In May 2006 Warren Steed Jeffs ( who was the president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church) from 2002 to 2007 ) was placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution on Utah state charges related to his alleged arrangement of extralegal marriages between his adult male followers and underage girls.
In May and July 2007 the State of Arizona charged him with eight additional counts—including sexual conduct with minors and incest—in two separate cases.On November 20, 2007 he was sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years to life and has begun serving his sentence at the Utah State Prison.
And now, two brothers , former members of the FLDS , offer "A guided tour of Colorado City" saying that the tour
offers visitors the chance to “learn the story of the US’s largest and most secluded polygamist colony” with a four-hour guided tour of the US towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.
Richard Holm ( "the tour operator") says the four-hour tours will give travellers the chance to ask any questions they may have about polygamy.
A passenger bus seating 29 people will ferry tourists into Arizona, where guides will discuss the origins of fundamentalist Mormonism and will give travellers the opportunity to take in the town’s famous sites, and even includes a picnic.
"Look to your right people, here is the place where that little boy was sodomized, take a picture. And to your left is a barn where a 14-year-old girl was raped repeatedly. Good place for a picnic."
The locals are already uncomfortable with outsiders, and the towns’ reputation of plural marriages and history of sexual assault charges, landed them under the scrutiny of police.
According to their spokesman :
"They ( Richard Holmand and his brother Heber- the tour operators") want to come into the community like it's a spectacle, when for us, it's like the circus is coming to town. We hope people have more of a life than to be suckered into that sort of scam," FLDA spokesman Willie Jessop told the US’s Salt Lake Tribune.
This is not the first time when people try to make money on other people's grief or tragedy ( like the time when people tried to sell the remains of the World Trade Center after 9/11). And apparently ( according to Mr Holmand ):
We have had dozens say that it is a good idea and they would love to go into the community and see what is going on
What exactly do you want to "see what is going on" ? The suffering, humiliation, social outcast of those people in the community ? Badmouthing the Mormon religion ? A"Twilight Zone" tour ?
The worst part- the guides- are former FLDS members. It's like a former Nazi concentration camp's warden leading a tour in Auschwitz.
2 comments:
Wow! It takes all kinds of people. Thanks for reporting this. I found the article interesting and well written.
Thanks Pinky,
though the article didn't have much to do with my blog , I found it quite disturbing to find out that somebody would organize a tour like this.
Post a Comment