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The seizure of 52 girls from an FLDS ranch in Texas Friday evoked memories of a controversial 1953 raid on the sect - and sparked fears that efforts to help abused members will be dealt a blow.
In July 1953, Arizona authorities descended on the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. - the traditional home base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But the effort was later seen as a debacle and within two years, the nearly 400 men, women and children initially taken into custody were all back in their homes.
Flora Jessop, a former FLDS member who has been instrumental in highlighting abuses in the sect, called the Texas raid a "colossal mistake."
"Anyone who would have needed help is now terrorized back into the hole," she said. "Things were starting to open up in the community and calls were starting to come from people who wanted out."
In the wake of the 1953 raid, "it's cemented in these people's minds and hearts that the government is bad and is going to take us from our families," she said.
Mary Batchelor, a founder of Principle Voices, an advocacy group for women living in polygamy, questioned what imminent danger existed to support removing dozens of children.
"I would like to know what all of a sudden provoked this overwhelming response," Batchelor said. "I'm concerned about these people and about law enforcement overreaching."
But Rowenna Erickson of Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group opposed to plural marriage, supported the raid. She and said she hoped it would spur law enforcement in Utah to further investigate possible child abuse in polygamous homes.
"These groups will open up and people will know the truth about them," Erickson said.
And Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General, said the raid would not affect law enforcement in Utah, where officials have been assuring polygamists their prosecutions will be focused on key crimes.
"We've told the polygamist community the crimes we will prosecute are sexual abuse, domestic violence and fraud," Murphy said.
Allegations that FLDS children were being abused were "the main motive behind the '53 raid," said Ken Driggs, an Atlanta attorney and historian who has studied fundamentalist Mormon groups and specifically the FLDS.
Such sects adhere to a 19th century version of Mormonism that includes the practice of plural marriage. The mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints publicly disavowed polygamy in 1890 and now excommunicates those who espouse or practice it.
Teachings of the FLDS do not condone child sexual abuse, he said, and the police force in the twin towns of Colorado City and Hildale have prosecuted such cases. "They would be as horrified as any one on the outside would be," he said.