h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The story started with a frantic 911 phone call from a 16-year-old girl who told police that she had been raped and beaten by a man in his 50’s she had been forced to marry. Police stormed in and seized over 400 children from the compound.

Then it got funky.

There is apparently no 16-year-old girl who called the police. They are still investigating it but it would appear that the call was made by a social worker or some such person who was frustrated with the fact that authorities have known what was going on at this compound for several years but would not move against the cult. I don’t know why exactly. I saw an interview with one of the authorities in the area who claimed that they have been investigating it but I think it was probably one of those religious freedom issues.

Now they have all these kids in protective custody. These kids have never been outside of the compound, do not trust outsiders, and won’t even answer the most basic questions concerning their names and ages.

Enter teams of lawyers, some of whom are clearly trying to use this case to make their careers. I have to admit that if I were a lawyer looking for fame and fortune I might be tempted to get involved too. The book rights alone would be worth millions and that’s even without what I’m sure will inevitably turn into a television mini series.

The judge has ordered DNA testing for everyone in the compound. The claim is that this is to sort out parentage. I can’t WAIT to see how that turns out. I will be shocked if there are discrete branches on those family trees. The lawyers are expressing concern that these tests will be used for prosecution purposes because several of the young teenage girls in protective custody are pregnant. Yea and? Even in Texas the age of consent is 16 so if a 13-year-old is pregnant then at the very least you have a case of statutory rape on your hands.

Isn’t science fun.

How much for the leetle girl?

The phone call that got this whole hornet’s nest stirred up is interesting. That person is probably going to be prosecuted for making a false claim and yet she has probably saved countless girls from abuse.

What do you suppose happens to the boys? If you consider that roughly half the babies born are going to be boys and older men are snagging up 4 or 5 women each, that would seem to leave a certain surplus of men. Are they beta males or something and not allowed to breed? I know that some of these cults kick them out into a cold, cruel world they have been taught to fear. I'm sure they do just lovely what with the extensive education that I'm sure they are getting.

To me the biggest shock has been the number of letters to the editor I’ve seen in the paper demanding respect for these people’s religious freedom. I am all for religious freedom to a point. Peyote perhaps but child rape, not so much.

It’s like watching a train wreck that I can’t tear myself away from.

When the mini serious comes out I know I’m going to watch it and yet hate myself for doing so.

I saw this but didn't really pay it much attention. Wass it linked to Warren Jeffs?

Gif

I'm not positive, but I think it is the same group. It seems like I heard that these people were specifically hand picked to make the move to Texas because they were the most loyal.

scary

'most loyal'.

Hmm, that would be one way of phrasing it.

Gif

what happens when the phone call i deemed illegal and the subsiquent search is also deemed illegal as "fruit of a poisonous tree" and all the charges get thrown out.....do all the kids go back where they were?????????

The story appears not to have crossed the Atlantic, so this is the first I've heard of it. It sounds interesting though; keep us informed!

It has, it was on the main news a couple of days back. Pay attention at the back there!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7355779.stm

Ah, it *is* Warren Jeff's lot. Thought it might be.

Gif

Generally illegal searches do get cases kicked out of court, but everything changes when the welfare of children is involved. They may duck out of prosecution but still not get the kids back. It’s a really ugly mess legally, morally, culturally, ethically. The arguments I’ve heard are that they are expressing their religious freedom and the gov’ment should butt out. The problem there is that we’re talking about very young girls. If the age of consent is 16 then even if a 13 or 14-year-old were a willing participant in this little marriage scenario, she cannot legally give her consent.

Technically Roman Polanski is still a fugitive for this very reason.

How can it be an illegal search?

The police get an anonymous tip off giving them reasonable grounds for concern.
So they get a warrant and do a search.

Even if the original caller turns out to be a faker the police have done absolutely nothing illegal there. They surely can't be expected to check out the legitimacy of anonymous tip offs? Can they?

Rereading that I suspect yes, there is often grounds for not believing all anonymous tip offs. But they would be in a world of trouble if they just ignored a tip off like this on the grounds that 'we don't know if it's legitimate or not.' Surely the search is done to determine the legitimacy of the tip off...

The Laws in many or quite possibly all nations dont always olow what we might call straight forward common sense.

If the letter of the law says one thing you cant as part of a legal process just decide to do something differentcan you?

Remember OJ Simpson got off because the police *went after him* in an in ways that broke the law and basic procedure was lost allowing his defence to rip the prosecution to shreds.

Um...shrug...not overly bothered. Hopefully, all the kids will escape and be un-doctrinated and the adults will be sterilised so they can;t have anymore kids.

All I will say is...love the 'Blues Brother' line...I bet that's the only reason you created it.

Yes but just going on what people have been saying in this thread (and that's all I've been going on) then there is nothing illegal about all this.

It was suggested above that the search may have been illegal because the tipster was a fraud.
That may be so but it doesn't make the search illegal.

There may well be other ways in which the search was illegal that I/we are unaware of - but that wasn't my point.

Aha found this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_of_the_poisonous_tree

But if it was a fraudulent tip off - that doesn't make the search illegal I wouldn't have thought since the police surely have a *duty* to investigate tip offs of this seriousness whether they are later determined to be fraudulent or not.

I gather the age of consent is 18 in Texas?

>>What do you suppose happens to the boys?<<

What indeed..

"
Boys as young as 13 have been torn from their families and left on the unfamiliar streets of Salt Lake City and Las Vegas for committing such infractions as talking to a girl, or rolling up their sleeves — a no-no for showing skin in public, Jensen said.

The boys are ill-equipped to deal with their new world.

“You might as well put them on another planet. No training. No food. No idea on how to get help or what to do,” Jensen said. “Some are so heartsick they can’t do anything.”

There may be as many as 2,000 of the young castaways, known as the “Lost Boys” by the people who try to help integrate them into a world they have been taught to distrust.

Sam Brower, a private investigator in Cedar City, Utah, who has tracked the plight of Lost Boys, said many “have just been discarded on the side of the highway. … Many have turned to drugs and alcohol and end up on the streets of Vegas.

“They know absolutely nothing about the outside world. They have little education. … It’s very rough for them.”
"
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21233/lost-boys-flds

The main problem is any kid brought up from birth in a religious famaily is screwed from the start. I know of many people who are very intelligent and yet are willing to die knwoing they will end up in heaven...scary.

The only difference between a small cult in one area compared to a world wide one is that the world wide one managed to get 'acceptability' centuries ago. Though alot are now getting twitchy as they realise alot of us are onto them which is why the use terms like rampant/agressive athiesm to anyone who dares stand-up to them.

It comes to something when Jews/Christians/Moslems join forces to try and stamp out the scurge of secularism.

'rampant atheist' Oo.

>>It comes to something when Jews/Christians/Moslems join forces to try and stamp out the scourge of secularism.<<

As in Ben Stein's latest 'epic'?

See http://www.expelledexposed.com/ for more details...

any more comments on this thread

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7431848.stm

all the kids are being returned

(told you so)