It's a religious cult. So right away, they are brainwashing kids - that's a crime right there. In the US it's legal but morally it's abhorrent.
Dozens of federal agencies and every two bit police force now have their own SWAT teams, all pumped up and ready to go. It is a huge potential threat to our liberties. --------------------------- Imo, it is actually safer. It is intimidating and conveys immediate authority. Even a whack job would not have second thoughts about what he is going to do next other than comply.
But what about their god-given right to worship? This is America, land of the free, shouldn't they be allowed to live the way they want? So a few teenager girls get repeatedly raped by middle aged paedophiles - but who are we to judge? The property rights of the sect against arbitrary search and seizure surely come first.
Whatever GWB is, everybody in Europe agrees that you guys are his lapdog! (Not that I enjoy teasing our friends the Brits, but you, Cutten, don't sound like a real one...)
You are being sarcastic yes? No one is complaining about these people worshipping their god. The fact is they are a cult who keep their young female girls ignorant and sheltered from the world in order to groom them to be only what these men want, sex with many partners and baby makers to keep the future cult alive. They have violated these womens right to education and the right to choose their path in life. Really, when teenage girls choose to have sex (right or wrong is not the issue) but when they do choose to have sex, it is almost always with a teen boy who is also at the age of desire and curiosity.
I do see how they could have taken the children and mothers together, and not caused so much grief to these mothers and children..but perhaps the authoritys thought that the children will not speak of their sect expierence if thier mothers were brainwashed to keep the children quiet about such things. It is very, very sad for the mothers and the children because they don't realize what has happened is to help them. They know no other life, they don't think any crime has been committed against them in their sect.
updated 27 minutes ago SAN ANGELO, Texas - The belief system at a polygamous sect is abusive and teen girls do not resist early marriages because they are trained to be obedient and compliant, an expert testified Friday in a custody hearing for 416 children seized from a secluded ranch. Many of the women had children when they were minors, some as young as 13, a child welfare worker said earlier in the child custody hearing, one of the largest and most convoluted in U.S. history. State District Judge Barbara Walther must decide whether the children will remain in state custody. Child welfare officials claim the children were abused or in imminent danger of abuse because the sect encourages girls younger than 18 to marry and have children. Story continues below ¡ý -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- advertisement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- An expert on children in cults testified Friday that while the teen girls believed they were marrying out of free choice, it's a choice based on lessons they've had from birth. "Obedience is a very important element of their belief system," said psychiatrist Bruce Perry, who interviewed three girls seized in the April 3 raid. "Compliance is being godly, it's part of their honoring God." He also said that many of the adults at the Yearning For Zion Ranch owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are loving parents and that the boys seemed emotionally healthy when he played with them. But, he noted, the sect's belief system "is abusive. The culture is very authoritarian." Child welfare investigator Angie Voss testified Thursday that at least five girls who are younger than 18 are pregnant or have children. Voss said some of the women identified as adults with children may be juveniles, or may have had children when they were younger than 18. Identifying children and parents has been difficult because members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have given different names and ages at various times, Voss said. The state has asked that DNA be taken from all of the children and their alleged parents to help determine biological connections. The judge has not ruled on that request. Courtroom turns into circus The court hearing disintegrated into farce early Thursday, as hundreds of lawyers who descended on San Angelo for the proceedings shouted objections or lined up to cross-examine witnesses. The judge struggled to maintain order. On Friday, Walther was testier ¡ª and stricter, cutting off prolonged cross-examinations of a witness when a line of 10 defense lawyers had formed to ask essentially the same questions. She solicited objections when she felt questioning was going on too long. The renegade Mormon sect is led by Warren Jeffs, who is currently awaiting trial in a Kingman, Ariz., jail on charges related to the promotion of underage marriages. He previously was convicted of being an accomplice to the rape of a 14-year-old wed to her cousin in a Utah case. The sect came to West Texas in 2003, relocating some members from the church's traditional home along the Utah-Arizona state line.