SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Strong opinions and criticism continue as children taken from a polygamist compound in west Texas are being scattered to group homes and boys' and girls' ranches across the state.
People on both sides of this issue are expressing strong opinions about what they think is right, what should have happened, and now how to resolve the situation.
Perhaps the person taking the biggest hit from both sides is Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. When it comes to an issue like this one, he just can't please everyone.
There are also people taking action on a more grassroots level here in Utah. There is a pro-polygamy group planning to protest Thursday night's Jazz game against the Houston rockets.
Robert Breeze says, “We're calling on people to protest the Houston Rockets and the state of Texas. We're trying to send a message to the people down in Texas that there's gonna be consequences paid for what they're doing to those children.”
Another way to have your voice heard is participating in an old fashioned debate, and that's exactly what Attorney General Mark Shurtleff found himself doing Wednesday.
Some are criticizing him for not authorizing a Texas style raid on Utah's FLDS sect, but polygamists - he says - claim he's been too tough on them. He says, “I often take comfort in Marcus Aurelius who said ‘It is the fate of a leader to do good and be hated for it.’"
During the verbal battle Shurtleff found himself under fire from his debate neighbor - a FLDS lawyer. Rod Parker says, “If the people in Texas aren't safe, if there not entitled to individual due process, then nobody is safe."
Though Shurtleff doesn't agree with everything that's happened in Texas he uses equally sharp words in its defense. “We've had a lot of success convincing these closed and secretive societies that they can trust us, that we're not the beast, that I am not the anti-Christ as some believe me to be."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is also defending the Texas raid. In a letter to the U.S. Attorney General, Reid quotes himself from a letter written two years ago saying, "The federal government should work with state officials to address the broader pattern of serious criminal conduct by all those who use multiple marriages to abuse women and children."
