Politics and Dharma

Can we call this ‘Eldorado-gate’ yet? The madness with the Mormons in Eldorado continues with new and interesting twists almost daily. First the kids and moms were moved from the decrepit fort to the San Angelo Coliseum (presumably, one without lions). Then all the moms without kids under five-years-old were given the choice of returning to the YFZ ranch or going to womens’ shelters.

In the meantime, the chief judge in Tom Green county is beside herself with the enormity of having to try 416 distinct cases. Three hundred and fifty lawyers have converged upon the 90,000 denizens of San Angelo, each determined to provide pro-bono work for the case, even if many must sleep in their cars until the trial ends. On Monday, the judge called a half-hour break to confer over process options, resulting in a two-hour process to reassemble all the lawyers.

After three days of handing out lurid details regarding the supposed ‘crisis calls’ from the presumed YFZ member, law enforcement members are now much more tight lipped about details. The exact number of adult women in state custody is now unknown. At one time, it was reported that a few dozen women took the option of going to shelters, but the overall impression is that most returned to YFZ. It was rumored yesterday that the children had all been moved to Boys’ Town, and other reports have said that the teenage boys had been moved to “temporary foster homes”. In other words, the exact number of children in any location is currently not known by the general public.

It would be my expectation that the San Angelo County sheriff’s department would leap at the chance to defend their actions by loudly trumpeting any confirmed cases of abuse they find. On the other hand, that might be bad form while the court is assembling, so perhaps they’re waiting until Thursday to make their accusations. Otherwise, we must assume that not only have they not found the girl who supposedly called them, they have removed as many adults from the scene as possible in order to browbeat accusations of abuse out of the kids.

One bit of information that has repeatedly come up is that the officials cannot find documentation for most of the children, so there is no way to confirm the ages or parentage of any of the kids. Further, since their names are repeated so frequently, officials are having a hard time determining which names in the documents they have found apply to which person. This is going to place county officials in a very tough position when time comes to defend any of the indictments they serve.

Some important backstory that seems to have been lost in the return of the nightly comedies and crime shows, is some of the history of the FLDS and how they ended up in Eldorado. Warren Jeffs was the son of the leader of the FLDS group in Nevada. After the raid there, Warren hand-picked some of the most dedicated membership to travel with him to build a new, permanent foundation for the FLDS — in Texas. The Branch Davidian massacre was still fresh on their minds, so they made an organized effort to correct the errors they felt the Branch Davidians had made.

Membership of the YFZ ranch has apparently been actively and regularly coached for this very event. Probably from the time before they moved to Texas. Men, women, and even the kids were given parts to play and specific rules to follow. They had video cameras ready to record the inevitable showdown and greeted the heavily armed sheriffs peacefully, going to their knees in prayer and song.

Details like these make even more reasonable the complaints made by case workers that the children would give false names and would appear to be ‘passed around’ between families. These and other non-violent opposition tactics would even be expected, if the sect had, indeed, prepared for such a likely confrontation.

In the meantime, the FLDS membership has been remarkably successful at getting sympathetic media play in all of this. All of the pictures of the women look like they’re all extras for a Little House on the Prairie shoot. The complaints about mistreatment at the hands of notoriously underfunded and short-staffed state agencies ring true in most ears.

Members of the FLDS church in other states are converging on their Nevada headquarters to plan their next steps. It is possible that they will choose to do nothing. Depending on the outcome of the hearing on Thursday, it is possible that if the state cannot substantiate any abuse claims that they will be forced to release all of the children and remaining women back to the ranch. If that is the result, the YFZ membership will be justified and their isolationism reinforced. They will feel that their god protected them and approved of their particular form of socio-political organization — over and in the face of the State!

At this point, the county needs to have every duck in a row behind a substantial number of abuse claims before they can come away from this looking like anything other than reactionary, provincial bigots. If none of the abuse claims are for children under 14, and don’t include violence, it’s possible that none of them will stick and Warren Jeffs’ lawyers will get ammunition to have his conviction overturned. Given the preparation of the children, it’s unlikely that the county has been getting anything like the kinds of abuse reports that they need.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses: