Police storm temple at polygamist ranch

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: CNN

ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- Authorities stormed the temple of a Texas ranch that's home to a rogue Mormon sect Saturday, as part of a search for victims of physical and sexual abuse, police said.
***
Earlier Saturday, 131 children and young women were removed from the ranch, bringing the total of people removed from the ranch to 183 since law enforcement officers raided the compound Thursday.
***
A warrant was served Thursday night for Dale Evans Barlow, 50, who authorities believe fathered a child with a 16-year-old girl that he married.

The warrant cited an "immediate need" for authorities to have access to the 16-year-old and an 8-month-old child with either the last name of Barlow or the girl's last name. It instructs law enforcement officers to look for any records showing that Barlow and the girl were married and any evidence of them having a child.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/06/texas.ranch/index.html

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Mods: This is an update of a developing situation. If considered redundant, please merge with this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3255587&mesg_id=3255587

[Selatius]

1. These cults worry me. David Koresh became known because he stockpiled weapons.

If this particular cult leader had done the same thing, we'd likely face another massacre.

[hlthe2b]

2. Unfortunately, (as with previous updates to this story), it can't

be long before the "Turner Diary" crowd of DU disruptors start to show up to rehash the WACO incident and the "dreaded" Clenis' involvement....

I hope this ends peacefully....

[sam sarrha]

5. Koresh was insane, processed, he picked up an evil spirit crawling around in ancient subterranean

chambers Palestine.. and brought it home.. it ate him up.

these guys are just Pedophiles.. pimp'n out their little girls to other sick perverted pedophiles. it is a small community, so after about 20 years it becomes incest and pedophilia.. they have to inbreed to keep a source of little girls avaible...

[amihol]

10. !Insane

Yes was insane!

[Taverner]

29. Evil spirit?

[murielm99]

3. Newspapers!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-polygamist-retreat,1,1786102.story

This one says "Cops peacefully enter polygamist temple."

[Trillo]

4. There are less sensational articles about this warrant served.

Much more informative, as well.
Police peacefully enter Texas polygamist compound

CNN and Operation Mockingbird?

[kestrel91316]

6. I think they stormed the "temple" because they are looking for,

and still haven't found, the teen who called in the original sexual abuse complaint. My guess is, they'll eventually find HER BODY.

She told on them and turned against them. That's unforgivable with these freaks.

[enlightenment]

11. It's more likely that the child - and her child -

were sent to one of the other communities like this one; probably the one in Canada. When the heat dies down, which it will because it always does, they'll re-establish themselves somewhere else.

The authorities did the same sort of thing in Colorado City (called Short Creek until the 1950s) in the 1930s and 1953. Fat lot of good it did, either time. As long as the states continue to allow these communities to exist anywhere, this will continue.

[L0oniX]

7. Psych victoms of Warren Jeffs. I am so glad they caught that asshole.

I hope that inbreeding slime bucket rots in prison for the rest of his life.

http://www.childbrides.org/texas_YFZ_10K_reward_offered_for_info.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/waren_jeffs_from_fbi_wanted_poster

[fascisthunter]

9. Those Faces are Creepy

[angrycarpenter]

12. They all look like their family trees have no forks. nt

[bluesmail]

8. good lord, excuse the pun but as sam sarraha said

they're just pedophiles.

[King Coal]

13. 219 children, women taken from sect's ranch

Source: cnn

ELDORADO, Texas (CNN) -- More than 200 women and children have been removed from a Texas ranch that's home to members of a polygamist sect, but authorities have not identified the girl who called them with allegations of abuse.


Police escort church members off a school bus Saturday night in Eldorado, Texas.

1 of 4 The 16-year-old girl, who called authorities last week with allegations of physical and sexual abuse at the compound, may be in the group and using a different name, Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Texas Child Protective Services, said at a news conference Sunday.

"I am confident that this girl does indeed exist," Meisner said. "I am confident that the allegations that she brought forth are accurate."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/06/texas.ranch/index.html

---

I knew it.

[zanne]

14. I'd like to know what took the authorities so long to bust this cult.

I believe that discrimination because of religion is wrong and that we all have the right to express ourselves spiritually, but I can't help but notice that religious groups of people seem to have more rights than the rest of us. What the hell took them so long to investigate this bunch of lunatics? I saw pictures of that compound. It is huge; definitely not something that can be hidden.

If they suspected "illegal immigrants" were living in the compound, I'm sure they would have been busted right away. I hate how government officials are terrified of looking into child abuse caused by religion. Abuse is abuse, dammit.

End of rant.

[King Coal]

20. If you want to continue to rant, just remember that Joseph Smith

was the original child abuser. What a deal, huh?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

25. They have a very good track record...

...of ensuring that their chattel don't speak to the authorities.

[chelsea0011]

26. I agree. After their leader was convicted of arranging the rape of a child

you would think that the feds would have been all over the compound. Sounds like they have their own rape rooms. Did Bush and Co. know about this?

[LanternWaste]

31. Most likely because up until now

"I'd like to know what took the authorities so long to bust this cult."

Most likely because up until now, CPS and the local law enforcement agencies didn't have any reason to believe any abuse was happening...

[alphafemale]

15. But did I hear right? Did they only remove the girl children?

The boys are just as abused, though in a different way.

Most of them are cast out to fend for themselves in their early teens to not create competition for the horny old men.

[elocs]

16. On CBS this morning there was a woman who escaped this kind of life at age 30

and she had make a documentary about her struggles since she said it took her 20 years to finally overcome it. She said that many women voluntarily return to the polygamist lifestyle even after they have escaped it and that female children will voluntarily return to it when they turn 18. She attributes this to the Stockholm Syndrome where victims relate to their oppressors.

Undoubtedly many of these females will one day return to the polygamist way of life. Using god and faith as a way of keeping these brainwashed from childhood females in their place as baby producing machines is a very effective tool. After all, how could these woman argue or go against the will of god?

[NeedleCast]

17. Check out the book Escape! by Carolynn Jessop

Really sheds a lot of light on what goes on in the FLDS "church." A life of brainwashing, physical and mental abuse. It's amazing what women in this "church" are subjected too, especially after Warren Jeffs took it over.

[BadgerKid]

18. Here's Eldorado (map)

(Quality reduced)
Here, I've asked Google to highlight airports and places of worship.
Very interesting that a church would have a landing strip!

[King Coal]

19. It's funny that the names Barlow and Jessop sound so familiar.

I guess I've read a lot about these crazy mormons.

[NeedleCast]

22. They are two massive polygamist families

The Jessops are closley tied to the Jeffs family (their family trees just look like one big bush with a lot of vines growing on it). Both families have a long history with the courts and law enforcement, so it's not a surprised you've heard of them before.

[King Coal]

27. If I remember right the Barlows fought Jeffs for the claim to be the prophet.

[Pappy]

21. Yes, Mormons are very cult like. I guess that;'s what brought down Mitt Romney

[NeedleCast]

23. These aren't really Mormons

any more than the Phelps clan in Kansas are Baptists. They're an extremly fundamentalist off-shoot of the Mormon church who split from the main Mormon church around a century ago when the normal Mormon church declared that it was putting an end to polygamy (which was the only way the US was going allow Utah to become a state, essentially).

[thereismore]

24. I am sure the Jessops feel that THEY are the true Mormon Church, not an

offshoot.

[Taverner]

30. Most Mormons aren't FLDS

Although I, for the life of me, will never understand why they vote Republican. The GOP was founded on two things: preserve the union and eliminate the Mormons.

[maddezmom]

28. Arrest made in Texas polygamy case By MICHELLE ROBERTS, Associated Press Writer

SAN ANGELO, Texas - State police made an arrest as they searched a sprawling rural compound built by polygamist leader Warren Jeffs in their investigation into a possible underage marriage, an official said Monday.


Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said the person arrested was not Dale Barlow, the man listed in warrants related to the marriage of an underage girl. But Vinger said he had no other details.

The girl's report to authorities last week led to a raid at the 1,700-acre West Texas compound run by the sect led by Jeffs, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The girl said she had a baby at 15 and authorities were investigating whether she had been abused. They have removed more than 220 women and children from the compound in Eldorado but had yet to locate the girl who made the report.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080407/ap_on_re_us/polygamist_retreat;_ylt=AiOSqN2BdB_NIgfuAmsGoZRvzwcF

[eppur_se_muova]

33. Thanks for update!

Looks like the arrest was for "interfering" with officials ...

[eppur_se_muova]

32. LATEST: 534 women, children leave polygamist ranch

All 401 children deemed in danger; arrest made earlier at compound

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23993440/

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