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Fallout from FLDS raid is intense

Shame on Texas.

Hey! Texas! Leave these kids alone!

i will be the first to say that if children are abused...something needs to be done...and if there are under age girls married ..with children deal with THOSE cases..but i do not belive that all 416 kids were abused on that ranch...i have read post of people saying their polygamist ,theyve commited a crime they do not deserve there children..how do u figure that? this case has so many aspects to it...and i believe will end badly for all involved..these ad litems will be more on the side of cps..no matter what the children want..i believe SOME of these people are being treated unfairly..they are already talking about terminating parental rights...how can they do this so soon? we will see this go all the way to supreme court..{and no matter what they do if they keep these children in foster care most of the children will return to parents or family when they turn of age anyway}

Ooookay. They illeagaly take away cell phones to prevent witness tampering, now remove the parents so CPS can coach the children into saying they were abused? Don't mess with Texas' children my aching butt. That is exactly what they are doing.
Why doesn't Texas CPS remove all Catholic children because there are a few claims of pedophilic priests? They would be following the same logic used to justify this travesty.
I'm still waiting for the ACLU to decide if this attack on religious freedom, unlawful search and seizure, ignoring habeus corpus and innocent until proven guilty is more important than keeping Bibles 500 feet away from Texas schools.

First Waco and Now FLDS. Sounds like Texans just like to charge into things with their guns blazing, act first then ask questions later. Yeah, Lets just take the kids away from all Americans, get them in a foster home and then afterwards find out who really misses their parents vs. who felt like they were abused! That makes Sense! Who would not want to have their kids participate in this great test to make sure we are all perfect parents according to the standards of a few? Better yet, lets just do that with the Judges and law enforcement in Texas and then see if they still think they acted prudently in this blatant attack against Freedom, due process and parents rights.

I have no problem with them going after a couple bad apples when evidence has presented itself first; I do have a problem with them assuming an entire group of people is all the same and that nobody deserves to raise their own children without even asking any questions first. What happened about innocent until proven guilty? Perhaps Texans can start their own country where they abolish freedom & the bill of rights, but this should not go on while they are still part of the United States of AMERICA!

The government is the biggest abuser of children. Do they really think the MOTHERS were abusing the children? I think not. Comments like 'don't mess with Texas' just show what kind of arrogance is involved here.

Until recently you could get married in Texas, with parental consent, from age 14. Now it's been bumped up to 16. That'd imply that possibly no underage girls were married.

IMO polygamy should not be against the law - it's crazy that you can sleep with as many people as you want but if you marry them then it's a crime. Maybe we should start arresting people who have affairs or pre-msrital sex. How can they even claim any of these people are polygamists if they're not legally married to more than one person? Saying you are married does not make you married in fact. We never hear about any other groups that practice polygamy but the LDS are perfectly fine targets.

It seems highly unlikely that all of these children were abused and the evidence seems altogether weak. Do they even know the original complaint was authentic? This seems like religious persecution to me. If my neighbor abuses his children, and we live in the same apartment complex and go to the same church, will you also take my children? This entire situation is wrong. At least it wasn't quite another Waco.

I wonder if the same people that are so pleased with the actions of the Texas authorities would be as pleased with them if the raids were done on suspected abortionist offices in an effort to find underage girls that have had abortions. The ACLU would be screaming bloody murder, for sure, even though the evidence would show those girls would have suffered rape and abuse under the law. There is some easy pickings for you, Ms. Meisner. The proof is in those doctors offices just waiting for you. Or do Texas doctors get special privacy rights that religious sects don't?

I will never move to Texas. They should be ashamed of themselves. Comparisions to Nazi's and sick communists are in order here.

I hope that every instance of Texas taking a child away from parents that weren't abusing them is legally returned to the state ten-fold. This is disgusting. Texas had better have some solid evidence for what they are doing, or it will futher entrench the state's ability to meddle in family affairs in every state. Remove abused children from abusive homes, yes. DO NOT take 416 children en masse away from otherwise loving parents - this is wrong, and I'm surprised there is not more public outcry. Let's identify children who have been abused and prosecute men who marry underage women. Leave everyone else alone.

No one is going to stick up for men who are guilty of the alleged abuses in this situation, if proven in a fair an unbiased trial. But consider the next group could be a different and larger group with ties to the Mormon religion, and soon "those crazy Mormons themselves" and then "kooky Christians and religious people" will have to worry about allegations being the only requirement for Gestapo like state agencies deciding lack of due process being applied to your group because many in the country consider you weird and heard of horrible things happening within your familes - you are a comparatively small group of people and not the majority so what rights will you have? All someone has to do is phone in an anonymous lie and have your children ripped away from you. Anyone who believes there was a correct principle in the American concept should take notice of this battle against all of our liberties. The concept of the General public believing this horrible Nazi spokewoman's woman's propaganda that the little cildren are so much happier and "Smiling" and "playing" now that they have had their ties severed with their parents is sickening.

I don't remember ever reading in the affidavit in support of the search warrant that there ever was an allegation that ALL of the children at the ranch had been abused or were in danger of abuse. Authorities would only come that conclusion if their intent all along was to completely disband this religious group and drive it out of TX. And for those who claim that since the parents were polygamists and were committing a crime and so were unfit to parent these chilren, I would ask you to find how many children are removed from their parents' custody simply because a parent commits a crime? People shoplift, they don't lose children. People get DUIs but don't lose their children. People steal, embezzle, assault each other, take drugs, and even sell themselves as prostitutes without states taking away their children. Is polygamy, in and of itself, a greater danger to a child than these crimes? TX, in its evangelical excesses, apparently thinks so. I don't condone polygamy, but to round up ALL the children based on one allegation by an anonymous caller and an informant who never witnesses underage abuse is extreme even for TX.

How would you feel if someone came into your small community and took all the children, young, old, based on a phone call from who knows where.

I hope this doesn't turn into an ever escalating witch-hunt....with children & families being the sacrifice for government agencies trying to cover their own rear ends.

Obviously Marleigh Meisner's top priority is to act as an apologist for the State of Texas, rather than an advocate for the best interests of children.

Interesting attempts to make parallels between priest abuses and this case in Texas. They are about as similar as a frog and a case of freshly poured wet cement.

Catholic priests, and other religious leaders including Mormons, are not perfect. Some commit crimes against society (child abuse, etc.). They get reported, get caught, have a trial, and those that are guilty get punished.

In Texas, we do not know the extent of the crimes committed by old guys, etc. We have had a complaint so we have to react. By law, we must protect those who cannot protect themselves. Reaction is by law, not by choice.

Cults like this one do not have a good track record of obeying laws against child abuse, etc. etc.

You can compare the Catholic/Mormon/Protestant leaders abuses and the Texas case, but you would be wrong. Frogs vs. wet cement.

The Shadow Knows.

"We have a saying here: 'Don't mess with Texas.' I'm going to change it up and say, 'Don't mess with the children of Texas".

And to Texas I would say, "Don't mess with the U.S. Constitution!"

The only verifiable abuse in this case has been by the State of Texas. This is unconscionable. How can you haul off 500 people based on a single call of abuse by one person? This isn't about child abuse, it's about the abuse of power--by the state of Texas. If this action is upheld by the courts; none of us are safe.

However, I think if this ever gets to the U.S. supreme court, they will strike it down in an instant. There is no constitutional justification for such actions.

Using the same logic that Texas officials use I propose that we remove the children of all muslim families. They practice polygamy and arrange for young girls to marry older men. You better be prepared for the consequences if you try that!