A half century of fear and suspicion, and a world of doubt, spilled out Thursday night as the top two law enforcement officers of Arizona and Utah tried to explain to a crowded town hall meeting what they could and couldn't do about the nation's largest polygamous community.
More than 300 people, at least half of them practicing polygamists, jammed a hotel ballroom for the calm, but highly charged two-hour session presided over by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and his Utah counterpart, Mark Shurtleff.
The attorneys general called the meeting to discuss their handling of ongoing allegations of domestic violence and child abuse in the neighboring communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah - home to a breakaway religious sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Unlike the mainstream Mormon religion, which abandoned polygamy 115 years ago, the FLDS continues to practice plural marriage. The sect is dominated by one man, self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs, who has been in hiding since he was accused in two lawsuits of sexually abusing his nephew and covering up decades of molestation by fellow church leaders.
Goddard and Shurtleff sought to keep the focus of the meeting off polygamy and on the safety of children.
"We will not target any group because of their beliefs," Shurtleff said. "This is not about religion, but we certainly won't sit back and allow people to commit crimes in the name of religion."
After Shurtleff, Goddard and two of their top aides made brief remarks, 33 members of the audience were given up to two minutes apiece to make comments or ask questions.
Six of those who rose spoke in favor of polygamy. Anne Wilde, co-author of Voices in Harmony: Contemporary Women Celebrate Plural Marriage, called polygamy a "freely chosen lifestyle."
"Believe it or not, there are many happy women (in plural marriages)," she said. "And many of them are here in the audience."
But several speakers were blunt in their denunciation of polygamy, asking the attorneys general repeatedly: "Is polygamy against the law or isn't it?"
Shurtleff, a Mormon who speaks openly about his polygamous ancestors, said enforcing the law was a matter of priorities. He and Goddard both said they would concentrate on criminal cases involving forced or underage marriages, sexual abuse, and welfare and tax fraud.
"There are by some estimates 20,000 to 40,000 polygamists in our two states," Shurtleff said. "Would you have us - even if we could - arrest all of them?"
Shurtleff said he certainly would add bigamy charges, as he has in the past, to people he was prosecuting for other charges involving sexual misconduct with minors.
Goddard called the evening "a truly historic meeting" and used the occasion to apologize for a badly bungled raid that Arizona officials launched against Colorado City residents in 1953. The community then was known as Short Creek and 224 women and children were torn from their fathers and husbands when Arizona state police and National Guard troops stormed in during a ham-fisted attempt to end polygamy.
"We are here on a mission which involves, I hope, breaking down decades of hostility," he said in his brief opening remarks.
"Fifty years ago in Arizona a shameful event took place. It was a mistake and I'm here to admit that mistake."
Later, in his closing comments, Goddard repeated the apology.
"Mistakes have been made," he said. "It seems to me we need to bury those mistakes and go forward."
The meeting was held under tight security with more than a dozen police officers, sheriff's deputies and ambulance crews lining the walls. The atmosphere was tense at times, but never spilled into open hostility.
"This has been the purest form of American democracy," said moderator Cliff Donovan, a local radio talk show host. "