Dark Rivers of the Heart

depicted in this story are all possible. For readability, however, I have simplified the technical details.
        The asset-forfeiture laws under which Harris Descoteaux suffers are great. They are increasingly used against law-abiding citizens.
        For purposes of the story, slight liberties were taken with the manner in which the law applied to Harris and the pace at which his disaster unfolded. A recent decision by the Supreme Court, requiring a hearing prior to property seizure, is inadequate protection in a democracy.
        The hearing will take place before a judge who, if past practice is an indicator, will favor the government. Worse, there is still no requirement that proof be provided against the property owner or that he be charged with the commission of a crime.
        The Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, was a real place. It is fact that David Koresh regularly left the compound and could have been arrested in a conventional manner. Following the federal assault, cult members were found to have been armed, per capita, only half as heavllv as the Texas population in general. It is also fact that before the assault, Texas Child Protective Services investigated claims of child-abuse in the cult and found them baseless. However, it is speculation that the government hoped to use the Davidians as a test case to apply asset-forfeiture laws to religious groups.
        Personally I find the beliefs of the Branch Davidians peculiar and in some instances even repulsive. But I fail to see why their beliefs were all that was required to justify targeting them.
        Specific examples of apparently criminal behavior of government agencies referred to in this story are not fictional. Paramilitary assaults against private citizens are a reality in our time.
        One example referred to in the story: Randy and Vicki Weaver, with son Sammy, moved to an isolated twenty-acre property in Idaho to escape the rat race and to practice a loosely held belief in white separatism.
        As separatists, they did not believe that people of any race should be persecuted or subjugated-but that the races should live apart from one another. Similar beliefs are held by some black religious sects as well.
        Though I believe people of such narrow views are woefully ignorant, the U.S. Constitution gives them the right to live separately as surely as it gives the Amish the right to live unto themselves, as long as they obey the law. The A.T.F and the FBI mistakenly concluded (for reasons still unclear) that Mr. Weaver was a white supremacist and dangerous.
        Agents repeatedly tried to entrap him, and ultimately he was charged with a technical violation of the gun laws. His order to appear for trial cited the date of March 20, although the trial was set for February 20. Federal prosecutors acknowledge that Mr. Weaver was improperly informed, yet when he was not in court on February 20, he was indicted for failure to appear.
        In August, 1992, federal agents armed with M16 machine guns, with laser scopes, laid siege to the Weaver property. Fourteen-year-old Sammy was shot in the back and killed by federal agents. Mrs. Weaver, standing in the doorway of her own home, holding ten-month-old Elisheba, was shot in the head and killed. The family dog was shot in the backside and killed as it tried to flee. Later, agents repeatedly ran over the dog's dead body with tanklike vehicles.
        In July, 1993, an Idaho jury found Mr. Weaver innocent of the murder of a U.S. Marshal (who died in the confrontation), innocent of conspiracy to provoke a confrontation with the government, and innocent of aiding and abetting murder. The jury was especially offended by the government's attempt to demonize the Weaver family as neo-Nazis, when in fact it was clear they held no such beliefs.
        Gerry Spencer, the defense attorney, later said: "A jury today has said that you can't kill somebody just because you wear a badge, and then cover up those homicides by prosecuting the innocent. What are we now going to do about the deaths of Vicki Weaver, a mother who was killed with a baby in her arms, and Sammy Weaver, a boy who was shot in the back?
        Somebody has to answer for those deaths."
        As I write this, the federal government has avoided seeking real justice. if justice is ever served in this case it will evidently be through the To preserve democracy, three things need to be done: (1)