BishopAccountability.org
	Push for Action The Spectrum April 8, 2008 http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080408/OPINION/804080324 Texas authorities have taken busloads of children from the YFZ Ranch, a huge complex built and owned by followers of Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It's about time law enforcement takes action in an attempt to stop the suspected cycle of abuse. The children taken range in age from 6 months to 17 years. They are being housed, temporarily, in a civic center in Eldorado, Texas, while police and Texas Child Protective Services officials investigate at least one claim of abuse. Officials want to talk to a man named Dale Barlow, 50, who allegedly fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl eight months ago. The girl, now 16, is believed to have placed a call to police that triggered the investigation. There have been accusations of sexual abuse against young girls in the twin cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah ­- once known as Short Creek - for years. However, since a raid in the 1950s, only a handful of men have been charged with abusing the young girls they have taken as "spiritual wives." The FLDS claim a right to practice polygamy, allowing so-called spiritual marriages to take place, most of them reportedly arranged by Jeffs. Society shouldn't infringe on the rights of adults to put their beliefs into practice. Frankly, it's not the government's business how many wives a man chooses to have and support. However, when those beliefs spill over into allegations of sexual abuse against children and women, welfare fraud and other suspected crimes, the line is drawn, and Utah state officials should do more than put the cuffs on only a few offenders. It took courage, for example, for Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap to bring charges against Jeffs. Why courage? The last time a county attorney, former Juab County Attorney David Leavitt, prosecuted a ranking member of a polygamist sect, Tom Green, in this state he was booted out of office. It's time to dig deeper into allegations of wrongdoing in the Colorado City-Hildale area. It's time, in the name of the innocent children, to ensure their protection from sexual predators. If the public can see the young girls in traditional FLDS dress either with child or pushing strollers, why can't law enforcement officers assigned to patrol the communities? The turn of events in Texas should offer enough probable cause for similar warrants to be issued in Utah and Arizona, where the church is headquartered. It's time for the people of Southern Utah to demand action from local law enforcement in Washington and Mohave counties.
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