The Texas Court of Appeals has finally restored order to one tiny corner of the universe. It has ordered the return of the Texas Polygamist Children to their parents holding that there was an almost complete failure of proof to justify such an action. You can read the opinion here.

The removal of the children at th Texas Polygamist Compound is the latest example of knee jerk panic leading to mass violations of human and constitutional rights.

I am braced for all the outrage comments but The Texas Court Of Appeal did the right thing in returning the Texas Polygamist Children to their parents. What happened here was nothing more than a an attempt to use the court system to kidnap children because we panicked. This was a “legal lynch mob”. Not legal in the sense that what was done was legitimate, legal in the sense that it was a judicial lynching.

I am not saying there are children who were not in legitimate danger. I frankly agree that they may have been. What I am saying is this is not Communist China or North Korea. Those parents had and have rights. You can not mass bypass the rights of all these parents by doing it tecnically right for a few and using “panicked supposition” for the rest.

Panic and fear are not legal grounds to circumvent the law. How have these knee jerk panic decisions that ultimately wasted time and money with no real benefit to the children protected those rights? The children are going back. (an appeal if any will fail) and if anything was going on the parents and their lawyers are ready and loaded for bear.

Is the greater tragedy that the children must be returned or that it will now be more difficult then ever to help them even doing it the right way because the state tipped its hand with the panic move.

I have said it before and I will say it again. The greatest threat to mankind is knee jerk panic and knee jerk stupidity. The public sees something that so disgusts and shakes them to the very core of everything that we deem decent and the next thing you know all hell breaks lose.

It is like throwing a rock into the lake and the ripple effect. At the center where the rocks hits is the incident that disgusts us. What we don’t think about at the time is that those ripples moving outward begin to consume everything in their path that at the closest point may be similar but at the the furthest point from ground zero, we are burning books, arresting every kid who draws a disturbing picture in his notebook and calling the cops on our neighbor because he drives and ice cream truck and therefore must be abusing children.

At the time we are all consumed with our panic and making irrational decisions we completely forget about the fact that for every decision of flawed logic we make at the center of the ripples, cause and effect pushes outward with often tragic consequences that we have neither thought about nor care about in our all consuming fear and hate. Knee Jerk panic at its’ best.

For all us constructionists I am aware the Constitution of the United States certainly does not prohibit legal lynchings by specific words but I don’t have to go back and read it to know that the words “blessings of liberty” are in there.

A “rubber stamped” removal of the children based on no proof at all chills me to the bone. In order to lose the rights instilled by that blessing, we have something called Due Process. I don’t have to read the Constitution to know those words are in there as well. Due process includes having to meet your burden before punishment is inflicted.

While I certainly understand the argument that because there was compliance with the Texas Family Code there was no due process violation, using statisitics and self serving reports and conclusions to remove children en-mass by-passing your burden of proof for each indiviudal parent-child relationship sounds smells bad to me…..

I did look for the words “legal lynch mob” but could not find them anywhere. If anyone reads the Constution and finds them please let me know.

You can read the Constitution Of The United States right here.

I say legal lynch mob… What do you think?

BLOG UPDATE 5/24/08 The State of Texas has filed an emergency appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. You can read the emergency motion here.

BLOG UPDATE 5/29/08 The Texas Supreme Court Upholds Court Of Appeals Ruling and Orders the Texas Polygamist Children Returned To Their Parents. Read about it here.  Read the Supreme Court Opinion here.

Texas Law and the U.S. Supreme Court are coming together in a timely fashion to determine my right to blow your brains out…..

The Dallas Morning News published an interesting piece the other day about Texas new “Castle Law“.   Without going into details, this law significantly broadens the circumstances under which a homeowner or vehicle owner can use deadly force to protect his/her home or vehicle.   There is now a broader “presumption” that under certain circumstances the use of deadly force is reasonable.   This will certainly make it easier for a grand jury to say “but for the grace of god” and let someone walk…….

I share the concern of Dallas prosecutors that it will de-criminalize acts that should be classified as murder but then again I have never been the victim of a home invasion. (Knock on wood).   I have no doubt I would feel differently if I had…..

This article is also a timely intersects with the argument about to take place before the U.S.  Supreme Court interpreting the “right to bear arms” provision of the Second Amendment of the Constitution.   They are being asked to determine whether the right to bears arm as outlined in the Second Amendment is an individual right or a collective right. Arguably one of the most important  and polarizing cases before the court since the Constitution was drafted….

We have now shifted from “What’s mine is mine” to “What’s mine is mine and by the way… F***K you!”    I am not going to going into the specifics of the law but the laymen’s version for me to know and for the next person who I catch trying to steal my IPOD out of my car is that law under certain circumstances now gives me a much broader presumption that   I was acting properly when I put one between your eyes to protect my 400 dollar IPOD.  

 My prediction is that we are now going to have roving groups of what I will call “IPOD VIGILANTES”  who will  park their vehicles  in high crime areas with their pricey electronics gadgets in the front seat  laying in what for that unsuspecting music lover to attempt a snatch…..  

I wonder if Ben Franklin hid with gun waiting when someone tried to steal his fife off his horse….

What good is the right to bear arms if there is no right to pop a cap in someone as I see fit?