Hildale and Colorado City worry over Texas raid

Through whispers and phone calls, the news of the raid on the YFZ Ranch is spreading through the Fundamentalist LDS strongholds of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz.

"Everybody's talking about it," said ex-FLDS member Isaac Wyler, who lives in the border towns.

As he drove through the towns formerly known as "Short Creek" on Friday, Wyler told the Deseret Morning News he was watching a flurry of activity. Outside an FLDS-run private school, he said dozens of cars were parked there.

"I'm sure everybody's having little meetings," he said.

Reminiscent of the infamous 1953 raid on Short Creek, where polygamists were rounded up and put in jail and their children put in foster care, people on both sides of the polygamy debate were worried about the impact of this latest action in Texas.

"It seems like a huge, massive step for law enforcement to come in like that and raid this community," said Mary Batchelor of the pro-polygamy group Principle Voices. "It's terrifying."

Ross Chatwin, another ex-FLDS member, feared the Texas raid would serve to further entrench and isolate the FLDS from the outside world.

"Warren (Jeffs) and the leaders, they're wanting something like this to happen so they can fullfil a prophecy that it will turn into another Nauvoo or '53 raid," he said. "My biggest fear is we're playing right into their hands."

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff also worried about how FLDS faithful would perceive the Texas raid. In an interview with the Deseret Morning News on Friday, Shurtleff said, "Heavens no!" he would not raid Hildale and Colorado City.

"We have no evidence that there are more child victims (in Utah) since Warren Jeffs disappeared," Shurtleff said. "The difference between the two places is Colorado City and Hildale have been opened up. They know they've been under scrutiny. In Eldorado, they were in a compound and feeling pretty secure."

Ironically, Shurtleff was in Texas last month at a speaking engagement on polygamy. He spoke alongside Carolyn Jessop, who chronicled her flight from the FLDS Church in a best-selling book.

"Texas is not going to be a state that's as tolerant of these crimes as Arizona and Utah have been," Jessop said. "In Eldorado, the crimes went to a whole new level. They thought they could get away with more."