Justifying the Raid on the FLDS

More on the practice I could never afford here

Coming of age during the Clinton administration instilled in me a healthy fear of the US Government using heavy-handed tactics (I understand the irony that I'm now in the military...thanks). The gestapo-like tactics and incendiary rounds used by the ATF to take out the Branch Davidians in Waco 1993, Randy Weaver's wife getting shot at Ruby Ridge, the whole Elian Gonzalez fiasco, etc. So I expressed a lot of the same anxieties as Pat Dollard did when this whole raid on the Polygamist FLDS compound was shaping up. But instead of churning up a plot with my separatist militia group, I decided to read a little bit more about it!

I would be hard-pressed to justify a military-style raid against someone for their choice of lifestyle. Even if that involves living in a compound and dressing like the characters from The Handmaiden's Tale. But Orcinus points out that clearly these women are being coerced, and their testimony and interview on Fox/CNN gives a stark sense of brainwashed abuse that any freshman Psych major could point out. There's a website dedicated to exposing the criminality of this cult called Help The Child Brides, which is worth a visit. There's personal stories of Khmer Rouge style "re-education" if any of the women act up, and a sad story of a 14 year-old girl that was married off to her step-brother. Watching the interviews reminded me of stories my aunt, who's a cop, used to tell me. She said she frequently responds to domestic abuse cases (usually phoned in by the neighbor), and sometimes the battered woman will come to the door and make excuses for her drunken, criminal of a husband. It's a phenomenon I just don't understand. That's the same impression I got from these interviews with the women of the FLDS. So are the raids justified, yeah, probably. It's upholding the law, and committing abuse isn't exactly a viable choice of a lifestyle, since it harms someone else. Any libertarian would agree with me.

Creepy Shit

Just to prove I was watching CNN, here's a commercial geared towards it's aging demographic