DOJ Sues Polygamous Towns

[tropaka]

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8655 ... tml?pg=all

 

 

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HILDALE, Washington County — The U.S. Justice Department is suing the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., citing a pattern of mistreatment of those who are not members of the Fundamentalist LDS Church.

 

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Arizona, alleges that the cities' non-FLDS residents are discriminated against when it comes to police protection, housing and other public services — violating their civil rights.

 

"City governments and their police departments may not favor one religious group over another and may not discriminate against individuals because of their religious affiliation," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "No individual in the United States should be targeted for discriminatory treatment by a city, its officials or the police because of his or her religion."

 

The lawsuit seeks a court order to prohibit future discrimination against non-FLDS residents, monetary damages for those harmed by the cities' actions and a civil penalty.

 

The FLDS group is not affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

 

According to the lawsuit, public officials in the border towns have operated "as an arm of the FLDS Church" for the past 20-plus years.

 

"The cities' governments … have been deployed to carry out the will of FLDS leaders, particularly Warren Jeffs and the officials to whom he delegates authority," the complaint states.

 

Jeffs is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison after being found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child stemming from two young followers he took as brides.

 

http://ivn.us/2012/06/26/department-jus ... h-arizona/

 

 

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FLDS completely control the two towns. They are the mayor, the judge, and the police. In fact, FLDS owns or controls almost everything. They are secretive and unfriendly. They are quite happy to have you stop eat at the Merry Wives Café, run by polygamist wives and decorated with placards on the walls making it obvious they are polygamists however venturing into Hildale itself can be dicey. A friend who likes to look at old graveyards drove into Hildale once. People yelled at him to leave. When he parked, a police car came inches from his bumper. He waved at the cop and left town.

 

I once mentioned to someone raised in Utah that I thought hiking near polyg (“polyg†is Utah slang for polygamist) areas could be dangerous. He smiled and said, “They’d never find the body.†A garbage truck driver told me he drove to remote polygamist encampments once a week. The men drag the trash bins out to the public road and stand with rifles to insure he doesn’t enter their land. This stands in bizarre contrast to Cedar City itself, which is overwhelmingly friendly and relaxed.

 

The Mormon Church, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS), rightfully points out that polygamists are not Mormons. They are members of breakaway sects. LDS currently has zero tolerance for polygamy. Members who are found to be secret polygamists are excommunicated.

 

Third, I will go as far to say that many of us might not care if an adult male has more than one adult wife, which occurs in some cases in Utah. But that’s not what happens in sects like FLDS. The dominant men lay claim to the women, or should we say, girls. “Marriages†are arranged between middle-age men and girls in sixth grade. The girl obviously has no choice. Teenage boys who might be competition for the middle-aged males can be loaded into cars, and abandoned on a street corner somewhere to fend for themselves. They have no job skills, no concept of the outside world, and are known as lost boys.

 

As you can imagine, anyone who isn’t FLDS would have a difficult time indeed living in Hildale or Colorado City. The Department of Justice is using a new approach to break the power of FLDS, something which is quite justified.

 

 

[deelaem]

Yay! Go DOJ!

[tropaka]

I guess if they're not going to go after anyone for polygamy this is an option. I can't believe that there are people still following Jeffs' edicts - especially after the rumour about only favoured men now being allowed to father children. Schism ahoy!

[SisiL78]

I do not understand how the FLDS can appoint their own police officers. I wonder if the DOJ has the power to put in real officers and a real sheriff in town.

Meanwhile, I very much think that the LDS does condone secret polygamy. They did after they renounced it and for years the Mormon church does nothing to help the women and men fleeing from this cult. There are some private organizations that help the runaway women and one that helps the lost boys (which was started by a former lost boy himself) but for the most part these runaways end up as prostitutes and drug addicts if they even make it out of town.

But the Mormons seem to have BILLIONS to invest in the prevention of gay adults getting married to each other in California. But they don't have the money to stop the problem their dear "prophet" started. They honor Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and yet these men were as bad or worse than any of the FLDS. They took 12/14 year old girls as wives and JS was still so unsatiated that he visited brothels. I've had some ex-Mormons tell me that they believe that the FLDS and other polygamists are allowed to go about their business because the hierarchy of the Mormon church believes that some day polygamy will again be allowed (maybe if they got a Mormon into the presidency?) and they'd need these current polygamists to help them transition back into that lifestyle (or some such nonsense).

[thoughtful]

I hope this sticks. I would love to see that cult broken up.

[doggie]

I was hoping they would go after the corrupt officials. This won't do anything to the people there it is only to stop the religious profiling that is going on. How can it happen? because almost everyone there is FDLS and they are sure as hell only worried about themselves. These towns could not exist otherwise.

[Angri-la]

A step in the right direction. I've grown so weary of the cult being allowed to break the law of the land in plain sight.