I have been remiss in posting regarding this topic. There has been tons of reporting on this story, and, much like a halibut left out in the summer sun for a week, it's starting to REALLY stink.
For starters, we learn that the Texas Schutzstaffel showed up full combat gear with armored vehicles when they invaded the ranch. Armored vehicles! WTF!!!! Can you say "Branch Davidians"? Two weeks ago when I first posted regarding this abortion of justice, I mentioned that the FLDS were smart not to resist the police, lest they end up like the Davidians. Was I right, or was I right?
So.....where, exactly, did the Schutzstaffel get the idea that they needed that degree of overkill? Was the FLDS armed to teeth like the Davidians? No. Were there threats of violence issued from the FLDS toward, gee, ANYONE? No. Ah, but there were RUMORS.
Parker said rumors have circulated since the 1950s that the FLDS would respond with violence to threats on their way of life. "It's never been substantiated at all. Nobody who knows these people could possibly believe that," he said.Rumors. From the 1950s. Uh-huh.
This was overkill on an unprecedented level. But it's okay, right? Because, after all, there was a 16-year-old victim of abuse to save, right?
Uh.....not quite.
Phoenix child-protection advocate Flora Jessop said she was duped by a Colorado woman who pretended to be the victim of abuse in a polygamist sect and whose arrest Friday raises questions about the recent seizure of more than 400 children from a church compound in Texas.400 children have been forcibly removed from their homes on the word of an emotionally disturbed Colorado Springs woman. A second raid was nearly executed in Arizona. Arizona law enforcement should be commended for showing considerably more restraint than the hardons in Texas.
Jessop, a former member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said she recorded about 30 hours of phone conversations with a person claiming to be a 15-year-old named Sarah who was beaten and impregnated by her father, a fundamentalist in Colorado City.
Jessop said police eventually traced the calls to a Colorado Springs resident, Rozita Swinton, who was arrested at her home Wednesday and is being held in connection with two false police reports in Colorado. According to the Denver Post, one of those involves fake calls from a woman claiming she was going to abandon a baby and kill herself. The other involves calls in which a woman posed as an abused child in a basement.
This stinks to high heaven. I do not in any way condone the practices of the FLDS. But, as a freedom-loving libertarian, I absolutely abhor the tactics of the Texas
Schutzstaffel, whose conduct should be decried and whose leadership should be investigated.
