Polygamist ranched raided

metaoblivia

This story has been all over the news in the US.
Back in early April, police raided a polygamist ranch or breakaway Mormons in Texas. This happened after they received a anonymous phone call from a 16 year old girl claiming to be a member of group. She said that she was being abused and that young girls were being forced into marriages with much older men.
When police raided the ranch they took over 400 children away from their parents. The number keeps climbing because they keep finding mothers who are under 18. They're doing DNA testing on all of the children and adults in order to establish family lineage and see if it leads to any evidence of sexual abuse. Meanwhile, the children are being taken care of by the government and handed over to foster care pending the results of DNA testing, which will take a few weeks.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ibA7IGhYUZl7n3efmsXTITzMg1nw

Additionally, the original phone call has been traced back to a woman in Colorado with no connection to the ranch and a history of prank calling the police.

This has sparked a lot of debate because on the one hand, it's very likely that young girls are being sexually abused. On the other hand, hundreds of children who have never had contact with the modern world have been taken from their parents because of what may now be a prank phone call. In most cases, the adult mothers have not been allowed to go with their children. But given the circumstances under which they wee raised, aren't they likely victims of abuse as well? The whole thing is so confusing, I don't really know what to make of it. Any thoughts or opinions?

metrovelvet

Wait...

They took the children from their mothers and put them into foster care without evidence or a conviction on the groudns that this caller was being abused by an older man?

HUH???

How can they remove the child from the care of the parent who IS NOT abusing them?

Sleepy

They keep finding mothers who are under 18 ergo these girls have almost certainly been at the *very* least victims of statutory rape whether incestuous or not. Given that these mothers have almost certainly been abused themselves, they would know what fate awaits their children should they stay in the ranch (and, forming an opinion from talking to people who've been victims of abuse as children, probably think it's entirely normal for this to take place).

When there's the possibility (if not probability) of these children being at such risk, how could you *not* take them from the care of the parents until their safety can be ascertained?