Texas raid has opened can of worms

The governor went on to decry the fact that "highly competent investigators have been unable to find a single instance in the last decade of a girl child reaching the age of 15 without having been forced into a shameful mockery of marriage."

Unlike Texas, credit Utah and Arizona with attacking the situation head-on. They recognized that plural marriage was the root problem — it is all about religion — and that eliminating it is the only real way to stamp out the resultant teenage bride symptom that Texas calls "sexual abuse."

And yet, despite all the good intentions and the police power to back them up, the raids here didn't work, because the polygamists would not stop.

Not only that, they started to get a measure of empathy from others, most notably gays, also pursuing alternative lifestyles and pushing for the legal freedom to do so (see Lawrence v. Texas above).

Lawyers also joined the fray, pointing out the raids' wholesale violation of the polygamists' individual rights.

Talk about your cans of worms.

So the active pursuit and prosecution of polygamists here essentially came to a standstill. Only those too vocal — see Tom Green — or those obviously sanctioning incestuous or underage marriage — see David Kingston and Warren Jeffs — ran the risk of going to jail.

As Bradley chronicles in her book, in 1990, Utah Attorney General Paul Van Dam succinctly explained the dilemma in a KUED television documentary:

"Every law enforcement officer in Utah knows there are tens of thousands of polygamists in the area, and they are clearly violating the law. Yet if we prosecute these men and women, we know we will produce an incredible social disruption. Thousands of children must be cared for emotionally and otherwise, and that's a terribly expensive proposition. In addition, if you go after polygamists for illegal cohabitation, can you limit such a policy to polygamists, or do you pursue every couple in this state that is living together without benefit of a licensed marriage?

"And then, if you do make the arrests, where do you put these people in our crowded jail system? And finally, we know from experience that an arrest will not stop these people from following what they consider to be a very important aspect of their religious faith."

You can't stop it, to borrow an old football cliche Texans might appreciate, you can only hope to contain it.

But it can be a long learning curve figuring that out.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.