Thank God Almighty, Free at Last from Texas Child Protective Services

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How many of you were vindicated when the Texas Supreme Court ruled on May 29 that Child Protection Services had no right to remove 460 children from a polygamist sect in April? The ruling cleared the way for the release of all of the children. Of the five pregnant teens presented as “proof” of abuse, the only two that were actually pregnant were married and not minors. I can show my birth certificate and social security card if I ever get caught in an immigration bust, but if CPS thinks your wife looks like an underage mother, an ID won’t protect her from being taken into custody.

National media broadcasts sensational but unverified abuse allegations that turned out to be a hoax call. But the story that has never gone beyond local media is that, instead of any obscure religious or Asian minorities, Child Protective Services may actually be America’s largest source of documented institutional child abuse. Googling “CPS” produces years of countless horror stories from coast to coast of armed SWAT police swooping in on bogus tips to remove children with no history of abuse and placing them in abusive homes, or returning children to parents who do have histories of abuse.

Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn revealed that 63 children were treated for rape, 142 gave birth and 48 children died (four times the normal rate) under state care in 2004 or 2005. Lifttheveil.org quotes rates of abuse of foster children as high as 28 to 33 percent in some cities. YouTube is filled with Kentucky TV investigations of corrupt officials who maximize federal funds by taking and placing as many children as they can with foster parents. The Texas attorney general has been instructed to prosecute the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints without any identified perpetrators, yet the office declined to investigate proven abuse committed by state employees at the Texas Youth Commission juvenile corrections facilities.

The Texas Supreme Court finally had a chance to rule on how these out-of-control officials treat everybody, not just polygamists. If cult experts can say that taking away toys, TV and assigning chores is child abuse, can Asian parents who are angry at B-pluses be far behind? Where is Ron Takaki on Nancy “Don’t return the kids to the molesters” Grace to remind Americans of the internment of Japanese Americans and the Australian stolen generations?
Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced that if it “stepped over some legal line” to take children and grown women into custody, scatter small kids from their mothers and siblings across the state, not to mention violating international genocide laws that prohibit removing all of a group’s children, his main concern was to persecute these child-abusing scum into jail or out of state. But if the court has told us that officials like him have indeed broken the law, then Perry needs to take responsibility by firing the heads of CPS and every other agency involved, and step down himself. Neither polygamists nor officials are above the law.

Comments
AMEN
–Frank Eng on Jun 17, 2008Frank Eng
Posted June 17, 2008 at 2:16 am Permalink
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If you listened to callers to Mike Gallagher or the response to stories on Deseret News (owned by the Mormons), you’d find non-Asians remarking that this was just like the Japanese internment camps. It’s shameful no Asians besides me brought this up, probably most Asian activists were piling on the “persecute the polygamist vermin” bandwagon rather than defending the constitution. Asian Week was popping the cork on the champagne for gay marriage, but most of these same folks were calling for “it’s illegal, why don’ they prosecute those polygamists”, when I’ve never seen anybody on any board calling for “gay marriage is illegal, why don’t they prosecute them”??
–awarthurhu on Jun 17, 2008awarthurhu
Posted June 17, 2008 at 4:51 pm Permalink
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