Removing 460 children from a polygamist sect compound and then reuniting them with their families will cost Texas $7 million.
The children were ordered returned to their families this week after the Texas Supreme Court found that the state did not have enough evidence to show that abuse was happening at the Yearning for Zion ranch near Eldorado.
Most of that burden falls on Tom Green County, where the district court hearings were taking place, and Schleicher County, where the ranch is located, said Judge Ben Woodward, according to a Senate statement.
Neither county, Woodward said, has the money to cover the legal costs. “We’re at a point now where we’re going to start limping along pretty badly,” he said…
“I said from the word go, if there’s sex with underage girls, nail their butt,” Curtis Griffin, owner of the local fuel depot, told the Los Angeles Times. “But nail the right people. We’re going to wind up with a $30 million bill here in this little county because these people didn’t have their ducks in a row.”
Politics has been part of every move leading up to these arrests. Even the state law raising the age of consent was premised on getting arrests and convictions at the YFZ Ranch. And the local yokel cops and prosecutors haven’t yet accomplished diddly-squat.
1. most of the women were on State assistance.
2. Most men are jealous..For that many women and enough money to HAVe that many.
3. NO EDUCATION for the women.. NO Equality for women..NO VOTE for women. NO CHOICE for women.
#30–Ah Yea==if what you posted make sense, then yes, I need a crash emergency course in critical thinking skills. YOU say pregnancy rate of 12-13-14 yo girls at the ranch is lower than the pregnancy rate of the national average. But the chart you calculate that from is a chart of the pregnancy rate of girls that are 17-18-19. How is anything on that chart relevant to the conclusion you reach? Explain it to me, I NEED YOUR HELP!
Hey Bobbo, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to give an abridged answer. I’m in China now and I have to do that Work For A Living thing…
Quickly, the CNN article states “the number of actual 14- to 17-year-old girls with children could drop to as low as five”
So we are dealing with a pregnacy rate at the FLDS group for ages 14-17 at ~ 1%.
Now the national average for 15-19 is ~ 7.5%
So we have an overlap is 15, 16, and 17 years. Leaving 14, 18, and 19. Now I put it as a given that the rate of pregnancy for a 14 year old is fairly low. This means that the difference, 6.5% would have to be made up in the 18 and 19 year old range.
Statistically not viable. This means that girls going from 17 to 18 would have to have babies at over a 6 fold increase.
Therefore, statistically speaking, the rate of having babies at the FLDS has to be less.
Sorry, got to go!
bobbo,
Much as I hate religious cults, probably as much as you do..I hate petty governmental bullying at least as much, and those stats are really pretty damaging. I’m surprised CNN had the balls to mention it, as it puts them against “protecting the children” in this case.
An “underage” pregnancy rate of about 1/7th of the national average says way more about the uneven application of the laws in this case than anything about the cult itself.
This has purely been a matter of demonizing a sub sect that is disapproved of by the same people, and for much the same reasons, as those who oppose gay “marriage”. They see it all as an evil sin. Yes, I’d like to see the end of cults like this…but in this case, it’s the mainstream cult that is overstepping it’s bounds..and they certainly need to be held in secular check also. Just because your flavor of religion says it’s a sin, doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to agree.
The state is in a tough situation. Many states have been stung with lawsuits for ignoring child abuse when the child protective services folks don’t go after an abuser when there is evidence. Money is often the problem since budgets always seem tight (though there is always money when they want to bring in a sports team).
With all the new cults springing up, cracking these insular little societies to see what they’re doing can be expensive and difficult.
And to think we worry about muslims, we need to be worrying about Christian cultists who have engaged in an institutional pattern of sex with underage children.
Reproductive health education provides the facts
where by an individual may determine what is
or is not her will.
Menarche is a high risk time to begin a very long
35 year reproducing life. Physically and emotionally for a girl…and the economic facts
are globally from biblical era to now & not in
the “smart move Mom” category. Theology aside,
I’m just saying.
We know men. Relationship is a challenge. Gotta
keep em off the goats, gotta drive their fantasy driven thinking process with the fear of afterlife to get them to, you know, try to
pay attention to what they do in this life.
When the authorities get the call they had an obligation to investigate. Maybe the nit wit
girls were so befuddled by the weird grooming to answer honestly. Maybe the paranoid hiding
of hundreds of children no one knew were living
there “should’a” been investigated for thirty
to fifty years…more…well, they rounded everyone up..even took the women to care for
the children since WHO KNEW?
If an amber call required an investigation in
normal neighborhoods the front doors open and
co-operation is the quick step to get the
investigators on down the road.
Like hunting dogs with the scent in their noses
most people are not amused by the mormon Utopian dream life. Our understanding of self evident truths does not shackle non-consent age girls to one mans sexual eternity fiction.
Even if only one child raped by her communities
collusion to let men breed themselves universes
of offspring were identified..whether she liked it or not, the fact picking up a phone will get a kid out of some adult idiots bed calendar is
music to my ears.
Yeah,why are the lawyers of those who have had crime committed against them underpaid?
Mormon is nothing if not an adventure in verbiage and illogical conclusions. It is as
twisted and irrelevant a system as wordsmith
white supremest drivel gets.
Adults are culpable for abusive home life. And
multi partnered…replacings all the rest is
not in the best interest of children. It is
hurtful, inconsistent, isolating, and they come out bigots. Minds tarnished by fantasy and they are to dim witted to notice how very funny
their fear of entertainment fiction. They are steeped like tea bags in just plain fiction.