Posted on 04/06/2008 5:27:22 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Local and state officials entered the temple of a secretive polygamist sect late Saturday, said lawmen blockading the road to the YFZ Ranch near Eldorado.
The action comes hours after local prosecutors said officials were preparing for the worst because a group of FLDS members were resisting efforts to search the structure.
The Texas Department of Public Safety trooper and Schleicher County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that officials have entered the temple but said they had no word on whether anything occurred in the effort.
The incursion into the temple caps the three-day saga of the state’s Child Protective Services agency removing at least 183 women and children from the YFZ Ranch since Friday afternoon. Eighteen girls have been placed in state custody since a 16-year-old told authorities she was married to a 50-year-old man and had given birth to his child.
Saturday evening, ambulances were brought in, said Allison Palmer, who as first assistant 51st District attorney, would prosecute any felony crimes uncovered as part of the investigation inside the compound.
“In preparing for entry to the temple, law enforcement is preparing for the worst,” Palmer said Saturday evening. They want to have “medical personnel on hand in case this were to go in a way that no one wants.”
Apparently as a result of action Saturday night at the ranch, about 10:15 p.m. Saturday, a Schleicher County school bus unloaded another group of at least a dozen more women and children from the compound.
Although members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, have provided varying degrees of cooperation to the sheriff’s deputies and Texas Rangers searching the compound, all cooperation stopped once authorities tried to search the gleaming white temple that towers over the West Texas scrub, Palmer said.
“There may be those who would oppose (entry) by placing themselves between law enforcement and the place of worship,” Palmer said Saturday afternoon. “If an agreement cannot be reached … law enforcement will have to — as gently and peaceably as possible — make entry into that place.”
Sect members consider the temple, dedicated by then-leader of the sect Warren Jeffs in January 2005 and finished many months later, off-limits to those who are not FLDS members, said Palmer, who prosecutes felony cases in Schleicher County.
Palmer said she didn’t know the size or makeup of the group inside the temple.
The earlier refusal to provide access was even more disconcerting because CPS investigators have yet to identify the 16-year-old girl or her roughly 8-month-old baby among the dozens removed from the compound, Palmer said.
“Anytime someone says, ‘Don’t look here,’” she said, “it makes you concerned that’s exactly where you need to look.”
The girl told authorities in two separate phone calls a day apart that she was married to a 50-year-old man, Dale Barlow, who had fathered her child, Palmer said.
The joint raid included the Texas Rangers, CPS, Schleicher County and Tom Green County sheriff’s deputies and game wardens from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife.
Although CPS and Department of Public Safety officials have described the compound’s residents as cooperative, Palmer disagreed.
“Things have been a little tense, a little volatile,” she said.
Authorities removed 52 children Friday afternoon and 131 women and children overnight Friday. About 40 of the children are boys, said CPS spokeswoman Marleigh Meisner.
No further children have been taken into state custody since Friday, when 18 girls were judged to have been abused or be at imminent risk for abuse. CPS has found foster homes for the girls, Meisner said, and will place them after concluding its investigation.
Meisner declined to comment on the fate of the 119 other children and said authorities were still searching the ranch for others Saturday evening.
“They’re in the process of looking,” she said. “They’re literally about halfway through.”
Pretty slim if any PC. Waiting for more info.
Since it didn't apply to my comments to you, which I stand behind, that your rude condescension reduces whatever value your content may contain, I didn't address it.
Marlowe, honey, my father was a man, but I am a woman. How do you explain that?
Once again you side-step the question.
I think it is quite interesting that on at least one of those sources you posted, where they are giving lessons on netiquette, and where they say “DO NOT USE ALL CAPS”... that even on THAT page they use all caps in specific words, to give emphasis. So, since the teachers of nettiquete use that technique themselves, I think I am on safe ground.
So, which is a greater act of rudeness...
1. Using caps selectively, to add emphasis to certain words for clarity?
or
2. Mischaracterizing or even blatantly lying about someone else’s posts?
You are simply using a variation of the old tactic of criticizing someones mis-spelling in an attempt to marginalize the subject matter they are trying to convey. It may work for some people.. but few people with an IQ over double-digits will be fooled by it, or attempt to use it.
Nice try. But you lose.
You question has just given me more insight and I will post it later!
There are no religions in Texas at war at the present time.
____
That cannot be true. I’ve been reading all McCoMo’s posts on this thread and from the sound of it, the doctrinal differences between the various sects have clearly led to open warfare, a la Sadr City.
“Since it didn’t apply to my comments to you, which I stand behind, that your rude condescension reduces whatever value your content may contain, I didn’t address it.”
Correct, you did not address THAT act of rudeness, which I think answers what I asked in the last post quite clearly, and proves the point. You ignore an even greater act of rudeness by some, to focus on a petty thing which you CLAIM is rude (even though your own sources contradict it). That in itself is proof that you are not so concerned about the act of rudeness you imagine... but rather are attempting to marginalize the content. If the fact that I have to explain such an obvious truth to means I am condescending, then fine. It could also mean I am having to explain something to someone who has less mental capacity, such as explaining a truth to a child.
Do you really wish to continue playing this game? Or are you going to continue to try to struggle against the tarbaby you are stuck to and get yourself stuck even more?
;^)
POWER to the CPS!!!
All the more reason why when they bust them they should not give them ANY extra ammunition to defend themselves in court with.
______
Gotcha. The authorities should have called in mercenaries to do the work for them. Using indigenous LEO makes it appear that the state of Texas is against them.
Just curious.. but now that Romney is out of the race, what is the relevance?
***
Some here are trying to use the rogue organization FLDS = Fake LDS as being some way part of the LDS.
This rogue organization used every one and used this name FLDS for cover.
As you said to me, no one likes to be misrepresented!
So some thinks it kosher to use this and confuse many people but there is a big difference because they are not related in anyway.
When people do this thinking they will hurt another group by smear, those who are doing this have sided and enabled the darkside to use them.
Even though in their minds they think they are getting satisfaction to smear the LDS one more time!
I think it is safe to say that making the case that Detroit, or the State of Texas, are rivals of the LDS is a pretty tough stretch to make. However, for attorneys to make a claim that another religious denomination is a rival to the LDS is a very easy one to make... as your own post about the religious arguments going on here points out.
And what does any of this have to do with paralyzing Romney, who is now out of the race?
I am not arguing against what YOU are saying... but you are not really addressing the question I asked.
Does that mean you are not willing to answer my questions?
Seriously, since you think polygamy is such a beautiful thing why so upset about FLDS? THey are simply living the way your prophet did.
Why do you feel misrepresented? I though J.Smith WAS the representative of your faith and he lived the “beautiful” life. The FLDS represent his teaching and way of life. So what’s the problem?
Maybe it is that the FLDS’ tithings are not going to the official LDS church? Just a thought...
Bears repeating.
oh dear.....you may have a good point there, McCoMo!
I detect some jealousy on the part of LDS when it comes to the FLDS. At least with the FLDS there’s no pretending!
I have answered your questions and you have not comprehended. So I’m done with you, but the Father isn’t done with you, and good luck to you.
What was your answer?
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