Photo released by Rod Parker, credit unknown.
A new front in the battle for public opinion over the Texas Polygamy Raid opened up last week after FLDS spokesman Rod Parker released photographs of law enforcement taken during the raid by the people of the YFZ ranch. Parker told the Deseret News that officials confiscated most of the photographs and video that FLDS members took of the law enforcement operation.
To counter the images of helmeted, machine gun-carrying officers sitting in an armored vehicle, photos were released by the other side (I assume by members of law enforcement) to The Eldorado Success newspaper. These photographs were obviously intended to show you the lighter side of the raid, showing officers conducting a show-and-tell of the armored vehicle with a group of young FLDS boys.
Amazing how these images, both released to shape public opinion, tell such an opposite story of the armored personnel vehicle used in the raid. One side is telling me this was a military assault on a group of unarmed farm folk. The other side is saying that it was nothing like that, more like a carnival with free APC rides.
What a shame there wasn’t an objective photographer present to document the events. When the government undertakes such a large operation against a group they accuse of such insidious acts, we deserve a little more transparency.
Photo as it appears at The Eldorado Success, credit unknown.