Waco, Texas. WTF happened?

[stalkerforlife]

I just watched a special about David Koresh and the Waco, Texas incident.

My question is...

WTF happened?

Why did they raid this place with such force and violence? Why didn't they just get Koresh while he was off the compound? Over 80 people died, including dozens of children, but why? This religious group was not threatening anyone, that I know of. They kept to themselves. They had a bunch of guns, but it was their American right.

I am baffled by the handling of this situation.

[BasedTom]

You just answered it yourself. Waco, Texas.

[~primetime~]

It was absolutely disgusting the way that was handled...and many don't even realize it either.

I am old enough to remember that going down, and the way the media handled it you would have thought Koresh was the devil and that the US needed to send in military to blow the place up.

Still to this day some people feel like what was done was justified...

[Godzuki]

i don't think the cops knew they were going to get fired on until it happened. I could be wrong but i thought they just walked up to the door like any other warrant and then the cops got shot at(didn't one get shot?)...then the whole siege happened after that.

[DukeDelonte13]

i don't think the cops knew they were going to get fired on until it happened. I could be wrong but i thought they just walked up to the door like any other warrant and then the cops got shot at(didn't one get shot?)...then the whole siege happened after that.

i think the final report says something like the cult shot at the cops first, but nobody really knows.

Religious Extremists + a whole f*cking stockpile of assault rifles isn't a good thing.

Korresh was a f*cked up dude. Wasn't he sleeping with children? Doesn't justify what happened of course but let's not act like he was just a peaceful wise religious guy. He was f*cked up.

[Godzuki]

i think the final report says something like the cult shot at the cops first, but nobody really knows.

Religious Extremists + a whole f*cking stockpile of assault rifles isn't a good thing.

Korresh was a f*cked up dude. Wasn't he sleeping with children? Doesn't justify what happened of course but let's not act like he was just a peaceful wise religious guy. He was f*cked up.

i don't think he was a pedo but i could be wrong. he did sleep with his congregations wives.

i completely agree about the religious extremists + stockpile of assault weapons. I don't know why people think they have a right to create a weapons compound like that. Sux for Texas law enforcement but i'm sure they all believe in their right to have compounds like that in case they have to fight the government. that seems to be their way of thinking...

[Done_And_Done]

You're wrong about the non-threatening part. The Branch Dividians were a delusional cult that were brainwashed to do virtually anything for David. The guy completely f*ucked with their heads. Very Jim Jones'esq but to a smaller degree.

Side note - during the raid those who died were of the belief that what they were experiencing was the armageddon.

[KevinNYC]

i don't think he was a pedo but i could be wrong. he did sleep with his congregations wives.

One girl testified to Congress about her abuse

Kiri told of her life with the Davidians.

Forced to have sex at the age of 10, she said she "stared at the ceiling" as Koresh molested her and afterward "stayed in the shower for maybe an hour."

Kiri's father, David Jewell, pulled her away from the religious group when he won custody from Kiri's mother, who was among 80 Davidians who died in the blaze that engulfed the Waco compound on April 19, 1993.

Jewell told the panel of a phone call he got in 1991 from a man he'd never met, who ominously said, "I have reason to believe your daughter is in danger."

The caller, a former Branch Davidian, warned Jewell that Koresh intended to take his 10 year-old daughter as his "wife."

"The David Koresh I came to know of . . . was a man of absolute unparalled evil intent," said Jewell, who gently hugged his daughter after her testimony.

The girl said her mother led her into the isolated religious community when she was 5 or 6.

There, Koresh had sex with other girls, cruelly disciplined children, taught war and prophesized a "big battle" with the forces of the world, she said. She also said the children were taught to kill themselves by putting a gun in their mouth and pulling the trigger.

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131982[QUOTE]The seven survivors tell Gibson life in the compound was horrific. Physical abuse was a common occurrence, and there was no running water or indoor plumbing, they say. No attempt was made to provide the children with an education.

"When I left at age 18, I probably had an eighth-grade education," says Brad Borst.

In fact, Koresh made sure they were completely isolated from the outside world. Koresh brainwashed the children into thinking everyone outside of the cult was evil, and he prepared them for what he described as a final battle that would end the world and bring them eternal glory. Koresh threatened to kill the children after his resurrection if they helped the "bad guys."

Kiri Jewell, now 22, says she was sexually abused by Koresh when she was 10 years old and groomed to be his youngest wife

[Godzuki]

One girl testified to Congress about her abuse

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131982

yeah i actually watched a documentary with these women who left the compound telling their story a long time ago....i just couldn't remember much of it since it was probably like 5+ years ago

i should've probably assumed he was pedo with the religious extremism + cult + compound.

[~primetime~]

Doesn't matter what Koresh was...law enforcement gassed the entire building, dozens of women and children were found with broken spines because they were so gassed up that they curled up until their backs broke...smh

The way it was handled was disgusting...should not be forgotten or forgiven

[kentatm]

Doesn't matter what Koresh was...law enforcement gassed the entire building, dozens of women and children were found with broken spines because they were so gassed up that they curled up until their backs broke...smh

The way it was handled was disgusting...should not be forgotten or forgiven

I lean towards this take.

Yea he was probably a bad dude.

that doesnt mean you go in guns blazing and kill a shitload of women and children.

[Derka]

yeah i actually watched a documentary with these women who left the compound telling their story a long time ago....i just couldn't remember much of it since it was probably like 5+ years ago

i should've probably assumed he was pedo with the religious extremism + cult + compound.

Koresh had these people convinced that he was the Messiah and that it was their duty to give him their wives and daughters to f*ck and screw as he pleased. He knew that at some point the disgusting shit he was doing was going to come out...hence the stockpiling of weapons ready to go when the federal government came knocking.

Sorry but you can't f*ck kids, not even in your own cult compound that you own and not even if their parents are totally cool with it. He knew it and being the lunatic that he was, he was entirely cool with murdering 80 of his own people and himself instead of spending his life locked away.

Edit: this isn't to say the government didn't absolutely butcher the handling of it. They absolutely did. But let's not act like this was some government orchestrated massacre of women and children.

[Godzuki]

Koresh had these people convinced that he was the Messiah and that it was their duty to give him their wives and daughters to f*ck and screw as he pleased. He knew that at some point the disgusting shit he was doing was going to come out...hence the stockpiling of weapons ready to go when the federal government came knocking.

Sorry but you can't f*ck kids, not even in your own cult compound that you own and not even if their parents are totally cool with it. He knew it and being the lunatic that he was, he was entirely cool with murdering 80 of his own people and himself instead of spending his life locked away.

Edit: this isn't to say the government didn't absolutely butcher the handling of it. They absolutely did. But let's not act like this was some government orchestrated massacre of women and children.

yeah i don't see it as a government massacre so much. Even when peoplle blame the gov for the handling of it, you can at least see what they tried to do to get this resolved in a non violent way.

Obviously they didn't intend for the nerve gas to be that strong. same thing happened in Russia awhile back in a movie theater altho everyone didn't die.

[Derka]

yeah i don't see it as a government massacre so much. Even when peoplle blame the gov for the handling of it, you can at least see what they tried to do to get this resolved in a non violent way.

Obviously they didn't intend for the nerve gas to be that strong. same thing happened in Russia awhile back in a movie theater altho everyone didn't die.

The ATF guys had very itchy trigger fingers to start with, made worse when the Davidians started firing when the warrant was served. Also, the FBI wasn't using nerve gas...they were using tear gas. Nerve gas kills people...tear gas makes you very uncomfortable.

[ZenMaster]

One girl testified to Congress about her abuse

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=131982

Young girls testifying to congress doesn't hold much weight after they let that "Iraqi" girl in there, just saying.

Obviously don't know what happened and didn't even hear about this until 10th grade I think, but all the signs of something being off are there. Conflicting reports and statements, media taking quotes out of context to paint an individual a certain way, released footage strongly edited, parts of the story being proven false years later and a nice little sound bite of a guy telling a story on how somebody threatend Bill Clinton with "telling the truth about Waco" if not re-elected for some public seat in Texas.