"The possibility exists that Rozita Swinton, who has nothing to do with the FLDS church, may have been a woman who made calls and pretended she was the 16-year-old girl named Sarah," CNN's Gary Tuchman reported. Swinton, 33, has been charged in Colorado with false reporting to authorities and is in police custody. Police said that arrest was not directly related to the Texas case.Now, I can sometimes appreciate a practical joke (especially when there's rubber chickens or other freebirds involved), but why would someone do this? I read a few articles about her. It's likely she didn't do this to help the children. She was arrested in Colorado for hoaxing that she was a kidnapped child locked in a basement, sending police on a wild goose chase. When they finally traced the call to her, they found in her home evidence suggesting she was behind the call that provoked the FLDS raid in Texas, too.
She also probably didn't hoax out of anti-FLDS/YFZ bigotry. She seems, in my far removed and layman's opinion, to be just some sicko who thinks it's funny to get people riled up. Got the police so scared about a fictional child that they took ridiculously unconstitutional measures. Terrified the people they investigated, too. That's just disgusting.
3 comments:
I agree that if a prank this is a rather sick one. What is even more sick and offensive to me is that any branch of our so called law enforcement seems to have little more than two modes. One seems to be eat donuts and the second involves the removal of all common sense and heavy handedness. Often with firearms and handcuffs.
If we had law enforcement that had common sense there should not be so many mistakes and abuses of power.
I find most disturbing the fact that the issue is underage marriages, yet they took small children from mothers with no proof of any abuse. I heard a quote on the radio from the family services in Texas that said their very theology is "abuse."
I'm ok with prosecuting individuals who are sleeping with minors, ie a 50 year old man with a 13 year old "wife." But to wholesale break up family's with no more "proof" then a phone call and a dislike for polyamorism is bullshit. As far as I'm concerned anyone over our legal age of 18 can have any form of sexual arrangement THEY want, not the governments.
I'm in 100% agreement with everything both of you said above.
The donut-mode / gun-mode thing Brad pointed out seems to be human nature. I know I've seen it in table-top RPGs and the workplace time and again. People sit on clues, drag their feet, do nothing for hours or weeks, and then suddenly get all pissed off and react completely out of proportion to the situation.
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