[Vision2020] Sanctioned Child Sexual Abuse/Slavery

[Art Deco]

V 2020ers, State Legislators, et al,

The article below from the LMT of yesterday discusses a serious sexual abuse/slavery problem that I have unsuccessfully tried to help find a solution to since the early 1980's when I moved back to Boundary County.

For many, many years Boundary County law enforcement did nothing to stop this trafficking even though the enablers of/participants in this trafficking, part of the Blackmore family living in Boundary County, and their mechanisms were well known to law enforcement and social welfare agencies.  Even active prodding by one set of very concerned county commissioners failed to persuade those agencies responsible to take any action.  

All, and I mean ALL of the so-called Christian churches in the area continually found excuses not to get involved, although women as young as 13 years old were moved through to and through Boundary County and forced to become the "celestial brides" -- sexual concubines, baby factories, and household slaves -- of men in their 50s and 60s.  Various kinds of incestuous relationships were/are also part of this practice.

Although child sexual abuse/slavery is the principal issue here, Sheriff Sprungl also points out an issue probably more important to many conservatives:  the use of these groups of an increasing amount of state/federal welfare money to support, enrich, and to perpetuate these child sexual/slavery practices.  Many of these so-called families (read: sheiks and their entirely dependent harems) receive this assistance from both US and Canadian sources at the same time, mainly by lying and the inept investigation by welfare agencies on both sides of the border.

The issue here is not the practice or morality of polygamy, but the conscription of minor children to become sexual and household slaves.

For those interested in a well-researched, well-written overview of this problem, the book mentioned below is a penetrating exploration of this and related issues:  Under the Banner of Heaven, Jon Krakauer (available at Book People).

I especially urge our state legislators to do all they can to stop this human trafficking especially in minor children for sexual and slavery purposes.


Wayne A. Fox
1009 Karen Lane
PO Box 9421
Moscow, ID  83843

(208) 882-7975
waf at moscow.com


_________________________
Idaho Legislature: Polygamists are coming; Wives are coming into state from Canada and applying for public assistance


By DEAN A. FERGUSON
of the Tribune



BOISE -- The wives of polygamists are spilling out of Canada and into Idaho to apply for public assistance, according to the Idaho Legislature. Senate and House leadership decided to study that problem Wednesday along with several other issues when the Legislature adjourns. 

"I didn't think this was a problem in the state of Idaho until we went to Bonners Ferry," Speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb, R-Burley, told a meeting of House and Senate leadership. 

Newcomb and other representatives visited Boundary County leaders who are worried about the polygamy problem, which may involve members of a religious group in Bountiful, B.C., near Creston, B.C., Canada, that is aligned with a similar group in Hildale, Utah, on the Arizona border. 

The Legislature is concerned child brides are traded between the two communities and isolated from the outside world. 

In his book, "Under the Banner of Heaven," Jon Krakauer highlights these two groups as Mormon fundamentalists who practice polygamy and sometimes take wives who are in their early teens. The groups do not belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but share common roots. 

Officials worry about the strain on public welfare programs as well as the possibility of child sexual abuse. 

"I welcome that (study)," said Boundary County Sheriff Greg Sprungl. 

The topic is a hot issue in his community, said Sprungl. 

"There is a long-standing polygamist group in Creston, B.C., up above us here across the border," said Sprungl. "There are people from that Blackmore group (by Creston) that live in the area." 

The Blackmore group was started by a polygamist named Winston Blackmore as an offshoot of the Utah group, according to Krakauer's book. 

"Our interest is not in the church that the polygamists are involved in," said Sprungl. "If there is any sexual abuse to minors, that's our only interest there." 

Federal, state, county and city law enforcement have met to discuss the problem, said Sprungl. 

"There are no active cases of sex abuse of minors that are wedded at an early age." 

Idaho Department of Health and Welfare investigators have not sought help from the sheriff's office to investigate possible welfare fraud cases either, said Sprungl. 

The northern Idaho polygamists are only part of the interim committee's focus on human trafficking. 

Southern Idaho lawmakers are concerned about reports in the Nampa area of men bringing home wives from other countries and then exploiting them for prostitution or slave labor. 

It's human trafficking if people are "forced to remain but brought under false circumstances," said Rep. Donna Boe, D-Pocatello, who cosponsored the study proposal. 

Boe said federal laws have taken on the human trafficking problem. However, victims of human trafficking, who may not know English, do not know how to get help. The human trafficking committee will consider the extent of the problem in Idaho and how to make state laws to back up the federal laws. 

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Ferguson may be contacted at dferguson at lmtribune.com. 

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