Posted on 08/14/2007 4:27:34 AM PDT by Dudoight
The show was an instant success. It lured would-be child-sex predators to a public shaming, delivered by a handsome host. Ratings, awards and even praise from members of Congress followed. But now Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series is taking heat. And so is the police chief of the Collin County town that hosted it eight months ago. The troubles stem from the show's visit to Murphy, where more than 20 people were arrested but escaped prosecution because of evidence problems. Also a former district attorney ensnared in the sting shot himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
NBC has manipulated your ability to think like they have millions of others... the media has stripped the accused of the right of innocence until otherwise proven guilty in a court of law. So much for the “Bill of Rights” or the Constitution for that matter. Welcome to the world of Liberalism.
Go here and read half way down the page. He was not trying to help a minor.
"Perhaps the thought it was all an adult role-playing game, and he was attempting to have sex with an adult."
He talked to him on the telephone.
"We should demand a higher standard than "perhaps"."
YOU should, that's for sure.
The police went to his house with an arrest warrant. That means that someone other than Dateline or the police looked at the evidence and decided there was enough to prosecute.
I am involved in child safety, and want to encourage everyone on this thread to go look at the statistics and cases out there. We have a real problem, folks. Even if the Dateline approach is not necessarily the best one, it is focusing some much needed attention on this threat to our children.
From the comments I am reading here, it looks like several people from the NAMBLA chapters are actively posting.
These perps were clearly trying to have sexual meetings with children. If some scuzzy network wants to make a game out of it and increase their ratings, it is an indictment of our society for failure to have effective laws and enforcement. That is dramatically clear when you have video of the offense and you can’t obtain a conviction.
It would make gripping TV if at the end of the “gotcha” segment they left the accused in the room with a remote cam and a gun with a single bullet.
Maybe I don’t want to give these guys any bright ideas...
Occam’s Razor. These guys don’t think. A friend of mine does this for the SBI in another state. Catching these guys is too easy. The only bump is that you have to endure a lot of horrible images in the investigation.
One of Tech’s professor’s(Math) kids was sentenced for child porn this week. Ugly.
The only thing sick about the show is that some people enjoy watching it.
We live in a depraved society. Some view as “entertainment” a television show which shows young men getting on the internet and arranging to have sex with minors. Anyone who views this as entertainment is sick.
But, I applaud NBC for arranging these stings. These pieces of human feces need to be taken of the streets.
IF YOU CAN’T DO THE TIME, DON’T DO THE CRIME!
Why is NBC doing this instead of local police? Oh... Never mind. It’s about money.
The posting guidelines say no violence or threats of violence is permissable in posts. So suffice it to say I take exception to your comment.
One can disagree on the legitimate limits of police of TV network authority without being a member of NAMBLA.
Solicitation of a minor. Most of them mail a picture of themselves naked to the minor. Hello!! It's amazing. These guys could simply say "I thought she was lying about her age to entice me" but they never think of that. They KNOW they are guilty. That's the beauty of the whole thing. Where else on TV can you watch men throw themselves into the handcuffs? They knows they are guilty. The only people who don't lknow that are here on this thread.
Solicitation of a minor. Most of them mail a picture of themselves naked to the minor. Hello!! It's amazing. These guys could simply say "I thought she was lying about her age to entice me" but they never think of that. They KNOW they are guilty. That's the beauty of the whole thing. Where else on TV can you watch men throw themselves into the handcuffs? They knows they are guilty. The only people who don't lknow that are here on this thread.
Innocent, mentally stable people don’t shoot themselves.
Wasn't Dateline the show that was putting rocket motors in the gas tanks of pickup trucks so that when they crashed, the flareup was more impressive? Hope that you didn't get one of those refurbs. :-)
It's true that we'll never know if the dead guy was a good guy, or not. I think that his actions show that he likely wasn't....but you're right, we'll never know.
IMHO, correct way to handle this is to set up a sting, then turn the evidence over to LE. Better yet, to help LE set up their stings and just report the outcome...I'd feel like it was more on the up-and-up then. That's not "Good TV", though.
I'm not sure what disgusts me the most...the behavior of the perverts on the show, the behavior of the producers of the show, or the fact that the behavior of the producers forces *ME* to defend the actions of the perverts.
For clarity, the Texas law says:
“Earlier this year, the Texas Legislature passed and Gov. Perry signed HB 2228, which amends Section 33 of the Texas Penal Code by making it a felony offense to “knowingly solicit” a minor to meet for sex. The law, which went into effect on June 18, explicitly prohibits the predator from claiming as a defense the fact that the meeting did not occur. Offenses under the new statute range from a state jail felony to a second-degree felony, depending on the circumstances.”
I'm not convinced of his guilt or innocence. But you are making this guy out to be completely incompetent. I give him more credit than that. Being innocent and with his experience as a District Attorney, he would know what would need to be done in order to clear his name. Evidence abounds in a case like this. Just by looking at the transcript(s) of his chat(s) with someone he thought was a 13 year old boy will help reveal what he was up to before he committed suicide.
On the surface I think NBC was foolish to go to the man's home as were the police (unless they had damning evidence requiring immediate action).
How many seasons does that take? At some point you have to admit that it's only for ratings and nothing else.
I didn't know that. That fact adds to my own opinion that the guy was probably guilty. I still think that the entire situation was poorly handled, though.
Our legal system has an elaborate system of checks designed to prevent abuses of police power. This system of checks is tossed out the window by NBC.
I think the goal of preventing abuses of police power is an important consideration, and not to be tossed aside for the purposes of producing entertaining TV programs.
That said, I think finding and prosecuting child molesters is a legitimate police function. I wish the police every success in this endeavor. But they should not be permitted to throw out procedures and rules of evidence. The rules are there for a reason. Many of those rules are written in blood.
from Dirty Harry- “When I saw a naked man chasing a woman down an alley with a knife and a hard-on, I didn’t think he was collecting for the Red Cross.” Those guys knew what they were doing...
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