COPS Productions Blog # 6

Via comment by Anonymous, but can't remember which post.:)

 

First, a little history…always a good way to begin thoughts like these.

One hundred and seventy-five years ago another “religious” group was despised by howling mobs of ‘citizens’. They were hounded by the ‘citizens’ government and in the process of being driven out of the United States of America, a part of this group of “religious nuts,” men, women and children, were accosted by mounted state militia men who were bent on executing the state government’s “extermination Order.” The militiamen rounded the male members up, locked them in a chink-log grist mill, dismounted and pushed their ‘assault rifles’ through the gaps in the walls and fired, volley after volley. Scores were killed or wounded.

This was known as the “Han’s Mill Massacre,” the group of “religious nuts” were called Mormons. Today’s Mormons are want not to talk about this part of their history. Many aren’t even aware of it. It took an additional 137 years to regain some respectability in the national community, but, even today you can find rabid anti-Mormons spewing their hatred of this “group of religious nuts,” these “cultists,” on the streets surrounding the Mormon’s world headquarters on Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

I don’t understand this kind of hate. When I witnessed the burning of the Branch Davidian church, or “compound” as the FBI called it, on April 19, 1993, the thought crossed my mind, are these people really what the government claims them to be? Or, was this another Hans Mill? I, like so many millions of other Americans that day, had no idea of who those people were. What was certain was they were dead, all the men, women and children save nine adults out of almost 100 souls. I spent the next 19 years trying to find out who these people were, why and how they died and who were the people outside the “Compound,” claiming they wanted the Davidians to come out, but doing their damnedest to kill them.

It’s funny, I never could find those “evil sons of bitches” that were inside the building that day. But I did find a lot of folks that were there that didn’t do their sworn duty and bring all of those inside out, safely, to stand before the bar of justice. Some of those, that were outside that day were actually cowards and ran and hid.

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