What will the people of San Angelo do as Judge Walther comes up for reelection this fall?

If "Do unto others" is truly your motto, give CPS a call and invite them to kidnap your children and terrorize them for a few month's. When your Supreme Court tells you that they can go home. ask barbara
to do it.

You folks have a strange type of "Little Girls" in your midst, some of them are a week away from being 28.

When do you become a responsible adult down there?

Those children have been persecuted enough, send them home before you destroy them completely.

Bill Medvecky,
freethefldschildren

San Angelo sounds like a "Perry Como" Kind of place

Texas is forever tarred with the black deeds perpetrated against the FLDS because some fools do not like their religious beliefs. No amount of apologizing or excuses can change that.

"The scene was about Nazi tactics, the annihilation of civil rights, religious persecution, about Texas justice gone sour. Or it was about saving children from a perverted, secretive sex-sect abusing young girls."

OR, it was a little about both.

Like most of life, this story is much more complicated than the simple two-alternative scenerio described in the quote above.

Just because there MAY have been illegal practices being prepetrated on the ranch does not mean that laws governing the enforcment of laws needn't be observed.

You make it sound pretty cozy but you can bet your britches I'll never go there as long as I live. San Angelo Texas wont go down in my history book as a friendly place, quite the contrary.

God Bless San Angelo, Texas. Thank you for trying to put an end to criminals hiding behind a so called religion.

Consider the town name "Waco".
Actually it's a nice place but what do you think of when you hear it?
These government attocities forever stain the good name of wherever they occur.

i wish all those little children could have had the chance to grow up in a town like san angelo. wonderful people, wonderful judge. bless you all.

They just do it? Dont worry about the legal nicities such as due process. Each parent and was entitled to an individual. The group proceeding enabled the CPS to ignore individual. In the name of saving children, CPS did them a great of harm. The people of San Angelo must be very proud of the concentration style conditions under which the childrem were kept.

I lived there a few months and would have to agree. FYI the childhood home of Greg Maddux.

Agree with Bruce. The hard-handed actions of the police (who based all they knew about the FLDS on the ramblings of Ex-FLDS members) and the actions of the Court have hurt San Angelo. The San Angelo newspapers USED to have a comment section (like this one), but do to the ugliness of the comments they have discontinued it for the next 30 days. They know the world is looking at them. Most people DO NOT believe the actions of the court reflect the actions and hearts of the people. Yes, people want any abuses stopped, but many people want the rights of the individual protected as well.

"Anonymous | 6:41 a.m. June 1, 2008

"You make it sound pretty cozy but you can bet your britches I'll never go there as long as I live. San Angelo Texas wont go down in my history book as a friendly place, quite the contrary."

Anonymous, it wasn't the folks of San Angelo that perpetrated this travesty of "frontier justice", it was the people in the employ of the state generally, and in and around Eldorado/Schleicher County, and the disgruntled former-FLDS agitators that initiated and escalated this farce.

I've had the pleasure of visiting San Angelo, and the majority of residents there do not like this heavy-handed little vendetta against the FLDS.

Leonard in Florida

San Angelo is probably a nice place to live, if you're a Baptist.

I agree with whoever said that we should see if Walther gets re-elected.

a nice place to live...until.

Now I am not condoning any action that unlawfully may have gone on in the guise of Religion.

But, the bottom line is there were no facts, only speculation.

And if this is the way the law works in San Angelo...then how nice of a place is it to live? Seriously.

The folks and the place itself is peaceful, friendly and down right home town goodness...until..

you have to face the legal system. Heaven forbid anyone gets caught up in that mess...

I feel for the people.

Dear G,

"San Angelo is probably a nice place to live, if you're a Baptist."

You bet it is--and for everyone else, too. Stop by my place in Abilene anytime while you are on your way to San Angelo.

This is quite the spin of hospitality when I have read the stories of town meetings of hate they had after the FLDS had just moved in.

If there EVER was an application for Title 18 U.S.C. Section 242, this fiasco is it. Judge Walther is the poster child for "Under color of any law" depriving citizens of their constitutional rights. This needs to be persued vigorously.

The US DoJustice has a good summary of the law on their web site.

Having recently left Texas, all I can say is that San Angelo is in Texas. If the culture and climate of that state ever sees the whites of my eyes, please slap me down.

G stated that San Angelo is a nice place for Baptists, but it is also a nice place for LDS members with 3 wards and a student branch for LDS members attending Angelo State University. So San Angelo must be a nice place for all faiths as well as Baptists IMO!

I am a Baptist but I don't live in Texas.

The two Christian commandments are: Love God and Love your neighbor. Judging without facts is not loving your neighbor. I don't care if you practice the Baptist, Methodist, Christian, Catholic, or whatever faith. Ask "What would Jesus do?"

I don't believe HE would drag 400 & some children out of their homes and put them with strangers whom they believe are evil and world seeking. I believe Jesus would say to the FLDS if he found they were guilty: "GO FORTH AND SIN NO MORE."

IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THESE PEOPLE BELIEVE, TAKE THE TIME TO READ THE BOOK OF MORMAN AND THE DOCTRINES AND COVENANTS.

I don't believe as they do but I don't want someone to tell me that I cannot believe in the Covenants of the Baptist faith.

If the Texas CPA were alert and responsible they would have been in Houston breaking up that 12 to 16 year old ring prostitution run by teenagers.

"G stated that San Angelo is a nice place for Baptists, but it is also a nice place for LDS members with 3 wards and a student branch for LDS members attending Angelo State University. So San Angelo must be a nice place for all faiths as well as Baptists IMO! "

Your point is taken. Sorry 2:45 and JND.

Yes those friendly folks at the local paper removed the comments section from their newspaper.

Very early on "outsiders" were accusedof making comments inconsistant with the "norm" of those upstanding locals.

Now we see the attitude of the paper..is it a reflection of the people?

The paper cited rude comments as the reason for removing the comment section, however don't they have the ability to remove "individual" infractions of their policy.

Seems like treating the individuals as a group is the west texas mentality.

I for one have a family reunion scheduled in San Angelo very soon......1000 members plan to attend. Make it 996....I canceled my hotel reservations and have made other plans.

If all the cities in Texas were like San Angelo, Texas would be like China, or perhaps Germany during WWII. We experienced a little Texas Hospitality inside the Coliseum for 2 1/2 weeks. We are grateful for all who tried to help, but our children will forever remember San Angelo as "prison", and the people there as "mean people who took me away from my mother". Do you think they'll ever be convinced that San Angelo is a nice place?

As much as the picture of Warren Jeffs makes me want to hurl.......Texas still should have gotten it's cues from Utah and made sure civil rights were upheld. Yes, children's rights should be upheld but there could have been a less traumatizing way to have handled it. They could have started by removing the men and working with the women and children. I think it would have saved a heck of alot of money too. How come the father and mother of the child brides that married Jeffs are not
in prison????

I cannot believe the Supreme Court of Texas would say the Judge ruled incorrectly and to give the children back to their parents, but then put the children right back in that same Judge's lap. Then this same Judge hasn't signed the papers yet to release the children back to the parents.

You watch, the Judge will make them go through all kinds of hoops in order to get their own children back. They will all spend this next week back in court. This JUDGE should NEVER be elected again. In fact, she should be run out of town.

I think the Supreme Court of Texas is as wacky as the Judge who kidnapped these children.

Yes, I needed to be reminded NEVER to set foot in that State. Kudos to zxcvbnm who cancelled his motel and family reunion. I would too!

Thanks Leonard, but San Angelo still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. When I hear the name I can only think of the horror that my family is going through there. I know this mess will all be sorted out soon and that there is a just God in Heaven who knows our hearts. Heaven bless the honest in heart.

Texas is a stain on the Constitution and due process. Now all we need is for President Bush to nominate Judge Walthers to the Supreme Court for her great work in this whole fiasco . . .

this article paints a pretty little picture (the one San Angelo wants to be seen) However, there is more ugly below the surface. As a resident, I feel I can comment on this ugly side of this town. Why this jaded view well... Information is sparingly let out. take for instance our chief of police situation, our tv news failed to report on the controversy some say they were protecting him at the expense of free press others say it was for fear of reprisal. On the FLDS little was given in tv but our news paper printed much information as they did to some extent in the police situation. but now the comments section made them uncomfortable and said looked bad for the community so as of Sunday May 31 San Angelo Citizens were silenced (from making comments such as this) to protect the appearance of our community.

Why is community appearance put above free speech?

In addition Walther and her cohort Woodward failed to look at evidence and did not want to take the time. News to world in San Angelo you are guilty until u prove your innocent. nice town Not backward yep it's who you know.

These are not the only mothers treated this way by the courts there have been many even in the week or two prior to this event who were ignored. Our judges wouldl rather place a child with someone working 70 hours a week than with a stay at home mother who could and would ensure they were supervised, attended medical appointments, and did not have the freedom to grow up way too fast. That is right those are not parental things the judicial system here holds important.

It is all about who has more money and who can spend more money....money money money not quality of the parent.