The Branch Davidian Compound Raid

The public's first view of this crisis was from the press's not very supportive opinion of the Davidian's beliefs. The newspaper articles were leaning on the government's side, which they had every right to do, until April 19. On April 19, 1993, Mount Carmel rapidly burned to the ground, taking the lives of seventy-six people.

Around 3:00 pm on Sunday April 11, 1993 a riot started when prisoners returning from recreation time attacked prison guards in cell block L. The guards held the keys to the entire cell block and it did not take long for the prisoners to take full advantage of the keys. Four beaten guards were released within hours of the attack but 8 were retained. The riot was started for many reasons but the most obvious reason was TB testing on Muslims, they do not believe in using needles to take blood or for injections. Soon after the take over of the cell block Warren Tate shut off the power and water in the cell block. A “Death Squad” was formed in the beginning hours of the riot and black prisoners killed 5 white inmates. After this happened the

On September 11, 2001, four different planes were hijacked by terrorists. Two of them headed for the Twin Towers, the other headed for the Pentagon and the other nobody really knows for sure. The two that were headed for the Twin Towers, sadly made it there and crashed into both of them, they collapsed. The one headed toward the Pentagon also made it there. But the other plane didn’t make it to wherever it was supposed to be going, because of some brave passengers trying to take control of the plane and crashing it into a field, sacrificing their selves to save everyone else. (9/11 Mystery: What Was Flight 93 's Target?)

April 19, 1995, 9:02 a.m: a bomb was set off beneath the Alfred P. Murrah Building. The bomb damaged the structural support beams and the Northern support columns. Half of the building collapsed. 168 people died (Cook 5). Eric McKisick, a district manager, recalls the incident, ¨I made an assumption that, hey, everybody is out, everybody is good, and I left at that point. It wasn't ´till much later that I saw the devastation and understood they didn't respond because they couldn't.” Not only were there a large number of casualties, 300 people were also injured, some of whom were physically impaired for the rest of their life. A child who was in the building at the time of the explosion states, “I have no recollection of that day, but I’m reminded everyday about it because of my breathing problems (Brandes, Heide, Schapiro).”

In the New York Times article, “Birmingham Bomb Kills Four Negro Girls in Church; Riots Flare; Two Boys Slain”, reporter Claude Sitton gives plenty of details about what occurred the Sunday morning of September 15th. The beginning of the article states that the bombing of the all Negro church killed four black girls (Cynthia Weasley, 14, Denise McNair, 11, Carol Robertson, 14, Addie Mae Collins, 14) and injured fourteen Negroes. Claude also explains that during the hours following the bombing and explosion, others were hurt and killed. The hours after the bombing were chaotic and Birmingham was in complete mayhem. Among the killings were two young black boys shot, sixteen year old Johnny Robinson and fourteen year old Virgil Wade. Among the

To begin with, the bombing came by surprise. It was September 15,1963 11:00 AM at The 16th Street Baptist Church (United States National Park Service). Just before this the church had been a big gathering point for civil rights activists (“16th Street Baptist Church Bombing). That morning at 11:00 AM a bomb was placed under the church stairs (“About the 1963 Birmingham Bombing”). The bombing was a surprise to everyone in and around

As Gunn says, there was little shooting between the two sides after the first couple of days and the majority of the standoff was spent negotiating (650). Marcovitz states, after not much other progress the federal agents decided to flush out the compound with tear gas; it forced a few people out but a majority of them stayed in the compound, setting fires and even shooting themselves (70). Marcovitz also states, on April 19, 1993 the siege was concluded and the body count reached eighty-five, including Koresh who was shot (70). This event, especially so close to the Ruby Ridge incident, sparked even more outrage among white supremacists and they called for retaliation against all the agents and anyone else involved in the siege. As Gunn says, McVeigh who was freshly out of the army and who was slowly spiraling decided to throw himself into the passion he felt towards the anti-government groups (647). If the federal government hadn’t used such excessive force than the public backlash would have been less severe and would possibly have stopped radicals like McVeigh from seeking revenge. The author states, “Investigators later learned that McVeigh hated the government for its raid on the Branch Davidian Compound on April 19, 1993 in Waco, Texas, as well as the incident at Ruby Ridge, Idaho in 1992” (Gephardt

When the Oklahoma City bombing happened, it remained the largest terrorist attack to happen on American soil until the attack on 9/11. On April 19, 1995, a rental truck was loaded up with 4,800 pounds of explosives and detonated just after 9:00 am (Krung, Nixon, & Vincent, 1996). The attack was focused on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. This tragic event killed one hundred sixty-eight people and also injured hundreds more (Nacos, 2016). A dare care facility was also located within the building and nineteen children perished in the attack (Nacos, 2016). There were hundreds more victims which were treated by area hospitals and private doctor offices. This explosion was so large, a shockwave was sent across the city which damaged or destroyed an additional 300 buildings in the immediate area (History, 2009). Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicholas were the two men responsible for this devastating attack.

At 9:03 a.m. a massive bomb resting inside a rented Ryder truck destroyed half of the nine story federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. It also claimed the lives of 169 men, women, and children, while injuring hundreds

In the spring of 1993, the Branch Davidian Christian gained global infamy from this siege on its compound that laid a few miles just outside of Waco. On Sunday, February 28, a violent two hour gun battle took place leaving six Davidians and four ATF agents dead. A 51-day standoff ensued. Amid the siege, the Branch Davidians’ charismatic leader, Vernon Howell, a 33-year-old musician who believed himself to be the final prophet in Christian end-times

Just because one, one person messing around caused a horrible accident, this wasn’t supposed to happen, at all. At 9:02 a.m., “rental truck packed with explosives, front of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.” He decided to set it off. We don’t know if he was upset with someone in the building or if he was even upset but if he was there was no reason for everyone that died to die.

On April 19, 1995, a terrorist set off a bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal building. The explosion killed 168 people and injured 842 more. The bomb went off at 9:02 a.m., and it “destroying a third of the building and left a thirty-foot-wide crater” (Casey 2).

The Branch Davidians also known as “The Branch” are a religious group that formed from a schism in the Davidian Seventh-day Adventists originating in the 1950s. The Branch is most widely known for the siege of its Mount Carmel Center compound near Waco, Texas in 1993. Since the siege there has been mass speculation on the final outcome of the conflict and the actions of Federal Agencies responding to the incident to include the ATF, FBI, and Texas National Guard. The siege lasted fifty one days and resulted in the death of the Branch Davidian’s leader, David Koresh, along with eighty two Branch Davidian men, women, and children. Four ATF agents were also killed during the siege in exchanges of gun fire with Branch Davidian members. This paper examines just who the Branch Davidians are and their beliefs, Agencies that reported to the siege and their side of the story with what happened at Waco, and finally the outcome and factors leading up to the end of the siege. I will also try and shed light on how the federal agencies may have gone about the situation differently in hind sight along with any policy changes that the event may have brought about.

These groups had a great deal of influence over public administrators for a number of reasons. One reason is that this event had national attention and the hearts of all Americans went out to all of those who lost loved ones. Because public administrators were in the spotlight, they had to consider the needs of those involved. Also, because these groups were very well organized, they not only demanded attention, they commanded it. And how could any public administrator simply ignore them or turn their backs on them? The main source of disagreement was whether or not to focus on quickly unbuilding the site or to tediously search for the bodies of each firefighter that was lost in this tragedy in an effort to provide their families with closure. This case centered around the firefighters because they were involved in the daily search missions, received consistent media attention, and ultimately organized a huge protest consisting of “nearly a thousand” members which ultimately turned violent (Stillman, 2010). Although their desire to find their comrades was understandable, it was also a bit selfish because they only seemed genuinely concerned about their own even though the biggest loss of all were the innocent citizens in both of the buildings. The loss of the firefighters only amounted to a small percentage compared to the total loss of life.

Political terrorism, or right-wing militants, tend to follow an extreme authoritarian ideology and conduct anti-government activities. "Political terrorists in the United States tend to be heavily armed groups organized around such themes as white supremacy, Nazism, militant tax resistance, and religious revisionism."(5) Two of the more famous incidents in the United States are the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Branch Davidian cult standoff in Waco, Texas.