DNA Test in store for Polygamy Kids

[HelioPrime]

ABC News: DNA Test in Store for Polygamy Kids

Marleigh Meisner, also with the Children's Protective Services, says as soon as the DNA testing is finished the children will be placed in foster homes. "We begin right now looking for appropriate placements for these children. We are hopeful, in the coming days and weeks, we will find the very best placement for these children." The testing was ordered by State District Judge Barbara Walther to sort out the confusion that has resulted from this unprecedented case. Walther on Friday ruled the state of Texas will keep custody of the 416 children taken from the YFZ Ranch — at least until hearings can be completed to look at each child's case. The children come from families belonging to the reclusive sect of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, who had established a sprawling self-contained ranch in Texas. They were taken after a phone call, from a girl known as Sarah, was placed to a woman's shelter in San Angelo. The girl said she was 16 and complained of being forced to marry a 50-year-old man who already had several wives. That girl has not been found yet. Texas Rangers are now investigating the possibility that the phone call which triggered the raid, was a hoax. Rozita Swinton, 33, of Colorado Springs, is charged with false reporting, a misdemeanor. Attorneys representing the children, and attorneys representing the parents, huddled all weekend after the hearing to mull over their legal options. The children are heading into a foster care system that is already stretched thin and ranks among the worst in the nation. Retired Texas family law Judge Scott McCown is not optimistic. "Our foster care system is overwhelmed and understaffed. Our child care workers are underpaid and overworked." Ad litum attorney Susan Hays visited parents at the YFZ Ranch on Saturday. She represents one of the children, and says she was not surprised by Walther's ruling, but she is disappointed the children will not be going home. "The problem is making the ranch a safe environment where there is not a fear of abuse happening, where authorities can't monitor it." Volunteers have descended on San Angelo to help take care of the children, including Gene Ground of Richardson, Texas, founder of Victim Relief Ministries. He says the children are playing with each other, and riding a trolley which takes them to a playground daily. "They have freedom inside that entire coliseum to draw, make pictures, puzzles, motorized cars, helicopters — just all the things that children normally do, and that's really been very therapeutic and helpful [and] beneficial to them."

I'm surprised this hasn't been brought up yet, but any thoughts?

Looks like it might not have been initially justified but after the fact I think that will rightly be forgotten. We can't go back in time, so just releasing the whole lot is impossible at this point.

[Matt W]

Exact title of the article, please. It's laid out before you post - please follow the format.

[Anmon]

They should return them, and investigate properly if there was any abuse, and just remove the culprit, this is an extreme over reaction, of no proper thought put in.

[Sandy]

I'm a tad older than most of you; but I have to ask.....Don't the mothers know who the fathers are?

[Jack]

From what I've been hearing there's been a bit of lying going on, people trying to hide whose parent or child they are. I don't believe these folks are being honest with the authorities.

[Anmon]

But as long as the children are happy right?

[The Dunedan]

The real fun is that the "abused 16-year-old child bride" turned out to be a 33-year-old woman from Colorado Springs, Colo. The "tip" which started this exercise in state kidnapping was bogus, false, a LIE. Won't stop the TX "authorities" from using every trick in the book to get these kids into their money-farm foster "care" system.

[Anmon]

Exactly, you can bet your last dollar the woman was a paid CIA stooge as well.

[JaneDoe321]

The saddest part of this is that the Texas foster care system is probably MORE abusive, and I am saying that after factoring in minors being forced into sexual "marriages".

[Anmon]

yep they will probably be chucked anywhere and forgotten about.

[Chris]

You guys aren't suggesting that forced child marriage and indoctrination is a good thing are you?

Well Christianity aside, I mean, forced marriages to underage girls a good thing?

Odd

[loser]

Exactly what does "underage girls" mean? Are you implying that 14 or 15 years of age is too young for marriage? It's the laws that are bogus (especially Texas laws). There's little difference between the Texas 'militia' and Hitler's SS. Remember Waco? Same zealots, same war crime atrocities against helpless children. It makes my blood boil to see evil people step in and destroy happy and functional families.

Maybe my views and your views do not align with these polygamists and separatists but that doesn't matter. Our country is founded on the principle of individual freedoms. The oppressive regime that we call our government once fought for freedom; now, it fights against it.

If we can allow Satanists to practice their rituals, homosexuals to flaunt their perversions, promote adultery and prostitution by allowing nude dancers to accept money insertions, and a plethora of other less-than-optimum behaviors and actions that 'indoctrinate' our children, I don't see why we can't allow polygamy and 'child' marriage. It's not like it's unique or unheard of in the world. In fact, it is a quiet common practice all over the world.

But even if we can't allow polygamy and child marriages, it is a travesty of justice to take these children from their mothers (where the likelihood of abuse is virtually non-existent) and put them into foster homes where abuse is almost certainly guaranteed.

Isn't it amazing at just how selective tolerance can be?

[Marconius]

Freedom of religion doesnt extend to hurting others or depriving others of their rights. In this case the children are allegedly being forced into "marriage" with old guys and statutory rape.

If those mothers were letting children be raped then that pretty clearly falls under the definition of unfit and negligent parent.

Is it okay to be a pedophile or knowingly allow it to happen to your kids if it is your religion? It just seems strange that if this was just some random guy having sex with a twelve year old I doubt there would be this level of hand wringing for the poor mothers that let it happen.

[Chris]

Quote by: loser Exactly what does "underage girls" mean? Are you implying that 14 or 15 years of age is too young for marriage? It's the laws that are bogus (especially Texas laws). There's little difference between the Texas 'militia' and Hitler's SS. Remember Waco? Same zealots, same war crime atrocities against helpless children. It makes my blood boil to see evil people step in and destroy happy and functional families. Maybe my views and your views do not align with these polygamists and separatists but that doesn't matter. Our country is founded on the principle of individual freedoms. The oppressive regime that we call our government once fought for freedom; now, it fights against it. If we can allow Satanists to practice their rituals, homosexuals to flaunt their perversions, promote adultery and prostitution by allowing nude dancers to accept money insertions, and a plethora of other less-than-optimum behaviors and actions that 'indoctrinate' our children, I don't see why we can't allow polygamy and 'child' marriage. It's not like it's unique or unheard of in the world. In fact, it is a quiet common practice all over the world. But even if we can't allow polygamy and child marriages, it is a travesty of justice to take these children from their mothers (where the likelihood of abuse is virtually non-existent) and put them into foster homes where abuse is almost certainly guaranteed. Isn't it amazing at just how selective tolerance can be?

14-15 is too young to marry and have sexual relations with men who are 40-50 period.

[HelioPrime]

Quote by: Chris You guys aren't suggesting that forced child marriage and indoctrination is a good thing are you? Well Christianity aside, I mean, forced marriages to underage girls a good thing? Odd

The whole reason I brought this subject up was sort of a test.

If this group was just some Anti American government commune living out in the desert, who were invaded on false information people on this site would be howling.

Yet I suspect because its a religious group those same parties don't care as much.

[JaneDoe321]

Really, I don't think it's their *religion* which makes people say (paraphrasing) "they asked for it".

I think it's their attempt to slap a thin veneer of respectability on statuatory rape by saying it's divinely inspired that has people reluctant to defend them.

Heck, I'm about as anti-religious as they come and *I* think what Texas did was ****wrong**** but that's because I know how incomprehensibly awful the Texas child protective/welfare system is, not because I think these folks are being targeted unfairly due to their religion.

[Osborn F Enready]

I think this is blatant abuse by the state, of individual rights and due process, regardless of the "reason" the group seperated themselves from society.

[grandpa]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready I think this is blatant abuse by the state, of individual rights and due process, regardless of the "reason" the group seperated themselves from society.

I doubt that this situation will stand as such forever. The state will not readily tolerate variations from its definite scheme. This already explains why some groups separate from the rest of society. Certain people are alienated, then they are ostracized.

Grandpa h.

[Kakumei]

Quote by: loser Exactly what does "underage girls" mean? Are you implying that 14 or 15 years of age is too young for marriage? It's the laws that are bogus (especially Texas laws). There's little difference between the Texas 'militia' and Hitler's SS. Remember Waco? Same zealots, same war crime atrocities against helpless children. It makes my blood boil to see evil people step in and destroy happy and functional families. Maybe my views and your views do not align with these polygamists and separatists but that doesn't matter. Our country is founded on the principle of individual freedoms. The oppressive regime that we call our government once fought for freedom; now, it fights against it. If we can allow Satanists to practice their rituals, homosexuals to flaunt their perversions, promote adultery and prostitution by allowing nude dancers to accept money insertions, and a plethora of other less-than-optimum behaviors and actions that 'indoctrinate' our children, I don't see why we can't allow polygamy and 'child' marriage. It's not like it's unique or unheard of in the world. In fact, it is a quiet common practice all over the world. But even if we can't allow polygamy and child marriages, it is a travesty of justice to take these children from their mothers (where the likelihood of abuse is virtually non-existent) and put them into foster homes where abuse is almost certainly guaranteed. Isn't it amazing at just how selective tolerance can be?

You can thank the government for making polygamy laws long ago. Remember this dates back to the first 30 years the first Mormons who practiced polygamy. They have long since stopped however break-offs continue to practice it. At the time, it was the U.S. against the lds church at the time, and they created that law against the lds church specifically at the time (and they were forced out just like the Native Americans, and thus were the first pioneers as well). I do not put down polygamy if its done properly, however, I am 100% against pairing old men with young children. It is simply unethical to me, and I do not understand how we should be allowing this to happen. It is true not all of the flds people practice this, but the majority speaks and everyone should get individual trials like they are. I still dont think how a person can break a law and expect to hide behind a break off of a church and pretend that law and justice do not apply to them.

[Kakumei]

Quote by: Osborn F Enready I think this is blatant abuse by the state, of individual rights and due process, regardless of the "reason" the group seperated themselves from society.

What about the rights of the young girls who are forced into a false marriage by men 4x their age? They are in a society that has pulled them from reality and forced to believe that marriage of the type of marriage is acceptable, when it really isnt.