Hard to believe it's been a year since Child Protective Services seized more than 400 children from the YFZ Ranch in El Paso – and almost a year since the Texas Supreme Court found that the seizure was illegal. But it looks like the only lesson CPS may have learned is to be careful what they say.
In their "one year later" stories, The Salt Lake Tribune and the San Angelo Standard Times both report that Texas CPS says if they faced what CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins called "the exact fact situation" again, they would do exactly the same thing again – take away all the children. But the Texas Supreme Court ruled that taking away all the children under these exact circumstances is illegal. As in, against the law. Did CPS forget that small fact – or do they just plan to break the law on purpose next time?
Apparently, it occurred to someone at CPS that this degree of candor was unwise, because when Crimmins spoke to The Deseret News he said: "There's no way to predict how exactly we would react."
Of course, that assumes the Deseret News interview came later. If the News talked to Crimmins first it suggests that Crimmins' bosses told him to take a harder line, and never mind the law.
