Opposed Sortie
columnist: Random Outlier

Topic: Crime and Punishment
The FLDS in Eldorado: Please, Not Another Ruby Ridge or Waco

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Texas lawmen approach FLDS compound near Ed Dorado, recalling tragedies of Waco and Ruby Ridge where authoritarianism ran amok.

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by Random Outlier
(Libertarian)
Sunday, April 6, 2008

Writing a column "hot," while the news on which it is based is occurring, is a risky thing. By the time this sees public life, events may have overtaken every word.

But as the sun goes down over El Dorado this Saturday evening, American society faces another possible tragedy as members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints face off with Texas law officers.

I hope others  join  me in  pleas for everyone, cops and "suspects" alike, to keep the damned guns holstered.

Whatever crimes may have been committed in the FLDS enclave some 200 miles northwest of San Antonio  do not require summary klliing.

They most certainly do not require the military heavy armor of  Waco or the trigger-happy orders  --"shoot to kill" --  to FBI snipers at  Ruby Ridge. 

A potential danger is the possiblity that this FLDS bunch has thrown in the earthly towel and decided to seek its martyrdom in a final blazing fit of witnessing for its faith.  The parallel danger is that the government will give them what they want,  inspiring the whacko fringe to spawn other Timothy McVeighs.

As the media reports the story so far, Texas is trying to serve a search warrant and apparently has a Constitutionally valid probable cause. A 16-year-old girl credibly alleges abuse.

The FLDS has refused to permit lawmen to enter its retreat to execute the warrant, and officers have converged on the 1,700-acre ranch outside the dusty farm town of El Dorado.

Ominously, the local prosecutor warns that emergency medical vehicles and personnel were dispatched to "prepare for the worst."

Officers say they intend to  remove the holdout FLDSers as peaceably as possible.  It would seem to me that the state of Texas could summon the patience to make that "peaceably, period," even if  it requires a siege of months.

It would also seem to me that even an offbeat religious group could muster the wisdom to foreswear creating its own Armageddon for the claimed right to induce child-girls to  marry old men.

There are ways under our Constitution to resolve all issues without carnage, including those which flame the emotions.

FLDS practices in regard to young girls are not admirable -- assuming that the facts are being correctly reported --  and there is reason to believe its theocratic doctrine is used to shield the simple lust of elders for young flesh. If so, it is evil and probably a crime legitimately punishable.

The occasional bent of law officers to resolve standoffs with  blazing assaults and stealthy marksmen is also evil and should be a legitimately punishable crime. It is worth noting that no officer went to prison for the moral disasters at  Ruby Ridge and Waco. 

Whatever the FLDS does about its religious beliefs must be carefully separated from the beliefs themselves.  The beliefs are beyond adjudication by any temporal power.

The actions are not, and it is for courts and juries to resolve the First Amendment issues, not  whatever firepower might exist in that compound, nor the greater might of the police.

We claim to live in an age of instant communication. Let's see if it works. While I have little faith in organized email and phone campaigns, it is worth a try, and responsible libertarians might well take to every corner of the internet to counsel against  another pitched battle on the Texas flatlands.

We might even quote Winston Churchill after many rounds of exhausting negotiations with the Soviets. He sighed his willingness to return to the futile bargaining table because "Talk-talk is better than war-war."  

Yes it is. May this one end bloodlessly.

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2008 Random Outlier, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, April 6, 2008
Last modified: Wednesday, April 9, 2008

The views expressed in this article are those of Random Outlier only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Random Outlier is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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