I know that a lawyer who is willing to fight for this would have a lot of work ahead of them, but if it helps to free thousands of men that are locked up eating tax payers money it would be worth it! I know people will read this and think that I am trying to let child abusers free. That is not what I am doing at all. Child abusers, murders, thieves, people who committed these crimes need to be in prison and I am so thankful that our laws put them in prison. But when you take a man who has said some stupid things to an undercover on the other end of a keyboard, where there was no real child involved and give them more of a punishment then people who have actually abused children, who's intent was to find a child. Who have actually had contact with children, there is a problem. A big problem. Most of these men are productive active members of the community who have the ability to talk about some disturbing things. It may be immoral but words and crazy imagination should not be illegal.
I have been speaking to a lot of people who are going through the same thing. I find it interesting that a lot of these guys have had some events that occurred in their lives that were stressful and some of these men may even have been clinically depressed. But as you will see none of this seems to matter. No alternatives are being used. You are labeled then thrown in jail, most for a really long time.
People going through this will tell you that yes according to the current law, they have broken the law. That is not the point I am trying to argue. What we need to change is the law itself. Even if the men attempted to meet with the undercover how can they say that the accused did not really think that the woman was acting? Well the law will argue that it is the intent right? Well when these men went onto the ADULT website their intent was not to find a child, there intent was to find a woman. Not until the idea was put into their minds, not until conversations were started by these woman was there any thought of seeking out a child. If you ask these men they thought that they were going to meet some freaky woman who was willing to put out, and they were going to get some! The job of law enforcement should not be to find out how many men they can make talk about immoral things, their job should be to find men who are intending to find children and molest them. With these internet stings this is NOT THE CASE.
I have read a lot of comments, blogs and articles regarding this topic and yes there are many people who say good, these men are getting what they deserve. I do not judge anyone and each is entitled to their own opinions, but before you make judgement you should really know the facts. There are many characteristics of sexual predators and child molesters and most of these men do not fit that profile. Remember you do not just wake up mid life and have an interest in children. If you read my page of characteristics of a sexual predator you would see what the signs are. This profile was created by law enforcement and they are not following their own guidelines. There would be indications, signs and more than likely other events that happened that would indicate these men as interested in children. Remember most of these men are speaking to an adult, they are already sexually driven and the "woman" brings up the idea not the man.
Floridians this message is for you! You have seen such an increase in sexual predators the past couple of years. We in Florida are known to have so many sex offenders. Do you not see why? Do you not see that they are creating these sex offenders? Do you really believe that since the internet has come about that more men became sexual offenders? Where were all these men before the internet? Do you think they were all hiding behind the bushes in parks waiting for the internet to be invented so that they could become sexual predators and offenders? NO, they were not. These cases are just a test of morality. Lets see what he will say. Will he dare talk about this? Sadly a lot of men would. Even your husband, your father, your brother, your uncle etc.. You can't honestly say that they would not, because that is who all these men are!
How many lives have to be ruined before a change is made? Really the lives of these men are ruined. Not only is it hurting them, it is hurting their friends, family members loved ones. It is preventing them from becoming a part of society again once they are finished with their crazy prison sentences. A lot of these men are young and can not have a family of their own now. They cannot find a place to live or a job. They are labeled forever as a sexual predator or sex offender. Without people knowing the truth they will not be able to get rid of those labels.
Please there has to be people out there who want to make a change. At least help give these men a chance. Why is it that their lifestyles are not considered? Why is it that their criminal background is not taken into consideration? If their lives were more closely evaluated and they were found to never have any interest in children before, if they have been a productive member of society with no arrests prior why cant the real issues at hand be dealt with? Why these years in prison and years of probation and a life time of registry? Until this has happened to a person you know, you really could not understand.
The things that I need help with and the things that I feel that need changing are:
- Fully evaluating each man separately for each case. They are lumping all of these cases into one category not giving these men a fair chance. It seems to be that you said immoral things so now you are a pedophile. How is it fair that they can say that you had intent to seek out a child, that you would really molest a child if given the chance and NOT take into consideration anything about their lives?
- The severity of the punishments. Instead of years in prison, probation and sex registry the real issues at hand, depression and anxiety etc.. should be dealt with. These men were and could be active members of society and most of them are not threat to any person or child. These men who are sent to prison have to be at least medium security and cannot participate in any kind of work program.
- Entrapment issues. Law enforcement should not be allowed to go into adult based dating sites and seek out men who are willing to talk about freaky sex. They should be concentrating on finding real predators, spending their money on the men who are looking for children to begin with. They usually hang out in areas of the internet where teens or kids would hang out. NOT in adult based chat rooms.
- Really these men are being imprisoned and are being made out to be monsters. They were prior to getting arrested active members of the community. A lot of people are not able to handle prison without changing. By putting these men in prison the state is going to start creating criminals. These men are going to become bitter and angry. They are not going to be able to be productive once they are released. GOVERNMENT officials, why are you creating criminals?
- Stop using the sensitivity of this matter in your favor! Like I said before we all want to protect our children. And we as a community want to get the threat off the street, internet. So when cases like these come along, juries are already going to come back with a guilty verdict no matter what. Why are only 1% of these cases won in court? Because juries (who I do not blame) are going to want to put any threat to children in jail no matter what. It really does not matter what the other circumstances are. Once transcripts are read that is it! They know nothing about these men, who they really are. If they are able to talk like this they must be guilty right? WRONG!
- More people need to speak out. So please if you are a lawyer who has done some research on this and want to help free these men please contact me! Let the world know the truth and help put a stop to these internet stings occurring in adult based chat rooms! THEY NEED YOU! WE NEED YOU!