Tonight on AC360: Policing Polygamy
There's a new sheriff in town in the largest polygamous community in America. For years, the local police in Colorado City, Arizona have been accused of not giving protection to anyone who wasn't a follower of polygamous leader Warren Jeffs and his Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints Church.
Now the Arizona attorney general has stepped in and given half-a-million dollars to pay for county sheriff patrols in town. That's after the state legislature tried to disband the police force and didn't succeed.
There are several people in town who say the police force has failed them and they welcome the new patrols.
People like Issac Wyler, who left the church eight years ago and says he's the victim of gruesome vandals.
"They kill cats and throw them in the back of my truck, or I will find them in my porch a lot of times," Wyler told CNN's Gary Tuchman.
But another sickening discovery was made on Wyler's property, according to another former FLDS member. You'll see the shocking video tonight in Tuchman's report. It shows a live kitten stuck in wet concrete inside a pipe.
So what did local police do about it? The former FLDS members say nothing.
Tuchman has been reporting on the FLDS community for years and went back to the area to see how the new patrols are going.
Don't miss his report tonight at 8 and 10 p.m. ET.
Update: Watch Gary Tuchman's report.
|
|
Post by: Maureen Miller Filed under: FLDS • Gary Tuchman |
About this Show:
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°
Subscribe to the podcast
On Twitter
Search the AC360 blog
So they have a Sheriff there... FINALLY and he is giving tickets and checking for tints on windows??? REALLY??? What about checking on the welfare of the girls about age 12 to 15??? How about checking to see if the children know who their dad is but his name is not on the birth certificate so the mom can collect welfare, food stamps and medical from the gov ( a practice the call "bleeding the beast" ). Reading the new book "plygs" might do you some good in looking into this as it is MUCH deeper than just the police dep. The people of UT / AZ and TX have turned a blind eye to this for too long... SOMETHING has GOT to be done.. Mr. Jeffs just said that only 15 of his "top" men could "pro-create" with ANY of the women in the group.... as SOON as a girl hits puberty she is "a woman" no matter the age .... Please help get this word out.. ONE cop in this area will NOT due... I am from this area... it JUST wont due... this has GOT to stop and the government is turning a blind eye as is the mainstream LDS church... people have GOT to understand that polygamy is NOT "Sister Wives" and "Big Love" .... it is "plygs" ... it is sad, it is hurtful and it is WRONG...
Tuchman made his point that the FLDS are swine for their treatment of women, children and former members. Shame on you for using the footage of the cat being killed to drive home your point. I usually tune into AC360 because you are not Fox Noise or Nancy Grace.
and yes you can do that with out a warrant if you set it up to record on your own land or home. Well for that matter thanks to the patriot act this could all be considered terrorism anyways in which case they don't need a warrant and they could just imprison these people for no reason at all.
WTH $500,000 dollars to patrol against Mormons ???!?!?!?!!? something tells me they could do something better with the money. Here is a hint on how to catch the vandals buy a GD camera or webcam set it up to record to a laptop or desktop and just let it fill up a hard drive I could protect the entire town with an array of cameras and computers for $12k turn over the video evidence to the local authorities and now they have all the needed evidence to convict them for far less money