Kaiser, in this case I'm not so sure this is an "assault on human rights". Incompetence on the part of the locals, most definitely, but when I consider what was apparently happening inside the cult's compound, I have to wonder just what took the local authorities so long to act.
It appears that the facts are:
1) underage girls were either brainwashed or coerced into marrying much older men,
2) underage boys were being expelled and abandoned as they entered mid puberty,
3) there was a rather large armed presence around the compound, suggesting an armed camp.
I recognize that the cult's male leadership and the cooperative mothers of the children should have their day in court, and I await their testimony as to why they created and allowed such a situation to develop.
I am also interested in why local Schleicher County authorities allowed this situation to continue as long as it did. That would mean hearings at the County commissioners court, maybe a complaint needs to be filed. Hmm?
We cannot dispute your good points here at the moment, but my point is that such suspicions do not elevate to a level where an ENTIRE communmity of children are, without any discussion, whisked away from parents. Similar damages to kids (brainwashing, abandoment, under nourishing, etc) are sadly somewhat commonplace in ghettos for example, but have you ever heard of the CPS rounding up those neighborhoods? This is a frightful moment.
Regarding the cops, that seems to underscore the bizarreness of the action. They could have been, over time, doing their due dilignece to ensure the compound was safe. But rather than the periodic checks that should have been done, they swooped in like the green berets.
This is like seizing one's bank assets and showing up at one's door and getting arrested for tax evasion. that simply does not happen prior to MANY notices and inspections prove fruitless. The drastic measures taken against the children seem more political than proper to me.