Cops in polygamous town stripped of badges

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: AP/CNN

ST. GEORGE, Utah, (AP) -- Two officers in border towns where many residents belong to a polygamous sect were stripped of their badges in Arizona, and Utah will open its own probe, an official said Thursday.

Fred Barlow, marshal in Colorado City, Ariz., and Preston Barlow, a deputy, were decertified Wednesday in Arizona after an investigation found them guilty of misconduct.

They were accused of not cooperating in civil proceedings involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a criminal investigation of its embattled leader, Warren Jeffs.

In October 2005, when Jeffs was on the run from authorities, Fred Barlow wrote a letter in which he warmly referred to him as "Uncle Warren" and pledged "our desire to stand with you and the priesthood."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/21/polyg.towns.ap/index.html

[El Supremo]

1. I wish he has written a letter to "Uncle Mitt". /nm

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. They should be prosecuted

Bigamy is a felony in Arizona; by not enforcing the law, the marshal and deputy are both guilty of criminal malfeasance, if not aiding and abetting.

[TomInTib]

3. Exactly.

They are no better than the Policia in Mexico.

[kestrel91316]

4. Good. It's about time! The locals were running their own little

mormofascist theocracy down there, with NO legal system oversight. The cops were part of the problem. None of the victims could go to them for any help whatsoever.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. That's a great headline. However

It's time for the state to stop poking its nose into people's bedrooms. Polygamy, polyandry, and whatever other combination people choose to pursue is no business of the state.

So what about the mistreatment of women inherent in the system? Deal with it directly by implementing and enforcing appropriate laws, not by attacking something peripheral.

[Robb]

6. When people cloak themselves

...in "bedroom freedom" as an excuse for their behavior against women, it is very much the business of the state.

You may notice it is already against the law to mistreat women. And when police, for example, are convinced the state is impinging upon their religious freedom by prosecuting their poor old religious leaders... your enforcement is rather in the toilet. I'm afraid it's not peripheral. It's entirely intrinsic.

[barb162]

7. Yes, you're correct.

As an aside, did you ever notice there are no polygamous relationships where there's one woman with a whole bunch of men? It never seems to work that way. I wonder what would happen over there in that town if a woman dared try that.

[havocmom]

8. .

for tomorrow when I am not so tired.

[havocmom]

10. OK, do the google and search 'polygamous groups + welfare'

to find out why it is NOT just about private bedroom behavior.

There are some societal economic issues that come into play:

There are health problems that are more prevalent in polygamous cults owing to the restricted gene pool.

There are also cases of a welfare fraud; men fathering children with multiple wives, all but the first wife being not considered wives by law so you end up with 'single' mothers who sometimes apply for, and get, various welfare benefits. The men in these cases have the entertainment and convenience of many partners who are religiously bound to their husbands, but the men seem to be legally free of certain financial responsibilities. In many cases, the financial burden falls on the taxpayers. He plays, we pay and he claims he is doing what God wants so it's fine and we have to support his 'religious practice'.

So, it is NOT just private bedroom business that we should be just ignoring. Sometimes it is a very public fraud.

Willing to suggest that a lot of the gents in these polygamous cults have strong opinions about single moms in poorer Chicago neighborhoods getting welfare to raise their kids. I have known many who support the polygamous families who certainly carry on about 'Welfare Queens' when those they call queens are women of color and/or adults who have chosen serial partners. Somehow, THAT is evil while a man with MULTIPLE partners in certain religious groups taking advantage of welfare to help raise HIS kids is just fine.

It is not a private matter.

[CreekDog]

11. You are absolutely wrong DavidD

Polygamy is not simply marriage to more than one woman but involves marrying women that are underage, kicking younger boys out of the town so that there is less competition for women, a police force that either enforces all of the above in these towns and looks the other way at abuse of women/children.

This country was not made so that men could have the freedom to marry and have sex with many, underage girls and so that those same men could kick other men and boys out of their respective towns.

Utah and Arizona have too long looked the other way at their towns of Hildale and Colorado City and if they are actually cracking down, it's about time. This is about abuse of women and children plain and simple. There is no way to have a community of polygamy without this abuse because simple math and nature doesn't provide more women than men and thus the problem begins...forced marriages, forced sex, forced expulsion, etc. etc.

Please don't say our constitution is meant to protect THIS CRAP.

[CreekDog]

12. david when the cops allow/enforce this, they must be fired

As the state is doing.

[Cleita]

9. Hehe.

DH and I used to go through those towns in the fall heading south from Idaho to Texas every year. All I knew was that I couldn't wait to get into Arizona so I could get a beer with my hamburger after a dry run through Utah.

I never knew those blah little road stop towns were hot beds of polygamy.

[lovuian]

13. its about time Utah clean this up

utah is very scary