Texas Polygamy Raid May Pose Risk
ELDORADO, Tex. — The raid last week on a
polygamist compound here is complicating law enforcement efforts in
Utah and
Arizona, where there are far more offshoot Mormon polygamists but where the authorities try to avoid such large-scale confrontations.
Officials in those states have dealt for many years with the tangled and delicate problem of opening communications with polygamist groups while also winning the confidence of girls who are taken as under-age wives. The
Texas authorities say the raid here was prompted by a 16-year-old who called on a cellphone from the compound in a cry for help.
But the raid’s scale — 416 children were removed, making it the largest raid in more than a half century in the West — and the fact that the 16-year-old has not been identified, has sharply eroded trust in the government among polygamist groups, according to law enforcement officials in several states.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/12/us...ss&oref=slogin
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