Texas raid has opened can of worms
 
By Lee Benson
Deseret News
 
The Texas polygamy raid and prosecution is full of ironies.

It's ironic that the 416 confiscated children were sent to a county named Tom Green, even if it is no relation to the convicted Utah bigamist of the same name.

It's ironic that some ostracized former members of the FLDS polygamous sect are exhibiting a perverse pleasure in watching families that they were once torn from being torn apart again.

It's ironic that the attack on polygamous sexual practices is taking place in the same state that recently struck down laws that attacked homosexual sexual practices (Lawrence v. Texas, 2003).

And it's ironic that Texas authorities are, by some, being roundly praised for taking aggressive action while Utah authorities are being characterized as Barney Fife in comparison.

This last is the biggest irony of all, because Utah knows something Texas doesn't: dealing with polygamy isn't that simple.

It seems like it should be. The law states that bigamy, or marrying someone else when you are already married, is illegal. It also states that underage girls cannot wed. That's straightforward enough.

But add religion into the equation, and deception, and the willingness of "Big Love" advocates to live on the fringes to avoid mainstream America, and suddenly dealing with other so-called difficult societal problems — like, say, illegal immigration — looks like a walk in the park.

Here in Utah, authorities have known this for decades. Despite anti-polygamy laws and despite repeated official denouncements by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — an organization that is often accused of controlling pretty much everything in Utah, including the Legislature — polygamous groups have burrowed in and, if not exactly thrived, very much survived.

Squeezing them out is like squeezing out wood ticks.

Not that Utah and neighboring Arizona haven't tried.

During one stretch, polygamists living along the Utah-Arizona border could expect a shakedown every nine years. There was a government raid in 1935, in 1944 and in 1953. In defending the '53 raid, Gov. Howard Pyle of Arizona, as quoted in Martha Sonntag Bradley's seminal book, "Kidnapped From that Land," said: "Arizona has mobilized and used its total police power to protect the lives and future of 263 children. They are the product and the victims of the foulest conspiracy you could possibly imagine. The state of Arizona is fulfilling today one of every state's deepest obligations ... to protect and defend the helpless."

Sound familiar?

The governor went on to decry the fact that "highly competent investigators have been unable to find a single instance in the last decade of a girl child reaching the age of 15 without having been forced into a shameful mockery of marriage."

Unlike Texas, credit Utah and Arizona with attacking the situation head-on. They recognized that plural marriage was the root problem — it is all about religion — and that eliminating it is the only real way to stamp out the resultant teenage bride symptom that Texas calls "sexual abuse."

And yet, despite all the good intentions and the police power to back them up, the raids here didn't work, because the polygamists would not stop.

Not only that, they started to get a measure of empathy from others, most notably gays, also pursuing alternative lifestyles and pushing for the legal freedom to do so (see Lawrence v. Texas above).

Lawyers also joined the fray, pointing out the raids' wholesale violation of the polygamists' individual rights.

Talk about your cans of worms.

So the active pursuit and prosecution of polygamists here essentially came to a standstill. Only those too vocal — see Tom Green — or those obviously sanctioning incestuous or underage marriage — see David Kingston and Warren Jeffs — ran the risk of going to jail.

As Bradley chronicles in her book, in 1990, Utah Attorney General Paul Van Dam succinctly explained the dilemma in a KUED television documentary:

"Every law enforcement officer in Utah knows there are tens of thousands of polygamists in the area, and they are clearly violating the law. Yet if we prosecute these men and women, we know we will produce an incredible social disruption. Thousands of children must be cared for emotionally and otherwise, and that's a terribly expensive proposition. In addition, if you go after polygamists for illegal cohabitation, can you limit such a policy to polygamists, or do you pursue every couple in this state that is living together without benefit of a licensed marriage?

"And then, if you do make the arrests, where do you put these people in our crowded jail system? And finally, we know from experience that an arrest will not stop these people from following what they consider to be a very important aspect of their religious faith."

You can't stop it, to borrow an old football cliche Texans might appreciate, you can only hope to contain it.

But it can be a long learning curve figuring that out.

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.
 
deseretnews.com
Originally published Sunday, April 20, 2008
 
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