Letters to the Editor
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already judged guilty and we don't even know what the charge is
some people here are all bent out of shape over poligamy, odd that is. an unwed man can father children out of wedlock with tens or more different women and it is not against the law. the most that can happen is that he is forced to pay child support. if however a man is married to more than one woman at a time and provides all the support and care that comes with a happy marriage he will get sent to prison for his deeds.
Now, from what we are told by the State of Texas, an anonymous call was made alleging rape. Supposedly the caller was 16 and married to a 50 year old man, granted that is way creepy but it is legal. (13 year old females may be married with parental consent in Texas)
So based on a call and the word of an informant who has been away from the community for 4 years, the jackboots descended on a community that was self sustaining and peaceful and took all of their children away.
nearly all of the comments here are oblivious to this horrifying fact. it seems to be ok because these people are Mormons after all and theirs is a weird religion, not all serious like the Christian or Jewish one. After all, Jesus was only able to walk on water and change water into wine and come back to life after being executed on a cross. none of that weird stuff like Joseph Smith finding some documents in New York.
Would anyone here support the police had they done the same action in a Catholic community, or a Jewish one, or how about Evangelical.
It really is too bad that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are now old fashioned ideas and associated only with dirty fvcking hippies.
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@dan of steele
if however a man is married to more than one woman at a time and provides all the support and care that comes with a happy marriage he will get sent to prison for his deeds.
Except that in the vast majority of these cases, the women are collecting welfare. These polgynous men are NOT supporting their families.
And you seriously think it's ok for a 12-year-old to be the fifth wife to a 40-year-old and start having babies? A couple of the 16-year-olds they did find already have four children.
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It's a sad day in America
The facts of this case are clear; you have an anonymous claim of abuse and rape, supposedly from a borrowed cell phone from someone inside the compound. A name of both the victim and abuser was given in these calls. Despite the raid, the said caller was never identified, and the supposed abuser has not been in the State of Texas since 1979. Even the local police and Texas Ranger’s confirmed that he was not in Texas during the period covered by the phone calls.
Personally, I find polygamy weird, but in a free society, my personal beliefs should not be forced upon others.
Here, we have 416 children ripped from their homes with neither proof of abuse, or a substantiated allegation of abuse. Much less allegations of abuse against each family!
It’s likely the call was never made from the compound, and is either a disgruntled former member (which means people were free to leave) or someone who simply didn’t like the group.
The bottom line is Texas decided to act against a community, not because a legal burden was actually met, but because the State doesn’t like the way religion was practiced by that community.
Imagine if there were a gay community in Texas, and the police raided it and took away all the children, so they wouldn’t be exposed to the gay “lifestyle” and the police labeled that lifestyle as abuse. There would be outrage on this board, but because most posters here can’t fathom a polygamous family, the tone is one of applauding the police for “rescuing” the children.
It’s sad how quickly we lash out at others we perceive as different than us.
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Criminal Conspiracy
The state had not only a right but a duty to remove the children form the compound, just as they would from any other group of people engaged in a criminal conspiracy. While it often makes sense to keep children with their parents even when abuse is possible, do not forget that this is a closed community where every adult is knowingly complicit in the actions of the group. If the compound was that of a mafia group, or other organized crime, no one would be having a problem with this. The FLDS engages in welfare fraud, child rape and abandonment of children under the age of 18. They do this as a group. removing children from the group is the only way to protect most of them.
These children are American Citizens, and they were having their rights trampled on by the adults in their community. The State must act to defend the civil rights of its citizens.
The local authorities did not rush in because of one random tip. They had been aware of, and keeping taps on the community for years, they had a general idea of what was going on there, but had no direct evidence to act on. Again, much as law enforcement will know about certain members of organized crimes, and what crimes they most likely have committed, they must wait until a witness makes a direct complaint or they have enough evidence to go before a judge and get a warrant.
Finally, the sad question is, we keep talking about the mothers, and we keep talking about the children as if they are completely separate. Given what we know about the FLDS, there are most likely many mothers who are also children.
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Arrested for a belief
And you seriously think it's ok for a 12-year-old to be the fifth wife to a 40-year-old and start having babies? A couple of the 16-year-olds they did find already have four children.
Why does someone have to agree with whether something is ok, for it to be legal or not?
You are against gay marriage because most Americans would answer negatively to the question: “Do you seriously think its ok for two men to get married?”
While as a society, we can, in the name of a greater public good, limit certain actions, such as when people get married, it is wrong to punish people when they simply disagree with those limits, but do not directly violate them.
Arrest the 40 year old man who had sex with his 12 year old “bride”, take the children away from the mother involved in this marriage, but don’t arrest everyone else who isn’t involved.