Posted on 04/16/2008 1:39:51 PM PDT by MissouriConservative
Several women from the polygamist retreat raided more than a week ago defended their lifestyle Wednesday in an exclusive interview with FOX News, calling it "a wonderful pure life," and saying government officials deceived them when they raided the ranch where they live.
***SNIP***
"I want the world to know that our children have been torn from us and that they need us," said Sally, a mother of nine.
"They told us that they were going to put us on a bus and take us to where it was a bigger, better place to be — where our family could be together," she added.
***SNIP***
On Monday, officials began separating women and some of their offspring without warning, members of the sect said.
***SNIP***
Texas Children's Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said officials decided that children are more truthful in interviews about possible abuse if their parents are not around.
"I can tell you we believe the children who are victims of abuse or neglect, and particularly victims at the hands of their own parents, certainly are going to feel safer to tell their story when they don't have a parent there that's coaching them with how to respond," Meisner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
“Texas Children’s Protective Services spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner said officials decided that children are more truthful in interviews about possible abuse if their parents are not around.
“I can tell you we believe the children who are victims of abuse or neglect, and particularly victims at the hands of their own parents, certainly are going to feel safer to tell their story when they don’t have a parent there that’s coaching them with how to respond,” Meisner said.”
Seems to me that I remember a time when some daycare people were destroyed because the children made up a bunch of lies and were encouraged by child services. I wonder how much coaching Ms. Meisner is giving the kids about what to say. One woman in the story said....
“I have an 18-year-old daughter that has been taken and isolated, and they’re trying to interrogate her and trying to get her to say that she is the victim,” Amy told FOX News. “And she’s been isolated and interrogated through the whole night and then several days and the abuse is absolutely terrible.”
Sounds like grilling a suspect instead of interviewing a “victim”.
I watched the interview this morning as I was getting ready for work; gave me the creeps. All 3 of the women interviewed seemed like they just weren’t quite all there.
Stepford wives
Right now all we see are fresh-scrubbed mothers in their missionary garb.
Looks like a modern attempt at PR manipulation.
All of the photos I've seen are of females, where are the males?
Obviously don't know much about the *outside* world.
Reminded me of some prairie stepford wives or normal wives on Prozac.
I wonder if the mothers are speaking the accepted responses because they are threatened with the loss of their children.
Which, in most cases, a mother could be coerced into saying whatever her captors wanted.
The cult leaders could be threatening the women by telling them if the authorities didn’t like their lifestyle the children could be removed from the mothers forever.
The Friends spent a lot of time on these gals this morning...it was disturbing indeed.
And they all spoke as if they were using a falsetto, instead of having voices of mature women. That's part of their gentle and meek countenance, I suppose, but I found it very disturbing.
These woman "have" to believe this cult crap, or they would realize how stuck they were with no future for themselves and their children. No education. No friends on the outside. No freedom. No independence. They'd have to face what their parents let happen to them. So the cycle continues.
This situation needs to be monitored very closely. There is an obvious pre-judgment that is occurring here. I'm of the opinion that court ordered advocates for the children should be the NORM in this situation with all contact between social services and the children being recorded and conducted in the presence of the child advocates.
Where did all their teenaged sons go?
Well, Sally, that's because they need to determine whether there was abuse and what your level of complicity in that abuse has been.
By the way, Sally, how old were you when you married your husband? How old was he? Have any underaged daughters that were forced to marry an older man?
“They told us that they were going to put us on a bus and take us to where it was a bigger, better place to be — where our family could be together,” she added.
Shades of the trains to Auschwitz
Would you be if your children were taken from you and placed in the “care” of social workers? I sure as hell would not be. I have seen cases where social workers have abused their power for “the good of the children”. I am not saying that something did not happen there, but to take hundreds of kids away from their mothers based on an “anonymous” tipster they can not find is also very frightening. It could have been some teenager that thinks the whole group is just weird and decided to stir things up. Or perhaps the government made the call themselves. Is this really all the level of proof we need to rip families apart.
And we all know that children can be manipulated to say what ever the “interviewer” wants. This whole thing smells.
It does draw attn to the fact that we don't get to hear from the horny old goats, only the meek little sheep. This is so Stockholm Syndrome.
And would you feel the same if the nice social workers showed up at your door to pull your kids out of your home to check on “whether there was abuse and what your level of complicity in that abuse”? Especially when there is no evidence of abuse except an anonymous tip?
I doubt it.
Well in Texas it says....
What is the age with parental consent in Texas?
Male: 14 – parental consent and/or permission of judge required. Below age of consent parties need parental consent and permission of judge, no younger than 14 for males and 13 for females.
Female: 14 – parental consent and/or permission of judge required. Below age of consent parties need parental consent and permission of judge. No younger than 14 for males and 13 for females.
So as long as mom or dad gives consent, as long as the girl was at least 14, it passes the state law test.
I must've seen the same interview. It's a very simple, straight-up proposition: either underaged girls have gotten pregnant and had children, or they have not. If they have, the law was broken and these women did nothing to protect their children. In a small community, any one of the women would have to know. I lived in a much larger small town and everyone knew everything. And we weren't FLDS; just plain old small-town Americans.
And they all spoke as if they were using a falsetto, instead of having voices of mature women. That's part of their gentle and meek countenance, I suppose, but I found it very disturbing.
That part was weird, agreed. My immediate reaction was similar; that their husbands may have wanted them to talk that way, because it is meek and child-like.
These woman "have" to believe this cult crap, or they would realize how stuck they were with no future for themselves and their children. No education. No friends on the outside. No freedom. No independence. They'd have to face what their parents let happen to them. So the cycle continues.
But at some point, like every woman and man who have done the brave thing and left, they know it is wrong. They at least have to know it is illegal, because they are told not to talk to the public or law enforcement, at least according to reports of those who have left, for fear of arrest. I don't hold them as responsible as the men, but darned close.
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