Something Stinks in Texas
by Shane Hensinger
Fri May 02, 2008 at 06:54:35 PM PDT
and it's not what comes out of the read end of their fabled longhorns.
- Shane Hensinger's diary :: ::
No, what stinks is the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) raid on the FLDS Yearning for Zion ranch in Eldorado last month.
Since that raid I've written three diaries on the questionable evidence presented by CPS to justify the raid as well as to take away more than 400 FLDS children from their parents.
Instead of my opinion why don't we look at progressive opinion around the blogosphere.
From Grits for Breakfast:
The Texas Department of Family Protective Services this week launched an aggressive public relations initiative to justify its raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado, and increasingly their much-hyped claims appear awfully thin.
First they issued statistics alleging 60% of teen girls at the ranch were pregnant or had kids, without adding that more than 80% of the girls so identified disputed the agency's assessment of their ages. (See "Lies and Statistics") I'm not sure I've ever seen a case where the state repeatedly labels supposed abuse victims "liars" in the press, but that appears to be DFPS' current media approach.
Then yesterday at a hearing of the Texas Senate Health and Human Services Committee, DFPS said they're investigating "possible sexual abuse of some young boys." Uh ... based on what, exactly? They provided the committee zero detail beyond the salacious topline allegations, which dominate this morning's headlines. Anything's "possible," but abuse allegations against FLDS in other states have focused on underage girls, to my knowledge never molestation of young boys. It's similarly "possible" the sun will rise in the west tomorrow, but I wouldn't bet on it.
Even more disingenuous was out-of-context testimony to the committee declaring 41 kids had been found to have had broken bones at some point in the past. Not mentioned: That's probably a LOWER rate of broken bones than experienced by kids in the outside world!
They look different from us. They dress differently. They’re standoffish. They have weird religious beliefs and social customs.
How many of these statements and more crossed the minds of many Americans in the days and weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, thinking about Muslims in America?
By actions if not words, we’re hearing or seeing the same beliefs today — over a splinter Mormon group right here in Texas.
First, the phone call itself that led to the April 3 raid on the FLDS compound.
Colorado court records show the calls made to a San Angelo domestic violence shelter were made from prepaid mobile phones previously used by Rozita Swinton. The Colorado Springs woman has been charged with making a false report in Colorado and is on probation there for a similar offense.
Then came further actions by CPS, many substantiated by Judge Walther, followed by other actions of her own.
First was the decision to separate the children at Eldorado from their mothers. If fathers at Eldorado had forced mothers unto either underage or polygamous marriages, of course, CPS would be right to separate both mothers and children from the men.
But, nobody has charged the mothers with any wrongdoing.
Instead, a surface interpretation of CPS actions would be that the state wants to deprogram these children out of their "weird" beliefs in an "extremist offshoot Mormon cult."
The idea that the state wants to "deprogram" these 437 children is only furthered by Judge Walther’s actions.
She refused to take the time or effort to treat each child as an individual. Instead, in a temporary custody hearing on whether to keep them in state custody rather than return them to their mothers, she had one giant hearing for all children. She even called it a "cattle call" afterward.
Let's look at the evidence again:
Underage pregnancy and a birth by an underaged girl - The underaged girl was actually 17 and she was married to a 22-year old. They were not living in a polygamous relationship. As Grits says above, it seems that CPS os accusing the girls it arrested of being liars because they won't substantiate CPS's claims.
Sexual Abuse - Claim after claim by Texas CPS but not a single bit of evidence shown.
Physical Abuse - 40+ of the 400 children had a broken bone at some point in their lives. This study shows that 25% of minors will experience at least a fracture at some point in their lives. The FLDS children actually have a lower rate of broken bones than the population at-large!
Polygamy - A civil marriage to more than one person is illegal. A religious marriage is not. The state claims polygamy is not the issue here but it seems that as more and more of their claims are proven false they're falling back on this one.
Spousal Abuse - 40 of the women from the YFZ ranch chose to go to battered women shelters. But what CPS didn't tell anyone is that caseworkers told the women they would have a better chance of reclaiming their children if they were to go to shelters instead of back to the YFZ ranch.
And finally, let me close with a shot of the lovely armored personnel carrier the sheriff's department used to smash through the gates of YFZ ranch and rescue those children. What did they find when they got there? A bunch of men, women and children singing hymns.
