Gordon,

Thanks for your post on this topic. The stats you reference are troubling. And, your final question even more so. While all child abuse is abhorrent, it is even more so when it is state sponsored, as with the Texas CPS. I am pleased to see your post here, and hope that more Law Profs on their blogs, especially in the Constitutional Law area, will begin discussing these issues.

Regards,

Guy

Years ago my then one year old son described this situation perfectly when he looked down at the tray on his high chair after dinner and said "Mess!"

At least the FLDS girls haven't taken the LBT (low back tattoo) like your whorish slut women in Texas.

And that Texas TV hog with the bug eyes looks like a slut too.

Now for some real info:

It was legal to marry at 14 year in both texas and utah until recently. In utah, at least, the law was changed with the specific intent of persecuting the FLDS, who are great people, at least the few I have met.

I've often said that i would rather have my daughter(s) become the 10th wife of a good man than the first wife of a feminized white meat pussy.

The only difference between a 14 yo and a fifteen year old is one day. Big deal. It is legal to marry a 15 year old in utah right now.

The real lesson here for you Texas swaggerbitches is that DCFS will soon be coming for your children. "Emotional Abuse" is a term so ambiguous that it can mean whatever the slut manhater social work whore wants in to mean. Do you teach your kids that god loves them. Surely, that is emotional abuse--at least to an athiest bitch.

Do you teach your kids not to intermarry with white people. Now, that is politically incorrect emotional abuse for sure.

I still hope those two hogs (Marleigh Meisner and the homely judge) get brain cancer--me and probably phred phelps are praying for it right now.

Pussy, feminzied white men have lost this country and it started when they let their women become disobedient. Suffer you slime.

Plain Truth,

There is no need for vulgarity.

In this case there has been no evidence of abuse, only speculation.

I viewed the video exposing the Texas Foster Care system as drug-riddled horror at:
http://dayofpraise.blogspot.com/

I also read the thousand or so comments from outraged citizens at the petition site:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/free-the-innocent-flds

It seems state bureaucrats have become power mad.

Gordon, I may have missed some news: what is it the Texas CPS did that could possibly be worse than sexually abusing children?

NonVoxPop you have indeed missed some news, as well as the point of this post. Taking children from their innocent parents is an abberation. Abusing children is also disgusting. The problem here is that the state has made a broad, sweeping judgment based on their membership in a particular community rather than assess the danger on a case by case basis. The statistics presented by Mr. Smith demonstrate that each of us would be in danger of a similar application of law if there were incidents of abuse discovered in our school, neighborhood, workplace, church, etc..

According to this article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/18/polygamy.custody/index.html

Police identified 10 women they believed were either married or pregnant as minors. That’s 10 incidents- or slightly less than 1 in 40 based on the number of children taken into state custody (see Mr. Smiths stats for the rest of the country). The only justification I have seen for such a broad stroke is that the mothers espouse the beliefs of the sect, and they teach their children that to disobey will bring them eternal damnation (Christians, Jews and Muslims beware). That means, in essence, they are guilty for their thoughts, rather than their actions. This is a prima facie case of religious discrimination, and Texas has subverted the law and due process to pursue an unpopular group.

Find the individuals responsible for the actual incidents of abuse, prosecute them to the full extent, and let the rest of these families live in peace.

Just to make sure I'm clear on this: separation of children from innocent parents is as bad as sexually abusing children? Is that what you (Gordon and Jeremiah) are proposing?

NVP, Stop being silly. You have been commenting here long enough that we all know you aren't this thick. The point is perfectly obvious. We all see now that you don't agree, but don't pretend that we are trying to condone or trivialize sexual abuse.

Alright, I’m sorry for being silly. It was the wrong approach to take, and not conducive to real discussion. It did seem to me as though you were trivializing the child sex abuse which occurred, by saying “look, this happens everywhere; Why are we picking on these people?” while ignoring that such abuse is a foundation that FLDS is built on. It’s systematic there, and integral to the perpetuation of their form of polygamy. The same is not true of most American communities. I don’t see a problem with the reasoning that, because this form of polygamy is so foundational and accepted there, all of the members must be complicit in promulgating it, and therefore their children should be taken from them. It would be a religious discrimination issue if the behavior wasn’t criminal for everyone. Making a criminal act a central tenet of one’s religion doesn’t make it less criminal, just more likely that the whole community is involved.