This Dateline: To Catch a Predator" story reminds me of the hysteria AG
Ashcroft whipped up against John Lindh, the so-called "Johnny Taliban."
Here's a kid who does what dopey kids do: gets himself in trouble. But
in his case it wasn't drugs, a girl, or crime, instead it was his
conversion to Islam and his subsequent travel to Afghanistan to fight
with the Taliban.
Attorney General Ashcroft called him not only a member of Al Queda, but
a person involved in the planning and execution of 911. Ashcroft wanted
him put away for life and 90 years.
But the notion that the kid was involved in 911 is absurd on its face.
Ashcroft never presented any evidence of this although this didn't stop
him from repeating the charge every time he mentioned Lindh's name.
And then there was the little detail of there being no war against Al
Queda when Lindh had traveled to Afghanistan. In fact, the reasons he
gave for being there were quite believable: to prevent the Northern
Alliance from retaking Afghanistan.
In fact, Ashcroft's indictment doesn't even imply that Lindh ever fired
one shot at an American -- so why the life-and-90 years?
Honestly, how do you send a kid to jail for 20 years for being in the
wrong place at the wrong time? What kind of justice is that?
Ashcroft had an agenda. Dateline and Chris Hansen had an agenda. The
fact that lives were being destroyed clearly never entered their minds.
Worse still, in both cases the public is fooled. Ashcroft said he wanted
John Lindh behind bars for the rest of his life so he "wouldn't kill any
more Americans." The public didn't question this.
Dateline said it was doing its show to protect our children by putting
predators behind bars, the public didn't question this either.
The 130 men Dateline put behind bars and turned into registered
pedophiles were, with the exception of the two sex offenders caught in
the sting, not the problem. Not one fit the profile of a predator. Not
one would have ended up at a teenager's house under normal
circumstances. None had a record of doing this kind of thing before.
Without question, it was purely the unlikely scenario created by
Dateline that had these men rushing to the decoy house. Having
attractive 19 year old decoys flash their belly while their expert
partners engage in erotic chats with their targets, is not a scenario
that depicts the child predator scenario. It's people bating the hook
with steak instead of worms.
Imagine a sting where the cops put a bag with $100,000 in on the street
then arrested and charged with robbery anyone who picked the bag up and
didn't return it. Imagine further that the whole thing is filmed and
shown on National TV.
Well, in essence, that's what the Dateline "To Catch a Predator sting
did -- it manufactured a crime that would never had happened on its own.
It turned 130 men who had never been in trouble with the law, inte the
most despised felon there is -- a pedophile.
It caused incalculable economic harm, humiliation, and misery in the
lives of the men and their families -- most especially their children,
the very type of people Dateline would have you believe it was out to
protect.
Finally, some mention must be made of Chris Hansen's Emmy-Award winning
performance.
Transcripts in hand, Hansen was the one who met the men as they walked
into the decoy house.
Now in a typical arrest the perp is given his Miranda Rights which
causes him to think before speaking. The rationale for this law is
solid, so I won't go into it here.
But in one of the first clips, Chris Hansen is working over this kid
who's no more than 20 or so. The kid had come to the house to get it on
with the 15 year old girl who had drove him crazy with the suggestive
photos and potty mouth.
Chris Hansen is ruthless. He gets the kid to confess everything save the
assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The kid is blabbing like he's on the
couch at his shrink's. It's sick -- but what's sick is not what the kid
is saying, but the utter disregard Hansen has for the kid's humanity.
Why was this necessary? one answer -- to boost ratings.
Why not at least the bare minimum even the most heartless cop would have
told a man with a hatchet in his hand standing over 10 bloody bodies --
"Hey, kid, anything you say will be held against you. Do you want to
talk about it?"
Who's the predator ...?
ricland
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