In a state such as Oklahoma, where the wall of separation between church and state is only an illusion and the rulings of the US Supreme Court are considered only suggestions, one should not be surprised to find that censorship is a way of life.

None the less, even highly experienced "Okie Watchers" are sometimes surprised at the antics of those that feel they have been appointed as the "morality police" of Oklahoma. This is one such case. A case which not only earned Oklahoma the scorn of the nation but that of most of the civilized world.

How?

Well, it is not every day that someone tries to ban an Academy Award winning motion picture, as was the case in what has come to be known as "The Tin Drum Fiasco".

The Tin Drum Fiasco is a direct outgrowth of the efforts of a small group of Oklahomans calling themselves "Oklahomans for Children And Families", (OCAF).

According to the OCAF Web Site at the time of fiasco the group is:

"Fighting to protect men, women and children from pornography and sexually-oriented businesses since 1984"

It should be noted that at the time of the fiasco reported in these pages that OCAF owned and used the domain "ocaf.org". In reviewing texts from that time frame or searching the web today for references to the group that domain will most likely surface. The group somehow lost the rights to the domain "ocaf.org" and subsequently obtained the domain "ocaf.net". References to either domain are to the web pages of OCAF. Ultimately the OCAF also lost the rights to the domain "ocaf.net" and apparently disappeared from the internet.

Prior to OCAF providing the motivation for "The Tin Drum Fiasco", the groups claim to fame was brow beating the local cable television company into removing the "Playboy Channel" from the cable system in Oklahoma City. With the group as a key player in "The Tin Drum Fiasco", they managed to spread word of their little group worldwide, induce the Oklahoma City Police Department to violate federal law, turn an obscure "German Film" into a bonanza for its owners and cost the tax payers of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma a cool million bucks by way of settlement with the numerous parties wronged by the illegal actions of the Oklahoma City Police Department.

Follow the links below for the details of this fascinating fiasco.

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