For those of you following the case of the polygamist sect, but not following it so closely that you’ve seen today’s headlines, the state appellate court just ruled that welfare officials were wrong to remove the children from the ranch.
8 comments
From the Appellate court’s decision:
“The simple fact, conceded by the Department, that not all FLDS families are polygamous or allow their female children to marry as minors demonstrates the danger of removing children from their homes based on the broad-brush ascription of every aspect of a belief system to every person living among followers of the belief system or professing to follow the belief system.”
@ 2:11 pm on May 22, 2008
I agree, let’s return the kids who weren’t in any danger back to their rightful families. Now… if we can just figure out who’s married to who and how all of these kids are related to each other. That should be easy, right? I mean, I’m SURE that none of their unions crossed legal, social, or moral lines. Right? Looks pretty cut and dry to me.
@ 2:34 pm on May 22, 2008
I like that thinking, Whatevs. Pull nearly 500 kids out of their homes on the basis of a false allegation, then keep them away from their families while we try to find out which, if any, of their parents may have committed a crime. Guilty until proven innocent. General suspicion instead of probable cause.
@ 2:44 pm on May 22, 2008
It’s not general suspicion when large numbers of these kids have been abused, acording to Texas law, on physical, sexual and emotional levels. Read up on the facts a little more and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Just because you’re raised to think marrying a 24 year old man when you turn 14 is an honor, that doesn’t make it legal – or moral – for that matter. And before you go saying that’s an isolated case, read the facts and you will see that it’s more the norm that not.
The kids are safer in state custody than they are in that damn compound, no matter what you think about the legal process in which the state proceeded.
@ 3:32 pm on May 22, 2008
Have you read the court’s opinion, Whatevs? Right now, CPS is saying that 5 minors were pregnant or had had children between the ages of 15 and 17. 5 girls out of 450 (give or take; it’s hard for the state to keep up with all those kids) infants, children, and teens. In other words there were not “large numbers.”
Your ignorance speaks as loudly as your bigotry.
@ 4:23 pm on May 22, 2008
“…no matter what you think about the legal process..”
Nice.
@ 4:54 pm on May 22, 2008
They were not wrong, just mistaken according to the judges. I say we give those goofy fools who are yearning for Zion 24 hours to leave the great state of Texas, or we’ll throw them all in jail. That seems fair to me.
@ 9:30 am on May 23, 2008
I was born in Dallas TX 72 years ago, and I’ve been prouder of nothing else in my life than being a native Texan. I’m also a devout Christian who believes that “one man/one woman for life” is the only good foundation for society.
But what my once-beloved state has done to those 460+ children and their hard-working, inoffensive mothers and fathers is the most grievous and outrageous abuse imaginable of everything this country has historically stood for.
There were so many other–Constitutional, legitimate, compassionate, common sense, “American”–ways to investigate whether or not something illegal was happening at the ranch, but the little gods at CPS are of course above any law, above compassion, above common sense.
If its excuse for the tanks/rifles/jackboots was “imminent danger” to someone, why did it wait FIVE DAYS after getting that (what they obviously knew almost immediately was a hoax) phone call to take action?
Over 6 weeks now of increasingly desperate attempts to find one shred of evidence of polygamy/underage marriage/abuse or neglect of anyone, those children are still warehoused on cots in the San Angelo Coliseum crying for mothers and homes.
I beg God that everyone involved in this contemporary Crystallnacht (including everyone who’s approved & cheered it on blogs and chat sites like this) live to have the same thing done to them or the people they love. And may the state of Texas be bankrupted paying damages to these victims of its brutal lawlessness.
@ 6:52 am on May 26, 2008
FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
8 comments
From the Appellate court’s decision:
“The simple fact, conceded by the Department, that not all FLDS families are polygamous or allow their female children to marry as minors demonstrates the danger of removing children from their homes based on the broad-brush ascription of every aspect of a belief system to every person living among followers of the belief system or professing to follow the belief system.”
I agree, let’s return the kids who weren’t in any danger back to their rightful families. Now… if we can just figure out who’s married to who and how all of these kids are related to each other. That should be easy, right? I mean, I’m SURE that none of their unions crossed legal, social, or moral lines. Right? Looks pretty cut and dry to me.
I like that thinking, Whatevs. Pull nearly 500 kids out of their homes on the basis of a false allegation, then keep them away from their families while we try to find out which, if any, of their parents may have committed a crime. Guilty until proven innocent. General suspicion instead of probable cause.
It’s not general suspicion when large numbers of these kids have been abused, acording to Texas law, on physical, sexual and emotional levels. Read up on the facts a little more and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Just because you’re raised to think marrying a 24 year old man when you turn 14 is an honor, that doesn’t make it legal – or moral – for that matter. And before you go saying that’s an isolated case, read the facts and you will see that it’s more the norm that not.
The kids are safer in state custody than they are in that damn compound, no matter what you think about the legal process in which the state proceeded.
Have you read the court’s opinion, Whatevs? Right now, CPS is saying that 5 minors were pregnant or had had children between the ages of 15 and 17. 5 girls out of 450 (give or take; it’s hard for the state to keep up with all those kids) infants, children, and teens. In other words there were not “large numbers.”
Your ignorance speaks as loudly as your bigotry.
“…no matter what you think about the legal process..”
Nice.
They were not wrong, just mistaken according to the judges. I say we give those goofy fools who are yearning for Zion 24 hours to leave the great state of Texas, or we’ll throw them all in jail. That seems fair to me.
I was born in Dallas TX 72 years ago, and I’ve been prouder of nothing else in my life than being a native Texan. I’m also a devout Christian who believes that “one man/one woman for life” is the only good foundation for society.
But what my once-beloved state has done to those 460+ children and their hard-working, inoffensive mothers and fathers is the most grievous and outrageous abuse imaginable of everything this country has historically stood for.
There were so many other–Constitutional, legitimate, compassionate, common sense, “American”–ways to investigate whether or not something illegal was happening at the ranch, but the little gods at CPS are of course above any law, above compassion, above common sense.
If its excuse for the tanks/rifles/jackboots was “imminent danger” to someone, why did it wait FIVE DAYS after getting that (what they obviously knew almost immediately was a hoax) phone call to take action?
Over 6 weeks now of increasingly desperate attempts to find one shred of evidence of polygamy/underage marriage/abuse or neglect of anyone, those children are still warehoused on cots in the San Angelo Coliseum crying for mothers and homes.
I beg God that everyone involved in this contemporary Crystallnacht (including everyone who’s approved & cheered it on blogs and chat sites like this) live to have the same thing done to them or the people they love. And may the state of Texas be bankrupted paying damages to these victims of its brutal lawlessness.