When the Police Came, Bells Were Ringing
Rieser Nachrichten Newspaper, 8th October 2002
Twelve Tribes: Riot Police Take Children to Deiningen
School by Force - District President Attended Operation
Klosterzimmern/Deiningen. The day on the grounds
of the former convent starts idyllically - sheep in the
early morning mist, chickens coming out as the sun rises.
All of a sudden, the idyll gets disrupted, "They're coming!"
a member of the "Twelve Tribes" alarms their religious community.
Riot police are pulling in, parents are taking refuge in
the church along with their children, who are supposed to
be taken to school.
In the midst of high-ranking police district president
Stefan Rle comes onto the grounds, with representatives
of the youth department and other authorities on his heels.
Rle negotiates with spokesmen of the religious community
in front of the church entrance. They refer to the church,
and to the church service, which they started when the police
arrived. District president Rle fixes a deadline of 30
minutes. More and more uniformed and plain-clothes police
congregate outside, while inside parents along with their
children are singing and dancing. On the road leading to
the property an ambulance from the N�rdlingen Red Cross
pulls up.
Intense Scenes
When the deadline runs out, the situation escalates. Police
force their way into the church, parents protectively place
themselves in front of their children who are supposed to
be taken, with the children clinging to their parents.
Representatives of the press are expelled from the church
as a place of operation. As members of the religious community
tell shortly thereafter, intense scenes take place inside
the church. The wrist-hold is put on parents, they are held
by the head, while riot police -mainly young women officers-
drag the children off, lead them or carry them out of the
church. A 17-year-old girl -no more of school-age herself-
is holding her two brothers tightly, so four women officers
carry her out of the church. Other children are scared,
clinging to their parents, from whom they are led to the
waiting civil bus past uniformed police.
All along the operation, which takes half of an hour, the
church bells are ringing. "The state of Bavaria is kidnapping
my son," yells a man from Lower Saxony, who is visiting
here with his family. His protestations go unheard, but
later in front of the elementary school of Deiningen the
police let him go along with his parents.
At first, parents and children refuse to get off the bus
in front of the school - only one of many signals by the
"Twelve Tribes" showing that they won't yield. A high-ranking
police officer keeps on and on at the parents to avoid further
violence. Finally, they go into the school along with their
children. The principal had the school grounds blocked off
for the public.
"This is a power struggle"
"This here is a power struggle," comments a member of the
Twelve Tribes on the events. "Who do the children belong
to - to the state or to the parents?"
And when asked what's going to happen next, he replies,
"We hope people are going to see that we want to live a
common life with our children."
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