Posted on 04/20/2008 5:32:24 PM PDT by Chief Engineer
BOUNTIFUL, B.C. - B.C. Morman polygamist leader Winston Blackmore says the people of Bountiful are praying for the children in Texas being held in custody by U.S. authorities.
The spiritual leader of Bountiful called the Texas children family, but says he doesn't know if any are from his commune, located near Creston in B.C.'s Kootenay region.
"It's been six years since I have had any contact those people," Blackmore told The Canadian Press on Sunday.
More than 400 children apprehended April 3 at the Morman sect's Texas enclave may be subject to genetic testing to sort out family relationships that have confounded welfare authorities
"It just doesn't seem right," Blackmore said of the apprehensions.
"I imagine that in Creston there's different cases of abuse, but I don't think they'd go arrest everyone in Creston," he said.
"I don't think it's Canadian. It shouldn't even happen in Texas."
Blackmore said he doesn't believe any of the Texas children are from Bountiful, but he called them family.
B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal has said federal government officials told him at least 15 Canadian children in Texas are likely linked to Bountiful.
Department of Foreign Affairs officials declined comment on the situation on the weekend.
Oppal said he wants to prosecute members of Blackmore's community on charges of polygamy and sex assault.
Texas district Judge Barbara Walther said the children would be kept in custody while the state investigates allegations of abuse stemming from the teachings of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Individual hearings will be set for the children over the next several weeks, and the judge will determine whether they are moved into permanent foster care or can be returned to their parents.
All hearings must be held by June 5.
Officials said they've had difficulty determining how the children and adults are related because of evasive or changing answers.
A mobile genetic lab was to begin taking samples Monday at the main shelter where children are being kept. Parents will be able to submit samples Tuesday in Eldorado, closer to the ranch.
The custody case is one of the largest and most convoluted in U.S. history.
The ruling capped two days of marathon testimony that sometimes descended into chaos as hundreds of lawyers for the children and parents competed to defend their clients in two large rooms linked by a video feed.
Attorneys popped up with objections in a courtroom and nearby auditorium, then queued up and down the aisle to cross-examine witnesses in a mass hearing that frustrated attorneys and stretched the small-town court system.
The raid on the Yearning For Zion Ranch was prompted by a call made to a family violence shelter, purportedly by a 16-year-old girl who said her 50-year-old husband beat and raped her.
That girl has never been identified.
The state of Texas has argued it should be allowed to keep the children because the sect's teaching encourages girls younger than 18 to enter spiritual marriages with older men and produce as many children as possible.
State attorneys argued the culture put all the girls at risk and potentially turned the boys into future predators.
A submarine, means I’m putting up periscope and checking things out.
I'll take care of what I can take care of. And the boys with a badge from Texas better have their stuff stacked right.
/johnny
Provided information that Winston Blackmore, the leader of the Bountiful,BC commune was expecting to be charged soon. I thought that I would have to take back a previous criticism of British Columbia authorities. A look at the date read May, 2006. Seems as if he breathes easy now.
To date, I do not believe he has been charged. From reading various posts on FR, I knew that the age of consent for sex relations in Canada is 14 years of age. This is a damn disgrace. The fools who put it down to that age, cannot obviously know how vulnerable a child of 14 years is. Or maybe they did not care. I believe our new Conservative government is going to try to raise it back to 16 years of age. Right now they do not want to touch off an election.
I find myself remiss in not knowing myself, the usual caveat, that is added- to "protect the young". I read it on FR. That being that any person in a position of trust and or power over juveniles below 18 years of age has a restraint. They can get up to five years jail for sexual intercourse with that person.
Maybe Blackmore and a few others are sweating a little.
They better make this work.
/johnny/
Boys as young as 13 are used for free labor then abandoned by their “good” mothers. That is child abuse.
Girls are married and impregnated not by choice but by rape. That is child abuse.
Some of the men marrying these girls are close relatives. That is incest.
Babies are at risk because of the communal nature of this group.
I am not quite sure why some people are confused. This is indeed about child rape and incest (the very issues that put Warren JEFFS their prophet and moral sounding board) behind bars. That abuse, including incest, is PERVASIVE. This is NOT an issue about religion, it could be any organization, but clear cut ABUSE.
I am forced to believe that many posters do not understand that Child abuse and child sexual abuse with incest is WRONG and hiding under the umbrella of religion is a pathetic and invalid excuse.
As far as the Police entering the compound, suppose a person called about a robbery and no crime was currently occurring but a murdered body was found. Do you expect the police to ignore the obvious crime in plain view since the call was false? Of course not.
The following is part of an interesting article about the history of the FLDS here: http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/ChartLinks/FLDSChurch.htm
Is this how a religion behaves? It seems more like an organized crime family using the name of religion as a cover.
Colorado City Unified School District
In July of 2000, Warren Jeffs, on behalf of his ailing father Rulon Jeffs, announced that members of the FLDS Church should home-school their children and completely cut ties with non-members and former members. When classes began on August 22nd, around 350 students were enrolled in the school system, compared to over 1000 the previous year. More than half of the teachers in Colorado City schools were members of the FLDS Church and did not return for work.
Most of the remaining teachers and students were members of the “Second Ward” and considered to be “heathens” and “among the most evil people on Earth” by the FLDS members. Regardless, while the most of the students in the district were non-FLDS, the FLDS leaders did not relinquish control of the school board, which determined the funding disbursed in the district. Within two years, accusations would be leveled that FLDS leaders abused the school district treasury to provide unneeded jobs, new vehicles, credit cards, school supplies and other perks to help FLDS church members support their huge polygamous families. Despite the drop in enrollment, the one-school district with 350 students maintained more than 100 employees, nearly a 3-to-1 student-to-employee ratio (almost five times the ratio of comparable school districts).[28]
Documents showed that non-FLDS teachers’ salaries were some of the lowest in the state of Arizona, while non-teaching positions held by FLDS members were paying top dollar; FLDS school administrators were sometimes compensated more than $50,000 annually. Especially disconcerting to state politicians was learning of the district’s purchase of a $220,000 Cessna airplane. Ostensibly it was needed to fly board members and other district personnel to attend educational conferences. No other school district in Arizona owned an airplane. (note: Taxpayers paid to have the airport built too.)
Arizona politicians became concerned at the allegations of fiscal abuse. The Colorado City public school district received greater than $4 million a year in state and federal aid. Since more than half of the taxable land in the school district was controlled by the UEP, the UEP property taxes of $800,000 a year paid only a small portion of the total funds expended each year to maintain the local school programs. Consequently, the district had one of the highest tax rates in the state.
After several investigations and a litany of complaints, on May ninth 2005 Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano quietly signed into law a bill that allowed state education officials to take over the Colorado City Unified School District from religious leaders. State officials planned to remove all existing administrators (Alvin Barlow, Jeffrey Jessop and Oliver Barlow) and hire new people. Criminal prosecutions were also a possibility.
Note: That was written in 2005.
January 4, 2006
A criminal investigation is under way in Colorado City, Ariz., after a grain elevator system thought to be part of a fundamentalist church trust was dismantled and moved over the New Year’s holiday weekend.
Mohave County sheriff’s investigator Gary Engels said he photographed work men using a crane to dismantle the equipment on Saturday at the Four Square Feed Store. The store sits on property held in the United Effort Plan trust, where members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have collectively held their property since the 1940s, he said.
In June, a 3rd District judge assumed control of the trust, removing the six church leaders serving as trustees and essentially freezing trust assets, including property, buildings and equipment.
An 18,000-square foot warehouse that once housed a log home construction business and other equipment disappeared from a Hildale property in June, as did a 34-by-130-square foot building adjacent to a Colorado City elementary school. Neither the buildings nor the equipment has been located.
The removal of the equipment could be a violation of that court order, Engels said.
http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy412.html
I'm not happy with what I see so far.
/johnny/
We never had a son, and would not have pushed him out when he could really begin to pull a plow.
I'm sensitive to bravo sierra... allergy actually. I call what I see.
My LDS father-in-law was one of the best I ever had. He could do CW at 40wpm, and he died early. At about 61. Go Navy!
/johnny/
I think the State of Texas is doing the best it can. I am sure that after sorting out correct birth dates and what parent belongs to what child, the majority of children will be returned to their parents, hopefully with a parent plan that will have supervision of CPS.
Good luck in the future, and remind me 'Soylent Green' if we ever meet again.
You scare me.
/johnny/
Just me and Jesus. And He's late.
/johnny/
They are sweating, but the real purpose for me posting that was to show that this child bride thing is a basic tenant of the religion. It is what the leader is in prison for, conducting the ceremonies, he hasn’t been convicted of actually performing the sex act itself yet.
Blackmore in Canada now claims that he is no longer doing it, and he thinks that the rest of the FLDS is making a big mistake continuing the practice.
The courage of Texas to take on this 10,000 member cult is probably striking fear in all of the compounds of the cult.
The compound in Texas was made up of the hand picked, most select members from around the nation, even the children were largely hand picked, some even being sent in from Canada, that is why some of the children do not know who their parents are because they longer are with their biological parents.
Family ties are sometimes assigned, for instance a man may one day see his wives and children given to another man that is more worthy.
One riot, one Ranger. That's been the rule from the start.
/johnny/
I’m from New York City, the melting pot of the world, but have never met a LDS and have no preconceived notions about them. Live and let live is my motto but I am repulsed by the control Jeffs has over these people.
From Friday’s court hearing:
11:24 a.m. - The psychiatrist says that FLDS members who leave the group are “highly vulnerable” to people who would exploit them because of their upbringing.
It’s because they’re behind in their decision-making capabilities - they haven’t matured, he says.
He testifies that he asked three of the “young women” whether they would allow him to take their pulse, but told them that he didn’t have to - it was up to them. They appeared to be flummoxed by having to make a choice, he says.
It’s not easy to break thought patterns, the psychiatrist says. When you are socialized in a belief and behavior that’s deeply ingrained as part of their religion, it’s very hard to get a person to see that the belief and associated behavior are wrong, he says.
LEO got a call. They had to respond to whether it was a hoax or not. While responding they saw evidence of other crimes. What were they to do?
State of Texas has a large portion to meet.
/johnny
I do require that Texas officers act appropriately. If the CPS folks think they are above the law... Ok. I've got just one state legislator in my pocket.
We'll work it out.
/johnny/
Once upon a time I wanted a ranch.
/johnny/
When I was a kid in the 50s people used to talk about a Ranger that went to a Mexican trailer park (in Texas)to do something involving a crime.
The men started showing up in mass and crowding him, so he pulled a Thompson 45 sub machine gun out of his trunk and sprayed the ground with it, then continued his investigation.
I never knew if the story was true, but that is the way we used to think of our Texas Rangers.
Texans have authorized that bunch of yahoos for almost 200 years.
/johnny
/johnny/
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