Interesting that Arizona didn’t take 416 kids
Arizona also received abuse report on polygamous sect - Salt Lake Tribune
SAN ANGELO, Texas - As Texas authorities massed at a polygamous sect’s ranch in west Texas, authorities in Arizona received information about a similar situation involving a teen in Colorado City, Ariz.
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.
How interesting that Texas and Arizona reacted so differently to the very same situation. I don’t know where the calls came from and neither does Texas but at the very most the call was about a 16 year old girl who was in crisis not a 4 year old boy or a 6 year old girl which were swept up in this massive cps effort. The hearings start today, I will watch with the rest of you and see what happens.
This is one of those times that standing for our laws is very hard. I have read a bit about the FLDS and I am certainly not a big fan. I think these kids would probably be better off not in a cult but the state doesn’t get to decide based on belief systems who should parent and who shouldn’t.
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Interesting point of view. HOWEVER, no matter how much you wish it to be the opposite; 16 year olds are still considered MINORS! ANY MINOR from age 0 to 17 deserves to be protected from abuse! I don’t care if the 16 year old tried to seduce the grownup first! The adult has the responsibility to WALK AWAY and these people are abandoning their teenage sons, and controlling their teenage daughters, just so a few old men perverts can use their religion as some excuse to have sex with young women, older women and girls! Wow what a wonderful religion! If you happen to be an over the hill male sex addict!
I didn’t say anything even remotely about a 16 year old seducing an adult. I think we are probably a day from finding out that the call that started this whole mess was a fraud. I think we probably all already knew that almost since the beginning but what that means is that by CPS rules they had no business or cause to go into the ranch to begin with. CPS has pretty immense powers but they must actually have found abuse not the hint of abuse or the thought that abuse happened. In Texas it is legal for a 16 year old to get married. In fact up until 2005 it was legal to marry at 14. I am not saying that a 14 or 16 year old should get married but that is what the great state of texas decided to make into law.
I wish I could explain my feelings better. The constitution and the law are far more important to uphold than my feelings or yours about this particular group. The state doesn’t get to just take children with no real abuse being found. They don’t get to decide based on beliefs that this person can parent and that one can’t. Who gets to decide which beliefs are right and which are wrong?. I am betting I would probably find your beliefs silly and you would find mine the same but that doesn’t mean that one or the other of us might not be right. I don’t get to choose for you and you don’t get to choose for me and the State sure as heck doesn’t get to choose for either of us. Yes, this religion is unhealthy in my eyes but then again I find most religions unhealthy so you sure as heck don’t want me drawing that line in which beliefs are okay to have and which ones aren’t and no one should think it is fine for the State to do it.