Janet Reno Dies, But Omissions Of Civil Rights In Child Welfare Live On

Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno has passed.

Janet Reno, First Woman to Serve as U.S. Attorney General, Dies at 78

Let us bow are heads... now, pay attention.

As history has continued to ignore child welfare, I decided to fashion a torch to illuminate the dark and complex world of the "residuals of the peculiar institution",

Women have always been the ones to craft the sardonic policies in dealing with "the best interests of the child", but Reno was the first person to bring to the national stage a living example of its application.

(I would be remiss not to exclude Tom Delay.)

The chosen power of child welfare law which was used in the Waco, Texas Davidian Sect intervention was the use of the legal theory of "exigent circumstances".

In short, it means law enforcement can conduct a search and seizure without warrant, and, if the grounds to have conducted that warrantless search and seizure are judicially determined to have been invalid, immunities are automatically granted.

Anything in dealing with child welfare is administrative, not judicial because there is no such thing as parallel jurisprudence in these dependency courts.

Due process does not exist as one is presumed guilty until proven innocent, charged without notification or enter of plea, denied the right to face one's accuser as reporting is anonymous, devoid of the evidentary standard to challenge validity, and placed on a central registry without trial.

Janet Reno must be remembered as an historic figure demonstrating that there are no civil rights in child welfare.

Had the Branch Davidian leader, David Koresh, been abusing children in the compound?

The issue of whether David Koresh sexually and physically abused children in the compound is also not entirely resolved. Koresh acknowledged on a videotape sent out of the compound during the standoff that he had fathered more than 12 children by several "wives" who were as young as 12 or 13 when they became pregnant. ("Why Waco?," by James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher.) A review of Waco events published by the Justice Department in October 1993 concludes, "Evidence suggested that Koresh had 'wives' who were in their mid-teens, that Koresh told detailed and inappropriate sexual stories in front of the children during his Bible study sessions, and that Koresh taught the young girls that it was a privilege for them to become old enough (i.e., reach puberty) to have sex with him." (Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas February 28 to April 19, 1993.)
 There is considerable evidence as well that Koresh harshly disciplined the children in the compound. According to affidavits obtained by the FBI from several former Branch Davidians and from Dr. Bruce Perry, a psychiatrist who examined several Branch Davidian children, Koresh beat young children with a wooden spoon or withheld food for as much as a day to punish them. (op cit pp. 224-226)
 Assuming that Koresh had been abusing children before Feb. 28, 1993, a related question is whether the abuse continued during the 51-day siege of the compound. At first Reno explained that a paramount reason for approving the tear-gas assault on April 19 was that "babies were being beaten." ("Reno Says, I Made the Decision," WPost, Apr. 20, 1993.) FBI Director Sessions, however, said the next day there was "no contemporary evidence" of child abuse. ( Report to the Deputy Attorney General on the Events at Waco, Texas, February 28 to April 19, 1993.) And Reno revised her statement several months later, agreeing there was no evidence of ongoing child abuse by Koresh, who was wounded in the shootout on Feb. 28, at Mt. Carmel, as the Branch Davidians' residence was known. ("Waco Siege Prompts Crisis Training for Top Justice Department Officials," WPost, Dec. 9, 1993.)

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