Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas burned on April 19, 1993. These pictures show the sequence of the attack:

The assault on Mount Carmel proceeded in these stages:

• Tank crushes a wall to make an opening (first photograph).
• Attackers inject flammable gas.
• Attackers fire incendiary devices, such as tear gas shells, into the building.
• The building catches fire (second photograph).
• The fire begins to spread (third photograph).
• Attackers stand by, and prevent first responders from extinguishing the fire.

This method of attack creates the following options for the people inside the building:

• Die of asphyxiation and exposure to flames inside the building.
• Come out of the building.
• Kill yourself before you burn to death.

Only a small number of people at Waco chose the second option. Most chose the first or the third.

Is this the method of operation you would use if, as Attorney General Janet Reno claimed, your purpose is to save the children inside? As it was, many of the children inside Mount Carmel died in the attack.

Police used a similar method against Christopher Dorner, the California man and former police officer accused of killing other officers. They didn’t use a tank against the small cabin Dorner used to protect himself. They set the cabin aflame and waited. He shot himself as the cabin burned. People said he had been Wacoed.

See Waco siege at Wikipedia for a full account of the assault twenty years ago.

Remember today victims of Waco, as well as victims of all state violence against civilians.