The Salt Lake Tribune
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Raid
It's the first anniversary of the raid on the polygamous FLDS compound in Eldorado, Tex., that began the largest child abuse probe in U.S. history. More than 400 children were taken from their parents by Texas officials.

The score?
  • One child remains in state custody.
  • 12 men face criminal charges related to underage marriages.
  • The endangered teenage girl the raid was meant to save still does not exist.
  • A Texas legislative committee will explore "lessons learned" from the $15 million raid.
  • The FLDS are even more solid in their beliefs.
  • Ratings for HBO's Big Love are way up.
Probably the most significant result of the raid is that the normally secretive FLDS learned the power of PR. Their Salt Lake-based attorney Rod Parker says the group's openness helped sway a Texas court to release the children to their parents:
When the decision was made to let the news media come out on the ranch and start interacting with people, all of a sudden there was a voice on the other side; there were human faces, and it was not just about what the state was doing.
posted by gwarchol @ 8:09 AM |

1 Comments:

At March 27, 2009 2:10 PM , OpenID David said...

Thanks for the reminder of this anniversary.

 

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