Infanticide, rape, physical abuse, child abandonment, incest, genetic deformities

[Cerridwen]

resulting in death (or murder), forced "marriage", tax fraud, welfare fraud, kidnapping, torture, child labor, government complicity in hiding, abetting, and/or excusing flds crimes...

I have read, here and other message boards, and I have heard in "the real world" and spouted by the "media" all of the examples I list below. This is my "open letter" to "them".

Leaving aside for a moment what I think about those dancing on the head of a pin trying to justify forced "marriage" of young, impressionable, brainwashed and controlled young girls,

---Or those who would obfuscate and divert the discussion by picking semantic nits about the definition of pedophilia; the implication appears to be that it's not pedophilia if they're "married" and the child "consented",

---Or those who aren't as concerned until they hear the terms welfare fraud or tax fraud (because forcing little girls into marriage isn't horrific enough and criticism of their crimes must be legitimized as worthy of criminal status),

---Or those whose needle is stuck on branch davidian when they should be looking to a 100-year old jonestown,

---Or those of the beavis-and-butthead-sexual-maturity crowd who wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hee hee, they've got multiple wives and they're "young thangs", too,

---Or those who intentionally or unintentionally divert attention from the seriousness of the flds crimes as they ridicule and focus on the clothes or hairstyle of the women; the men's clothes, not so much a topic, btw,

---Or to those defending flds "polygamy" as though polygamy as practiced by consenting, informed, self-determined, independent adults is the same as what is forced on members of the flds "church",

---Or to those "religious freedom" fighters who think the perversion that is the flds "church" can in any but the most specious manner be constitute "religious" practice,

read about the history of and practices of the flds and their "religion" and their use of "polygamy" and other "accepted" practices. To those who would defend the flds, see what it is you defend. To those who don't know enough to decide, read and learn.


Texas authorities defend polygamous sect raid

ELDORADO, Texas - It was no secret that a polygamist sect that built a compound in the West Texas desert believed in marrying off underage girls to older men. And the sheriff had an informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the sect.

But authorities say their hands were tied until last week, when they finally obtained the legal grounds to move against the group.

<snip>

"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls, Sheriff David Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry.

<snip>

"You cannot go in and bust in someone's house if there's not probable cause to do so," Abbott said. {emphasis added} {"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls" is not probable cause?!}

Convictions: (see other links for more convictions)

Dale Barlow, is a registered sex offender who pleaded no contest to having sex with a minor in Arizona.

POLYGAMIST LEADER: Jeffs bound for Utah

She {Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member who escaped after being married at 16} said that in eight recent cases of child sexual abuse in Washington County, all of the defendants were sentenced to probation.

In a recent case in Mohave County, FLDS member Kelly Fischer was sentenced to 45 days in jail after being convicted of having sex with his 16-year-old wife, who was two decades younger. Prosecutors had asked for prison time.

Torture and abuse

“Everything you did was monitored and controlled and everybody reported on everyone else,” she said. “It was a police state. You were not allowed to make decisions in your life. I had no power over my life or the lives of my children. It was a terrible way to live.”

<snip>

“The method he would use with infants was a form of water torture,” Jessop said of her former husband. “He would spank the baby until it was screaming out of control, and then he would hold the baby faceup under a tap of running water so it couldn’t breathe. He would do this repeatedly. Sometimes, it would go on for an hour, until the baby was so exhausted it couldn’t cry anymore. This method he called ‘breaking them.’”

To a child, the abuse becomes normal, she said, and resistance becomes unthinkable to most. “With this level of mind control, it’s something you’re born into and it’s generational. The babies born into this, they don’t stand a chance from the beginning,” she said.

<snip>

She said her husband controlled his wives through their children. “The way he controlled me was by being violent to my children,” she told Lauer. “If I did something that he didn’t like, my children paid, and they paid a big price. He would hurt them. If he would have been hurting me, I probably would not have conformed. But when you go after a woman’s child, that’s one thing that will put a woman on her knees quickly.”

Babyland

Most unsettling is the revelation of countless numbers of unmarked baby graves in the canyonlands attached to the FLDS polygamy cult headquartered on the Utah-Arizona border. Local residents call it "Babyland" and law enforcement's response to human rights activists questioning the graves has been that unmarked graves are not illegal.

<snip>

Utah's Senator Hatch in choosing to publicly ignore Babyland and the malignancy of polygamy cults in his state has blood on his hands. His cavalier treatment of the crisis is best represented by his statement during a visit to southern Utah in 2003:

"I'm not here to justify polygamy. All I can says is, I know people in Hildale who are polygamists who are very fine people. You come and show me evidence of children being abused there and I'll get involved. Bring me the evidence." <He said further,> "I personally don't believe in polygamy. But I'm not going to judge others who feel differently."

For those who are dismissive of these stories because they're from the women, do you believe the "Lost Boys"?

ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Abandoned by his family, faith, and community, Gideon Barlow arrived here an orphan from another world.

<snip>

Gideon is one of the ''Lost Boys," a group of more than 400 teenagers -- some as young as 13 -- who authorities in Utah and Arizona say have fled or been driven out of the polygamous enclaves of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City over the last four years.

<snip>

Authorities say the teenagers aren't really being expelled for what they watch or wear, but rather to reduce competition for women in places where men can have dozens of wives. {I included what the "authorities" have said because some people put no stock in what the former-members are saying}

{another male voice for those who deny credence to the women's stories} "There is a virtual Taliban down there. You tell people this stuff happens and they don't believe it," said Dan Fischer, a former FLDS member and dentist living outside Salt Lake City who helps educate and house the exiled teens. The exodus "has been far more dramatic in the last year."

Quotes from "Banking on Heaven" video trailer {for those who give credence rather than dismiss the survivors of this group}

"I personally know of a woman who had a baby...that was deformed, he took the child and drowned it. This was condoned by the FLDS leadership." Elaine - Warren's <Jeffs> sister


"I spent 17 years being beat by my mother 'cause I wouldn't be obedient to my father ...and he wanted me in his bed...I never will back down" unnamed woman on video


"The LDS and the FLDS, uh...go by the same books" Jennie - escapee


"To me, Colorado City is a classic example of what happens when a theocracy takes over a government. You end up with massive, massive corruption and abuse of human rights" unnamed man on video

Blind Eye to Culture of Abuse {read the whole article; far too much information for the 4 paragraph rule, dammit!}

<snip>

The political debacle, coupled with a fear of violating the sect's religious freedom, ushered in 50 years of official passivity and government inaction, even in the face of continuing reports of illegal conduct in the FLDS enclave. {emphasis added}

<snip>

In 2001, Dan Barlow Jr., son of the Colorado City mayor, was charged with 14 counts of sexual abuse, accused of repeatedly molesting his five daughters, ages 12 to 19, over several years. According to the police report, Barlow confessed to the crimes. {emphasis added}

<snip>

Barlow was allowed to plead guilty to a single, lesser charge of sexual abuse, and was sentenced to 120 days in jail — most of which was suspended. He served 13 days. {emphasis added}

<snip>

On both sides of the state line, lenient sentences for sex abuse cases are a common complaint. {emphasis added}

Criminally complicit

Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) once visited the FLDS church in Hildale and played the organ. He later defended the group when asked about its alleged abuses.

<snip>

"All I can say is I know people in Hildale who are polygamists who are very fine people. You come and show me the evidence of children being abused there, and I'll get involved," he told local reporters. "Bring the evidence to me."

<snip>

In his successful 1991 bid for Arizona governor, Fife Symington wrote an open letter to the residents of Colorado City concerning their "family-oriented lifestyles," vowing never to do anything to "upset or question" their religion.

"Our policy was one of noninterference," he said recently. "The advice I got when running was this was an issue I wanted to stay away from."

The state of Arizona is contributing to the secrecy. The state Department of Health Services and the Department of Economic Security have been quietly providing services to assist the children and families of fumarase victims for more than 15 years. Both DHS and DES officials refused repeated requests from New Times to document the type and cost of services the state is providing to treat fumarase deficiency. The agencies claim that federal health laws prohibit them from releasing records or allowing their authorities to comment on the situation. Way more than 4 paragraphs worth

flds in Canada

The sect, a group of self-described "fundamentalist Mormons," includes the 1,000-member community of Bountiful near Creston, B.C. That community was headed by its former bishop, Winston Blackmore, who has more than 20 wives and at least 103 children.

<snip>

Debra Palmer, who left the fundamentalist commune in Bountiful in 1988, told CBC News that she was surprised and worried after hearing that Jeffs had been arrested.

Palmer, who lives with her family in Saskatchewan, has alleged she and her children were being abused under the polygamist system.

<snip>

Las Vegas, NV

The name Jessop is almost synonymous with polygamy. Patriarch Joseph Smith Jessop led the split with the Mormon Church decades ago. In the polygamist strongholds of Colorado City and Hilldale, nearly everyone is related to the Jessops, who are considered among the most devout followers of their now incarcerated leader Warren Jeffs.

<snip>

Law enforcement authorities believe that funds from polygamist business enterprises have been used to support Warren Jeffs and to help him remain a fugitive.

In recent years, several polygamist outposts have popped up in Southern Nevada, drawn by explosive growth. Records show Jacob Jessop's construction firm, JNJ, is licensed in Nevada but based in Colorado City.

Since 2004, it has earned more than $7 million on nine projects commissioned by the Las Vegas Valley Water District, including ongoing work at the massive Springs Preserve operation. JNJ has also won contracts with the city of Las Vegas and Clark County.

100 years, 10,000 members, in (at least) 2 countries

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told KTAR-AM of Phoenix that Jeffs' arrest is "the beginning of the end of ... the tyrannical rule of a small group of people over the practically 10,000 followers of the FLDS sect." He predicted that it will inspire more people to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse.

<snip>

The FLDS Church split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when the mainstream Mormon Church disavowed plural marriage more than 100 years ago.

<snip>

During his four-year rule, the number of underage marriages — some involving girls as young as 13 — escalated into the hundreds, church dissidents said. They said that although the sect has long practiced the custom of arranged marriages, young girls were rarely married off until Warren Jeffs came to power.

People expelled from the community said young men were sent away to avoid competition for brides. Older men were cast out for alleged disobedience, and their wives and children were reassigned by Jeffs to new husbands and fathers, the former members said.

because some people just aren't concerned with forced "marriage", child abuse, etc.

The activities in the community have often appeared out of reach of law enforcement. Members of plural families have in the past come to the attention of state and local officials through occasional allegations of welfare fraud, tax dodging, domestic violence and child abuse.

But officials have said that cases were difficult to build, with trouble finding witnesses to testify.

In Hildale earlier this year, thousands of polygamists were engaged in a standoff over overdue property taxes of about $1.3 million for hundreds of houses.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an offshoot of the Mormon Church, which has disavowed polygamy for more than a century. The fundamentalist church had long paid the property taxes of its members, but the church hierarchy fell into shambles with Mr. Jeffs on the run.

because others think incest just isn't horrific enough {again, way more than 4 paragraphs can describe}

<snip>

Of even greater concern was the fact that the recessive gene that triggers the disease {fumarase deficiency} was rapidly spreading to thousands of individuals living in the community because of decades of inbreeding.

<snip>

Doctors and family members interviewed by New Times say up to 20 children from families in the polygamist community are currently afflicted with the condition that requires full-time attention from caregivers. Victims suffer a range of symptoms, including severe epileptic seizures, inability to walk or even sit upright, severe speech impediments, failure to grow at a normal rate, and tragic physical deformities.

<snip>

Fifty-two years later, more than half of the 8,000 people now living in Colorado City and Hildale are blood descendants of the Barlows and the Jessops, says Benjamin Bistline, a lifelong resident of the area who has published a book, Colorado City Polygamists, on the history of the fundamentalist community.

{another one with "just a story"} Dr. Vinodh Narayanan, a pediatric neurologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, says he is seeking funding to develop a test that would allow public health officials to collect voluntary blood samples from as many FLDS members as possible. The samples could be tested for the gene at the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Phoenix.

for those who don't believe the "mainstream media" perhaps you can read about fumarase deficiency in these communities, the result of decades of inbreeding (hmm, incest by any other name is still...) in the Annals of Neurology, Volume 47, Issue 5, Pages 583 - 588 (or is the Annals of Neurology too "mainstream"?)

We describe the clinical and imaging features of this disease arising from a consanguineous pedigree in 8 patients in the southwestern United States. Thirteen patients have been previously described in the medical literature. Our patients presented with an early infantile encephalopathy with profound developmental retardation and hypotonia, and most experienced seizures. Previously unreported characteristics described here include structural brain malformations, dysmorphic facial features, and neonatal polycythemia. {quick note for the definition impaired - "consanguineous - of the same blood or origin; specifically :relating to or involving persons (as first cousins) that are relatively closely related (birth defects in _consanguineous_ marriages)." Sounds like incest to me.}

---------------------------------

Books available about this sect

Under the Banner of Heaven of course, as I've been assured by at least one person, "it's just their story." The author wrote about "an array of disturbing firsthand accounts and news stories (such as the recent kidnapping of Elizabeth Smart) of physical and sexual brutality, which he sees as an outgrowth of some fundamentalists' belief in polygamy and the notion that every male speaks to God and can do God's bidding." And who, one might ask, are these "disgruntled former members" about whom the author writes? Surprise! "Dan Lafferty" who along with his brother "Ron...murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen" as told during "jailhouse interviews with Dan Lafferty. Far from being the brooding maniac one might expect, Lafferty is chillingly coherent, still insisting that his motive was merely to obey God's command. Krakauer's accounts of the actual murders are graphic and disturbing, but such detail makes the brothers' claim of divine instruction all the more horrifying." Can you believe the stories of these guys, sheesh. What a bunch of easily dismissed sour grapes.

Colorado City Polygamists another one of those with a "story". My gawd! Now they've got the men doing it, too!

Escape another "poor deluded survivor" (and her "deluded" co-authors) with nothing more than a "story".

More books are listed at the above links. But, hey, they're just "stories" by "disgruntled" former members and those who've been "taken in" by them.

----------------------------

Threads posted by other DUers with even more links to even more evidence:

From Dems Will Win: Senator Hatch refused to help abused polygamy girls A wealth of links and information in that thread alone.

From eppur_se_muova: Woman describes childhood in polygamous household (CNN) {FLDS, Warren Jeffs case} Ah well, just another "disgruntled" former member with no "authoratative" voice.

From donsu: Utah and AZ won't prosecute polygamists - for real Priorities, priorities.

From demobabe: Polygamy: the Red State Answer to Family Values. AZ and UT Attorney Generals Won’t Prosecute It. Yeah, it's a duplicate of donsu's. Government complicity in crime should be shouted out over and over and over and ...

From DeSwiss: Polygamist's Son Jailed For 180 Days For "Having Sex" With 13-Year-Old Girl Oh well, it's not like he was convicted of rape, right? There is also information in this thread about additional convictions of the "it's not really rape when we do it" crowd.

From Herman Munster: Boys Cast Out by Polygamists Find Help

From SoCalDem (in the above thread): and welfare pays them to do itLink to "story" about welfare fraud {SoCalDem's link is no longer working. I found another source (link is still active) for the same article by the same author from the same date. I wanted to make sure SoCalDem was recognized as my source for this information.}


Many, many more can be found using DU's search feature. Even more can be found by using Google. And more in a library, especially some University libraries.


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Now, apologists, "religious freedom" defenders, and those who view this as a titillating diversion of a story to enhance your infantile wet dreams in which you control numerous women little girls for your sexual pleasure - your turn. Are you willing to take on this 50 year old, enraged, feminist, who is 1/4 "Mormon" and a possible descendant of polygamists (I have the red hair and familial resemblance to suggest it) who has spent years researching, studying, reporting, and reading about these sick fucks in "religious" clothing? Warning: years of attempted brainwashing by my LDS family members and friends never "took". You'd better be a damned sight better than they were at presenting your argument and asserting your authority and the authority of your knowledge over me and mine.