Texas Justice Is On A Roll

In another blazing display of blind justice, the Texas government has dusted off their old copy of “1001 ways to violate civil rights” and executed the forced removal of 462 FLDS children from their homes in Eldorado, Texas without any legal cause or justification. Man, right when Texas starts to shake off its reputation as being intolerant right-wing Christian nut-jobs, they have to pull something like this.

Despite the fact that no evidence for sexual or physical abuse has been presented, the CPS maintains that the removal of the children was justified because the children could not be protected from possible future abuse. Based on this impeccable logic, every child in America should be removed from their parents and raised by the state…for their own protection.

By the way, CPS might have neglected to mention that in 2005 the number of children in Texas foster care increased 24% while the number of children who died in Texas foster care increased 60%. Statistically, a child is four times more likely to die in the Texas foster care system than in the general population. It’s good to know that these FLDS children are so safe.

Now the Texas government is flailing its arms trying to justify its Gestapo techniques pointing out that 60% of the underage girls living on the Eldorado ranch either have children or are pregnant. Now that’s just a poor argument. If a high teen pregnancy rate demonstrates anything it is that the FLDS compound is right on par with downtown Houston. The only difference is that the FLDS girls are married to their “baby daddies”.

Maybe the real crime is the dresses that the girls have to wear. It makes me wonder if the girls in the compound were walking around in short-shorts and halter tops, would anyone have noticed that something was amiss? Right now, parents across the country are watching this story unfold in the news, shaking their heads and saying, “if only they had had their babies out of wedlock like everyone else…”

I find it interesting that nobody has tried to prosecute the men for violating polygamy laws, nor has the state been able to produce a single witness that can testify to any of the spurious abuse charges that have been alleged. The entire case boils down to, “well, no young girl would want to engage in a plural marriage right? So, it must be sexual abuse, right?”

Is the FLDS an odd religion that encourages people to do things that clash with the social norm, telling them that their salvation is dependant upon doing certain things that the rest of society thinks is kind of nuts? Absolutely. Is it true that there are people who have left the FLDS church and have gone on record talking about how evil it is? Without a doubt. Is it possible that there are people in the FLDS community who only stay in because they do not want to disappoint family and friends that they have known their entire lives? I am sure that there are. While members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might not agree with the religious beliefs of the FLDS church, surely we can recognize the similarities between their situation and our own. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that we were expelled from our homes and forced across the country to seek refuge in the west, burying our family members along the way.

Last time I checked, we lived in a country that allowed men and women to practice any religion they wanted, and there was this little thing called “burden of proof”. I also seem to remember hearing a phrase “innocent until proven guilty”. In Texas, apparently that has all been swept under the rug so that “justice” can prevail

Thankfully, that kind of justice only applies to you if you are FLDS, so the rest of us do not have to worry about our children being stripped away from us.