On one hand, the authorities in Texas could hardly ignore the phone calls this woman apparently made. It wasn't just one call, but a series of very believable calls, so you can't blame them for taking firm action.
On the other hand, if this was a hoax, it raises serious legal and Constitutional questions about search and seizure, and could contaminate whatever real case there may be behind all of this.
This mess could take years to resolve in the Courts. No wonder more than 350 attorneys showed up for the initial hearings last week...
Developing...
“Blogger ‘DRJ’ at Patterico.com made the shocking discovery that Swinton (the hoax caller, pretending to be ‘Sarah’) is listed as a pledged delegate for Sen. Barack Obama at next month’s state convention of the Colorado Democratic Party.”
I’m amazed that it wasn’t a Freeper that busted this open, but at least it’s out there now.
The police get tips all the time. Many come from people with axes to grind. Some of them are not true. The police do not know this when they receive the tip and have to investigate them in good faith. If during the investigation they uncover actual evidence of crimes they have to continue the investigation. The accuracy of the original tip is no longer an issue, the evidence found during the search is. If you don’t allow the investigation to continue, there’s no reason for police to respond to tips at all, since at the time of the tip they can never know if its true or not.
as more and more truth comes out like this, it won’t make one whit of difference to those on this board who would see this group hung out to dry and the children all in foster care no matter what... this case was certainly a wake up call to me, when I discovered how many facists were here at Free Republic.. those to whom, due process and the Constitution don’t matter.. if they don’t like you, it doesn’t matter if there’s hard evidence or not.. you have have your children taken from you, and you should be charged with whatever they can trump up. They get their facts from the MSM (just like liberals),and believe that if they don’t like your brand of religion, then let the state step in and take control of your life (just like liberals).
Did she have a problem with the sect or did someone put her up to this?
At this point I'd prefer to not make her an issue in this cases (s). She busted the wall of secrecy.
There is a whole lot of ignorance on the issue of child abuse and or neglect. It is not necessary to prove sexual abuse before the state acts. Mere allegations of neglect are all it takes. The state is charged with the responsibility to investigate allegations and it takes very little evidence to require an investigation. Whatever the reason for the initial investigation, if the investigation uncovers neglect or abuse the state must act on them.
In this case there was ample cause before this phone call for the state to have investigated. If there is any controversy over the phone call starting the investigation, it should be why it took such a call when apparently there were so many other signs of problems. In short, why did it take so long?
Second, removal of the children is not permanent and it is followed by many protective measures. The court (at least in my home state of CT) appoints attorney’s for the child and for the parent if they cannot afford one. The court operates under 2 guidelines. First it does what is in the best interest of the child and second it attempts to fix the problem so that it can reunite the family as soon as possible.
The constitutional rights of these people have not been violated. Their is a due process and it is being followed.
From the articles I have read the parents have not identified themselves. This means the children are technically homeless. That alone would be a reason for the state to step in, find the parents and cause them to accept their parental duties.
If it was a cell phone - they could have found out which tower it connected to and figured out the geographical location that way.
If it was a VOIP phone, they could have tracked the IP and determined an approximate location.
Regular old phonelines are of course easiest to track, and they don't move.
That they would move in such a massive way without even double-checking the phone info available is negligent.
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This mess could take years to resolve in the Courts. No wonder more than 350 attorneys showed up for the initial hearings last week...
Yes it may take years to litigate or at least the criminal side of this. Hopefully the civil side, child custody/abuse won’t take that long and they can either return the children or place them in foster care. One of the bigger issues maybe trying to determine parentage.
As far as lawyers go a statewide call went out and they responded. In Texas by law each child must have an attorney thus the high number.
ITS FOR THE CHILDREN:
You need to take emergency leave to go to Texas and help those poor 416 children rescued by the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) from the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) Ranch. You could help the boys by giving them weed and teaching them to be hippies, and help the girls by cutting their hair that has never been cut since they were born and throwing away those old-fashioned long dresses and provide Abercrombie T-shirts and tight short skirts with no underwear, so they can be normal Americans like Willie Nelson and Britney Spears.
I always assumed the govt looks askance at EVERYONE, including supposed 16 yr old victims. Why the heck didn’t they see what the area code (if a land line) this woman was calling from? If a fake tip is good enough for the govt, why even have a tip? Just invade willy nilly.
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