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Polygamous Community Defies State Crackdown
NY Times ^ | 10/25/5 | Timothy Egan

Posted on 10/25/2005 12:03:53 AM PDT by Crackingham

One year ago, Arizona authorities set up shop in a double-wide trailer here at the edge of the nation's largest polygamous community, trying to bring at least a semblance of secular law to an American small town like no other.

Theirs was the first independent government presence in half a century at this settlement straddling the Arizona-Utah border, a place frozen in a 19th-century frontier theocracy inspired by the early Mormon Church.

But the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, continue to defy the law, the authorities and dissidents say: under the direction of leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, women are still being removed from their husbands and assigned to other men, and girls under 18 are ordered to become brides of older men on a day's notice, all despite the presence of full-time outside law enforcement.

SNIP

The Arizona attorney general, Terry Goddard, whose own office is already active here, has asked the Justice Department to investigate the local police, saying they "seem to be aiding and abetting" criminal behavior by discouraging witnesses in sexual abuse cases from testifying; a third of the force has been decertified by Utah and Arizona for criminal conduct.

In a recent letter to the United States attorney general, Alberto R. Gonzales, Mr. Goddard wrote, "I believe that the officers of the Colorado City Police Department have engaged in a pattern of conduct that deprives individuals of their constitutional and civil rights."

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Arizona; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: marriage; mormonchurch; mormonism; polygamy
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1 posted on 10/25/2005 12:03:59 AM PDT by Crackingham
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To: Crackingham
Gee...if only Mormons encouraged suicide bombings and gave refuge to illegal aliens...then their culture would be considered sacrosanct and off-limits to the government.
2 posted on 10/25/2005 12:06:41 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: Prime Choice

...And all of them butt-boffed their buddies as well! Then they would have Triple Super Protection under the living constitution.


3 posted on 10/25/2005 12:09:24 AM PDT by gr8eman (Idiots are idiots because they are too stupid to know that they are idiots.)
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To: Prime Choice
I think the issue is that young females are for all practical purposes being traded like cattle.....

but perhaps there are freepers that think that's okay.....

4 posted on 10/25/2005 12:20:24 AM PDT by cherry
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To: cherry

How do you know? Maybe young boys are being traded...or maybe sheep!


5 posted on 10/25/2005 12:23:23 AM PDT by gr8eman (Idiots are idiots because they are too stupid to know that they are idiots.)
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To: gr8eman

So when does the ACLU hop in and defend this? They're practicing their religous beliefs here, and the state is saying that they can't.

Really, what's the difference between a man marrying one woman and marrying two or marrying three men? Indeed, marriage is just about happiness and fulfillment. Gays should be able to marry and so should polygamists.

Why, it wasn't too long ago that the APA removed zoophilia (i.e. bestiality) from its list of recognized pathologies. Yep, that's right. The APA has concluded that your pal Sparkie can form a long-lasting relationshiop that extends beyond just forced coitus and that love between the two of you is quite possible. If it makes you happy, love your sheep. Or two women. Or another man. Or a sheep and a woman and a horse.

*sigh*

Does anyone else find the arbitrariness of this astounding? (And yes, that bit about the APA removing zoophilia from the list of pathologies is true.)


6 posted on 10/25/2005 12:30:21 AM PDT by CheyennePress
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To: CheyennePress

PING....My point exactly!


7 posted on 10/25/2005 12:33:05 AM PDT by gr8eman (Idiots are idiots because they are too stupid to know that they are idiots.)
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To: cherry
I think the issue is that young females are for all practical purposes being traded like cattle.....

And this is different from what Islamists do how, precisely?

8 posted on 10/25/2005 12:54:15 AM PDT by Prime Choice (E=mc^3. Don't drink and derive.)
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To: Crackingham

This is going to go to the Supreme Court eventually.

GRISWOLD v. CONNECTICUT which lead to ROE v. WADE, which lead to LAWRENCE v. TEXAS, which will inevitably lead to CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS v. ARIZONA.


9 posted on 10/25/2005 1:02:37 AM PDT by counterpunch (- SCOTUS interruptus - withdraw Miers before she blows it -)
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To: Prime Choice

Read better. These are not Mormons. Now you are educated and not ignorant. Your welcome


10 posted on 10/25/2005 1:59:31 AM PDT by freeplancer
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To: freeplancer
Now you are educated and not ignorant. Your welcome.

Nothing like heeding your own advice.

11 posted on 10/25/2005 2:07:50 AM PDT by monocle
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To: Prime Choice

I have a girlfriend who married an Illegal alien from columbia. He got his green card then. The problem is, after they had 3 children together, the wife found out, the husband had another wife and family in Columbia, living with his mother. He frequented there with their 'emerald busienss'. The home the two of them bought is not in the wife's name, but the mothers name.

I fear for her. The father in law has been arrested on drug trafficking charges, and the son is still traveling frequently. Sad for her and her children, her husband longs for his wife and family in Columbia.

I guess that is ok, cause he is from Columbia, and not from Arizona or Utah.


12 posted on 10/25/2005 2:13:17 AM PDT by television is just wrong (http://hehttp://print.google.com/print/doc?articleidisblogs.blogspot.com/ (visit blogs, visit ads).)
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To: gr8eman

The boys aren't traded, they get kicked out of these communities. Too much competition for the older men.


13 posted on 10/25/2005 3:03:29 AM PDT by JRochelle
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To: freeplancer

Ah yes they are mormons. Just not the most popular brand of the church. They are directly from the original Mormon church which was all for polagamy a hundred years ago. Denying that fact doesn't make it true.


14 posted on 10/25/2005 3:06:44 AM PDT by JRochelle
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To: Prime Choice

And this is different from what Islamists do how, precisely?

It isn't different. The way the original Mormon church treated women and the way Islamists treat women today is quite similar. I'm sure this comment will be removed but in my opinion, Joseph Smith and Mohammed were both sexual perverts.


15 posted on 10/25/2005 3:09:56 AM PDT by JRochelle
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To: freeplancer; Prime Choice

You're joking, right?
Feigning stupidity, I hope.
You do know that the Mormons call their church "The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints", right?

Don't believe me?
Have a look at http://www.mormon.org


16 posted on 10/25/2005 3:10:04 AM PDT by counterpunch (- SCOTUS interruptus - withdraw Miers before she blows it -)
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To: Crackingham

Polygamous societies promote abuse of the young and vulnerable.

Smug arrogant comments about not handling 2 or more wives is missing the whole point. Many of the polygamous are on welfare payments of one sort or another.


17 posted on 10/25/2005 5:12:06 AM PDT by tkathy (Do-nothings are not the ones who have saved oppressed people from tyranny.)
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To: colorcountry
Mormons gone wild Ping!

Wait...didn't one of Smith's horde have a "revelation" that this wasn't OK anymore?

18 posted on 10/25/2005 6:15:46 AM PDT by AlaninSA (It's ONE NATION UNDER GOD...brought to you by the Knights of Columbus)
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To: Crackingham

These nut jobs have nothing whatsoever to do with the LDS Church. Nothing!


19 posted on 10/25/2005 6:17:44 AM PDT by Saundra Duffy (Never forget what they did to Terri Schindler Schiavo!!!)
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To: television is just wrong

American women are STUPID if they take up with any man who has another family somewhere. Not just stupid but dangerous. Unfortunately, it happens on a wide scale.


20 posted on 10/25/2005 6:21:45 AM PDT by Saundra Duffy (Never forget what they did to Terri Schindler Schiavo!!!)
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