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Waco all over again?
Posted By katie allison granju
Say Uncle is talking about this week’s raid on a polygamist compound:
Law-enforcement once again raided a compound populated with people whose religious views were found to be icky by other people. The bad part about it is that the authorities were preventing journalists from seeing what was happening on the property. And that’s shady. Someone should watch the watchmen. The good news is that nobody was set on fire.
While nobody is going to argue in favor of the alleged abuses taking place inside this religious community, everyone I have spoken to about this seems to have the same misgivings about the way in which the state has handled the issue. Precipitously taking custody of more than 400 children away from their parents at one time - in many cases separating those children from their parents - and holding the children inside an old fort may not have been the best way to manage this matter.
It appears to me that several western states have basically turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse and semi-imprisonment that many women and girls are subjected to in the polygamist compounds that dot the western U.S. “Escapees” have told their stories again and again, yet very little has been done.
Now the authorities have moved from one extreme - doing nothing - to another. I suspect there was a middle way, a way that would have better served the needs of the affected women and children, as well as prevented the criticism that’s being leveled against state officials charged with handling this matter.
Apr 9th, 2008
Katie;
I couldn’t agree more. We need to protect children from abuse…but this way of handling abuse claims is very shady indeed.
It reeks of “we don’t like your religious way of life, so we are coming to get you.”
The State was right to investigate…
The way it was handled was constitutionally suspect, to say the least.
“…we don’t like your religious way of life, so we are coming to get you.”
Isn’t that what we did (and are STILL doing) in Afghanistan?
The people in Texas didn’t give aid and comfort to those who attacked the United States-big difference!