So Texas law enforcement and and child welfare have raided the rural compound of a splinter religious group based on reports of child abuse.
This sounds awfully familiar.
We can certainly hope that this ends more peacefully, but given the reality of those in charge of what we laughingly call the “American Criminal Justice System”, the real question becomes: is Jerry Boykin involved in anyway?
On-line Opinion Magazine featuring annoyed rumblings from the leading edge of the Baby Boom firmly tied to a reality-based world.
Established: 21 November 2004
The opinions expressed in Comments are those of the individuals making them. Truly absurd comments and opinions are subject to being cruelly mocked, but "flame wars" will take place on someone else's dime.
Your first comment, all comments with extensive links, and random comments that the software decides it doesn't like for no discernible reason will be held for moderation.
[Be aware that for unknown reasons the software rejects comments shorter than 15 characters, so if you want to leave a short comment fill the gap with periods ........]
5 comments
The Branch Davidians were a Seventh Day Adventist sect, this is a Mormon sect. Different theology there, so you have to deal with them on different sets of fundamental premises.
The BD raid was (para)military and was a clusterfucktastrophe from the beginning.
The Texas officials should have dealt with the problems in Waco years before anyone else became involved, and before the place became the military outpost that the BATF ran into when they attempted to serve their warrant.
The theology may be different, but the paranoia is the same, and that’s what gets people killed.
The BD’s paranoia is not what got people killed in Waco. The local sheriff was perfectly capable of serving a warrant and nobody would have been killed if the feds didn’t decide to make it a paramilitary operation.
Michael, the local sheriff can’t deliver or execute a Federal warrant. Given that the warrant was based on solid evidence from United Parcel Service records that they had machine guns in the compound, the rules of engagement were rather clear.
The paramilitary stage was after Federal officers were killed and wounded while attempting to serve a warrant. The local and state law enforcement officials refused to get involved with reports of assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse that had been occurring for an extended period.