Blind Eye to Culture of Polygamist Abuse and Child Molestation

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. — For half a century, while polygamous members of this remote enclave engaged in widespread sexual abuse and child exploitation, government authorities on all levels did little to intervene or protect generations of victims.

snip

Among sect members, girls as young as 13 are forced into marriage, sexual abuse is rampant, rape is covered up and child molesters are shielded by religious authorities and law enforcement.

Boys are thrown out of town, abandoned like unwanted pets by the side of the road and forcibly ostracized from their families to reduce competition among the men for multiple wives.

Children routinely leave school at age 11 or 12 to work at hazardous construction jobs. Boys can be seen piloting dump trucks, backhoes, forklifts and other heavy equipment.

Girls work at home, trying to keep order in enormous families with multiple mothers and dozens of children who often eat in shifts around picnic tables.

Wives are threatened with mental institutions if they fail to "keep sweet," or obedient, for their husbands.


(much more distressing info at the link)
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sect12may12,0,3267921.story?coll=la-home-headlines

which makes me wonder if it's as bad as they say, or if it's just a new way to take attention off *
Call it a "hermeneutic of suspicion".

nor necessarily complete. Isn't it sweeps week? Everyone wins... juicy story for the ratings, heat off Bush's administration, and a warm fuzzy for exposing evil.

It's win-win!

and pedophile rings operating as religious sects need to be exposed. If CNN is milking it for all it's worth, kudos to them. I don't care if it's because they're temporarily out of rich dead blondes.

There are two major things fueling this: a silly drama series on cable and the inclusion of one of the worst pedophile/prophets in the Top Ten Most Wanted list.

stockpile that would make the Branch Davidians jealous.

These aren't harmless adults practicing consensual, but frowned upon sex.

These are child molestors and then some.

I wish people outside the southwest could get this very cogent point.

They kept chasing off the reporter and all the girls/women were walking around in long dresses.
This Warren Jeffs sounds like a real doozy. I haven't heard if they found him yet.
There is something seriously wrong with this so called religion.
:crazy:

Pig!

He has a big audience, and he did several very good shows about the FLDS about 18 months ago, including a segment on the "Lost Boys," that spread the evilness of the FLDS to a demographic that wouldn't read "UNder the Banner of Heaven."

I'm really glad these scum are being exposed the last few years... and I hope ALL of them are arrested, their property confiscated and distributed to their victims, and proper counseling, rehabilitation, and transition services given to all of the women, girls, and boys.

extensively about this hideous cult:

http://www.janabommersbach.com/pm-fea-may04.htm

Plus, she's just a terrific writer to boot.

Our local semi-alternative newspaper, The (original) New Times, has published many articles:

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/Issues/2006-02-23/news/dougherty.html

There is so much ignorance right here on DU about these sociopathic perverts that I can hardly stand opening another thread about it, but I feel like I have to battle back with the facts at every opportunity.

We're library people--it's what we do. Thank goodness someone does, eh?!

She is REALLY good.

Yeah, alot of people on here don't realize what this evil cult is -- and it is a cult.


We library people ROCK. My SO just )finally) got her MLIS yesterday... three years of working full-time and getting her degree. Thank the gods I won't have to proofread her thesis any more!

And having done editing and proofreading professionally--a toast to you, too! You deserve it!

Her thesis was soooo boring, too....

It's so sad... the one I thought WOULD go home, didn't... buy, the one with family outside of the FLDS did. Very, very sad....

I'm not sure if it was by Ms. Bommersbach or not. But it was a real eye opener for me. Whenever I saw polygamists on the talk shows, the women always came across as pretty happy and fulfilled and totally satisfied with their lives. So I sort of thought of it was kind of a hippie commune way of life only with conservative religious values added in to the mix. It wasn't something I would ever want to be part of, but it sounded for the most part pretty harmless.

Then I read the book which dealt a lot about the sexual abuse, the incest and other wrongs that are perpetrated by this system. Interestingly enough, the ACLU has come down on the side of the polygamists because they see this strictly as a freedom of religion issue.

Not by Bommersbach, but by Jon Krakauer.

Bommersbach has written a couple of mostly local interest (one about winnie Ruth Judd, and my mind has lost the other one right now), but she writes many journalistic pieces about the subject.

You are quite correct--if this were adults, I'd say live and let live. But these are creepy old men controlling local politics, adult women, and PREYIN on children, most of whom are related by blood.

That's quite a different matter and it makes me, as an Arizonan, sick to my stomach to see so many ill-informed DUers defending the creeps.

It was actually a series of first person accounts by women who had escaped the movement. I do recall the woman who wrote it was a reporter so maybe it was Jana Bommersbach.

read it too! thanks.

I went to the library this afternoon and looked it up. It's called "God's Brothel". I found a copy of "Under The Banner of Heaven" so I'll be reading that within the next few weeks too.

Information about the book

The author's name is Andrea Moore-Emmett.

and was "excommunicated".

I know people who know her, she is a very nice person.

But then again...maybe. Bringing this issue to the forefront now seems odd, especially after it has been going on here in Arizona for years. And the coverage has been enormous, even bordering on obsessive.

Where has the media been for these many years while this stuff has been going on? During the period when women were coming forward, trying to get their stories out about the abuse occurring at the hands of the FDLS, the media was obsessed with OJ Simpson or Monica Lewinsky among other things.

I mean, I'm glad this story is finally getting more national coverage, but at this point I would think the amount of time given could be put to better use. However, items like Dick Cheney financially profiting from recent Halliburton stock increases isn't as sensational as this story or Congressman Kennedy's car accident.

Why now is a good question, but Warren is on the most wanted list.
:shrug:

You have a great perspective. I do think it's a very important story on the local and state level though.

Check out the Arizona forum if you haven't already:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=139

:toast:

Waco was mentioned several times..:puke:

by Jon Krakauer

Besides the pedophilia, there is also massive welfare fraud going on.

you just mentioned the magic word "money" (welfare fraud)! The officials must have gotten tired of losing money on the group. As long as they were small, they could be ignored. But once they start biting into the "bottom line" then they have to go.

The Colorado City FLDS gets somewhere in the range of 750K a year PER CHILD in town from the states and feds. Since polygamous marriages aren't recognized, all those subsequent brides and children are "unemployed unwed mothers" and illegitimate children, by the law. So these communities can get food stamps, welfare benefits, Medicaid and CHIP, plus they get their school subsidized since there are more children than the property taxes can support. (Not that I begrudge any child the food or health care, but when there are 8 wives getting even $1000 a month from the state and Feds for their 3 or 4 kids, and they all live together in a house without a mortgage - though they'll claim really high rents - , they end up with a decent chunk of incoming monthly income.) And then the community went and used school district money to buy things like planes and cars, falsified documentation about the number of children in the schools, and charged up credit cards that the state then had to pay (AZ Dept of Ed being a co-signatory on all state school districts)... then they declared bankruptcy.

They do it on purpose and call it "bleeding the beast." So yeah, I'm glad the state's going after them again. It's about time, and this time, I hope it works. What these wicked men do to the women and girls they control is pure evil.

but like good 'ol Al Capone, the crimes may be bad, but when the gov. looses lots of money, then it pays attention. The authorities knew about what they were doing to the women and children, but chose not to enforce the law, until the costs got too high.

It was a huge disaster in the long run. Lawsuits, major bad ink, etc. It ended up giving the FLDS more protections than the average person got, putting the FLDS in a privileged position that a woman with two husbands doesn't have when her parents sue for custody. (First amendment arguments, IIRC) For many years after the 50s raid, all they had to do was say "church and state" and Utah and Arizona cowered.

I think it takes about 50 years for the politics of the situation to evolve. 50 years ago, we didn't have the child protections, the women's legal rights, and it hadn't been established that children have an absolute right of parental financial support. Since then, we've evolved socially and politically, and now it is both economically advantageous for the state (yeah, that's a motive) and far more legally sound as well as socially approved for a government to interfere in a community that is harming it's own children.

Yeah, the state has an economic motive. But they also have the political standing and the public will to do something, and those only come after media exposure. For once, I can say, Thanks, Dr. Phil. (And Jon Krakauer.)

Including the Mayor and law enforcement. THEY have been breaking the laws and marrying 14-year-old girls along with the Prophet. THey have been aiding the "bleeding of the beast," etc. It's "Under the Banner of Heaven," Dr. Phil (Goddess help us), etc. that helped Jeffs get on the Most Wanted list... now, non-FLDS citizens are also finding out about the huge amount of scams -- welfare, running the school board of the non-existent school and picketing millions... while they can't get food stamps or computers for their schools.

FINALLY law enforcement are -- debadging? -- cops who are part of this group.

So, let's hear it for good writers and sleazy talk show hosts! Thye got the ball rolling.

I mean, Rush and others of his ilk managed to poison and divide the nation using, among other topics, the lie that African Americans were the "welfare queens" of the country and were the ones making the middle and upper classes have to pay such high taxes to cover welfare and foodstamp and medicaid expenses.

Racism is the bottom line hatred that has caused the Red voting, GOP to attract so many followers. African Americans were referred to by Rush and his kind as the Democrat's "Special Interest Groups." These kind of accusations made a lot of former Democrats feel that they were being used and abused by the Democratic Party and caused them to think they had reason to change political affilitations, thus their move to the Republican Party. It is really sad the way we try to deny these very obvious facts, because no one wants to accuse his fellow man of being so cruelly racist.

Now we see that for years, many groups who are NOT African American are abusing the welfare system. Do you have any idea of how many of these people claim disabilities based on being manic depressive or bi-polar or some other mental illness? I can tell you this...I know many Social Workers here in NYC and I have asked them, "How many African Americans receive welfare based on being bi-polar?" The answer is, "None!" When it comes to African Americans, those mental illnesses do not constitute a reason not to work. But in the poor classes of white Americans, being bi-polar DOES allow one to collect welfare and not have to work. Thus, there are a bunch of them.

Many African Americans have known for years that there are far more whites on the welfare roles than minorities, but it makes Americans feel better to see commercials that show images of poor blacks instead of including poor whites and poor Asians and poor others. And of course, liars like Rush Limbaugh continue to perpetrate these lies on their broadcasts.

So what kind of excuse can Rush give to THIS story of polygamy, pedophilia and welfare cheating among this crowd of religious believers? After all, they LOOK LIKE HIM!

the government - these are nice lily white criminals.

Then we live with a regular culture of systemic
* A B U S E * and * M O L E S T A T I O N *.

Its what america stands for, takes years to train 'em.

Polygamy Kingdom!

the RW Christian funddies have turned a blind eye to this disgraceful behavior. Choosing instead to criticize government and the media for a war on Christianity. I was about to post something about this and then saw this thread. Anyone else hear the deafening silence of Pat Robertson, Dobson, Hagee, and Falwell on this?

I'm not particulary for polygamy except in a live and let live sort of way. A lot of their problems are due to their choice to maintain their kooky religous traditions in isolation from a society that abhors them.

it's 12 year old girls being forced to marry 50+ year old men. It's 14 year old boys having their wives chosen for them.

It's welfare fraud and arms stockpiling.

If they were consenting adults living in Colorado City, sans the welfare fraud and the arms stockpiles, I'd say let them be.

But that's not the case.

I echo the sentiments of many here: Read "Under the Banner of Heaven."

I have to admit that the sex with little girls really bothers me greatly and is punishable under law already.

Welfare fraud is also punishable.

Having wives chosen for you, is just a cultural practice.

There is nothing illegal or in anyway wrong with stockpiling ordinary arms.

We can stop the illegal aspects through punishment and probably help them do away these practices by legally allowing polygamy.

There is also the fumarase deficiency problem their experiencing, but that will solve itself one way of the other. Again, I think legallizing their marriage practices will help that situation too.

You're okay with not just promising (my husband is from India--he was facing an arranged marriage)--but actually "allowing" an 11 year old girl to "consent" to marrying a 50+ year old man?

I can't even respectfully disagree there.

You need to read up--the children who are escaping from Colorado City are NOT OK with the practices.

If they want to practice polygamy or polyandry as is done on "Big Love," that's their bidness if they are adults. I'd have no interest whatsoever in interfering.

But children are being prostituted and raped--there is nothing legitimate about allowing children to be married off to adults--and I'll even go so far as to call them OLD adults.

Geez.

and that varies from state to state. For example, in GA the legal age of consent for sex is 16, unless the couple is married. Then minors below 16 can be married off and have sex without parental consent. I think GA was looking to change that recently, but I don't remember the outcome of that legislation.

When I referred to legalizing their marriage practices, I was referring to polygamy in general. As you say, when its between adults its ok. I would go one step further and say that the same mongamous standard should apply and I think in many states < 18 can get married.

My main point with my post is to urge people to apply the same standards and legalities to polygamous marriages as we already apply to monogamous heterosexual relationships.

The things you mention, child rape, forced marriages, and prostitution are already illegal and legtimizing polygamy would not change that.

geez.

Guess the poster likes THAT too, huh? THinks that's a nice think to do -- not have have young girls raped, but to allow them to be raped by close relatives. Yup, that should be made legal, bet the little girls just love having their mother's brother rip apart their bodies with his penis. Bet they7 LOVE it.

Posts are sickening me lately -- the Duke threads, stuff like this....

"kooky religious traditions" should have nothing to say about gay marriage, and abortion rights.

Also, a live and let live world works when the people involved are all in agreement. How in the hell can a 12-14 year old child be in agreement to marry a 40-50 year old pervert? I think those men who force these children into these mentally dranged marriages should be castrated.

(if stealthily) involved in local politics.

It's one of the reasons AZ elects so many wackjobs. Even if they don't vote, they INFLUENCE--big time.

.. has little bearing on my stance.

I don't know what the legal age for marriage is in Utah or Arizona (its often different than the legal age to consent to sex, stangely), but whatever it is, that is what I would like to see applied to polygamists.

:dem: