Waco all over again

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On the basis of a tip phoned in to a hotline, authorities did a huge raid on a group of alleged "polygamists". The media has as usual sided with the administration and taken their point of view. A backlash is starting to grow.

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Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk
Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press
         
By KIRK JOHNSON
Published: April 12, 2008

ELDORADO, Tex. â€" The raid last week on a polygamist compound here is complicating law enforcement efforts in Utah and Arizona, where there are far more offshoot Mormon polygamists but where the authorities try to avoid such large-scale confrontations.

Officials in those states have dealt for many years with the tangled and delicate problem of opening communications with polygamist groups while also winning the confidence of girls who are taken as under-age wives. The Texas authorities say the raid here was prompted by a 16-year-old who called on a cellphone from the compound in a cry for help.

But the raid’s scale â€" 416 children were removed, making it the largest raid in more than a half century in the West â€" and the fact that the 16-year-old has not been identified, has sharply eroded trust in the government among polygamist groups, according to law enforcement officials in several states.

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It seems that it is just another case of over reaching by law enforcement and over zealous politicians trying to score cheap points. They figured that calling them "polygamists" would tar them to the point that the public would not rally around. The corporate media went along with it. But that goes without saying. How would you like it if the law came to your home and took your kids based on some flaky tip? Or took you away on that basis?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24777095/

SAN ANGELO, Texas - In a ruling that could torpedo the case against the West Texas polygamist sect, a state appeals court Thursday said authorities had no right to seize more than 440 children in a raid on the splinter group's ranch last month.

It was unclear how many children were affected by the ruling. The state took 464 children into custody in April, but Thursday's ruling directly applied to the children of 48 sect mothers represented by the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aide, said Cynthia Martinez of the agency. About 200 parents are involved in the polygamy case.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that the state offered "legally and factually insufficient" grounds for the "extreme" measure of removing all children from the ranch, from babies to teenagers.

The state never provided evidence that the children were in any immediate danger, the only grounds in Texas law for taking children from their parents without court approval, the appeals court said.

It also failed to show evidence that more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and never alleged any sexual or physical abuse against the other children, the court said.

It was not immediately clear whether the children scattered across foster facilities statewide might soon be reunited with parents. The ruling gave Texas District Judge Barbara Walther 10 days to vacate her custody order, and the state could appeal.

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Now an appeals court has weighed in and affirmed the lower court's decision to return the children. The state for it's part says the parents and their children "might flee" if the children were returned. If I lived in Texas I might think about fleeing too.

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SAN ANTONIO (AP) - In a crushing blow to the state's massive
seizure of children from a polygamist sect's ranch, the Texas
Supreme Court ruled Thursday that child welfare officials
overstepped their authority and the children should go back to
their parents.

The high court affirmed a decision by an appellate court last
week, saying Child Protective Services failed to show an immediate
danger to the more than 400 children swept up from the Yearning For
Zion Ranch nearly two months ago.

"On the record before us, removal of the children was not
warranted," the justices said in their ruling issued in Austin.