Polygamy and Child Abuse

Updates: Another blogger who wonders if the initial call was fraudulent.
This page keeps a running update of stories on the cult, the raid, the children, and the investigation. In one of them the mayor of Eldorado claims the kids have never seen toys before, which seems rather strange to me:

"Those kids had never seen toys," said Mayor John Nikolauk. "We brought the girls dolls, and they just stared at them. Then they started holding and clutching them. The boys finally started playing with the trains we brought them, and they looked happy. That really made your heart feel good."

IT's not clear if their reaction is his evidence that the toys were new to them, but if so, I disagree. Sounds more like the reaction of kids traumatized by a very frightening experience exercising some caution. And they obviously hadn't had any toys to play with in the state custody until that moment. These kids may well have been abused- I am not denying or dismissing that. But what CPS minded types fail to understand is even so, the way these kids have been yanked from all they know and plopped down in crowded, chaotic conditions at the fort and then moved to the stadium is also traumatizing. Even if they NEED to be removed, what's happening to them now emotionally feels no different than any other abduction.

One more update below.

I am a little troubled by news accounts of the polygamous sect in Texas, where police raided the sect's ranch and put 415 children into state custody.

I am not in favor of polygamy, and I am not comfortable with what I've read of these FLDS groups. But I can't agree that polygamy itself is fundamentally abusive to children, and I can certainly see that if we permit gay couples to adopt, it's incredibly hypocritical to basically kidnap the children of polygamous families.

The raid was in response to a series of phone calls allegedly placed from the ranch by a girl allegedly named Sarah who made allegations of abuse- she claimed to have been 15 when she had her first child by the 50 year old husband she was forced to take, and that she'd been beaten and her ribs broken, and that's horrific and unacceptable.

However, they can't find her. Initially I found that fact chilling and sickening. But perhaps they can't find her because she does not exist:

"There is no verbage or terminology used that leads me to believe the statements were made by someone inside," said Ezra Draper of Hildale, Utah, who left the FLDS sect six years ago. "I think it's bunk."
Examples: The term FLDS use to describe other people is "gentiles," not outsiders, and they don't observe such holidays as Easter Sunday, when the alleged victim claimed she was last beaten.
Susan Risdon, the crisis shelter spokeswoman, said the calls to the shelter were not recorded but that the two employees who spoke with the girl wrote down what she said.

In the phone call the girl identified her husband as Dale and herself only as 'Sarah.' There are several Sarahs among the 415 children and the younger mothers the state has taken into custody. Some of the young mothers may well be young enough that the fact of their motherhood is evidence of statutory rape. On the other hand, I know that my own daughters do not wear makeup much, and consequently have clear, young looking skin- they are frequently taken for being 14 or 15 years old- even the daughters in their 20s.
The Dale that authorities pinned their hopes on certainly sounds like a rough specimen, not somebody I want to know or have around my children. But he also sounds like a man other than the one described by 'Sarah:

'Barlow, who was convicted in Arizona of sexual misconduct with a minor in 2007, has said he does not know the girl and has not been to Texas since 1977 - claims backed by his attorney and his Arizona probation officer.
A presentencing report prepared on Barlow by Arizona authorities states that he has three wives - all of whom, according to friends and family, live in Colorado City, Ariz. That contradicts the girl's description of his family.

Of course, he could be violating Parole and sneaking over there- I don't think that's far fetched. And if his young 'bride' was handed over to him when she was only 15 maybe he and others have lied to her about his wives and who they are and where they live- there could be good reasons for that, from his point of view.

But what troubles me is how many 'it could be, might be' possible scenarios we have to keep making up here, and that on the say so of an anonymous, unidentified, unknown, possibly nonexistent accuser, over 400 children have been forcibly removed from their homes and could easily end up in foster care and adopted away from their families. What does that mean for us? Aren't we all at the mercy of some anonymous phone call made by somebody with a grudge? Maybe (there we are again) the phone call was even made for good reasons- somebody who had left the group or knew somebody who left the group and wanted those remaining behind to be rescued. Or maybe it's just somebody who assumes something ugly must be going on, or somebody has a grudge against this Dale person and wanted to get him and the cult in trouble. Given the use of terms and phrases that the members of the cult do not use, it seems more likely the call was not made from a member of the group on the ranch. But here we are with our maybe, could be, possibilities again and no evidence. How are the people on the other end of the phone supposed to know whether the call is made out of concern or out of spite? Out of honest concern or fear that leads to false conclusions?

And what happens when somebody doesn't like us and makes that anonymous phone call? The authorities say it doesn't even matter if 'Sarah' turns out to be a hoax, and I find that the most chilling of all:

Some experts say it matters less if Sarah is never found or turns out not to exist.
It is the strength or weakness of the state's evidence of alleged abuse found at the ranch that will matter when Judge Walther decides whether the 416 FLDS children will go to foster homes, they say.
John J. Sampson, a University of Texas law professor and expert on family law, said those cases will focus on what investigators found once they were at the ranch.
But if the state hopes to later bring criminal charges, they must find Sarah.

Who's to say that Sarah isn't a concoction of an activist? We don't know- yet 415 children have been legally kidnapped and incarcarated in what amounts to a refugee camp:

The turmoil and confusion deepened Monday when the children were taken by bus under heavy security out of the historic Fort Concho where they had been staying to the San Angelo Coliseum, which holds nearly 5,000 people and is used for hockey games, rodeos and concerts. Authorities ordered the move after some of the youngsters' mothers complained to Gov. Rick Perry that the children were getting sick in the crowded fort.

About 20 children had a mild case of chicken pox, said Dr. Sandra Guerra-Cantu with the state Health Department.

Perry spokesman Robert Black said the governor did not believe the children were being housed in poor conditions at the fort. "Let's be honest here, this is not the Ritz," Black said, but he called the accommodations "clean and neat."

It's always made more sense to me in these cases to remove the accused and let the victims stay home, and the 60 men at the ranch have offered to leave the ranch if the state will let the children and their mothers return home. Meanwhile, it appears to me the state wants these children on the fast track to foster care and adoption.

I understand why this group is under suspicion, and I recognize that the accusations may well be legitimate- their leader is not a respectable human being:

The sect practices polygamy in arranged marriages between underage girls and older men. The group has thousands of followers in two side-by-side towns in Arizona and Utah. The sect's prophet and spiritual leader, Warren Jeffs, is in prison for forcing an underage age into a marriage in Utah.

But I am having trouble swallowing the fact that the call prompting the invasion of the authorities and the forced removal of the children may well have been completely fraudulent. That does not bode well for anybody who is not living a typically mainstream middle American lifestyle- like us.

And while these women could be lying, their stories sound similar to other victims of CPS in other states:

Of the 139 women who voluntarily left the compound with their children since an April 3 raid, only those with children 4 or younger were allowed to continue staying with them, said Marissa Gonzales, spokeswoman for the state Children's Protective Services agency. She did not know how many women stayed.

"It is not the normal practice to allow parents to accompany the child when an abuse allegation is made," she said.

The women were given a choice: Return to the Eldorado ranch of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade Mormon sect, or go to another safe location. Some women chose the latter, Gonzales said.

The agency said they took this action after consulting mental health experts and attorneys who thought it would be best to separate the mothers from their children, reports CBS News correspondent Hari Sreenivasan.

On Monday night, about three dozen women, many of them mothers, sobbed and held onto each other outside a log cabin on the sect's ranch, recounting the way police officers encircled them in a room and told them that they could not stay.

One woman, Marie, said the women weren't allowed to say goodbye to their crying children.

"They said, 'your children are ours,"' said the sobbing 32-year-old whose three sons are aged 9, 7 and 5 and who would not give her last name. "We could not even ask a question."

She said the children at the ranch have not been abused, but she feels like "they are being abused from this experience." She said the children have been "have been so protected and loved."

The women believe the abuse complaint that led to the raid came from a bitter person outside their community.

Brenda, a 37-year-old mother of two, said CPS officials did not tell the women they would be separated from their children or why the children were removed from the compound. CPS also gave the women inaccurate information about opportunities to meet with attorneys, she said.

"We got to where we said, we cannot believe a word you say. We cannot trust you," she said.

It also looks more and more like the initial call was a deliberate set-up, as recently CPS authorities in Arizona received similar hotline calls about a polygamous sect there:

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Flora Jessop of the Child Protection Project in Phoenix contacted a member of his staff about a young girl who needed help.
The call, made on April 4, was turned over to Arizona Child Protective Services but they received "very imprecise" information about where the girl lived and what her situation was, Goddard said.
CPS employees, accompanied by deputies from the Mohave County Sheriff's Office and the Colorado City Town Marshal's Office knocked on doors in the town, trying to find the girl, he said.
But they were unable to locate her or substantiate the abuse claim. "It was so nebulous they were checking lots of possibilities," Goddard said.
Jessop, who is a former member of the FLDS sect, declined to talk to a reporter Saturday night.

Hmmm. That's curious. Jessop was also quoted in the first story linked above:

Two women who have worked with teens leaving the FLDS sect - Joni Holm of Utah and Flora Jessop of Arizona - say Sarah is real.
Holm said last week she has been in contact with people who know Sarah and believes she is among the girls now in state custody.
"They just have to keep weeding through them," she said last week. Neither Holm nor Jessop returned calls from The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday.

There are known polygamous sects in Texas, Utah, and Arizona, but this couldn't happen in Arizona because according to Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

Arizona law, which is similar to Utah's law, would not allow such sweeping child-welfare action. First, an abuse allegation would have to be substantiated before any child was removed.
"We would have to find [a victim] before they started putting people in custody," he said.
If authorities found a child in an abusive situation, they could remove a child and his or her siblings. But Goddard said he couldn't think of "any circumstances where [a removal] would extend beyond the household."
Texas may allow exceptions in situations like that at the secluded YFZ Ranch, where children and women were routinely kept out of visitors' views.
"I could see why they would take a more stringent action there," Goddard said. Colorado City, Ariz., which adjoins Hildale, Utah, are home to the FLDS but are not isolated, controlled locales.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff:

said that Texas appears to be preparing to make a case that polygamy is inherently an abusive situation for children. "We've just never concluded that in Arizona and Utah," he said.

And while I can see that in all probability, this particular polygamy cult countenances abuse, it's not at all clear to me how polygamy itself, among consulting adults can possibly be inherently abusive.

The update is that this is already too long so I am making a new post. I'll link to it from here when it's done.