ATC's Wade Goodwyn outraged about treatment of polygamist families.

[bushmeister0]

He reports the court hearing today was enough to someone cry. He reports that these traditional Western folk are freaking out because the government has emptied their community of its children. He also reports the judge's laughter at certain points is scaring the women, who think they're going to lose their children forever.

Intersting take. I'm thinking before this whole thing is over, the The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is going to come out of this the stronger.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89732525

[Buzz Clik]

1. I'm no fan of poygamy, but this has been horrifying

Stealing children without reasonable cause is something China might do, not the US.

[XemaSab]

4. You don't think that there's reasonable cause?

Sorry, but marrying 15-year-olds off to 60-year-olds is abusive. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[Buzz Clik]

7. Where there are charges, they should be filed.

This was brought on by a phone call and the authorities can't seem to find their caller.

The whole thing stinks.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. I have many conflicting feelings about this whole thing, but calling this marrying is wrong,

unless she is the legal wife, it is statutory rape.

[musette_sf]

5. i'm no fan

of child abuse, child rape, and subjugation and oppression of women.

those women and children are trapped in that compound.

this course of action was the ONLY course of action that will put an end in this country to the disgusting nightmare for women and children that is Warren Jeffs' Torture Chamber.

Anderson Cooper had one of the polyg-bot "wives" on the other night... she was avoiding actual questions and just ranting on and on about how her FREEDOM was being abused and her RIGHTS were being abused, blah blah blah.

his next guest was, via telephone, Carolyn Jessup, a woman who escaped from the cult. she said that she recognized immediately the voice of that polyg-bot "wife" who had just been on, and that she was one of her former "sister wives". she said, "She's... the one who told on me when I was trying to escape. So, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, why is it that she felt so urgent to go to Merril in the middle of the night and tell him that I had my children up, and I was leaving? And I nearly didn't make it out because she made that phone call. And, so, she believes in freedom. Where's my rights as a mother to take my children and flee if I believe we are at risk? You know, where are my rights? Because she didn't -- she didn't allow me any rights, but now she's demanding rights. And it's obvious that her daughter, who she is talking about was a 10-month-old baby -- and, by the way, is not 18 -- she is barely 18 -- she was probably impregnated when she was 16."

[Buzz Clik]

8. Clearly, though, not all women in that compound had an intention of escaping.

And the children that they bore were their children. Now, every damned child has been taken away.

Yeah, the compound hardly epitomized America, but that fascist action wasn't real pretty, either.

[musette_sf]

9. oh please, the kids in that cult

don't even know who their birth mother is.

coercion into an illegal and oppressive cult does NOT equal consent. the "fascist action" happened long ago, when Jeffs and his sicko followers were permitted to build cities in the US that are totally outside the law.

[bushmeister0]

11. I;m sorry I'm a bit late to the party ( I had to go to work) but I would suggest

going to the ATC link and listening to the outrage in Wade Goodwin's voice, which is really -- actually -- kind of refreshing. You really don't get much about the actual legal issues, it's basically all about his West Texas sensibilites being offended by the injustice of the whole shabby way these poor women are being treated by the local court (which is, quite obviously, incapable of handling the sheer insanity of the whole thing).

Goodwin's is the most human reaction I've heard about his whole sorted affair in the media. It's worth a listen. Wade Goodwin is usually a pretty "frank" reporter for NPR. He must have pictures of the head honcho at NPR doing a goat or something, I don't how he gets away with it othwerwise.

[monmouth]

2. And these women have really no education to speak of, they've been

abused themselves since they were children. That's all they have and are not in "the know" very much on how the world works. I feel sorry for them, and very sorry for their children.

[coriolis]

3. These "women" were brought up to think rape was normal and acceptable.

They don't know any better...which is a damn good reason to not let them fuck up yet more children.

[KitSileya]

13. Yes - these victims still suffer from Stockholm syndrome

and learned helplessness. Most of these women, these mothers, would just turn around and give their 14-16 year old daughters to their abuser's friends or let their abuser turn their 15-year old sons onto the streets in another city. In order to hinder that, they have removed one set of victims, the children, from another set of victims, the mothers.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. Yeah, I bet they're freaking out.

Nobody around for them to fuck anymore.

[bushmeister0]

10. Wow!