Ok - the CPS raid on the Warren Jeffs compound is still the big news here... and the more I hear the more I wonder why the hell it took so damned long to get in there. They waited for the March 29th phone calls before acting... but they HAD TO KNOW what was going on in there...
"Our investigation determined there was a widespread practice of young girls being conditioned to accept becoming the spiritual wives of older men and to have sex with them," Azar said. "We determined these children were in imminent danger of continued abuse. We simply could not leave these children in homes where alleged abusers also lived."
Unacceptable. You have to move faster than this... from another source
When the abuse occurred, the girl told officials, other women at the ranch would hold her infant child. The last time he beat her was on Easter Sunday, according to the affidavit. The document also indicated that on a previous occasion the man had beaten her so severely that it resulted in her having several broken ribs.
After that incident, she was taken to a hospital, and a doctor wrapped her torso with a bandage and told her, "Take it easy for a few days," according to the document.
Take it easy for a few days. And now there are people on the television arguing that these people were merely exercising their freedom of religion. People want to be able to raise their kids without the oversight of a nannystate... but what about when they want to fuck em? Why is it that believers make me sick so much more often than cynics...
I have a religion, it involves baseball-bat enemas and the male leaders of the FDLS... we're non-denominational.
2 comments:
it may have taken unacceptably long, but texas is to be commended for doing something about this where arizona and utah refused.... remember these guys are new to eldorado, and their former home base was colorado city, az and hilldale, ut... ut and az tolerated all of this, and in some ways, actually assisted the community. AZ actually helped the flds incorporate colorado city as its own distinct town and set up a "public school" district and police force. no doubt this is because of the disastrous bungling of the Short Creek raid on polygamists in AZ in 1953 - the state govts are scared of a repeat of that public relations disaster.
the horrible shit that happens in flds communities is unbelievable - the world's highest concentration of fumarase deficiency, young boys exiled from the community with no clue how to function in the outside world, and of course above all the physical and psychological abuse and rape of girls of women.
i presume a lot of the people appealing to "freedom of religion" just don't understand how polygamy under the FLDS actually functions. one could imagine, in theory at least, a relatively benign form of polygamy, one that took place between educated, consenting adults. (like big love, i suppose) now i don't know if such a thing actually happens in practice (maybe?) or if there is just something intrinsic about the nature of polygamy that causes it to degenerate into this kind of abuse and female slavery - which is really what it is, in these cases. but i think people perhaps just don't realize how fucked up it is, in the FLDS. they think to themselves "if people want to have six wives, and the wives agree, why is that the state's business?" without realizing the wives are 14 years old and their marriages are forced and they're going to be baby-making machines for the rest of their lives for their disgusting 55 year old rapist "husbands".
aaaaanyway, i give props to TX for acting on this, avoiding some kind of waco redux at the compound, and stepping up to the plate where AZ & UT balked.
this is still big news in the local circuit... saw an interview with a kindly old baptist preacher who had taken a slew of them in to house and feed them at his church - and they huddled in the corner and were terrified of him. He started talking about one little boy who looked really scared - and he wanted to bend down and talk to him and tell him it would be alright - but he knew that if he got anywhere near them that it would only make everything worse... the man was really struggling with his composure telling the story.
i dont know how you bring these people forward... it's not like america is a forgiving place for people who dont fit in. Maybe they fit into anabaptist communities - i've seen a slew of Mennonite girls at the local supermarket and they seem to get on fine (at least, they dont give me dirty looks).
this ranch made cheese... that was the export... you know these girls have nothing close to an education... i cant imagine trying to overcome this hurdle - and its not like Texas has anything like a real governmental support system for this. Then again - texans are pretty good about stepping into the breach on shit like this... i bet there are a thousand families already lined up to adopt.
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