I live a couple hours south of Waco, and so this one's kinda close to home.
The ATF was planning a broad daylight raid against the compound based on weapons charges. Not "individual agents with search warrants." Not "catch them asleep at night." They tried to roll the place like a special forces unit.
Problem was, loose lips sank the ship. Koresh knew about the impending raid, and even told an undercover ATF agent that he knew. The agent, in turn, tried to warn his superiors.
Nope.
Washington wanted to make an example out of someone.
The resulting fiasco could have been avoided, but wasn't. Not only did the ATF continue with the raid even after being told it was a no-go, we had one branch of the Justice Department ignoring the fact that another branch was attempting to negotiate a truce. That's right: Koresh had agreed with one group to surrender once he had finished hammering out his manifesto, but another group didn't want to wait because they didn't believe him. (He was, in fact, about halfway through when the second raid went down. A few more days and he'd have come along peacefully.)
Thanks, I didn't hear any of that. Unfortunately, it seems that federal agents often are bullies. If this abuse of power goes on in a democracy, imagine life under a theocracy. The only way I would feel comfortable in a theocracy is if Jesus or some similarly divine person was in charge.
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