Kids' safety overrides First and Fourth amendments
 
Opinion
The Spectrum
 
As a hyper-proponent of the First and Fourth amendments, it took a long time, but, after looking at the facts carefully, it is impossible not to defend and praise Texas officials for removing more than 400 children from the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado, Texas, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Look, I vigorously defend the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of religion. I also vigorously defend the Fourth Amendment that guarantees that the cops can't bust down your door without reasonable cause.

However, the facts speak for themselves:

Of the 53 girls between the ages of 14 and 17 who were removed from the Texas compound, 31 either already have children or are pregnant.

Texas authorities are now saying there is evidence that boys, as well as the young girls, may have been victims of physical or sexual abuse.

Medical examinations indicate that nearly 10 percent of the children have broken bones. In the real world, less than 1 percent of American children suffer a broken bone each year, according to one source.

These are, as Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said, members of the FLDS church who "wouldn't be in Texas if we didn't kick them out of Utah."

Shurtleff defends Utah and Arizona law enforcement, which was roughed up pretty good a few days earlier by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who accused Shurtleff and his Arizona counterpart, Terry Goddard, of turning a "blind eye" to polygamy.

Shurtleff said Reid subsequently apologized for his statements.

I think Shurtleff is spinning.

Why? He talked of a number of "programs" set up to help those enslaved by polygamy - the children.

The programs would be a beneficial piece of the pie if the children of these communities weren't already programmed to another mind set, had access to telephones or a means of escape.

What is needed is tough law enforcement in Colorado City and Hildale not the drive-by patrolling going on now.

Even though the upper echelons of law enforcement have supposedly turned up the heat, only about a dozen cases have actually, in the past seven years, resulted in arrests and convictions in the region.

The numbers don't lie. If 60 percent of the girls in Texas had been sexually abused, and they came from the sect headquarters on the Utah-Arizona border, wouldn't it be probable that there were abuses going on long before now?

What happened to the other little girls who, as reportedly taught by Warren Jeffs, had their eternal salvation on the line if they did not follow his orders to succumb to the role of spiritual wives, sometimes being assigned to close relatives?

No, the Utah-Arizona record on polygamy has been abysmal.

Shurtleff believes that by "kicking out" the sexual perverts from Utah and making it Texas' problem he has solved the issue.

Hardly. In the years since the YFZ ranch has been operating, more abuses have occurred.

That's not a solution, Mr. Shurtleff, and if that is the best you can come up with, you have a very light case to take before voters this year as you run for re-election.

Yet, you seem outraged that anybody would question you.

The reality is that we, as decent, honest people of these good United States, are outraged at you for not ending this vile practice of abuse.

Contact Local News Editor Ed Kociela at eko ciela@thespectrum.com, or call 674-6237.
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Saturday, May 3, 2008
 
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