[Vision2020] condemning rape redux/FLDS

[keely emerinemix]

Sorry, Andreas, but I have to disagree.  Perhaps the "good faith" rule fell short of your threshold for probable cause -- and I'll grant that you know more about law than I do -- but it would seem to me that you're overlooking two other points.  First, when the call was received, it was believed to be genuine, i.e. originating from the compound and from a possible victim.  That led to the raid and the subsequent removal of the children.  

But here's my second point, and I think it's a mitigating factor in the Texas authorities' favor:  There was in their midst a group directly related to and under the authority of the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints church headed by Warren Jeffs.  Jeffs' recent conviction on accessory to rape charges notwithstanding, it is indisputably documented that the FLDS clearly, unapologetically, and flagrantly practices these "celestial marriages" involving the rape and impregnation of underage girls by men much older, all of them adults according to law.  Further, there is evidence from other Jeffs-ed groups of FLDS that children, both boys and girls, are beaten.  This is not considered an aberrant manifestation of their particular doctrine, but a requirement.  The celestial marriages constitute a salvific work; the beatings are to instill the absolute obedience necessary for men to gain adult access to celestial girl-wives, as well as unwavering submission from these wives, both women and adults.  Again, this is a doctrine of the church and a documented practice in other FLDS compounds in Colorado City, Arizona, and in two (I believe) Utah settings, and to which former FLDS members testify.  

Now if someone were to say that they were calling from, for example, First Enchanted Hills Methodist Miracle Tabernacle Church of the Apostles, and this person said they had been raped or beaten, I would expect authorities to investigate.  If there's no evidence that FEHMMTCA engages in or condones rape or beating, and there was no evidence the caller had been thus victimized, I would hope and assume the State would close its case.  But if the FEHMMTCA's raison d'etre was the promulgation of child rape and assault -- if there was documented evidence that this particular group considered such things either necessary disciplines or even sacraments, as is the case of the FLDS -- I would expect the police, upon discovering pregnant underage girls, to act swiftly to save them and other children from harm.  That would include any boys who show evidence of having been beaten, or the discovery of any boys outside the compound who had been expelled so as to reduce competition.  

Perhaps I'm missing something, Andreas, and I hope you'll tell me.  But I just can't see it any other way.

Keely




> Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:24:02 -0700
> From: ophite at gmail.com
> To: kjajmix1 at msn.com
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] condemning rape redux/FLDS
> CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
> 
> > I was dismayed but not entirely shocked to see that Courtney has raised
> > questions about the legality of the recent raid on the FLDS compound from
> > which 416 children were removed.  It appears that the call tipping police
> > off to the sexual abuse of children might have originated outside of the
> > Yearning For Zion Ranch -- which in this case leads Dale to remind his
> > readers of the ominous and obvious similarities to, say, the FBI's raid on
> > Waco's Branch Davidians.
> 
> I think, unfortunately, that this is a fair criticism. The FBI's raid
> of the FLDS compound was based on a false anonymous tip originating in
> Colorado. Based on this tip--which, itself, provided  evidence that
> only *one* child was being abused, not 416--they removed every last
> one of the children in the community from their families.
> 
> They didn't have probable cause to believe that every last one of the
> children in the compound was being abused--unless, of course, you
> count "belonging to a religion promoting polygamy" as not simply being
> an environment conducive to abuse (which it is) but, rather,
> constituting abuse in and of itself.
> 
> -- ACS

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