Update 4/17/2008 - 1:30 PM : Nice report by a senator who is reporting on the authority of Child Protective Services, abuse by CPS, and inherent incentives in law to encourage CPS to abuse their authority.
Warning, while this blog has been built in my head over the last two days, I only have one lunch period to put it on virtual paper. Spelling, grammar, and nonsense sentences will be fixed at an unspecified future time. For any reporters reading this, while this first paragraph is here, feel free to correct my grammar when you quote me. ;-)
As I've been reading articles throughout the days, I've bookmarked interesting ones. I tried to sort through which ones to show you, but you'll get the same idea if you go to google news and search on "polygamy" and read back a few days.
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Every since the polygamous sect in Texas was raided, I've been following the developments very closely. Reading dozens of articles a day, watching videos of officials making statements, and trying to piece together what was happening through public sources.
My interest was mild at first. I just happened to be watching the news when the raid started and got hooked. The raid started on the religious compound because of several calls over a two day period from an underage girl stating how she had been beaten and raped by being married to an elderly man who was in the compound.
Police showed up at the compound with a warrant to search for the girl who had made the call, and after a tense hours (the details of what was going on between police and compound authorities in those hours was never in any of my reading) the sect allowed the police to enter the compound. Women and children were removed from the compound and taken to an holding area. After pictures of the holding area (taken by cellphones) were released and the mothers made complaints about the conditions they were being held in, police confiscated all the cellphones because the women might be coordinating their responses with the men in the compound.
The women who did not have children under four years old were forcefully separated from the children, and returned to the ranch or sent to a retreat for battered women ( the individual women could choose which place to go to ). The children were separated by age and sex and sent to places which could care for them until it was decided what to do with them.
Today is the court hearing to decide what to do with the children.
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The problems with this situation is multitudinous.
Lets start with the original call and search warrant. The search warrant authorizing the search of the compound was based on an anonymous call that wasn't recorded, merely written down, so we have no voice verification possible. The latest news on the caller is that the names and situation reported matches a previous Modus Operandi in Arizona in which the anonymous call was proven to be false accusation - the maker of that anonymous call was never caught. Aside from the apparently high probability that the call is again a false accusation by the same person, we have the second issue of police officers requiring children to be removed from the compound.
The authority the police used to remove over 400 children from the compound was that the children were in immediate danger, but at the time they gave the reason that they needed to remove all the children so the one that called would be safe.... but why remove the children that CLEARLY did not meet the criteria? ( as in the 300 children that were under the age of four. ) This was merely one lie of many told by the police and CPS to those in the compound and the world at large. Two days later, as questions mounted, the police and child services responded that all the children were in immediate danger of sexual abuse and would not be released. The only basis the authorities used was the anonymous call. At this point, I was reading everything I could find on it because the abuse of authority by the police and CPS seemed clear to me, but no voice speaking up for the compound was being reported. As far as I can tell, no abuse had yet been proven in three days of searching. The closest they found was a bed used by the sect in their religious marriages. IMMEDIATELY the claim went out the underage sex occurred in that bed; with no supporting evidence except rumples sheets and a single hair. Phht. My opinion of how this was being handled was about as low as I thought my opinion about anything could go. I was so wrong.
During all this time, the workers for child services were not getting any confessions of child abuse from the children. The explanation? The parents being around are inhibiting the children. i.e. Child abuse is going on, we just have no proof of it. What do they do? They forcefully separate the children over four years old from the mothers and give the mothers two options - back to the sect or a shelter for abused women. The women that returned to the compound were crying and weeping, and some of the women talked to reporters, stating that they were fearful that they would never be allowed to get their children back, because the authorities had proven no wrongdoing and shown no abuse, and still they police took the children.
But what about the women that did not go back to the compound? Six women voluntarily chose to go to the shelter, "because they were afraid", and that was all the papers reported. Just over a day later, all six women requested to be taken back to the compound, because there were not being given their children. When given the choice by the police, the women were told that they would get their children faster if they went to the shelter for battered women. Of course the women were afraid. They were afraid that they police would not be returning their children - and they didn't.
All along the women have been claiming that the police and child services lied to them. The first claim of lying was that the people at the compound were told that being removed from the compound was just for questioning and that they WOULD BE RETURNING. Then the authorities got the women to separate from the children by telling them that they would be taking them to another section to see another group of the children. When the women had been gathered to supposedly be driven to other children, police and child services surrounded the women and gave the the stupid two choices of returning to the compound or going to a shelter for battered women.
Come on! If police really think they are being battered and are forcing the women to take action, why is one of the courses of action given by the police to go back to the compound where the battering is supposedly taking place. If the police really believed battery was going on, why are they putting people back in harms way.
What about the law. Surly the judges involved in the two counties would be watching over this and saying, "Whoa!" The sad truth is that the same judge who gave the search warrant to police based on an unverified anonymous caller, has authority over both counties. And it is this same judge who is showing no respect for "proof of wrongdoing" that is going to determine what happens to the children.
Already, the older boys have been shipped seven hours away to a ranch for for juvenile delinquents. The owner of the ranch didn't know how to handle it because he was being asked to implement the group from the compound ( straight laced and sheltered from bad influences outside the compound wall ) with a group with known criminal (mostly repeat offenders) records.
Ah, I got off on a tangent. Back to the lying by authorities. This has never been refuted. When asked ( and I've seen the live news feeds ) the authorities merely say that right to practice religion does not trump the right of the children. Ummmm. So they are lying. And aren't afraid to admit it.
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All the newspapers are being spoon fed their information, and taking all this unquestioningly. Very few papers have even addressed the legality of the situation. Everyone seems to assume that the compound is guilty by default. As far as I can tell, the judge thinks that all the children are at risk because polygamy is inherently abusive of children. Quite simply, No one is standing up for the rule of law and requiring a burden of proof. The main lady that gives the reports to the reporters have said that even they can't prove anything, that the children will still likely be shipped away. One psychologist assisting in the case said "There are things I know about [what happened to the boys] that border on abusive, but whether they can prove it, I am not sure". He "know"s its happening, he just can't prove it? This type of baloney is the whole basis for the current situation. Every body "knows" there is abuse going on, but NOBODY had even come close to publicly saying what that abuse is. It is always attorney/client privilege, can't speak out because he might be the target of revenge, or they won't say anything public until their case is stronger.
If there is proof that ever comes to the forefront, it is useless if the anonymous caller is never identified or if the anonymous caller was ::gasp!:: lying. Any evidence found through the course of this investigation rests on the probable cause of the original warrant. If the caller is not found, the basis for the warrant disappears, and no evidence found afterwards may be used in the court of law. It doesn't matter if nothing is ever proved though. Everyone, newspapers, State District Judge Barbara Walther, child services, police, and apparently America at large has decided that the children are being abused. When the question was asked what would happen if the caller was never found, the head child services lady merely made a reply that religion does not trump the right of the children.
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I fear that lack of proof will not derail this train for a long time. By the time everything gets sorted out, who knows what travesties are visited upon these children. Already, they have been forcefully separated from their parents, the younger, innocent children being asked blatant questions about sexual abuse, and conscientious officials already have plans are in the works to take kids and put them in foster homes, or keep them in big dormitories. I can't help but think that the people in the compound had the right idea: shut themselves out from the insane world outside. The public at large, as defined by what public newspapers report, has decided Texas is leading a crusade against backwards religion. For myself, I've decided that Texas is an example of the depths lawlessness can go in the very heart of law enforcement.
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