From ABC News: "The children removed from the compound are being held in state custody and could soon be placed in foster care, a potentially huge adjustment for children raised in the isolated religious sect, a state Child Protective Services spokeswoman said Friday… Child welfare officials took more than 400 children into custody last week on suspicion that they were being sexually and physically abused after police raided the compound. Hundreds of women from the sect voluntarily followed the children…" As we breathe a sigh of relief that government thugs did not burn another 400 children to death, to prevent them being harmed in the Fair State of Texas, we may want to take a look to see what’s left of the Fourth Amendment.
One of these statements is true:
1) "The Supreme Court outlawed polygamy in the 1800s."
2) The US Supreme Court has absolutely No law making powers under the Constitution – and No jurisdiction within the States of the Union.
One of these statements is true:
1) Government has no authority to trample the Fourth Amendment underfoot and regulate private conduct behind closed doors.
2) Courts can arbitrarily decide where government can stick its nose and when. This can be done before or after a raid or investigation – with or without evidence.
Plot Spoiler Warning: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." ~ Fourth Amendment
One of these statements is true:
1) Government schools themselves constitute the most prevalent form of child abuse. The foster care industry is a symbiotic adjunct. Read Mary Pride’s Book: The Child Abuse Industry.
2) Government has a right to arbitrarily decide if and when to remove children from their parents’ homes preemptively based on suspicion and/or unsubstantiated allegations by undocumented informants – some of which may have immunity and/or be on the government payroll.
A visceral response from the addled may be: "You just don’t understand! – There are many gray areas – and we have to act to prevent damage to ‘the children!’"
The gray areas are manufactured over time by vested interests. This is a very old game in totalitarian regimes. Historically, the naïve have been those who placed too much confidence in government. They have often ended up dead and numbered in the millions.
Do "protective services" operate on a straight commission basis?
In effect, Yes! Law Enforcement and the Judicial Rackets are growth industries in the Fascist State. Check out your own county – look for new larger jails and court houses often built with grant money. The conversion of local law enforcement to a military discipline and mindset at variance with local interests and the rights of citizens will continue to result in more and more Wacos, until and unless the tide is turned back to limited accountable government. "Multi-jurisdictional task forces" are not – can never be – Lawful.
My favorite clip from the article "Hundreds of women from the sect voluntarily followed the children…"
You mean the mothers didn’t have to be compelled to follow their own children into the tender jaws of the Beast? Is the news writer surprised to see mothers who don’t want to get rid of their children?
Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, [and] bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they [were] not. ~ Jeremiah 31:15
Maybe the government should consider other tactics. After all, perhaps all of us will need to become polygamous in order to supply enough fodder for the war machine of this present Empire.
I have no understanding of what goes on inside of the sect in question – and there is little doubt in my mind that I would disagree with them on many particulars of their creed – but I am not going to take their children away in order to learn more about them. I would not disturb or molest them in any way until and unless I know a real crime with a real victim has been committed. Government should have a much higher threshold for any interference in our private lives. The government default should be going away and leaving us alone.
We must all realize how close this nation is to a policy of random house to house searches without even the slightest lip service to constitutional protections. We are on the brink. Once we scoffed at the East Germans and Russians for tolerating such treatment. And we cheered when they trashed the headquarters of their Secret Police. But that’s old news.
We need to start thinking very carefully about which of our unalienable rights we can afford to neglect. In the "mind of government" we are all pre-qualified for some sort of age-appropriate "child protective services."
More details from ABC: "Authorities are still looking for the 16-year-old girl who made the cry for help from the compound, and some experts say the legal basis for the Texas officials' raid may not hold up in court if they cannot locate the accuser…That 16-year-old is the linchpin for probable cause. She is the reason they said they had cause to go in and do this search. If that is not present, if they can't establish probable cause, then everything they gathered in the search will likely be suppressed," said legal analyst Jonathan Turley today on Good Morning America Weekend….He added, "They will not be able to bring criminal charges. They can even be sued for that search."
If no children were harmed – and I sincerely hope none were – perhaps the tort lawyers are about to have another feeding frenzy. Whatever happens I hope we all get a more vital understanding of the importance of our fundamental constitutional protections in relation to our God-Given Unalienable Rights.
The children now appear to be in more jeopardy for some degree of government sanctioned child abuse rather than anything that was feared or alleged of their parents or other sect members.
Tort lawyers may be good for something after all.