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Eldorado, Texas-- Protection Racket, They didn’t do it for the children.
Protection Racket
They didn’t do it for the children. By Timothy Lynch http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...YyM2NlODAzZmI= Court proceedings are underway in Texas to sort out the controversial seizure of 465 children from the religious sect near Eldorado. A Texas appeals court ruled Thursday that Texas’s Child Protective Services (CPS) failed to justify the seizure of the very young children and teenage boys. The Court said there was simply “no evidence” of immediate danger to them. More legal challenges are expected to follow. To understand the stakes involved, it will be useful revisit some of the key events and claims. Culture shock is not a crime. Today marriage and child bearing are commonly delayed into one’s 30s, so there was some culture shock when the news broke about a raid on a religious sect where teen pregnancy was reportedly the norm. Texas law-enforcement officials may recoil from such behavior but it cannot send agents out on a whim to enforce a new set of rules. The Mormon splinter group, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), moved to Texas precisely because the state’s marriage laws were amenable to their religious beliefs. In 2004, the year FLDS members moved to Eldorado, Texas law allowed girls as young as 14 to marry with the permission of their parents. In 2005, Texas lawmakers heeded the advice of Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to raise the minimum age that minors with parents’ permission can marry from 14 to 16. Shurtleff had experience dealing with FLDS communities in Utah. Texas also upgraded the penalties for bigamy from a misdemeanor to felony. There is nothing untoward about that — so long as those new laws are applied prospectively. A Presumption of Guilt. Six weeks have now passed since the April 3 raid on the FLDS ranch and there have been no arrests for child abuse or child rape. The raid was prompted by an anonymous phone call by a lady named “Sarah.” “Sarah” claimed that she was 16, that she lived at the FLDS ranch in Eldorado, that she was forced into a marriage with a much older man by the name of Dale Barlow, that she had one eight-month-old child and that she was pregnant again. Texas CPS executed a search warrant at the ranch but could not find “Sarah” or Dale Barlow. Police now believe that the phone call was a hoax by a woman in Colorado who has a history of submitting false reports. Dale Barlow was found in Arizona. He has been interviewed by investigators, but Texas has chosen not to have Barlow arrested even though they had an arrest warrant for him when the initial raid took place. Texas CPS officials now stress that the seizure of the children is a “civil” matter unrelated to the raid and that the constitutional safeguards that pertain to criminal investigations do not apply. FLDS parents and their appointed lawyers were initially bewildered by the Kafkaesque manner of Texas’s “child removal” proceedings. The presumption of innocence was turned on its head, which means the parents were expected to prove a negative — that they committed no crime. Until yesterday’s ruling, CPS had been able to whimsically thwart any challenge to its authority. Some parents, for example, have tried to present government documentation, such as birth certificates and drivers licenses, to show they have violated no marriage law so that they could retrieve their children. Unacceptable, said CPS. When some mothers sought to meet with their attorneys before police interviews, CPS informed the mothers that if they left the shelter for such an appointment, they would not be able to rejoin their children, which are in CPS custody. Every Child Supposedly in Danger. Most Americans are under the mistaken impression that Texas authorities have seized 465 children because of obvious criminality. Not so. Since the children are healthy, CPS has not accused any FLDS parent with neglect. And since boys and baby girls have been taken into custody, CPS could not possibly argue that those children are in danger of rape or a forced marriage. Instead, CPS claims the belief system of the FLDS religion with respect to women and child bearing constitutes a “pervasive pattern and practice” of abuse that poses a risk of emotional abuse to all children, including, apparently, infants. Had CPS simply taken 20 teenage girls into state custody as its investigation continued, there would have been no uproar. However, the seizure of every single child has now prompted the Texas appellate courts to step in and slam the brakes on what is now the largest custody battle in American history. CPS Mistreatment of the Children. FLDS members have bitterly complained about their treatment by CPS. When CPS denies the validity of those complaints, it is difficult for outside observers to draw any conclusions. However, thanks to John Kight, who is chairman of an organization that provided mental health workers to assist CPS care for the mothers and hundreds of children who were moved to shelters, we have some objective eyewitness reports that Kight has released to the press. What these social workers have reported is deeply disturbing. One worker wrote, “On the awful day that they separated the mothers and children the level of cruelty and lack of respect for human rights was overwhelming. Crying, begging children were ripped away from their devastated mothers and the mothers were put on buses to either return to the ranch or to go to shelters. Most went to shelters because they were told they would be able to see their children if they did not return to the ranch. This, of course, was another [CPS] lie.” Another worker observed “one male child, who was about 9 years old, broke away from the rest of the children who were all hurtled together, being comforted by each other, and walked up to a police officer. I heard him say, ‘You’re the police, help us. Help me get my mother back. She has done nothing wrong.’” Another worker concluded her report with this: “Never in all my life, and I am one of the older ladies, have I been so ashamed of being a Texan and seeing what and how our government agencies treat people.” Legal precedent will go beyond FLDS members. Child removal is necessary in certain circumstances, but it is a drastic step. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude in many jurisdictions seems to be that child removal is a risk-free way of erring on the side of safety. Not so. However well-meaning social workers may be, families are too often destroyed by the emotional and financial strain of state intervention. The children suffer the most, of course. Sadly, they just cannot comprehend why their parents, their guardians, could have “let this happen to us.” To be sure, the FLDS culture poses some challenges to CPS, but such challenges cannot justify the imposition of a presumption of guilt. To protect the innocent, we must make sure CPS agents present clear evidence in every single case. — Timothy Lynch is director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice. An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and the Child Protection "INDUSTRY" Child Protective Services Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of CPS. every parent should read the free handbook from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN) Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS Perpetrators of Maltreatment Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13 Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12 Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5 Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers. THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central intelligence agency wiretaping programs… THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6 This is Child Protection? By Gregory A. Hession, J.D. http://www.jbs.org/node/4632 Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families By Nev Moore Massachusetts News http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca 30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. 27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated 33% were receiving public assistance 37% had not finished high school 2% receive a college degree 50% were unemployed Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment than the general population. *Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support 80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system. The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown up. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991 Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing. This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in the first place. Front-page story in USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close Read the studies online. Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care," http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports: www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than walking wreckage... CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON... BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... |
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