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And it’s always because they get caught for some traffic violation

zuzu

Tim McVeigh got snagged because of a broken taillight. Now fugitive polygamist tyrant Warren Jeffs, leader of the scary-ass FLDS polygamist sect and resident of the FBI’s Most Wanted list for really longer than he should have been, has been caught outside Las Vegas.

The other two people in the vehicle were identified as one of Warren Jeffs’ wives, Naomi Jeffs, and a brother, Isaac Steed Jeffs, both 32, Staretz said. They were being interviewed by the FBI in Las Vegas but were not arrested.

Isaac Jeffs was driving a red Cadillac Escalade that was stopped for having no visible registration, said state Trooper Kevin Honea. An FBI agent was summoned to confirm Jeffs’ identity, Honea said.

Warren Jeffs was in federal custody in Las Vegas awaiting a court hearing on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, Staretz said.

FBI officials said at a press conference Tuesday that Jeffs was found with $54,000 in cash, numerous gift cards worth an additional $10,000, 15 cell phones, four portable radios, four laptop computers, a global positioining system device, a police scanner, several pairs of sunglasses and three wigs.

He was wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct, for arranging the marriage of underage girls to older men.

18 thoughts on And it’s always because they get caught for some traffic violation

  3. I am so glad he’s finally been caught, but it’s not like the FLDS is going to just shut down — they’ll get a new leader, and girls will continue being sold off as wives to nasty old men. (pours self stiff drink)

  4. “He was wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct, for arranging the marriage of underage girls to older men.”

    Amongst other things….All intents and purposes the man was religious feudal lord.

    A tyrant that the state and federals gov’ts in AZ and UT have let slide for years.

    Good thing they final caught this fine christian leader so that he can clear up all this stuff by getting his day in court. I am sure he is just being persecuted. (snort).

  5. See, everyone who tells the traffic cop “So why are you harassing me instead of looking for murderers” should realize that that is part of looking for murderers and such.

  7. Thousands of dollars in cash? 15 cell phones?

    Good thing he is white, or else they would have confused him with a dangerous terrorist…

  8. Mighty Ponygirl–If Jeffs is incarcerated for any length of time, the FLDS will have a huge sucking power vacuum . And that’s what’s likely to shut ’em down–not Jeffs’ absence, but all those nasty old men fighting over his position.

  9. They had the author of Under the Banner of Heaven on GMA this morning to talk about the capture of Jeffs after interviewing a woman who escaped the FLDS. He described how we should only hold Jeffs and other leader’s responsible, because even the parents offering up their 12-year-olds as brides were victims themselves … etc. He was being coherent right up until the end, where he suggested that the way to combat the problems posed by the FLDS was to simply decriminalize polygamy. This was after explaining that in Colorado and Utah there’s such an unwillingness by law enforcement to prosecute for polygamy that very few people are actually charged with it. I lost my shit at this — that he could freely admit that the people were victims and that nothing’s been done to help them, and in the same breath advocate making their victimhood a-ok legally.

    …And it was too early in the morning for another stiff drink!

  10. Alas, what this group of nutjobs is doing is pretty much “traditional marriage” — let this be a reminder to all of us what “traditional marriage” really means.

  11. Another crime this man and his followers have commited is the ejection of teenage boys from the community. There were some stories on this recently. Apparently they will find silly excuses (listening to secular cds and such) to banish young men so there is no competition for the old farts who already have 14 wives and want the next 13-year-old girl in line.
    And while it may not seem so bad to be forced from such a backwards horrible place, these boys know nothing else, are cut off from their families, don’t really understand how to function in the secular world, and have nowhere to go. They often end up becoming involved with drugs and alcohol to kill the pain of being seperated from everything they’ve ever known, and sometime turn to crime to support themselves.
    I’ve heard this guy is potentially up for life in prison for the accessory to rape charge. I hope he gets it.

  12. zuzu writes:

    Now fugitive polygamist tyrant Warren Jeffs, leader of the scary-ass FLDS polygamist sect

    and Mighty Ponygirl echoes by losing her shit, in the spirit of other opinionmakers – NYT proclaiming “Leader of Polygamist Morman Sect is Arrested” or USA Today’s “Captured Polygamist to go to Utah first.”

    i think it is interesting, and unfortunate, that polygamy is always used as a hook and thus implied as the real problem. i can’t imagine an argument that would convince me that jeffs’ polygamy is the problem. clearly the man, and the sect, seem to have a nasty relationship to women, but that – of course – does not mean that polygamy is the problem.

    putting aside the argument of what is to gain by opting in to the institution of marriage, i would argue that any benefits of hetero marriage should be open to persons of homo/queer marriage. likewise, i am not about to say that a person should only date, or have sex with one other partner at a time, then extend that to marriage. just because polygamy is typically represented/practiced as one man with many women obviously does not define the idea – a polygamist marriage could just as easily be three+ same-sex people.

    as someone in a polyamorous relationship, though not invested in polygamy, there is clearly an ideological affinity between the two.

  13. Are you serious, jonk? Do you really not get the difference between consensual polyamory and polygamy as practiced by Jeffs and the FLDS? We’re talking little girls married off to old men, because the leader says so, and then the wives shifted around between the old men at the leader’s whim. We’re talking young men and boys run out of town because they’re competition for the old men — Jeffs, for example, had 40 wives. 40. And they were kept dependent on their husbands through brainwashing and through getting tied down with many children from a young age. Everything in town runs through Jeffs — money, jobs, information, contact with the outside world. He forbade anyone in town from watching television, for example.

    Oh, and women don’t get to have multiple husbands — this is strictly polygyny. Adultery (or, “adultery,” considering that few of the “wives” are legally married) is severely punished.

    So, if that’s the kind of polygamy you have an ideological affinity with, I pity you.

  14. zuzu,

    you have said nothing about how jeffs’ polygamy is the problem. as i admitted – and is painfully obvious, hopefully to everyone – jeffs and this sect are messed up in so many ways that it really doesn’t merit addressing. yeah, we get it, move on.

    my point is that polygamy is being paired with these other problems, largely the non-consensual ones every has a problem with. there is nothing inherent to polygamy that says such a relationship would enslave others, induce rape, etc., that seems like the most ridiculous jump.

    my invoking polyamory (and arms-length acknowledgement of polygamy, because of how it is currently practiced and understood) should have made it clear that consensual relationships are what i am discussing. when i make the analogy to people dating or having sex with more than one person outside of marriage (and i should underscore i am not talking about group sex), i find it hard to imagine that people understand this as a problem, especially when it is in the open (we will not get into relationships where partners “cheat”). if people can handle me dating two different people, both of them okay with, and fully aware of, my relationship with the other, why would this be problem if i married them both?

  15. and i don’t mean to say that the crap that jeffs and all his folk do don’t deserve attention, sorry for the lack of clarity. but for the points i thought i made somewhat clearly before, they are not the issue i am addressing. i think anyone who visits this site expects deeper analysis than “those folks are f@&*d up!”

  16. you have said nothing about how jeffs’ polygamy is the problem.

    You haven’t been paying attention. We’ve discussed Jeffs and Colorado City/Hildale and the FLDS before.

    And, yes, his polygyny and that of his sect is a HUGE problem. Because it’s not consensual.

    This is not about you, or your defensiveness regarding polyamory. Nobody’s attacked that, and nobody’s suggested that fully consensual and equal polygamy is the same thing as what Jeffs is doing. We have plenty of polyamorous commenters here, and I have no objections to polyamory done right. So I’d really appreciate it if you’d put down the strawman and back away.

  18. sorry, my writing

    you have said nothing about how jeffs’ polygamy is the problem.

    was not exactly clear. of course his polygamy is a problem, my point is that the stuff we have problems with are not aspects of polygamy – it is similar to saying marriage is bad because this man beats his wife and they are married. i was merely pointing out that polygamy is being conflated with these other bad things. polygamy is getting a bad rap because of association with him and this type of mormon – that’s all, i started my commenting with a claim of this being “unfortunate.”

    also, sorry for the link to nowhere, which happened automatically, not through my tagging it, i merely used the “at” sign as a replacement character.

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