They fought the law and the law kept winning : fifty-one days at Mount Carmel
- UNCW Author/Contributor (non-UNCW co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Jenifer Bianchi (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW )
- Web Site: http://library.uncw.edu/
- Advisor
- Robert Toplin
Abstract: On February 28, 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms raided a
communal church outside of Waco, Texas in an attempt to serve a search warrant for suspected
weapons violations. At the raid were several members of the local media, who had been contacted
by the BATF to gain publicity. Members of the church, however, knew of the raid beforehand, and
a gun fight broke between the two groups. Four agents lost their lives in the fight, which had been
taped and broadcast nationally. Those inside the church refused to exit the building.
Angry over the refusal to surrender and embarrassed that a federal agency was defeated in a
gun fight on national television, the Federal Bureau of Investigations took control of the situation,
cutting communication from the church, subjecting church members to psychological warfare,
demonizing those in the church through the media, and preparing for a final confrontation with the
church using military weapons and vehicles.
On April 19, 1993, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered that the Federal Bureau of
Investigation’s plan to remove people from the church be executed. The FBI and members of the
Army’s Special Forces, using tanks, mortars, and grenades, subjected those inside the church to a
six hour tear gas assault, and destroyed parts of the building. Finally, three fires destroyed the
church, killing nearly eighty men, women, and children, in what the FBI labeled a “mass suicide”.
Whether or not this claim was true, a deep seeded desire for revenge led to poor decisionmaking
by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and
Department of Justice, which, in turn, led to the deaths of the people inside the church on April 19,
1993. Because of the embarrassment of the initial raid, the government agencies’ need to save face
and justify their dead meant a violent outcome was most likely
They fought the law and the law kept winning : fifty-one days at Mount Carmel
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Created on 1/1/2009
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- A Thesis Submitted to the University of North Carolina Wilmington in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts
- Language: English
- Date: 2009
- Keywords
- Branch Davidians, Governmental investigations--United States, Koresh David 1959-1993, Law enforcement--United States, Searches and seizures--Texas--Waco, United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation, Waco Branch Davidian Disaster Tex. 1993
- Subjects
- Waco Branch Davidian Disaster, Tex., 1993
- Branch Davidians
- Koresh, David, 1959-1993
- United States. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
- United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Searches and seizures -- Texas -- Waco
- Law enforcement -- United States
- Governmental investigations -- United States