The raids in April followed a call for help from someone who said she was a 16-year-old mother and said she was suffering abuse, according to media reports. Some reports said the call may have been a hoax from a woman in Colorado, adding to the view among people living nearby that authorities had been preparing for the raid and ultimately aimed to run the sect out of town. “They just used it as an excuse to go in there. And they have an agenda. They will close the place down,” said Charles McDaniel, a retired firefighter in the nearby town of San Angelo. The scale of the operation suggests that Texas was ready. Dozens of heavily armed police went into the compound with an armored personal carrier. They met almost no resistance. “They were ready for a complaint and had contingency plans,” said John Sampson, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. But he said CPS followed standard procedure. “If they make a determination that there is an abused child in the household then they have a policy of taking all the children on the basis that if one child is at risk then they are all at risk,” he said.
Reuters
Polygamists Erred When They Messed With Texas
(May 1)
