Posted on 06/19/2007 9:35:51 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
Mom-based Internet sites that usually focus on tame topics like finding an affordable nanny or buying ballet shoes have latched on to a more serious issue: Getting rid of an admitted pedophile who recently moved to the Los Angeles area.
Users of Web sites including Peachhead, Moms Club and Booby Brigade are using a high-tech form of vigilante justice to try to exile a man named Jack McClellan, a self-proclaimed pedophile with a Web site of his own.
"I can't think of a topic that has been as heated as this," said Linda Perry, who launched www.peachheadfamilies.com in 1997. "There have been lots of incidents of people coming together, but I can't think of an example of where it was fighting an evil."
It all started a few weeks ago when Jane Thompson, a member of a Yahoo! group called Booby Brigade, discovered that her toddler son had caught McClellan's eye.
Under pressure from Mothers Against Sexual Predators in Seattle, McClellan moved from Washington state to Los Angeles and relaunched his Web site, which had been shut down in the Pacific Northwest. It lists outdoor venues for watching children and rates them, based on how many kids are present.
It was one such posting, about a group of "cuties" dancing onstage at the Lummis Day Festival in Highland Park on June 3, that caught Thompson's attention. Her son was among the youngsters described by McClellan. After getting over her initial shock and horror, Thompson sprang into action, posting a message on the Booby Brigade bulletin board that asked members to come up with ways to fight back.
"I didn't even know this person existed until 10 days ago," Thompson said. "Someone posted a link to an article, and normally it's the kind of thing I would have just deleted, but some intuitive voice said, `Check this out.' I read it and said, `Holy cow, this guy's talking about my kid!"'
In the days since she posted her appeal, members of Peachhead, Moms Club and Booby Brigade have set up a donation site, started circulating fliers with McClelland's photo at parks and other public areas, and launched a phone campaign to notify local police and schools of McClellan's presence.
Information such as the make and model of his car is being sent from moms groups in Seattle, then posted on local Web groups.
Admitted attraction
Ron Tebo, a Web master and concerned father in New York, set up www.jackmcclellan.com, a frequently updated "anti-Jack McClellan" site that includes information from online groups and from McClellan's own site.
According to Tebo's site, McClellan has been seen in recent days in Burbank and at the Santa Clarita Lanes bowling alley.
McClellan could not be reached for comment. But in an earlier interview with Fox News, he said he's attracted to girls ages 3 to 11, and gets a sexual high from being around them.
And in an interview this week with KCAL-TV (Channel 9), he said, "It really isn't just a sexual thing, it's really the whole ambiance of being around children that I enjoy."
When asked whether he is a pedophile, he said, "I didn't even consider myself one till a couple years ago. I started reading some of this stuff on the Internet and it resonated with me."
Thompson said her goal is to get legislation passed that would protect a child's image on the Internet, even if the image is not in itself illegal.
Other angry parents have suggested hiring a private investigator to follow McClellan and even resorting to violence.
Pattie Fitzgerald, the founder of Safely Ever After, a Santa Monica company that runs safety workshops for kids and parents, said anger is understandable, but that a more calculated response would do more good.
"I've been watching it on Peachhead. Last week it started to get, `Let's get the torches and burn the village down.' I understand that, but you have to do some other things to protect your kids.
"For every Jack McClellan out there, there's five others in your neighborhood that you don't know anything about," she said.
Fighting back
Instead of focusing all the attention on a publicity-hungry person like McClellan, she said, parents should teach their kids some basic preventive skills.
In her workshops, Fitzgerald teaches kids key phrases to help them respond during an encounter with what she calls a "tricky" person.
First, kids are told to always "check first" with the responsible adult in charge before going anywhere or doing anything with another person. The minute someone asks them something that's against the rules, they should "cut the conversation" and run to the safe grown-up in charge.
Telling kids not to talk to strangers is probably worse than doing nothing, she said, because "kids think a stranger is a scary man with a green face and a scary cape who looks like the boogeyman." If someone looks nice, then they aren't considered a stranger by kids, she said.
Beyond teaching such skills and keeping kids safe in all the common-sense ways, there isn't much that can be done about McClellan.
"He likes to go to the edge," said Lt. Thomas Sirkel of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Bureau. "As soon as he goes over it one iota, we will respond."
Sirkel said the department knows about McClellan and is working with other law enforcement agencies to track him. However, authorities currently don't know his whereabouts.
But even if they did, there's not much that can be done, because McClellan has never been arrested or convicted of breaking the law.
"The fact that he hasn't been caught yet is what has people's hands tied," Thompson said.
"The flagrant manner with which he goes about exposing his desires is a slap in the face to every loving parent and every law enforcement officer."
barbara.correa@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3662
Let me restate that....there is a cure for sure...busting kneecaps to start with....
Stealth kills
The guy filling in for Mike Savage last night offered a $1,000 reward for info on the location of Jack McClellan - so the last I heard was the guy was on the run. How are these moms finding him?
Don’t know how they found him.....
Fixed it for you.
}:-)4
I understand....
Then the first order of business must be to rid ourselves of the Jack McClellans - permanently.
Sure there is
...for some.
As repugnant as these pedophiles and their crimes are, there are some who get counseling and therapy during or after prison and go on to lead normal, crime-free lives. Pedophiles are actually not one of the highest repeat offenders, if you look at all crime.
Your 45 cal. or my 9mm?
Yep. And thats why states like Kansas and Washington have civil confinement statutes. I had a similar problem with my 12 year old. She opened a myspace account unbeknownst to her mother and me. With the help of the Baltimore County Police, I was able to get the password. What we saw was nauseating. The people who attempted to contact her now have their IPs logged with the Baltimore County Police. KNOW WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE DOING ONLINE!!!! Even though her age was listed on the page, a number of contact attempts were made. The whole episode has really shocked me. The detective told me that some of the contact attempts were tame compared to others she had seen. I couldnt imagine that, what I was reading made me physically ill. I agree with your kneecapping idea..
It is really disgusting how these guys bob and weave through our society knowing exactly what they can get away with in order to satisfy themselves. I will never know how a childs innocents can ever be balanced against any rights these guys think they have.....
Uh..they have some the highest repeat offences out there. Most high profile child cases, most always involve repeat offenders. And those are the ones we know about...
No, they are never cured. If they do it once, they'll do it again.
In my files are a list of freepers who defend pedophiles.
Well, it's nice to feel that way, and I'm not defending them or their crimes, but I like to find the truth when I can.
The fact is, most other crimes have higher recidivism rates than sexual crimes do. And all crime reporting is "the ones we know about", so you can't just use that uncertainty on the sexual crimes.
Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics: Recidivism Study (Sexual crimes are between 41% and 46% repeats.)
Study: Education reduces recidivism
Treatment reduces sex offender recidivism
It's odd to me that so many Christians are anxious to throw all sex offenders into the lion's den as beyond hope. There's real evidence that many sex offenders have been helped and can repent. But many who profess to know Christ will declare that this is impossible.
Sometimes the truth isn't conducive to absolute, snap judgments.
Not all sex offenders are unchangeable monsters. Not all sex offenses are equally horrible. We shouldn't just go after them all with pitchforks and torches.
I believe the study you are citing was one done several years ago in which they defined 19 year old men who dated 15 year old girls as "pedophiles". After ten years of "therapy" very few of these by then 29 year old men, reoffended with 15 year olds. They went on and pooled their data with other studies in such a way as to create the impression that all pedophiles are treatable which is just not true.
Does that list include those who defend the American principle of a trial by jury, prosecution based on evidence and a presumption of innocence unless and until guilt is proven beyond a reasonable doubt?
In other words, does your list include every FReeper who isn't in your lynch mob?
What is the list for? Why are you keeping track?
It seems that some people feel that every person who is even accused of looking sideways at a child should be hung, shot, then drawn and quartered and fed to alligators. Forget the whole evidence thing.
Have you been paying attention to the Duke "rape" case and what can happen when that mentality prevails!? Do you have any idea just how many innocent men's lives have been destroyed by false accusations of sexual crime on a child?
For your list: I'm not defending pedophiles in the least. I am defending the principles I outlined at the beginning of my reply. I believe in proving accusations at trial. I believe that some can get treatment, after serving their prison sentences, and can change.
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