From the article: Police in a Utah town dominated by one of the largest polygamous sects in the U.S. have been stopping women from leaving, according to a top lawman. Arizona's attorney general Tom Horne yesterday announced a criminal probe of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and the Marshal's Office, which serves as a small police force in the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. During a news conference held in Phoenix, Mr Horne also announced that a 26-year-old woman had been granted temporary custody of her six children and had fled the town of Colorado City, the home base of the FLDS. He said she was forced by by its jailed leader Warren Jeffs to marry her brother-in-law at the age of 14, and had since been virtually held captive in the town on the Utah-Arizona border, along with many other women who want to leave. 'What they do is say, "Everybody watch her so she won't run away". Then she can't leave,' Horne said. 'Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.'
Domestic hostages, if you will.
To be perfectly fair, this article is highly misleading.
When the term “Mormon” is used, it generally references the LDS of Salt Lake.
The FLDS are indeed “fundamentalist” Mormons, but don’t have much more in common with the LDS than the People’s Temple have with “other” Christians.
The Peoples’ Temple massacre shouldn’t have been reported as the doings of Christians, and this shouldn’t be reported, without further explanation, as the doings of Mormons.
It also isn’t news. It’s been widely known for decades that the cops in Short Creek put obedience to the Prophet before obedience to the laws of man.
I’ve been to Colorado City. Toured the town. It is a genuinely creepy place. Like one of those cornfield towns in a Stephen King book without the cornfield.
You are too nice, Colofornian. I see it as underage sex hostages.
The Daily Mail doesn’t know the difference between a Mormon and a hangman. When are we going to understand that the DM is written by the usual gang of idiots.
Heck, the Mormon men have held their women as prisoners from the get-go; it isn’t a big secret. One of the wives of the earliest founders did escape and was doing her best to spread the truth. She disappeared suddenly, never to be seen or heard from again. Foul play was suspected.
And the fathers pimp out their under-age daughters to the dirty old leaders. How this can occur in America is astounding; it’s third-world stuff.
“Arizona’s attorney general Tom Horne yesterday announced a criminal probe of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and the Marshal’s Office, which serves as a small police force in the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona.
“He said she was forced by by its jailed leader Warren Jeffs to marry her brother-in-law at the age of 14, and had since been virtually held captive in the town on the Utah-Arizona border, along with many other women who want to leave.
‘What they do is say, “Everybody watch her so she won’t run away”. Then she can’t leave,’ Horne said.
‘Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.’”
The church does not have a spokesperson to speak on its behalf, and Jeffs, who is said to still rule the sect, is jailed for life in Texas after convictions on child sex and bigamy charges.
Horne fought last year for a bill in the Arizona Legislature aimed at abolishing the Marshal’s Office in Colorado City, and replacing law enforcement there with deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office.”