New website! www.captivefldschildren.org, and contact info to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS OUTRAGE

the state of Texas doesn't go out of their way to support one of their own! What happened to the good ole boys? Ron Paul is even fighting for them to keep their guns...

...

http://digg.com/people/Po....

PLEASE NOTE THE COMMENTS SECTION....WE CAN ADD INFORMATION TO PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD HERE.....LIKE WHAT THEY CAN DO TO HELP ETC....

LETS DIGG THIS TO THE MOON...... THE MORE PEOPLE THAT KNOW THE MORE WHO MAY TAKE ACTION

THEN IT IS TIME TO TAKE PHYSICAL ACTIONS....

PEOPLE WE WENT TO WAR TO STOP THE HORROR OF SLAVERY NOW THEN WHAT WHAT WOULD WE DO WHEN THE STATE KIDNAPS OUR CHILDREN AND GIVES THEM AWAY TO STRANGERS!!!

AT WHAT POINT DO WE WAIT TO TAKE PHYSICAL ACTIONS TO SECURE OUT RIGHTS AS AMERICANS?????

PLEASE EVERYONE CALL PHONE BOMB THIS GOVERNOR!!!!

can you post the contact #'s for the governor...WHEN HE GETS THOUSANDS OF CALLS ABOUT THIS ....HE MAY RECONSIDER.....

BOTH THE EMAIL ADDRESSES...SNAIL MAIL....AND PHONE #'S TO CONTACT HIM....

THANKS!!!

can you post the contact #'s for the governor...WHEN HE GETS THOUSANDS OF CALLS ABOUT THIS ....HE MAY RECONSIDER.....

BOTH THE EMAIL ADDRESSES...SNAIL MAIL....AND PHONE #'S TO CONTACT HIM....

THANKS!!!

The way these people are being treated is disgusting.

Holocaust Nazi Germany.

parents are not being told what is wrong with their hospitalized children nor are they allowed to visit. 2 children have turned up completely missing from CPS.

These people can't even manage a head count. Kids are getting sick in their care. And yet we keep hearing the sheeple bleat, "it's all for the children's own good....Baaaa baaaaaa....the children were being abused.....baaa baaaa."

The Littlest Ones
The Polygamy Blog
SLTribune
by Brooke Adams
http://blogs.sltrib.com/p...

Ruth's face is etched with pain, her voice soft, as she stands on a
porch at the YFZ Ranch and describes the way her little boy held on to
her skirt and cried when he saw buses pull up at the San Angelo
Coliseum on Thursday.

He is just four, but already he has learned what the buses mean:
Another move, another separation.

He cried out: ''Mother, quick, there are buses out there. They've come
to take me away. I want to stay with you.''

What could she say?

For the second time this week, Texas Child Protective Services
separated a group of FLDS mothers from their children -- this time the
littlest ones, the group Bruce Perry, the state's expert witness, said
would be most traumatized by removal. Apparently he got that right.

Velvet , 31 and mother of a 13-month-old daughter, also spoke at the
ranch last night. She said the coliseum was filled with crying
children as CPS workers got down to business.

Ruth was combing out her daughter's pigtails when she was called away.
''They said, She's fine, just leave her.''

The state of Texas is mostly silent about what has gone on at the
coliseum, keeping the media -- and the public -- as far away as possible.

But here is how they do these things, at least as described by these
mothers.

Each child was accompanied by a CPS worker. Other workers shuffled the
women forward, away, out.

It is apparently not an easy job to take a child away from his or her
mother. Some CPS workers were teary eyed, Ruth and Velvet said, even
though they had been warned from the start to show no emotion toward
their ''guests.'' Workers were rotated in and out every two days to
help them keep their emotions in check, the women said.

Still.

On Thursday, ''Even some of the big tough Texas Rangers were crying,''
Ruth said.

Ruth is 34. She has four children: The little boy, a 2-year-old and
twins who are nearly 13 months old -- a couple weeks too old, it turns
out.

Until Thursday, Ruth believed she would be allowed to stay with her
infants.

But she came up against one of the arbitrary lines drawn by the state
of Texas in this human drama: Mothers who are breast-feeding infants
younger than 12 months were allowed to stay.

Mothers like Ruth were sent away.

''These twins are premies,'' she said. 'They need extra care.''

Who is caring for those babies tonight? She has no idea. One has a
cold, perhaps pneumonia, and an ear infection.

''Some big burly guy came and took him from me,'' she said, ''and
wouldn't give me a chance to say goodbye to him.''

It has been cold and drafty in the coliseum the past few nights, the
women said.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
told 51st District Judge Barbara Walther Thursday that conditions at
the coliseum had become ''untenable.''

''Everybody's been so sick,'' said Ruth. ''The living conditions, the
strain, the stress. Everyone of my children has lost weight.''

That four-year-old? Down 4 pounds, she said. At meals, she took turns
holding her two older children on her lap to encourage them to eat.
Their diet has changed drastically while in state custody.

''They are very traumatized,'' she said.

Nights were awful, Velvet said. The coliseum filled with the noise of
crying, coughing babies and children. State workers circulated among
the cots, keeping watch.

''The last few days you could hardly walk around the workers were so
thick,'' Ruth said. ''If you've heard about a prison, that's what if
felt like. They put tags on our arms, branded us like a herd of cattle.''

Mothers who brought babies and young children onto their own cots to
cuddle and comfort were told to put them back in cribs, the women said.

The women said they learned from their attorneys yesterday that
Walther had relented and asked CPS to let nursing mothers remain with
their children. Velvet woke at 2 a.m. Thursday and began making a list
of women who were breast-feeding. She gave the list to a lead CPS
worker ''so she would know which children could stay with their mothers.''

But there was that dividing line: 12 months or younger, so the list
was useless.

Velvet's little daughter fell on the wrong side of the line. She is
13-months-old, and when a CPS worker came to take her away, she held
tightly to her mother.

''I kept trying to dodge them,'' Velvet said. ''They kept saying, 'You
have to give her to us. ' ''

Her little girl kept calling out, Mama, mama.

''They tried to take her from my arms, but I wouldn't let them. So I
handed her to someone I know.''

The women say they were offered a choice: Go home to the ranch or go
to a San Antonio women's shelter which, they were told, might improve
their chances of being reunited with their children. To some, that
sounded like a false choice.

About 40 women took the offer, including some who later had second
thoughts and asked to be left off the bus but were refused, according
to Ruth and Velvet.

And now?

''We're just anxious to get them back,'' Velvet said.

''They can't be cared for by the people they're with,'' Ruth said.
''They don't understand their care. We've always kept them healthy,
strong and well. They haven't been well a day since they've been gone.''

The women are confused and anxious but willing to speak.

''We haven't been allowed to tell the truth, so we're grateful to
share it,'' Ruth said.

BUMP

explained how sorry I was for what they are going through and plugged RP a bit. "Our country was founded on religious freedom and their victimization was a message sent to all Americans." We are no longer free.

Let's ask the ACLU to do more than just observe!

ACLU of Texas Observing FLDS Custody Hearings in San Angelo
Contacts: ACLU of Texas Information 512-478-7300

A representative of the ACLU of Texas is in San Angelo observing the
custody hearings currently underway concerning the children of the
Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FDLS), in front of Judge
Barbara Walthers of the 51st District Court. The hearings are part of
a standard fourteen-day process mandated by the Texas Family Code, at
the conclusion of which the court must return a removed child to the
custody of his or her parents unless the government provides
sufficient evidence that the child's physical health or safety is in
danger and, despite the government's reasonable efforts to enable the
child to return home, there is substantial risk of continuing danger
if the child is returned.

Although the custody hearing is continuing, based on the testimony we
have heard, we believe the government's efforts to protect the
children of the FLDS in Eldorado and the continuing proceedings raise
serious and difficult issues regarding the sometimes competing rights
of children and their parents.

"While we acknowledge that Judge Walthers' task may be unprecedented
in Texas judicial history, we question whether the current proceedings
adequately protect the fundamental rights of the mothers and children
of the FLDS," said Terri Burke, Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas.

"As this situation continues to unfold, we are concerned that the
constitutional rights that all Americans rely upon and cherish – that
we are secure in our homes, that we may worship as we please and hold
our places of worship sacred, and that we may be with our children
absent evidence of imminent danger – have been threatened," Burke said.

The ACLU deplores crimes against children and believes that one
measure of a society is how well we protect those who cannot protect
themselves. We stand opposed to child abuse and support the
government's mandate to intervene when abuse is suspected, to
safeguard the health and welfare of children.

"We recognize that this balancing act is difficult, but we are
concerned that government may not be complying with the Constitution
or the laws of Texas in the execution of its mandate, from how the
raids were conducted to whether the current process protects basic
rights," said Lisa Graybill, Legal Director for the ACLU of Texas, who
is in San Angelo watching the hearings. "The government must ensure
that each mother and each child in its custody receives due process of
law in determining the placement of the children and other matters
regarding the children's care."

Karen McCreary, the Executive Director of the ACLU of Utah, noted "The
government has both the obligation to protect children from danger and
the obligation to do so constitutionally."

Members of the FLDS live in communities in Utah and Arizona as well as
Texas.

The State of Texas should be ashamed.

This is exactly how you create angry Americans.

I feel so helpless! One article said the policemen wept, but they kept traumatizing those children and mothers!

Who is going to help them? Media is justifying the event, same as Dr. Phil did a couple days ago.

Is this even America?

I have been posting the website on some of the mailing lists I am a member. This needs to get the support from as many people as possible, worldwide!

CPS rejected expert's help
by Brooke Adams, SLTrib

http://blogs.sltrib.com/p...

John Walsh read my story about the tip sheet given to Texas Child Protective Services workers to educate them about FLDS ways.

Walsh is a religious studies expert whose areas of specialty include the LDS Church and fundamentalist Mormons, in particular the FLDS. He testified during a two-day hearing in which a Texas judge decided 437 FLDS children shoud stay in state custody. He lives in Texas.

But none of that mattered a whit, apparently, to the Texas agency responsible for looking out for the children's best interests.

After reading the tip sheet story, Walsh contacted me by email and said he had offered his services, free of charge, to CPS and the State Bar of Texas before the 14-day hearing took place.

''I told them I was willing to help any of the 500 lawyers involved who felt they didn't have enough understanding about fundamentalist Mormonism and the FLDS,'' he said.

A representative of CPS, he said, sent him an email reply that said thanks, but no thanks: ''Thank you very much for your interest in helping the children in Eldorado, TX. Our number one priority at this time is the safety of these children. As I'm sure you noticed on our website, we are currently still assessing the needs of the children and are not seeking out any additional services at this time. However, because of your area of expertise, I have added your contact information to our list of offers. If additional support is needed as the investigation progresses, we will contact you for assistance.''

Walsh said that is the only response he has received and he finds it odd that ''CPS wasn't interested in even talking to a Texas resident with a PhD with special expertise on fundamentalist Mormonism. If they had said, 'We have so and so of BYU on our team,' then I would have said something like, 'Oh, I think she is pretty good and you guys are set and don't need me in any fashion.' ''

I spoke with Greg Cunningham, a CPS spokesman, a couple days ago and asked who the state had enlisted to help educate them about the FLDS. He said he could not provide a list but that there were numerous people called on.

Well, we know who some of them were because they were identified in court, court documents, interviews and press conferences:

Becky Musser, a former plural wife who was married (voluntarily, at age 19) to Rulon Jeffs, former FLDS prophet and Warren's father. Musser's younger sister is Elissa Wall, whose marriage at age 14 led to the criminal conviction of Warren Jeffs on rape-as-an-acomplice charges. Musser testified as a state witness during Jeffs' trial last fall. Elissa is seeking a multimillion dollar settlement from the church and its property trust in a lawsuit currently pending in court.

Shannon Price, executive director of the Diversity Foundation in Utah, which helps teens and women leave the FLDS sect. A half dozen of those teens filed a civil lawsuit against Warren S. Jeffs, the FLDS church and the sect's communal property trust, which they alleged caused them to be driven out of their homes by their parents. When the FLDS did not respond to the lawsuit, the state of Utah moved to have the property trust placed under court oversight. Now, a court-appointed fiduciary is dismantling it.

Carolyn Jessop, ex-plural wife of Merrill Jessop, who runs the YFZ Ranch. Jessop's scathing memoir about growing up in the group and her 18 years as Merrill's wife is a best-seller and she has shared those views repeatedly as a guest on numerous talk shows and news programs over the past three weeks.

(By the way, a film crew from the Oprah show chronicled Price and Jessop's trip to Texas for a future segment focused on Elissa Wall, who has just written a book about her experiences in the FLDS sect.)

Bruce Perry, a cult expert who assisted the state with children who were brought out of the Branch Davidian complex before it was incinerated.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran said he relied heavily on an unnamed confidential informant who is an ex-member of the sect, but has refused to divulge that person's name. It could be Carolyn. It could be Flora Jessop, who first came to Texas in 2004 to educate Doran and others about his county's new residents. Flora also took calls -- and brought them to Texas Rangers' attention -- from a mentally unstable woman in Colorado Springs who has been tied to the calls that appear to have triggered the Texas raid.

Walsh said he looks at the situation this way: ''If I was investigating a Roman Catholic family for child abuse, I think I personally would be more interested in a PhD for background information than I would in someone who had been molested by a priest,'' he said. ''So the whole thing seemed strange and made me question their objectives and tactics. As a citizen, I expect political offices to spin everything to their advantage, but I expect law enforcement and child protective services to be as impartial and unbiased as possible. I am saying I expect the President's press secretary to lack objectivity, but I want the pentagon and attorney general's press secretaries to be free from bias.''

FLDS: Pain, yearning for peace imbues ranch
Amid lingering signs of raid, members grieve, and after years of silence, they defend their religion and lifestyle
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune

ELDORADO, Texas - As Richard Jessop weaves through Zion Academy, signs of the government raid on this polygamous community 18 days ago still can be seen.
Quilts and blankets are piled at the back of an assembly room where teenage girls were brought for questioning and held overnight.
In one classroom, used as an interview room by investigators, someone has written a message in neat handwriting on a chalkboard: "I want the police to know we are at peace." Someone with less perfect penmanship added: "We was here." [Gee, the police have great grammar, don't they?]
Jessop pauses Sunday in a first-grade classroom and points to a child-size desk with his 7-year-old son's name on it.
"It's a lot of pain," he says moments later. "I'm at a loss for words these past few weeks."
Jessop has seven children now in state custody and, like other FLDS parents, no clear notion of what he needs to do to get them back.
At the YFZ Ranch, owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, most adults were sequestered in their homes, meeting as families for prayer and comfort.
"You won't find a lot of people out working today," Jessop said. "We've got quite a few grieving parents around."
State authorities took 416 children from the ranch after a Child Protective Services investigation found evidence of underage girls who were pregnant or mothers.
A judge agreed Friday to keep them in state custody. The children will be relocated from the San Angelo Coliseum to foster homes and other care settings in coming days.
Mothers who were allowed to stay with children younger than 5 will be separated in the next few days and sent back to the ranch - something they may not be aware of yet, said one anguished FLDS man.
The FLDS have remained calm and composed in public, but the mothers are "feeling the same pain any mother would feel at having their children ripped away from them," said Amy Johnson, 41, who has two daughters in state custody.
"The pain and the torture on my heart is of such a nature I can't even begin to express it in words," she said.
Silent for years, the FLDS are finally defending their lifestyle and religion, which they say has been grossly misrepresented. They are peaceful people who adhere to biblical principles of loving kindness, they say. There is no force in their religion, they say.
"We're angry, we don't understand how this could happen in America, but it's not in our nature or belief to terrorize someone just because they terrorize us," said Johnson, who teaches an eighth-grade girls' class.
They are "competent and capable" mothers, Johnson adds - a point not disputed in general by Texas CPS, who has described the FLDS children as exceptionally healthy, respectful and well-behaved.
But ex-members, child advocates and government officials give a greatly contrasting portrayal of the group, which they say uses coercion, control and abuse to keep members in check and foster a systematic pattern of sexual abuse of young girls through underage marriages.
Texas investigators say they have identified five underage teenagers who are pregnant or mothers.
"They explain they are one big family, one big community, and share one belief system," Texas Child Protective Services investigator Angie Voss said during a hearing last week. "They believe that having children at a young age is a blessing, and therefore a child of any age isn't safe."
Until 2005, Texas allowed girls as young as 14 to marry with parental permission; it was then raised to 16. On Sunday several FLDS women said they they didn't know the law had changed until the raid.
But other FLDS members said this week such marriages have been discouraged in recent years.
"There may be individual cases where something may have happened, but that's different than [having it] hang over the whole religion, over all the people," Johnson said.
Her older daughter, Sarah, is 18, married and has a 5-month-old. She is one of the teens whose age is disputed by Texas authorities. Johnson said her 13-year-old daughter will have to be at least that age before she is allowed to marry.
For now, Johnson's concerns are much more immediate. Getting her youngest daughter back is "consuming me," she said. "I've got to get back to my child."
That desperation is being felt by most of the mothers, Jessop said.
"Our whole religion is a gospel of peace and that is the only thing that keeps these women from having a nervous breakdown once a day," he said. "They're all getting close to the Lord."
As he leads a tour, Jessop said the faith has no doctrine that compels young marriages and he wants his children to be at least 18 before they marry.
Young women, he said, can accept or reject marriage matches. "I've seen it time and time again where a girl is asked if she feels good about this and she said, 'No, I need a few more years,' " he said.
That is not what Elissa Wall told a Utah jury last fall, when she testified that FLDS leaders - specifically Warren S. Jeffs - gave her the option in 2001 of marriage at age 14 or spiritual damnation.
On Sunday, Jessop said there may be a "problem or two or three" but "go down any street in America and tell me you're not going to find a few little problems."
Jessop's children range in age from 3 months to 10 years. He last spoke to his wife a week ago. She told him their 2-year-old keeps asking the same question: "When do we get to go see the chickens?"
He and his family live in a three-story log home. There are 19 such structures, with identical layouts and color schemes: pale blue or teal carpeting, bedrooms, big kitchens for a megasized family.
Beds, tables, desks and chairs are made from oak harvested at the ranch and crafted in the community's woodshop. This orderly place is equipped with gardens, dairy, cheese factory and orchards, designed to make the people self-sufficient.
"It represents a lot of work, but we give all the credit to Heavenly Father," Jessop said. "People who come out of our society, our religion, are good, wholesome and pure. We're the answer to a better world, not the problem."
brooke@sltrib.com

Texas "law enforcement" should be so proud of this travesty. Sure glad they take the constitution so seriously. I am sickened by this. So who is next?

amazes me.

And just like in 1953, when these folks' parents and grandparents were raided, the authorities were met with no armed resistance. In 1953, the authorities arrived to find the FLDS families singing God Bless America around the community flagpole. This time the men were around the temple praying.

Good thing the state brought the tank.

EOM

Ron Paul Explorer: The All Paul Search Engine

I watched the videos and suggest that everyone on DP see them. If you don't want to look at the videos then look at the pictures and see all the law enforcement that was outside with their guns. They even had a tank outside. This is so uncalled for. Those children looked well cared for. As I have stated in other posts, I don't agree with the practices of the FLDS church, but this is about our freedom as a country. If they were doing an investigation and wanted to question these people, then that is what they should do, question them and then let them get on with their lives.
How long before they come after any of us for being apart of the Revolution, or homeschooling our kids, or attending a church that is not seen as "normal"?
What can we do?