Amish Gangland

      It's  been a couple of years since I moved out of Amish Ville, but relatives still in the area have been keeping me updated on all the bizarre goings-on.  Typically, Amish are pacifistic, non-violent and often odd people who do a few things I do not condone, but usually aren't much of a blight on their neighbors.  The biggest problems my family has ever had with their Amish neighbors is often they won't fix their fences so their animals escape and cause havoc, their dogs are left to run wild and often kill anything that moves, they tend to trespass while hunting, and the like.
     They are a highly productive people. YOU try farming 40-100 acres without a tractor.  They live off the land but are increasingly finding their way into businesses such as roofing, becoming contractors, selling stoves, selling tractor parts and the like.  They are the people you all when a barn needs a roof in a  hurry or you'd like to add on to your house.  Their prices are reasonable and they bring a giant crew so the job gets done in a hurry so they can then move onto the next job.  The paradox of all this industry is that they often use cellphones and computers.  Increasingly,  the newer orders of Amish are becoming techno-geeks and even have generators and some electricity in their houses, which the old order Amish still forbid.  They all still drive a horse and buggy, but the new orders have turn signals, headlights, and strobe lights to identify themselves on often dark windy and often low visibility roads while the old orders stick it out with only lanterns which drivers cannot see from more than a few feet leading to lots of terrible accidents.  The work crews hire drivers and make use of big old-style work vans.
       The things I do not condone consist of women being third class citizens, the complete shunning of family members who have decided to become "English" meaning no longer Amish, the treatment of some of their farm animals is objectionable, they seem to be immune to most of the laws that all other citizens are held to preferring to "deal with it within their own churches", alcoholism, drug use, rape and all those horrible things are not openly discussed and "dealt with in private" and they are just as rampant among the Amish as the rest of the population even though they deny it.
     All in all, its complicated.
     But, lately, some Amish have taken to violence on their fellow Amish.  I'm just going to post links to various news organizations because they write the tale better and I see no need to paraphrase.
amish on amish violence
Arrests
Radical Amish

     It is just amazing to me that the alleged leader of the radicals makes a statement saying "It's all religious, I don't know why the Sheriff has his nose in."  Terrorizing a group of people is not acceptable no matter the religion.  No one is above the law because of religion...I have often found the Amish confusing, conflicting and  complicated, but I never thought I'd see any of them terrorize  their fellow Amish because they do have strong religious beliefs such as "thou shalt not make a graven image" meaning as far as I know they are not to appear in photographs or on camera because it breaks a commandment...also confusing because several Amish appear in the two videos above by consent.  I know they had to sign a release form.  I don't suppose I will ever understand since I was not raised Amish.