Warren Jeffs' Freaky Pseudo-Mormon Cult Busted in Texas

I wanted to bump this because it's turning out so much different than we thought to begin with. So far, we have found out that:

1. The phone call was a hoax and probably could have been identified as such, since it came from out-of-state.
2. None of the children tested so far have been abused.

In spite of that, mothers are still not being allowed to see their children, and the children are being placed with foster parents (which traditionally has a high rate of sexual abuse).

More and more, it seems like government tyranny against a perfectly-functioning group that society perceives as different. I hope the mothers get really good lawyers, and State gets their ass handed to them. But I bet dollars to doughnuts that the families that have been broken up will never be back together again.

 

I heard on the Today Show this morning that a bunch of the mothers from this group are minors. Like in excess of 20. Did I misremember it??


EDIT:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5729268.html
The state's count rose, for the second time, to 462 on Thursday because officials believe 25 more mothers from the compound who had claimed to be adults are under 18.

 

They are hindered by public perception. They dress like they are from another time frame and do no go to great lengths to increase their outward beauty. They are soft spoken and believe in very old fashioned things. Because of these things, they are guilty instantly in the public eye. Most people who talk about them mock them before they know any of the details.

 

They can believe what they want to believe....but if officials are right and there are 25 mothers who are underage, then I don't care what they believe in...they're fostering sexual abuse of minors.

 

delete

 

Fair point. I'm not trying to defend them really, I just hate the way the media is making these women out to be pathetic individuals.

 

If you can ignore that whole pre-teen girl polygamous marriage thing.

 

If the people were organizing it...sure it would!

We're not talking about teenagers being impregnated by teenagers here. We're talking about teenagers impregnated by grown men. We're talking about people who segregate themselves off from society to pull off what they couldn't in it. Because it's illegal.

 

Yeah I thought about that and removed my post.

 

The quote from chron.com:

In other words, they don't know how old they are.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/5730918.html

If they do find any real abuse, it should be prosecuted. Even that excuses the mass separation of children from their mothers, and relocation to another situation that we know promotes abuse.

 

they don't have to try real hard. if you're setting up your minor daughter for marriage with adult men, you're pretty pathetic in my limited MadMaxian view of the world.

 

They haven't found any pre-teen girls married to anyone. They're not sure they've found any under 18. Polygamy is an unenforceable law if the marriage isn't state sanctioned.

 

WHO CARES BURN THEM ALL! GO USA

 

If they wanted to smoke this out on grounds of polygamy, they'd have done it years ago. They're not. They're exploring child abuse charges with probable cause.

 

OK, then what MadMax said.

 

An investigation that started with a fake phone call. Even so, I think there is room for investigation here, and I hope anyone that they find that did abuse a child is chained to a wall for the rest of his life. If, in cases where there's no abuse, children are returned to their mothers, I won't have a problem with it. Based on previous examples of this, I bet that it won't happen. They'll be in foster care, a situation that has shown to encourage abuse.

 

So basically you're ok with what's happened so far, provided that it isn't abused going forward??

Then we agree.

 

You have criminal and civil law working together on this case in a multidisciplinary task force - so how the state got in there really won't matter as long as they find abuse. Since the state has already had the initial court hearings presenting evidence of a high risk of past and future abuse -- that the judge agreed with and upheld, thus granting the state conservatorship of the children - it's now up to the parents to prove they can protect these children by following the orders set down by the court.

I'm curious where you have gathered your information on foster care -- how does removing a child from an abusive home and placing him/ her with a licensed foster home encourage abuse?

 

I have learned about it from my volunteer work at the adoption agency that placed me with my parents.

Google brings up a lot, first hit:

http://www.liftingtheveil.org/foster04.htm

Yes, those studies are old, but the problem is still very much there.

 

I agree that there is a problem with foster care, but the other placement option is generally much worse. I think the most surprising and somewhat disturbing obvious thing -- (depending on how you look at it) is that foster care here in Texas has become an actual industry in many rural communities.