I’m Chris Hansen… Take a seat… We need to discuss something…
For so long I thought myself above the depravations of /b/, the sickness and especially the Schedenfreude. However it appears that I’m just as fucked as everyone else, and I guess that it must have slowly infecting me through my many years on the internets. That two-way connection is just as useful as it is deadly.
The topic of this post however will be focused on the power of To Catch A Predator. There is a lot to discuss, but I think the best part is the fact that it is a) fucking hilarious and b) engrossing television. I almost understand the appeal of Cops now, however tCaP has a superior appeal as it has all the hilarity of hick cops and drop kicks but with a side dish of the complete shattering of lives. The stigma of being a kiddy fiddling fucking drop kick does not wash off any time soon, regardless of whether they have actually broken laws.
But watching this series, sober at least, has raised a large number of questions.
The first to consider is whether this show is a valuable service helping to inform and deter, or a pointless fear mongering show. While it might inform some parents that there are dangers online, it definatly doesn’t deter as time after time the captured men say they’ve seen the show but turn up anyway. And there is limited exploration of why the problem is happening and what they’re doing about it, and instead focuses on the fact that pedos can get to your children.
The excuses the men give also aren’t explored, but I’ll just list some of them.
- That they would talk them out of it
- That they wouldn’t go through with it
- That it was a brief lapse in judgement
- That its the only time that they’ve done it
- That its the victim’s fault
Most acknowledge however that they’re doing something morally wrong and illegal, though a few say they weren’t familiar that they’ve been committing felonies. Everyone seems to recognise that the actions they’re taking have the potential to ruin their fucking lives.
Whether it is a valid or legal technique is a subject of much debate. They avoid it being entrapment by having the Perverted Justice members be contacted, informing them straight up that they’re grossly underage and sooner or later the predator sends nude pictures of themselves (usually what they get prosecuted for). I don’t understand how they were allowed to broadcast the footage in their house, but I don’t know anything about media laws. And of course they’re being sued currently by the family members of the ADA who shot himself. But my question is whether such a thing could be developed in Australia? Might not solve problems, but it would at least earn us some lulz. However the problem might be finding a group who can type this badly (seriously PJ members must break their fucking fingers).
To break up the serious content, a list of the more amusing suspects. I assure you, I have not made these up, links will prove it.
- A midget working for the military, with a past conviction of rape (here)
- A guy caught twice, I really wish I was lying (here)
- A cop with a broken caps lock key and an arsenal that would make cOmega impressed (here)
- A prominent doctor in CA (here) and an emergency room doctor (here)
- A rabbi (here)
- Someone who does a head dive (here)
- The Texan Assistant District Attorney who later killed himself (here)
- A guy with cerebral palsy (here)
- A guy who stole a fucking van to meet with the jail bait (here)
- A guy who sounds like his balls haven’t dropped (here)
- A guy working for the DHS (who’s surprised) (here)
And some large groups of people featured throughtout the series:
- From various branches of the military, including Navy, Marines, Army Reservists, Air Force… These people are defending the country and are brought to their knees by jailbait
- People who have seen the fucking program before, yet come anyway
- More than enough teachers
- And there was a good representation from the computing industry
And back to the serious programming.
Another question that enteres my mind, between bouts of me laughing my ass off at these people, is should I feel sorry for these people? See their actions and complete idoicy makes me think no, no they had it coming. But then I think that it isn’t just the jailtime they’re facing, its the fact that the rest of their lives are fucked, though in some cases they were already pretty fucked. But we’re also not really learning anything from simply laughing at their stupid actions and then throwing them in jail. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be punished, but at least we should learn from it so that we move from a reactive to a proactive position. Apparently the current prosecution model is not working due to the number of re-offendors, and the lack of monitoring under Megan’s Law, so that we need to develop our understanding.
There are lots more questions but this is already long enough, so a final few points.
- gegan249 on youtube who has a amount of the program (here)
- Doug Stanhope discusses whether it is really a problem (here)
- Parody – About Bro Rape (here)
- If you’ve never seen Hard Candy go watch it, its a great powerplay and really makes you think about justice and the burden of evidence
- Kudos to the law enforcement officers, though sometimes heavy handed, are the community guardians of peace
More on this program later…
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