Category Archives: Child Abuse

Primitive Amazon Tribe Suspected of Child Abuse

June 1, 2008 – 8:30 am

Not really. I made that up. But it is ironic that, in regard to two different strange tribes, “authorities” are saying in one case “leave these people alone” and in the other case “you will adhere to our standards.” In the case of primitive tribes like the one recently discovered in the Amazon they prescribe exceptional measures to ensure that the tribes can continue to live their lives as they see fit without outside interference. In the case of the relatively modern and civilized FLDS sect in Texas they prescribe exceptional measures to force the members to live like the authorities want them to live.

In which tribe do you think the children are most abused? How many of the Amazon tribe’s girls do you think make it to 18 before giving birth? How many do you think live to be 18?

Granted, I’m talking about two different sets of authorities, but this demonstrates how little confidence we should have in authorities. Authorities are consistent in only one way; they have laws, rules or procedures that allow them to do most anything they want to do. And they will want to do more and more unless we resist. Although they have eroded over the years we have checks and balances built into our method of government. But the greatest check against the oppressive power of government is the people.

Referring to the aerial photographing of the Amazon tribe, Fiona Watson of Survival International, said:

It is understood that when the plane first flew over the village, the people scattered into the forest. When it returned a few hours later they had painted themselves red and fired arrows into the sky.

They must have suffered some sort of trauma in the past and must know that contact is not a good thing.

Perhaps they’ve been talking to the FLDS sect in Texas.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Bureaucracy | Comments (0) |

House of Cards Comes Crashing Down

May 23, 2008 – 8:52 am

Well, it appears there are some level heads in Texas. But what took them so long? The AP reports:

An appellate court decision upended the custody case that sent more than 440 children from a polygamist sect’s ranch into foster care, but it’s not clear whether the children might soon return home.

The Third Court of Appeals in Austin said the state failed to show the youngsters were in any immediate danger, the only grounds under Texas law for taking children from their parents without court action.

Texas District Judge Barbara Walther now has 10 days to release the youngsters from custody, but the state could appeal to the Texas Supreme Court and keep the children from immediately going back to their parents.

The decision Thursday in one of the biggest child-custody cases in U.S. history was a humiliating defeat for the state Child Protective Services agency. It was hailed as vindication by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, who claim they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

…

“Even if one views the FLDS belief system as creating a danger of sexual abuse by grooming boys to be perpetrators of sexual abuse and raising girls to be victims of sexual abuse … there is no evidence that this danger is ‘immediate’ or ‘urgent,’” the court said.

“Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal,” the court said.

The court said the state failed to show that any more than five of the teenage girls were being sexually abused, and offered no evidence of sexual or physical abuse against the other children. Half the youngsters taken from the ranch were 5 or younger. Only a few dozen are teenage girls.

The court also said the state was wrong to consider the entire ranch as a single household and to seize all the children because some parents in the home might be abusers.

Were these justices reading from my blog? No, it’s just that, like me, they weren’t among those hyperventilating over the strange behavior of the sect’s members.

Now the Texas authorities should decide not to appeal the decision, get those children back to their parents and get on with investigations of individual instances of abuse — if they can find any. Here’s a guideline: motherhood at the age of 27 is not evidence of abuse.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Nanny State, Religion | Comments (0) |

Follow-up on "Guilt by Association"

May 22, 2008 – 9:55 am

Based on a comment on a previous post by a regular and respected reader I decided that I need to clarify my position on the whole Texas FLDS thing.

I believe that Mormonism as practiced by the FLDS is all about male domination, power and sex, just like I believe that Islam as practiced by its radical elements is all about male domination, power and sex. I believe that clear instances of abuse should be punished, but when we ditch the constitution in order to right what some in government feel is wrong we are stepping out on a very dangerous slippery slope. I fear the unbound power of government more than I fear fringe religious elements.

If there is one family caught in the wide net cast by the Texas officials that can show they were in no way involved in illegal practices and that there was no probable cause for search and seizure, I hope they sue to the full extent of the law. If there are a hundred such families I hope they all sue.

What Texas should have done when they received the telephone complaint from the young woman was to get a warrant from a judge and go out to the compound and conduct an investigation. If the sect leaders refused to cooperate the authorities should have taken the steps provided by law to force them to cooperate or go to jail. If this process produced clear evidence of abuse, those instances of abuse should have been prosecuted. All other parents and children should have been left to continue their lives as they see fit, as long as it is within the law.

Some have said that if one child was saved from abuse the actions of the Texas officials are justified. This is an absurd argument. Absolutes in a complex social system are unattainable. The FLDS children are being placed in foster-care. Texas cannot guarantee that none of them will be abused. We sacrifice children in accidents because we won’t give up our freedom to travel. We may have to sacrifice children to retain our constitutional rights.

The reader says to ask those who have escaped or been cast out of the FLDS. That is a very good suggestion. Why has their testimony not been used to investigate and prosecute the offenders in the sect? Perhaps it has in some cases. I seem to remember that this might have been a factor in the Warren Jeffs case. But why have we not heard of a lot more of these cases. Could it be that no clear evidence of abuse is found in many of the cases?  Or that the escapees or cast-offs won’t cooperate?

This affair smells to me like a bunch of self-righteous do-gooders getting a bit overwrought over some beliefs and practices that are not like theirs. Neither do I have any clear evidence of that, but I’m not going to go out with armored vehicles and force them into my custody.

I believe that any religion that seeks to force its will on people is despicable. I also believe that a government that unlawfully seeks to force its will on people is despicable and more dangerous (at this time).

Having said all this, I’m willing to admit that I’m wrong about this particular case if Texas proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, that all the affected parents are guilty of placing their children in imminent danger of physical abuse.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Freedom, Nanny State, Religion | Comments (2) |

Guilt by Association?

May 20, 2008 – 8:35 am

It’s a puzzling world we live in. The State of Texas believes that all members of the Eldorado FLDS sect are guilty by their association with some of the Sect’s leaders, who are suspected of sex crimes. But we are lectured constantly by the media that Barack Obama should not be considered guilty of race-baiting through his association with his long-term pastor Jeremiah Wright.

Why weren’t all Catholic children rounded up and put in state custody in Texas when many of the priests were found to be pedophiles? Is there not a Baptist church in Texas whose pastor was charged with having sex with a minor member? It’s in the news somewhere quite frequently.

CBS and AP report on hearings in Texas on the FLDS mess. Some of the parents’ attorneys complained that the Book of Mormon was confiscated from some of the children at a foster facility. If this is true we have Texas taking the Book of Mormon from citizens while the federal government is providing the Koran to foreign terrorists.

State Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said officials have not been able to confirm whether the sect members’ holy text was taken from them, but they have removed photos, sermons and books of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, a convicted sex offender.

Texas now decides what is fit for children to read? I don’t know what the materials say but it looks like censorship to me. Does this mean that if your child is found to be reading black-listed materials the state can take him or her away from you?

Church members insist there was no abuse. They say the one-size-fits-all action plan devised by CPS doesn’t take into account specific marriage arrangements or living circumstances.

CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said the plans look similar now but will be customized as officials get more information.

“It’s logical they all look the same. All the children were removed from the same address at the same time for the same reason,” she said. But “it’s an evolving plan.”

“It’s an evolving plan” is code for “we acted hastily, we didn’t have much concrete information at the time and we used a broad-brush approach, but we are now compiling information that will cover our asses when all this is scrutinized.”

The plans call for parenting classes and vocational testing for the parents. They also require the parents to prove they can support their children and call for safe living environments, though they offer no specifics.

Before they get their children back all the parents will have to be indoctrinated and reprogrammed.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Nanny State | Comments (2) |

More on the Texas FLDS Mess

April 26, 2008 – 4:17 pm

Legal challenges to the raid on the FLDS compound in Eldorado, Texas are starting to pile up. MSNBC and AP report:

The state of Texas made a damning accusation when it rounded up 462 children at a polygamous sect’s ranch: The adults are forcing teenage girls into marriage and sex, creating a culture so poisonous that none should be allowed to keep their children.

But the broad sweep — from nursing infants to teenagers — is raising constitutional questions, even in a state where authorities have wide latitude for taking a family’s children.

I believe that before this is over it will deal a severe blow to aggressive child protection agencies across the country. I don’t mind the government taking custody of children that are clearly being abused, but taking them when there is merely potential for abuse is a bit over the top. And there’s the question about what kind of care the children will get in foster homes. Just a few years ago there was a case in Florida where a foster parent of about a dozen children essentially had them enslaved and imprisoned in her home.

Up until about 70 years ago it was not unusual for 15-17 year-old girls to marry. And some of them weren’t shotgun weddings. One of my relatives married at 15. I know someone whose mother married at 14. My wife and I got married in 1961 when she was 18. I don’t have the statistics at hand (and I’m too lazy to look them up) but I’ve read that a large percentage of 16-year-old American girls have had sex, and practically none of them belong to the FLDS sect. None of this though is an argument that it is acceptable to force teenage girls into marriage and a sexual relationship.

On another note, I’m curious about the outcome of the DNA testing that the court in Texas has ordered for all the children in their custody. One of the reasons given for the testing is that the children aren’t forthcoming with information about their identities and parentage. In other words they can’t depend on the children to tell the authorities who they really are. My question is this: Are the Texas authorities going to brand each of the children as they are tested. Are they going to tattoo a number on their wrist? Are they going to depend on photographs or that the children will give their correct names? If not, how then will they match a set of test results with a child when the analysis is complete? Do they expect that the children will suddenly become cooperative?

Related post: Government Overzealousness in Texas — Again

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Nanny State | Comments (0) |

Government Overzealousness in Texas — Again

April 17, 2008 – 10:44 am

In Texas, do they arrest every man in town when an anonymous caller claims she was beaten and raped by her husband? Or round up all the women in town and place them in protective custody? I think not. Do they collect all the children in town based on a tip that one has been physically abused? Well, probably not — yet. But that is essentially what the Texas government did at the FLDS compound in Eldorado.

I’m going on record. The FLDS raid will blow up in the Texas Child Protective Service’s face like the Waco raid did in Janet Reno’s face — but maybe not literally this time.

It’s not apparent that they have any real specific evidence of abuse other than the existence of pregnant teenage girls. But what town can you go to in this country and not be able to find pregnant teenage girls? Even if the authorities are holding some evidence, what is the likelihood that it applies to every child (or adult) in the compound?

The state took custody of all the toddlers. Did they think the toddlers were in imminent danger of being taken to the (spiritual) marriage bed? The state took custody of all the boys. Did they think the boys were any more likely to be abused than any other boy in the state? (I’d be surprised if the FLDS tolerates homosexuals.) Did they justify taking them because they thought the boys were being trained to become abusers?  If so, a raid on any church in the state that, for example, teaches boys that they will be the head of their households and that a woman’s place is in the home is not that far away.

How can Texas apply such a broad brush to this problem without violating the individual constitutional rights of the children and their parents? I can see that Texas had the right to investigate the call from the 16-year-old girl. But even if they found some evidence of abuse of specific children during the investigation, I don’t see how they could legally take children that weren’t being abused. I see lots of law suits coming.

Don’t get me wrong. I have little sympathy for the adult members of that cult. I’m thinking about all those little children who have been torn away from their parents. I don’t believe the stories about the kids not knowing who their parents are. They’ve been taught to keep details of their lives secret. Anyway, if what we hear in the news is correct, kids not knowing their daddies is becoming the norm across the country.

Update: This has happened before, and it turned out pretty much like I’m thinking this incident will. Read CNN’s account of a similar raid in 1953.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Nanny State, Police & Law Enforcement | Comments (0) |

Does PROTECT Act Make Bloggers Criminals?

March 27, 2007 – 8:57 pm

The PROTECT Act became law in 2003. PROTECT stands for Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today. It has numerous provisions but the one that caught my eye is the one called the ‘pandering provision’. It conferred criminal liability on anyone who knowingly:

… advertises, promotes, presents, distributes, or solicits through the mails, or in interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, any material or purported material in a manner that reflects the belief, or that is intended to cause another to believe, that the material or purported material is, or contains (i) an obscene visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or (ii) a visual depiction of an actual minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

On this blog, Akismet traps spam comments promoting child porn sites most every day. What if one gets past Akismet and appears on my blog for the public to view? Does that make me a criminal? Does the fact that it is there on my blog satisfy the ‘knowingly’ qualifier?

Some think this provision is overly broad and have challenged it in court. The Supreme Court has taken a case regarding the Act, but I couldn’t find any details on the case. I don’t know if they are looking at the pandering provision.

By Carson Sasser | Also posted in Crime and Violence, Justice System | Comments (0) |