Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Possible (or Probable) Source for Sarah Story

Here is an "example incident" from the The Primer: Helping Victims of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse in Polygamous Communities. This is the June 2006 edition - plenty of time for Rozita to plan her attack.

Look at "incident #3" on page 50:
3. A 16-year-old girl, Sarah, has run away from her fundamentalist community and contacted authorities, alleging physical abuse by her polygamous father and claiming that her father had just told her she was to become the second wife of a fellow member of the community. She has 23 siblings and her older sister was married at 16 and now lives in Canada. There is no physical evidence of abuse, but Sarah’s story is very compelling. She begs authorities not to return her to her parents. What is the potential impact of returning or not returning on Sarah?
Does any of that seem to line up with the "Sarah" calls? It seems to me that Rozita used the primer to develop her story. Which also means that the Attorney Generals for Utah and Arizona should have picked up on the hoax call hate crime much earlier -- after all, they were responsible for the writing of the primer.

On the same page is an exercise that Texas should have finished before starting the raid:
Ask participants to brainstorm stereotypes associated with fundamentalist groups
Ask participants to list characteristics that they have seen or heard attributed to women and men from fundamentalist groups
Ask participants to cite sources of these stereotypes (ie, the media)
Discuss what information they have acquired that counters these stereotypes
Perhaps they would not have been so eager to violate the constitution if they knew more about the FLDS than "what was preached in the cult awareness seminar at my church."

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