Regulate... Jeffs Funk Era

While driving home the other night, I decided to take an alternate route that led me past the Washington County Courthouse here in St. George. I was leery as I turned down the street because of the barricades and what my friend Eric Melniczek would categorize as a "Heavy Police Presence" (apparently two police officers on bicycles at 2 am in downtown Blacksburg, VA constitutes a heavy police presence).

When the cavalcade of TV station transmitter trucks came into view, it became clear that this was the media circus surrounding the Warren Jeffs trial. After receiving a dirty look from the police officer and almost running over some TV station automatons talking animatedly into their Blackberries while trying to cross the street, the following list popped into my mind:

1. Warren was named to the FBI's ten most wanted fugitives list. Do you know who else is on this list? Yeah. Osama bin Laden. The same guy that we all think of as the epitome of elusive evil.

2. Supposedly this guy is wanted for several things, most notedly accomplice to rape (marrying a 14 year old girl to a 19 year old man) and ulawful flight to avoid prosecution.

3. Any given night at the Washington City Wal*Mart you can go "Polyg Spotting." My brother claims that you can't walk past the fabric section without noticing at least one member of the FLDS community. As a side note - maybe it's because they've undergone some recent remodeling and reorganizing of the store, but I was there earlier this week and did not see one FLDS family.

4. I grew up in central Utah, probably 2.5 hours from St. George. I always knew about Colorado City, that it was down here somewhere. But, it never occurred to me that Colorado City and Hilldale were actually part of the St. George community. I expected these places to be very insular, which they are, with their own economies and no connection to the mainstream world. That's not the case. The members of these towns are very much a part of our community.

So, why is it that Jeffs is such a target? Look at the other guys on the current FBI Most Wanted Fugitive List. Most of them are wanted for murder, drugs, aggravated sexual abuse, ...September 11...

This is the gap I can't seem to fill:

It's common knowledge that there is a sect of people performing all kinds of illegal marriages, including marriages to young girls. This has been going on as long as I can remember. A system like this is a system of oppression, which means that there must be oppressive leadership. Why Jeffs, why now? Why, after 100 years of letting this become a way of life are they going after the leader? And, why, when he fled, did he join the ranks of these notorious and nefarious criminals?

I spoke to a member of the Utah Attorney General's office earlier this week, and in our conversation she described an "implicit acceptance" because of an agency's lack of action in a matter, despite that agency's threats and communications that clearly state anything but acceptance. How much of what goes on, and has been going on, in this community falls under that same concept? How much "implicit acceptance" has UT, AZ, and the US given?

If we have ignored this, it still does not excuse anyone from violating the law. But, it certainly does bring up the contradiction - why do we silently accept their way of life and then, when their leader is brought up on charges, do we all want to know how swiftly and harshly justice will be served?

Maybe it's because members of the LDS church struggle to reconcile their polygamous past with contemporary rumor and conjecture about this practice. Maybe it's because society at large doesn't deal well with the machine. Maybe it's just schadenfreude, plain and simple.