Herd Watching

I am sure my readers know at least some version of the story. On the flimsiest evidence possible (evidence that now seems to have been fraudulent) the CPS (child protective services) juggernaut in Texas raided the “Yearning for Zion” ranch and kidnapped about 450 children. I know the term kidnapped is inflammatory, but frankly there is no other way to put it.

That the actions of the Texas CPS workers were extreme and without merit is by now obvious. In every case the dire reports of widespread pregnancy, inbreeding and abuse have turned out to be false. While it is possible that individual children may have suffered what the Texas CPS will consider abuse, the percentage seems to be in line with or less any other similarly sized slice of the Texas population.

In short this raid was driven by many things - but actual concern for the children wasn’t one of them. This seems to be a common theme in CPS cases - over-reaction and a demand for broad sweeping power to make moral judgements about how others live there lives. I am not disputing that some system to protect children needs to be in place - but the simple reality is that such a system needs to be vigorously policed by the courts as it will inevitably attract zealots and power hungry, bitter people.

Regaining some measure of balance for Texas an appeals court issued a ruling slapping the CPS down hard. I personally think it stopped short of the actions actually needed (immediate, unconditional return of the children and a call for misconduct investigations of those involved in the raid) but it is a start.

Almost more disturbing than the abuse of power by the Texas CPS are the comments on some blogs. The knee jerk anger and upset is really running high. What we see hers is more than a decade of “think of the children” panic mongering (often by those who want a bigger budget and more power to fight the “crisis”) we see folks tossing the work “pedophile” around again with wild abandon. Even assuming, for a moment, that some teens were married and or pregnant, the legal age in Texas is 16. Even if that was not true, sleeping with a 16 year old might be lots of things - but pedophilia it isn’t.

Craziness indeed.

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