Will Eldorado, Texas, be the next Waco?
Is it Wacko, Texas or Waco? And who's
next?
Will Eldorado, Texas, be the next Waco? Like many religions, the Church of Latter Day Saints is blessed with it’s own flavor of fundamentalist sects. The best-known and most controversial simply calls itself the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. They want to bring back polygamy. Something the LDS dropped back in the 19th Century as their state of Deseret began to prepare for entering the Union as Utah.
Like the folks who suffered through the terrible end to the Waco standoff, the stronghold in Eldorado is isolated by choice, members forbidden to speak to town residents or the press. Concerns about firearms follow these folks around through their various citadels in Utah and Arizona where “God Squads” provided bodyguards for their current leader, Warren Jeffs, son of the group’s original prophet.
The states of Arizona and Utah are offering a joint $10,000 reward for Warren Jeff’s arrest on charges relating to “sexual conduct with a minor”. The growing controversy over the group’s stronghold in Eldorado is prompting state politicians to consider changing Texas laws on marriage and consensual sex. Texas has considered fourteen the legal age of consent for decades -- with parent’s consent. A moot point if the parents belong to Jeff’s sect.
The police department in Colorado City/Hilldale, Utah, has been decertified by the state of Utah after discovery that the Chief and others were all from the FLDS. The local board of education had even purchased an airplane which was turned over to the local FLDS chapter!
Unlike Koresh and his followers in Waco, the FLDS sect in Eldorado built their temple of stone. Have the Texas Rangers, the ATF and FBI learned anything from the last disaster?
Posted: Mon - July 18, 2005 at 08:35 AM