Yeah, We Knew About It

via CNN:

When authorities moved to search the large white temple on the polygamist compound in West Texas, about five dozen of the sect's men prayed and cried around the structure, state investigators said Thursday.

Law enforcement officials converge outside the temple walls at the YFZ ranch in West Texas.

Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran also said he had been working with a confidential informant for four years who was feeding him information about life inside the polygamist sect.

Doran declined to say whether the informant was in Texas or other sect compounds in Utah or Arizona. It wasn't until after the search had begun that Doran learned about marriage beds in the temple and the forced marriages of underage girls to older men.

"It was instrumental in teaching me the group's ways," Doran said.

But state authorities defended their decision to leave the sect alone for the four years it had encamped in West Texas.

"We are aware that this group is capable of (sexually abusing young girls)," Doran said. "But there again, this is the United States. We are going to respect them. We're not going to violate their civil rights until we get an outcry. I've said that from day one."

I’m really interested to hear where you all stand on this. On the one hand you have minors, presumably, being taken advantage of. On the other hand, if they did take action sooner, you could be looking at civil and religious liberties being violated. What say ye?