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In Reply to: A moral dilemma posted by John Concerned on October 27, 2005 at 23:01:10:
An interesting question. I think perhaps part of the solution is to try and determine what you would tell law enforcement about Family members in any one country.
Are you going to say that anyone in the group is a child molester? Or that they beat their children? Or whatever.
In my mind, that's pretty unethical and amounst to collective punishment. Someone is punished for being a member of a group, regardless of whether they are guilty of criminal acts. This is what the Israelis do to the Palestinians -- yeah, I nkow this is a controversial comparison. A terrorist is from a certain village and so the Israelis dynamaite a few houses and bulldoze a few olive groves, often of people who had nothing to do with the terrorist.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, you tell the authorities that TF is active in a country, say Croatia. All the Homes are raided and people rounded up and it turns out that all Family members are SGAs and their children -- all under the age of 30. They're not abusing their children -- nor doing anything particularly evil or illegal -- so what has been achieved? The traumatisation of still more children who have been seperated from their parents?
I feel that it is potentially very dangerous, unethical and ultimately self-defeating to demonise and chase down every person who happens to be a member, just because they are a member. Rank and file Family members bear varying degrees of responsibility/guilt for criminal acts that took place, but that needs to be addressed on a case by case basis.
Family leadership, such as Smith and Smith are a different matter. They are at the head of and living off the proceeds of an essentially criminal organisation and their criminal acts and conspiracies are well-documented in the group's writings.
In my mind, if you have access to a cadre of super global cops, I would concentrate on building cases against the leaders, and members who are alleged abusers. All their legal names and nationalities are public knowledge. If there is the political will, it should not be difficult to track them down.
But for me, I want no part of a free-for-all witch hunt that demonises every member or associate member. The potential to cause an incredible amount of harm and not really achieve any meaningful amount of justice is just too great. You can't just throw all the basic rules of law and order out the window and do evil that good may come. Bush has tried that with his war on terror and where has it got us? A bill for about $350 billion, 2000 thousand Americans dead, 15 thousand wounded, about 30,000 Iraqis dead, hundreds of thousands wounded and traumatised. Is the world, or America for that matter, a safer place? Are terrorists on the run? Hardly.
As well, if the head of the Family is neutralised, the body will quickly wither. This whole scam is kept together by Smith and Smith. Take either one out of the equation and the whole thing would fold pretty quick. Members aren't going to follow Perfillio or Misty or some other lackey and send them their hard-earned cash.
So really, if you want to legally attack the group, go after the top. Cut the head off, legally speaking, and the body will die. I would avoid attacking members just because they're members, if there is no evidence of criminal activity.
I hope this helps and best of luck in whatever you do.
