Posted on 04/07/2008 3:59:08 PM PDT by PeterFinn
EXCERPTED - go to link to see whole story
SAN ANGELO — The state has taken legal, temporary custody of 401 children from a polygamist compound in nearby Schleicher County, a child welfare official said today, citing allegations of abuse and that the children were at risk of harm.
"In my opinion, this is the largest endeavor we've ever been involved with in the state of Texas," Marleigh Meisner, spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said as the number of children in temporary custody grew from an initial 18 youngsters.
Temporary custody was awarded by a state district judge, Meisner said. Each child will be appointed a guardian ad litem and an attorney ad litem to represent their interests, she said.
In addition, 133 women have voluntarily joined the children, who are being held at an historic site, Fort Concho, that includes facilities for lodging.
State officials are probably close to finished with their search of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints ranch, Meisner said, "but we're not there yet."
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
At least the Clinton ATF weren’t involved in this one.
Sadly, that was my first thought, too.
Ten years ago there’d have been 400 kids killed. I guess things have improved with Janet Reno gone from authority.
This was a state of Texas operation. The feds had nothing to do with it. This is going to be an interesting event as it progresses as the state has now gotten itself into a judge/jury type situation regarding how a family can raise their children. If there is abuse, etc then there are grounds to take control. We’ll see as this plays out over the next few weeks. Temp custody may well be the final outcome and most of the children maybe turned back over to the parents....
For them to do something this drastic they must have good reason. I suspect 18 said they weren’t going back and told why.
This raid was related to the case against their
pervert-in-chief William Jeffs. Remove all of the children and leave the adults. Then set fire to the place like Waco. At a minimum, all of the adult followers of William Jeffs deserve prison sentences in general population. Let’s see how long these child molesters last. FLDS people need to be put away.
Ping
It’s about time. It’s not like the ‘authorities’ were unaware that (minor) girls were being forced into marriage and raped. While those followers of Jeffs may have isolated themselves from the rest of the country, doing so did not excuse them from obeying the law. Hopefully, they will be able to find the gal that called for help and that she’s safe.
Bingo - State operation, not Fed.
And now, with this, the state of Texas can point to an almost *exactly* similar situation and show just how badly the Feds screwed up at Waco.
Waco: Operation run by Feds; massive casualties, lots of money and munitions spent for no good reason.
Eldorado: Operation run by state and local law enforcement (with, I assume, the Texas Rangers on point); no casualties, no shots fired, operation concludes peacefully.
Amazing what happens when you let the adults run things.
i agree
Being “aware” and having enough evidence to get a warrant are two totally different things - unfortunately (in some cases, fortunately in others, don’t want the government randomly raiding people.)
In this case, the evidence that triggered the warrant was the multiple 911 calls. Bring the tapes of that PLUS the suspicions of others to a judge, and you’ll be able to get a warrant - which appears to be exactly what happened here.
“At risk of harm” is meaningless. Everyone is always “at risk of harm.” Were they being harmed or not?
No, we had professional law enforcement running this show - the Texas Rangers.
You might want to look at the case history of the Railway Killer (Illegal alien Rafael Resendez-Ramirez) from a few years back. The FBI was looking all over for him and imploring the Canadian and Mexican authorities to help.
A Texas Ranger, Drew Carter, picked up the phone, called Ramirez’s family in Mexico and told him “don’t make me come down there.” Ramirez surrendered to the Ranger at the Juarez border crossing the next day.
FBI = Amateurs
Rangers = Pros
Gotta remember that the juvenile court privacy laws apply. We’ll know when and if the charges are filed.
If the Government is going after this group of lunatics who claim a religious “right” to polygamy and statutory rape in VIOLATION of the laws in this country — will the same actions be taken against Muslims behaving similarly in States where U.S. Law is being violated?????
In for a penny, in for a pound...
None of our laws exclude specific “religions” from compliance..
Nor is there any provision in our Constitution to place “Sharia Law” in a superior position to the Constitution or the Laws of the various States.
Clearly — we are reaching the decision point, where either our laws are ignored for EVERYONE, or we exclude polygamists and child abusers from living in the United States...
Fundamental Islam is NOT compatible with U.S. Law or Western Civilization — hardly a better example of two “cultures” more destined to conflict with one another..
It will be the dance of the Mongoose and Cobra until one is dead or subservient.
Yours is the best post on this issue I’ve seen.
The sick stuff that is going on in the muslim community with the knowledge of authorities astounds.
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