<p>I’ve been following this on CNN and there are some things that I just don’t “get”. Couldn’t these “ranches” be raided on tax evasion, or truancy or welfare fraud or bigamy charges? What took them so long? Why have they waited until there was a cry for help from a sixteen year old? They keep saying that there hasn’t been a raid since “the big one” in '53. Why is that?</p>
<p>Because the one in '53 – rightly – caused a huge national outcry. Ripping screaming kids away from their parents on national TV is bad PR, and it’s bad PR because it’s a horrible thing to do to children. Sometimes you have to do it anyway, but welfare fraud or tax evasion or whatever just isn’t enough to justify that kind of intervention in most people’s eyes. Raping girls is.</p>
<p>I truly have not been following this closely, but I think they get away with a lot because they use freedom of religion as a way to conceal it all.</p>
<p>Freedom of religion plays a role, but so does freedom to keep your home as your castle and run your family as you see fit. It’s perfectly legal to (moderately) hit your kids, even though the same hit would be actionable as assault and battery if you hit your wife that way and she sued you. The government is reluctant to mess around in people’s homes and pull their kids away unless the kids are in serious physical danger. In general, that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>Agreed, Hanna. I guess what I meant is that the govt would go after a group that regularly forced children to marry men three times their age, like sex slaves, but because this group maintains it’s part of their religion, then the govt takes a hands-off approach.</p>
<p>My take is that they’ve been planning this for some time, trying to make sure that there would be as few legal and practical miscues as possible. Once the fact that there were multiple 15 year olds there who were pregnant (or already mothers) it was simply a matter of getting things ready and waiting for a triggering event - like the now-mysterious phone calls from “Sarah.”</p>
<p>Are they really polygamists? To engage in criminal polygamy, you knowingly must be married by a State to more than one spouse at the same time. If the men in the group have marriage licenses from the State showing they are married to one woman but they have a “spiritual” relationship with other women, they are not engaging in criminal polygamy. Their arrangement is similar to what we saw in the 60s with hippy communes. They just added religion to the mix. If we exclude from consideration sex with underage girls, the remaining portion of how they wish to live is no one’s business but theirs. The problem is that sex with underage girls is not something that is easily excluded from consideration.</p>
<p>The authorities MUST have known about these young girls getting pregnant by these old geezers for decades, don’t you think?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Not to mention what do you do with 416 kids?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[Texas</a> judge holding custody hearing for polygamists’ kids - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat_272]Texas”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat_272)</p>
<p>I don’t know the quality of foster care in Texas, but in a lot of States it is horrible. In some states, a significant number of foster parents are foster parents primarily because the State pays them. Are there actually 416 foster parents in Texas available who will care for these children in safe secure environments and provide the necessary love and attention? I hope Texas has that option, but I wouldn’t bet on it.</p>
<p>The Colorado City group of FLDS only purchased and began developing the Texas land in 2004. It’s believed the big move into the Texas facility occurred between 2006 and 2007.</p>
<p>“Corporate Retreat or Prophet’s Refuge” 03/25/2004
[The</a> Eldorado Success](<a href=“http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZ032504b.html]The”>http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZ032504b.html)</p>
<p>[The</a> Eldorado Success](<a href=“http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Aerial%20Tour/yfztour2.html]The”>http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Aerial%20Tour/yfztour2.html)</p>
<p>And look, I don’t like this group anymore than the next person…but you have to have a complaint or a legitimate suspicion or some evidence before you can “raid” someone’s property. Rumors of statutory rape are not enough. </p>
<p>This group HAS been watched by CPS in Texas for years, but until the phone call did not have a basis for conducting a raid.</p>
<p>“YFZ Parents Greet Arrival of Newborn Baby” 01/27/2005
[The</a> Eldorado Success](<a href=“http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZ012705.html]The”>http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZ012705.html)</p>
<p>This is a great site with dozens of local newspaper articles that document the timeline…from the beginning when Texans were just getting a clue this ranch was a FLDS venture to present day.</p>
<p>[The</a> Eldorado Success](<a href=“http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZMenu.html]The”>http://www.myeldorado.net/YFZ%20Pages/YFZMenu.html)</p>
<p>Don’t they have to prove EACH child was in danger, and that EACH mother was an unfit abusing or neglectful parent?</p>
<p>Definitely mini. Individual rights must be considered. This is a huge undertaking…and I don’t know that they can continue to hold everyone. To me, authorities are getting to be on thin ice legally with this blanket approach.</p>
<p>And each child having his/her own attorney when there are only 80 of them in the area. Did anyone see Larry King last night where he interviewed the women? Not a man in sight.</p>
<p>“I don’t know the quality of foster care in Texas”</p>
<p>Me neither, but I’d bet my life that I wouldn’t want my kid in the typical Texas foster home.</p>
<p>We need to appreciate the terror children suffer when they are taken away from their families, even when their parents are scumbags and the new placement is clearly a better home.</p>
<p>Hanna - did you mean to say you wouldn’t want your kid in a typical foster home, OR that you wouldn’t want your kid in a typical TEXAS foster home of which you nothing regarding quality?</p>
<p>Sorry, but the Texas bashing by those who admittedly don’t have any direct knowledge or experience is a little aggravating. Seriously, what if I said…sniffsniff…I wouldn’t want my kid in the typical ILLINOIS foster home while stating I had no knowledge of the quality of foster care in that state? Would that go over well with you?</p>
<p>Btw…my aunt and uncle are career social workers in the State of Texas (My aunt was even Texas ‘Social Worker of the Year’. 
Like ANY other state, Texas foster care has its wonderful people and facilities, and its not so great people and facilities.</p>
<p>I know nothing about Texas foster care. I know enough about Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York foster care (a lot) to feel extremely confident about post #14.</p>
<p>All I know is 350 of my brothers and sisters in the Bar from all over Texas have converged upon San Angelo to volunteer their time. “Billable hours for your soul”. Ain’t one of them going to roll over. Watch the interviews. ;)</p>
<p>By dke “Did anyone see Larry King last night where he interviewed the women?”</p>
<p>On this subject, did anyone think that the three women who were interviewed sounded like robotic Stepford Wives?</p>
<p>Then again, Hanna, why the criticism of Texas foster care if you know nothing about it? I can understand forming a negative opinion about foster care in general based on actual experiences in various states. But you didn’t say that. </p>
<p>I can honestly say, foster care is far from perfect…but many times it’s all there is and a lot better than leaving a child in an abusive situation.</p>
<p>“Then again, Hanna, why the criticism of Texas foster care if you know nothing about it?”</p>
<p>Because as I said before, I’d stake my life that I wouldn’t want my kids in foster care there. Would you? Am I wrong on the merits of the issue? If you’re prepared to argue that Texas does a reliably better job in state-administered social services than Massachusetts, and that therefore my judgment is based on a faulty understanding of the facts, go right ahead. </p>
<p>The reason I am talking about Texas foster care specifically is because that’s where the kids in question are going to go.</p>