Since the South Texas religious, polygamist sect children, were stripped from their parents over a month ago, I have been wanting to rant about this, but I haven’t had the appropriate forum to do so as my other blogs have different themes to them. So, now that I have set up this blog, it just seems appropriate to go off on this situation. Especially now that the state is actually starting to return the children with their parents.
(CNN) – Child welfare officials have agreed to return 12 children taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch to their parents while the courts weigh hundreds of other cases, a family spokeswoman said Friday.
…It was unclear whether the agreement reached in San Antonio would apply to families of the more than 400 other children taken in the raid, which Haas called “a huge mistake” for the state.
“I think that CPS does not want to give any of these children back, and that makes me very sorrowful as a mother and a grandmother,” she said. “These children now need to go back to their parents immediately.”
…On Thursday, the 3rd District Court of Appeals court ruled that the department failed to prove there was an urgent need to remove the children and that it was wrong to extend the abuse allegations to the entire community.
In another article:
Aside from mothers staying with their infants in foster care, no other parents from the west Texas ranch have been allowed to stay with their children.
The state wants to keep the children in foster care while the case is reviewed.
Rod Parker, a spokesman for the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, says the parents are prepared for an extended legal battle.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I do not agree with the religious beliefs of the FLDS. And, if there truly is child abuse taking place, than that should be researched first, not after the fact, and then dealt with accordingly. I’m not here to squabble over the definition of child abuse either. The point is, you don’t go in and destroy an entire community because you think that “maybe” there might be an instance of child abuse that is based on an annonymous phone call. And now, you have, perhaps, the first case of habeas corpus in Texas.
From the Star-Telegram.com:
“There’s no allegation I’ve seen why you are holding these kids all across the state and not allowing their parents to see or their lawyers to see them,” Matassarin said. “I think this will be the first habeas corpus case in Texas heard by a judge other than Judge Walther.”
Habeas Corpus = The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
Also known as “The Great Writ,” a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum is a summons with the force of a court order addressed to the custodian (such as a prison official) demanding that a prisoner be brought before the court, together with proof of authority, allowing the court to determine whether that custodian has lawful authority to hold that person, or, if not, the person should be released from custody
Habeas Corpus, is being eroded away from our constituation. In order to help save Habeas Corpus, click on the link in the side bar!
What amazes me is that there is no uprising whatsoever about the government storming in with guns drawn, SWAT team style:
“They came in with guns,” said one horrified resident of the ranch. “They were armed – SWAT teams – we were removed from our homes at gunpoint.” (CBS News-April 20, 2008)
50 years ago, the government tried to do the same thing with the same religious sect and there was a major uprising in the US about the abuse of power by the federal government:
Fifty-five years ago, in 1953, the government raided a remote FLDS compound at Short Creek, on the Arizona-Utah border.
More than 100 police went in, arresting several dozen men; 86 women and 263 children were taken into custody. Reporters were invited along on the raid, a strategy, says Peg McEntee, an assistant managing editor at the Salt Lake Tribune, that backfired.
“There were cameras and news people there who recorded this entire event, and those images and stories went all across the nation, which rose up and indignation and shock that the state had just arbitrarily raided this place and taken all these people into their custody,” recalled McEntee.
Maybe if those images would have accompanied this raid, there would be an uprising… Maybe not!! Now, the American people sit idly by and allow this type of goverment abuse to take place without doing anything or even saying a word about it because it doesn’t fit into their mold of a perfect little world. People are either just too busy, too lazy, or they just don’t give a crap about the Constitution and the protection of their God-given rights. COME ON PEOPLE – WAKE UP – BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!
Additional Resources:
Online Abeline Reporter News: State’s action in FLDS case raises questions
