Word: atf
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Branch Davidians. The members of the Branch Davidians included a large number of elderly and children. The people who composed the Branch Davidians were of diverse ethnicities. Waco essentially questions the public's conception of the Branch Davidians, personalizing them as victims of their own beliefs and the ATF...
...justify the more disreputable behavior among the Branch Davidians. Waco contains almost too much sympathy for the Branch Davidians. When dealing with the sexual abuse of children that may have occurred at the compound, the documentary adopts a specious argument based on parental consent, then places blame on the ATF for using this abuse--an area for which the agency has no jurisdiction--as a basis for involvement. The film, like the ATF itself, shifts blame through technicalities...
Waco works hard to humanize the Branch Davidians, but spends most of its energies condemning the behavior of the ATF. Conspiracies abound as the film jumps from one facet of the conflict to another. This non-linear progression highlights the worst errors of the ATF...
According to the film, the use of the media plays a significant role in the agency's behaviors. The film shows the raid to be more of a publicity stunt than a necessary action. The film is unflinching in its characterization of the ATF as a rogue agency that used the Waco standoff to create an appearance of legitimacy through semantics. What would normally be considered "inventory" became "stockpiles." A "sect" became a "cult." Since the documentary is itself a form of the media, it shows a great deal of interest in the manipulation and withholding of this information...
...Gazecki, the greatest crime by the ATF is misrepresentation of the Branch Davidians and of its own motives. The ATF claimed that the raid on the compound was an anti-drug raid, despite evidence to the contrary. The film goes to great lengths and largely succeeds in laying bare the false intentions of the ATF...