Polygamous Mormon Church Allowed to Keep Its Police Force

The Marshal’s Office was accused of discriminating against non-believers and ignoring church members’ marriages to underage girls.

Gaby Del Valle

04.21.17 5:00 AM ET

An inter-state police force that serves a polygamous fundamentalist Mormon community won’t be required to disband—despite alleged discrimination against nonbelievers, surveillance of dissidents, and facilitation of child abuse.

Instead, officers in the Colorado City Marshal’s Office will be required to attend annual training sessions to ensure they comply with federal laws and don’t discriminate against the community’s non-religious minority. The Marshal’s Office has been serving the adjoining towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona since 1985.

Together, the two towns make up Short Creek, a 7,500-person community that’s home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that splintered from the Mormon church when the latter renounced plural marriage at the beginning of the 20th century.

The U.S. Department of Justice called for the disbanding of the CCMO as part of a lengthy anti-discrimination lawsuit against the twin towns that comprise Short Creek that began in 2012. According to the complaint, the community’s powerful FLDS leaders denied non-members access to housing, police protection, and public services including water and electricity.

In March 2016, a jury determined the community’s leadership had discriminated against non-FLDS members and awarded $2.2 million in damages to six Short Creek residents. The Justice Department then demanded the federal government disband Short Creek’s police force, which it claimed was enforcing the church’s discrimination against non-members.

Prosecutors claimed the Marshal’s Office was using its “state-granted law enforcement authority” to “carry out the will and dictates” of Warren Jeffs, the infamous FLDS leader who is currently serving a life sentence for sexually abusing two young girls whom he called his “spiritual wives.”

In October 2005, marshal Fred Barlow wrote a letter to Jeffs, a fugitive at the time. “I want to fill the position that you would have me fill and do the job the way you would like it done,” Barlow wrote. “We will continue to do that directive unless you would like us to do something different.”

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Protesters in Detroit say male circumcision should also be outlawed

A Detroit area physician faces federal charges for allegedly performing female genital mutilation on multiple 6- to 7-year-old girls as part of a religious and cultural practice at a medical clinic in Livonia. Detroit Free Press

A key distinction between male circumcision and female gender mutilation is the latter has more serious side effects.

(Photo: Elaine Cromie, Detroit Free Press)

Protesters outside of the U.S. federal courthouse in Detroit today argued to  outlaw circumcision of boys in the wake of last week's announcement of a highly publicized criminal case of female genital mutilation. The demonstrators say such mutilation doesn't just happen to girls, and that boys need protection, too.

The protest came as Dr. Jumana Nagarwala, 44, of Northville, appeared in court for a detention hearing at which she was ordered to remain locked up without bond  on charges she mutilated the genitals of two Minnesota girls. She was charged last Thursday with genital mutilation following an FBI investigation into allegations that the two girls came to metro Detroit in February with their mothers and had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic by Nagarwala.

While the case has triggered international headlines and sparked public outrage,  the protesters said that boys also need protection from this type of procedure, as they likened circumcision to genital mutilation.
“All babies should be protected and be able to keep their whole bodies,” said Julie Colon, 26, who attended the protest with her toddler son on her back. “There’s just no reason for any child to be altered at birth or really anytime.”

Jody Farrugia, 35, a registered nurse at the Detroit Medical Center, said she has long been opposed to circumcision and tries to talk new parents out of it, but nobody seems willing to listen. “I see the risks and harms daily. I always encourage mothers to keep their sons intact but they don’t think twice. They think it’s gross, they think it’s cleaner.”

“I still hear their screams from down the hallway. It haunts me.”

►Related:More genital mutilation victims likely out there, feds say
►Related:What is female genital mutilation?

Faruggia said circumcision can cause a certain number of health complications, including too much skin being taken off, which can lead to painful and tight erections as an adult. It can contribute to male erectile dysfunction and sometimes a jagged cut means repeating the surgery, she said.
She was holding a sign that said ‘Only quacks cut healthy children.’ She noted that her son has not been circumcised and he is healthy.

Another protester was Jerry Boor, 70, of Rochester Hills, who believes both science and the Bible are against circumcision.

He noted that his mother had him circumcised but he chose not to circumcise his son after researching the issue and concluding it wasn’t a medical necessity. “I love her but she didn’t know any better,” he said of his mother.

According to organizers of the protest, the genitals of 49,000 baby boys are cut in Michigan every year at the request of parents, denying a boy's right to intact and normal genitals. They say they are upset that doctors are legally allowed to cut the genitals of boys, without any medical necessity, but that a federal law prohibits cutting the genitals of girls and makes it a 5-year-felony.

"The genitals of both girls and boys needs to be protected from the harm of any genital cutting practice," says Norm Cohen, executive director of NOCIRC of Michigan, a nonprofit, consumer-rights advocacy group that researches circumcision effects. “Michigan has one of the highest rates of circumcision in the world. This unnecessary custom violates a child’s right to bodily integrity and normal functions.”

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