I'm concerned what the ruling in the Texas polygamy case is going to do to child protective services all over the country.
The OJ Simpson case taught law enforcement to be more cautious about arresting quickly. Especially just after the case . . . and the televised lashing handed out to police in that trial . . . I saw law enforcement worry about building an "air tight" case before arresting suspects. The problem is that sometimes, that would take weeks, and victims were left feeling unheard and scared for their lives.
The Duke case has made law enforcement a bit skittish if the victim isn't a "good victim" . . . meaning someone with a record so clean they could run for public office.
Now, seeing the state of Texas claim that the children on the ranch weren't in "immediate danger" and that the rescuing of those children invalid . . . I'm afraid that it will be even harder for children across the country to be rescued.
I don't see how the state of Texas had any choice . . . given the information they had . . . but to take those children. Most states are mandated to protect the children in their state from abuse . . . emotional, physical, sexual, and abandonment. In any state in the country, if Child Protective Services received a call from a teen ager saying she'd been forced into a marriage, forced to bear children, and was being physically abused . . . they would have to intervene. In my state, we first try to get a non-offending parent to take responsibility for the child's safety. Meaning, boot the offender out . . . prevent further abuses, and tend to the child's healing. If the non-offending parent is unavailable or unable or unwilling to take on that responsibility, then the state must, at least temporarily, take custody of the child.
I'm afraid that this case being over turned is going to have ripple effects across the nation . . . and that the people who will suffer are children in the most desperate of circumstances.
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I work with Rape Victims in a small, southern community. Although I'm caught up in the local issues, I never lose sight of the fact sexual violence is a global issue.
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- I work with sexual abuse victims. I think that my years of this work has given me a deep thought or two. It is entirely possible I'm just a dork too.
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1 comment:
Hello,
Let me begin by saying that completely agree with your overall concerns about the polygamist compound. It should have been shut down long ago for a variety of reasons, including the ones you cite.
However, I wonder if you have received incorrect information about what the Texas Supreme Court said.
The Court never said that no action should have been taken against the compound. What it said was that the danger was not so imminent as to require immediate removal of the children without a court hearing first. That is a crucial difference.
It may well be that some police departments and other agencies have been careful not to act in haste. However, I can assure you that in many cases police officers, social workers and others have gone off half-cocked and taken action on their own without hearing the other side of the story.
Sometimes it's because of some petty vendetta the officials had against the accused, sometimes they were acting on bad information given by someone with a grudge or some hidden agenda (as it appears happened in this case), sometimes well-meaning people simply misinterpreted something and went "all systems go". The accused people themselves - the true victims in these cases - certainly were unheard and sometimes scared themselves.
That's why we have due process of law. It has never been disputed that when someone, let alone a child, is facing imminent harm, officials have some power to act immediately and submit it to the courts a reasonable (short) time later.
But otherwise, when the passage of a few days is unlikely to make a major difference, we insist that the officials make their case in court. That way the accused can hear the officials' case and see the evidence, present his/her side of the story and produce evidence, including witnesses and be assisted by a lawyer, among other important due process rights.
That goes double when we're talking about taking children away from their parents. That's the kind of decision which should only be taken after very serious consideration, except in an emergency.
In fact, the delay itself in making such decisions can be a positive good, as it acts as a "cooling off" period. In emotionally charged situations, it gives people time to reconsider a situation which may have set off their fears.
So, please be assured that nothing has happened to hinder the state from acting against sexual abuse of children. The Court has simply acted against administrative abuse of parents and children.
What do you think?
Jeff Deutsch
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