Posted on 04/05/2008 6:01:28 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Standoff emerges at polygamist retreat
8 minutes ago
Ambulances are being sent to a polygamist compound in West Texas as authorities prepare "for the worst" in a conflict with members of the compound.
Prosecutor Allison Palmer says sect leaders Saturday refused to let authorities search a temple for a 16-year-old member who reported being physically abused.
Palmer tells the San Angelo Standard-Times that medical workers are being sent "in case this were to a go in a way that no one wants."
She says that law enforcers are "preparing for the worst."
A search warrant authorized troopers to enter the retreat run by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They are looking for evidence of a marriage between the girl and a 50-year-old man.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I guess they’ll just have to do their job and that is investigate. This is a slippery slope when a phone call can bring a community to it’s knees by the government. Be careful what you wish for. Wait until your neighbor makes a phone call accusing you of terrorist activity because your dog pi$$ed on his rose bush.
We both know what is most likely going on there, but more proof is needed before the tanks roll in.
Well, in this case polygamy is a hiding place for pedophiles. No young female child deserves to be handed off in marriage without her consent.
I;m glad they got so many of them out already.
From what I understand, they routinely force girls younger than 17 years old to marry to middle aged men, so they are indeed consistently breaking the law.
In this case, the compound won’t let the authorities talk to the young girl who said she was being abused.
So many girls and women who have escaped have reported gross abuse at the hands of the males in the communities. How do you stop it?
We are innocent until proved guilty and the way that concept is so often abused and ignores is a real issue with me.
But isn't that what happens all the time whenever criminal activity is encountered? People are taken to the police station for questioning and then usually released. No one is assigning guilt here yet; that's what trials are for. But how are they going to find out information if they don't talk to these people? And would the women and children feel free to tell the truth in the compound?
If, and I believe it is so, underage girls are being forced into “marriage”, then the authorities have to gather the facts before they start banging heads and arresting people.
The people they have removed, the women and children, have not been arrested. Nobody said they were guilty.
And the authorities ARE trying to gather the facts. They have search warrants and are being refused permission to come onto the property.
Sect leaders at a polygamist compound in West Texas refused Saturday to let authorities search a temple for a teenage girl whose report of abuse led to the raid, and authorities said they were preparing "for the worst."
What should the authorities do then? Say "OK" and walk away and leave the rest to continue to be abused? Let the evidence be destroyed? Have the guilty parties *disappear* like has happened to this poor girl who made the call?
From the article: The whereabouts of the 16-year-old mother who sparked the investigation are unknown, Meisner said. State troopers who raided the religious retreat were looking for the girl, her baby girl and 50-year-old Dale Barlow.
That is EXACTLY what they are trying to prevent.
Right now the government is trying to use search warrants to find out information. The ambulances are being sent *just in case*. The people who have left very likely could have refused. I didn't hear that any were forced onto the buses, but maybe I missed that. Perhaps they WANTED out and this is their first opportunity, since they couldn't otherwise leave without leaving their children?
Nor are they in jail. They're staying in community centers. It would actually be protecting them should the men decide to really fight back and a Waco style event happens again.
Yep -- like the Phelps Phonies are "Baptists"...
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(...for those dense of skull...) </SARCASM>
I agree! This is sick and rape! They need to be brought down, not left alone!
In my world consenting adults can do what they wish as long as they don't harm anyone else.
If a woman wants to marry two men and they all agree it's no business of mine, yours, or the Governments.
L
Agreed. But I never said any that any child did deserve that.
I said consenting adults should be free to marry whomever they wish in whatever numbers they wish.
L
Sorry for getting OT but what is the age to choose an abortion without your parent’s permission? Seems if they are old enough to make that decision they are old enough to decide if they want to get married.
Infiltrate, tap phones, surveillance etc. The same as they would in a criminal drug case.
“The people they have removed, the women and children, have not been arrested.”
They are being held against their will. If you or I were to do that, it would be kidnapping.
This whole thing is starting out just like Waco. What would happen if we received an anonymous call from someone at a Mosque claiming a weapons cache? Would we round up the members and invade the religious community and hold them in detention until proven innocent?
It's too early to make assumptions, but something smells fishy here. Jealousy must run rampant among the multiple wives. A jealous ‘wife’ could easily make a phone call accusing her ‘husband’ of everything under the sun. Let's give it some time and see what happens if/when the REAL facts come out. I just can't forget Waco and the cover-up or Ruby Ridge, for that matter.
Are the Amish next? Homeschooling?
(Yeah, Cacique...doncha know it was Romney's great-great grandparents...I think it was 2 "greats" not 3, anyway...who were the polygamists! And they were living in Mexico, not Texas!)
If you have a wife and two mistresses and you all live together and you have children by all of them, that is perfectly legal. If you refer to the mistresses as “wives” that is a crime - bigamy. I think such laws violate the First Amendment because it is basically the speech, rather than the practice of polygamy or having multiple families, that is illegal.
Stat rape is a crime. I am not sure that rounding up the entire place is the best answer. The judge ordered ALL of the minors to be taken out. If my neighbor beats his kids, the state does not come and take all of the kids on the block. Legally, what is the distinction between my block and this awful Mormon cult? What if their cases get thrown out of court?
Let’s not pretend that “a phone call” is all that prompted this government action. Credible reports of forced marriages of young girls in this specific organized religious group have been pouring out for decades. Many are from former members who have left, or in the case of the many excess young males, been kicked out. But every time authorities go in, they buy the line you’re reciting. They go in there and the adults say “we don’t want you taking our children away to talk to them out of our hearing”, and the married women (no matter how young they look) all claim they are staying of their own free will (not mentioning that they’d never see their children again if they left) and claim they were of legal age when they married and that it was voluntary. And then they go away, saying they didn’t have enough evidence to do anything more than ask questions and take the answers at face value, and knowing full well that very young girls will continue to be forced into marriages with older men. And that women whose husbands have a falling out with the “prophet” will continue to be promptly “reassigned” to another man after their husband is kicked off the property.
Since abortion is an act of violence against an innocent third party in my view it is wholly unacceptable under almost any circumstances one can imagine, except a bona fide medical danger to the mothers life.
L
I suggest you read up on Warren Jeffs & his group. There have been tv shows on what goes on in those compounds. I have to go to bed or I would try to explain to you the difference between your neighborhood & this FLDS group.
polygamy is illegal so it is the government’s business until it is no longer illegal. Just because you think it is none of the government’s business doesn’t mean you are correct.
I don't believe I've ever seen a better example of circular reasoning in my life. You are to be congratulated.
Sheesh....
L
It's a tough call for sure. Polygamy is already illegal. The only way to prove that a man has more than one wife is to go to the county and find the records of marriage showing that said man has taken two or more wives. If such documentation was found, then the county would be breaking the law by issuing multiple marriage licenses. What to do, what to do? Arrest and detain the workers at the county offices?
At this point, it is nothing more than a fake wedding ceremony since it is illegal to issue more than one marriage license to the same man. That seems easy enough for me to understand. Who is the lawbreaker here? The ‘husband’, the parents of the child ‘bride’, the preacher who married them or the county officials who allowed multiple marriage certificates to be issued?
What about the Amish? There have been many complaints coming from both women and young girls about sexual and physical abuse? Nothing has been done by our govt. to investigate these folks yet. I'm getting tired of all the Mormon bashing this past year. Perhaps our keepers should concentrate on Mosques, perverted Catholic Priests molesting boys and Gays teaching our kids that it's okay to be gay.
Let the Mormons be and just hope that when times get really tough that you'll have a Mormon neighbor that you can knock on their door and get a meal for your family.
I don't wish to be mean and I do realize that there is a difference between FLDS and LDS. FLDS rely on food stamps, welfare, Medicare etc., while LDS rely on themselves and other members, Relief Society and family. It is a huge mistake to confuse the two different religions.
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