once the "child abuse" bogeyman is raised, most people lose all their reason and perspective. Anything to "save the children," I guess. What has been partcularly bad, but sadly not surprising, is the lack of a single voice in the mainstream media speaking out against this blatantly police-state-type action when it occurred. Instead, we heard about 13 year old brides, young males being forced to leave the "compound" (a buzz word always used to dehumanize the Branch Davidians or other outcast religious groups) because they were competition for the old men who wanted these young girls for themselves, a large number of broken bones in the children (which was completely ridiculous, and even the number cited was not out of proportion with any random group of kids anywhere in the world), and other equally uncredible and almost certainly untrue tales, from the foaming mouths of media parasites like Nancy Grace and Geraldo.

Child Protective Services probably abuses more children in one week than the entire Mormon religion has in its history. The authorities do not like to admit making mistakes; they will fight this with every ounce of energy they have. I hope that the members of this group get together and file a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit.