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Lone Star Justice: Why isn't Utah as bold as Texas about polygamy?
Salt Lake City Weekly.com ^ | 4/10/08 | Holly Mullen

Posted on 04/11/2008 1:57:25 PM PDT by ansel12

Don’t mess with Texas.The slogan used to be reserved for bumper stickers. But on April 3, Texas authorities showed the world a whole new meaning of the phrase—spreading out on a sprawling FLDS compound in Eldorado, ultimately taking more than 400 children of polygamists into custody. They did so, apparently, based on a March 31 phone call from a 16-year-old girl, who claimed to have been forced into marrying a 50-year-old man and to have had his child.

Bam. Done. Round up the kids and many of their mothers. Give them safety and shelter. Detain the men on the YFZ Ranch. Bring on the search warrants. Ask questions later. In this landmark case of child protection, that’s how it’s done deep in the heart of Texas.

Utah was never so bold. When we had our chance to clean up a similar mess over decades, our blessed state wimped out. Legal authorities have fussed and fretted for more than a half-century, since the infamous 1953 raid on Arizona’s Short Creek, where 160 children were rounded up and kept in state custody for two years. It’s been Utah’s policy—forged in the past eight years, primarily by Attorney General Mark Shurtleff—to work slowly and practically with FLDS communities and in prosecuting men who groom little girls to be their sex partners and take them as underage wives.

For eight years, Shurtleff has said he finds the behavior of convicted sex criminal Warren S. Jeffs and his followers reprehensible. Shurtleff has said he’ll fully prosecute anyone who forces a young girl into marriage—because that goes far beyond anyone’s right to free practice of religion.

Authorities got their big fish last year—one-time FLDS prophet Jeffs—after he’d been on the run since 2006. A St. George jury found him an accomplice to the rape of Elissa Wall, for arranging her underage marriage some years ago to an adult male.Meanwhile, for years—decades—children on the Utah side of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints enclave have been raised in isolation and brainwashed to believe that grown men have the patriarchal right to impregnate girls who still have one foot in puberty.

As Jeffs fought his legal battles unfolding in Utah and Arizona, hundreds of his followers fled to Eldorado, where they scratched out a whole new compound on 1,691 acres in West Texas. They went about their work earnestly, trying to keep a low profile. They built a towering limestone temple and their trademark big, boxy houses and outbuildings.Utah politicians and law enforcement officials have a 160-year history of living with polygamy. For many, “the principle” is a part of their sacred ancestral heritage, which has somehow kept it from serious scrutiny. For so many others, polygamy remains just another element of Utah’s wacky religious back-story—like inexplicable liquor laws and closing off public access to Main Street. And that means that as time passes, polygamy and the outgrowth of child abuse come to be seen as silly cultural icons worthy of only an eye roll.

Fortunately, Texas wasn’t hoisting that baggage. When hundreds of FLDS followers began moving in, authorities took notice. It isn’t that Texans haven’t had their share of odd religious sects and subcultures—the ill-fated followers of David Koresh, whose compound was burned down in a 1993 siege being a recent example. So they watched another bizarre and secretive sect moving in and got busy.

Almost simultaneously with the establishment of the YFZ Ranch, Texas legislators raised the legal age for marriage to 16. It was one effort to head off any problems—they hoped—with underage marriages in Eldorado.

Harassment? Religious persecution? Hardly. It’s about time someone took polygamy as practiced by the FLDS seriously. Taking young girls as wives is wrong. It isn’t a civil right and it isn’t a quaint lifestyle. Texas had the advantage of knowing little about the practice, and when the time came to go out and protect children suspected to have been abused, the state did not hesitate.

As I write this, men who have been detained at the YFZ are crying out against Texas cops and social-service authorities. They have hired lawyers to represent their interests and that is their right. The case Texas is trying to build against the clan in Eldorado is in process. Like most child welfare cases, it is slow going, piecemeal and light on specifics. These problems are increased tenfold when trying to gain information from a society whose trademarks are secrecy, isolation and pathological distrust of government and civil authority.

Authorities have yet to identify the girl who tipped them off. Perhaps she doesn’t exist. But an exhaustive search of the compound is going down and, given the history of the FLDS, it’s likely some stone of criminal evidence will be uncovered.And if not? At least Texas took a stand and turned an ear toward a population that should matter most but seldom does: children. Their fathers can scream all day about their rights; at least they have a voice.

Utah should be such a busybody.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: Texas; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: cult; flds; hemanmormonhaters; jeffs; lds; mormon; mormonism; mormons; polygamy; texas
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Comment #1 Removed by Moderator

To: ansel12

>>The Mormon church is NOT the true church...

Funny, why do I keep getting the idea that we’re having a repeat of “When they came for the Jews, I said nothing, for I wasn’t a Jew ...”

(Note: QBFimi is NOT a Mormon)


2 posted on 04/11/2008 2:05:19 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: colorcountry; Pan_Yans Wife; MHGinTN; Colofornian; Elsie; FastCoyote; Osage Orange; Greg F; ...

Ping!


3 posted on 04/11/2008 2:07:08 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (New apologist mantra..and defense.."love the POLYGAMY sin" but hate the sinner.")
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To: ansel12

I see that the usual ignorant, bigoted foolishness is on full display on this thread.

It’s a free country. The downside of that is that any moron can print or say just about anything - and usually will as evidenced by your post.


4 posted on 04/11/2008 2:09:39 PM PDT by scory
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To: QBFimi

The first tactic is, change the subject.


5 posted on 04/11/2008 2:10:58 PM PDT by ansel12 (This cult stuff is grossing me out.)
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To: QBFimi; greyfoxx39
Authorities have yet to identify the girl who tipped them off. Perhaps she doesn’t exist. But an exhaustive search of the compound is going down and,...it’s likely some stone of criminal evidence will be uncovered.

Wow. Maybe we didn't have any evidence of any crimes, but by God, we'll manufacture SOMETHING! Sheeesh.

6 posted on 04/11/2008 2:12:34 PM PDT by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: scory
"It’s a free country.

That is the most cavalier reaction to this rape and child molesting that I have seen yet.

7 posted on 04/11/2008 2:13:07 PM PDT by ansel12 (This cult stuff is grossing me out.)
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To: ansel12
You'll never find a mormon who has anything bad to say about polygamy. I swear, that church has some sort of secret bylaw that tells everybody to excuse, minimize, and look the other way at polygamy. When Mike Leavitt was governor, he said that it was a lifestyle choice and should be left alone.

I find it interesting that Utah uses the excuse that they don't have the manpower and resources to go after polygamists who rape little girls and have their "wives" scam the welfare system. The have all the manpower in the world to bust people coming across the border with high-point beer and fireworks, and to run sting operations against every little podunk mini-mart in the state to make sure they're not selling beer or cigarettes to minors.

8 posted on 04/11/2008 2:13:10 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberals: can't live with them, can't ship them to Syria.)
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To: QBFimi

“The Mormon church is NOT the true church...”

What do you mean by this statement? Where did it come from — I didn’t see it in the article.

Do you mean that the FLDS is “not the true church”?

What is the true church, in your opinion?


9 posted on 04/11/2008 2:16:04 PM PDT by rightazrain (Stop Obama/Clinton!)
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To: scory

If it’s full of crap, tell us why. Namecalling and accusation is the tactic of a liberal. Try bringing something to the table. Otherwise, you just look like an idiot.


10 posted on 04/11/2008 2:16:09 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity (Liberals: can't live with them, can't ship them to Syria.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity

They shut down paramutual betting too, plenty of manpower for that nonsense. Utah government must protect us against ourselves yet they let the polygs do as they please.


11 posted on 04/11/2008 2:16:53 PM PDT by colorcountry (To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: sam_paine
"Wow. Maybe we didn't have any evidence of any crimes, but by God, we'll manufacture SOMETHING! Sheeesh."

Keep your fingers crossed, maybe these guys can beat the charges, if you are lucky all of the women and children will be sent back behind the gates and everything can resume.

12 posted on 04/11/2008 2:18:33 PM PDT by ansel12 (This cult stuff is grossing me out.)
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To: rightazrain; QBFimi

Careful there. QBFimi was quoting the original poster, whose original comment was removed due to MANY bigotous statements about the LDS church.


13 posted on 04/11/2008 2:18:49 PM PDT by Domandred (McCain's 'R' is a typo that has never been corrected)
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To: ansel12
I had to chuckle at this "They went about their work earnestly, trying to keep a low profile. They built a towering limestone temple

Pictures show that "towering" building sticking out like a sore thumb...low profile, LOL!

IMO, the FLDS didn't do their homework when they decided to move into Texas. Accustomed to the governmental blindness of UT and AZ, they thought they could find an out-of=the-way spot and just carry on. Kudos to Texas authorities for busting them!

14 posted on 04/11/2008 2:19:37 PM PDT by greyfoxx39 (New apologist mantra..and defense.."love the POLYGAMY sin" but hate the sinner.")
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
You'll never find a mormon who has anything bad to say about polygamy.

You obviously don't know enough Mormons.

15 posted on 04/11/2008 2:20:57 PM PDT by Choose Ye This Day (As government expands, liberty contracts. – Ronald W. Reagan)
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To: rightazrain; QBFimi
"“The Mormon church is NOT the true church...”

That was my fault, I posted the first reader comment with the article because it had some good questions, but it also had that near the end, the moderator pulled it, which was probably best, it was more of a distraction than I realized.

16 posted on 04/11/2008 2:22:14 PM PDT by ansel12 (This cult stuff is grossing me out.)
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To: Domandred; Ansel; QBFimi

Why should I be “careful there?” I didn’t see the original statement, and the question still applies.


17 posted on 04/11/2008 2:23:33 PM PDT by rightazrain (Stop Obama/Clinton!)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
"Never" might be a poor choice of words.....

But you make some good points.....

18 posted on 04/11/2008 2:23:42 PM PDT by Osage Orange (Molon Labe)
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To: ansel12

The FLDS is to Mormonism what Fred Phelps and his ‘church’ is to Baptists.


19 posted on 04/11/2008 2:23:55 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: colorcountry

It seems that polygamy has morphed over the years into this new breed of pedophiles. Used to be they kept out of the way, and kept to marrying older women. But these FLDS guys are extremely sick and perverted, and I are using “religious freedom” to escape justice. The entire organization needs to be destroyed, and the innocent lives salvaged. Perhaps the fireworks taskforce can be reassigned to the task.


20 posted on 04/11/2008 2:25:45 PM PDT by frankenMonkey (101st Airborne Army Dad)
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