Photo by Felix Francis
SAN ANGELO, Texas - It was no secret that a polygamist sect that built a compound in the West Texas desert believed in marrying off underage girls to older men. And the sheriff had an informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the sect.
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"We are aware that this group is capable of" sexually abusing girls, Sheriff David Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry."
If only the girls had been trying to get abortions and the sheriff and some politicians and "family values" types had been aware of it! There would've been no need to respect the girls, no reticence to violate their civil rights and no reason for the decision to leave the bed-in-the-temple sect alone for four years before moving in.