Probe finds polygamists in Hildale UT police | Salt Lake Tribune

[Ediacara]

Probe finds polygamists in Hildale police

By Matt Canham

More than half of the police officers in the southern Utah town of Hildale are practicing polygamists, according to an eight-month investigation recently concluded by the Utah Attorney General's Office.

Some on the Hildale force were aware of crimes committed by "fellow officers" but failed to take action, said Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. The attorney general's investigation also accused some officers of providing documents to the Utah police academy that overstated the number of training hours they had completed in order to retain their police certification.

But Shurtleff, who ordered the inquiry, is not pursuing criminal charges on any of the accusations.

"We just don't have the resources to start charging bigamy," Shurtleff said.

Instead, he wants the state to strip the offending officers of their ability to enforce the law.

More at the Salt Lake Tribune

[David__77]

1. If they aren't legally married to more than one person, what's the issue?

Why can't someone to choose to live with whomever they wish? The problem is when minors are involved, as is often the case.

[JohnLocke]

2. Polygamy...

http://www.polygamy.org/

[central scrutinizer]

3. welfare fraud is one issue

all of the "sister wives" go on welfare to support their families. They call it "bleeding the beast" when they defraud the government, which they distrust.

[NickB79]

5. Can they do that?

If only one is legally married to the husband, and the others only live with him?

[Momgonepostal]

6. I don't know that they necessarily all live under the same roof

I've seen stats from Hildale before that show a much larger percentage of the town is on welfare than the state's average. I think often the sister wives live somewhere else and the husband shuffles between the various residences. Sister wives can apply for welfare as single mothers. <eyeroll>

With all these different wives, the men can father superhuman amounts of children. It would be tough for most men to financially support that many people. I've also heard it said that the only reason they need to be on welfare is that since the government frowns on polygamy, they are forced to live out it the boonies where there aren't as many well-paying jobs. I think that's total crap. Even if they were living in a high wage area, who makes enough money to support 5 wives with 30 kids?

[Momgonepostal]

4. that isn't shocking news

Isn't Hildale, UT mostly made up of polygamists? Should any of us be shocked they're on the police force too>

[samhonk]

7. Sigh...

As a Utah resident myself, I feel both embarrassed and grateful that a lot of national coverage of the state is made up of "look at these weird hicks" stories like these. The downside is pretty obvious, but the upside is that I'm happy enough to live in a place that's considered an unimportant backwater. Salt Lake City was "important" briefly during the 2002 Olympics and that was pretty scary - heavily militarized and paranoid in my own neighborhood, since I live near to the University campus (where the opening ceremonies happened) and the downtown. And this during the freaked-out days near after 9/11 and the anthrax scare.

I kept thinking "this is what it must be like in D.C. *all the time*."

[DoNotRefill]

8. This whole thing....

is a trial run for the religious right to go after non-traditional families.

If a Mormon is accused of polygamy for fathering kids with several different women, and is thrown in jail, it sets a bad precedent that will be useful to the RR for when they start throwing men of other ethnic/religious persuasions in jail for fathering children with multiple partners.

Think about it.....If you've had kids with more than one woman, you go to jail...is that something we REALLY want to be advocating?