Some may say things have always been the same. There have always been child molesters and only now the with the internet it's just more out in the open. But I plain disagree. I think there is something that takes place over great stretches of time that loosens up the potential for those with inclinations to step over the edge. Next thing you know society has changed. Here we are today.

Yesterday's Senate testimony of a 19-year old young man who detailed his 6 year odyssey as a kiddie porn star in his own bedroom is topped off with last night's arrest of the Deputy press secretaray for the Department of Homeland Security on charges of soliciting a child for sex. Sickening!

How much time for these guys? One story I heard last night was that one fellow who had been arraigned on child molestation charges but free on bail, was soliciting children on his way back home! I look at the children on my block and understand why so few of them are riding their bikes up and down the street but rather are behind gates in their own yards. It's a perverse way to grow up. Few kids even walk to school anymore. Where does this go?

Special prisons for sex offenders? Longer term incarcerations? Maybe something out of Clockwork Orange???

Susan

Child Porn Sting Nets Homeland Security Staffer
By Michael Muskal
Times Staff Writer

8:23 AM PDT, April 5, 2006

A deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security is in a Maryland jail today, awaiting extradition to Florida on child pornography charges.

Brian J. Doyle, who will be 56 on Friday, was arrested Tuesday evening at his Silver Springs, Md., home. He was charged with 23 felony counts including using a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor said to be Polk County Florida.

The minor was actually an investigator in the Polk County Sheriff's Department. The Homeland Security Department's inspector general was also involved in the case.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's office, Doyle is accused of starting a sexually explicit conversation with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl whose profile was posted on the Internet. Doyle told the detective that he worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In later chats, Doyle gave the detective his office phone number and his government-issued cell phone number so they could have telephone conversations. Doyle also used the Internet to send hard-core pornographic movie clips and used the AOL Instant Messenger chat service to have explicit sexual conversations, the sheriff's office stated in a prepared statement.

Among the photos allegedly sent was one showing Doyle wearing a Homeland Security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says "TSA." The Transportation Security Administration is part of Homeland Security.

"On many occasions, Doyle instructed the 'victim,' whom he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, to perform a sexual act while thinking of him, and described explicit and perverse sexual acts he wished to have with her, in addition to sending her numerous obscene mpg files (digital movies)," according to the sheriff's office.

He encouraged the girl to purchase a web cam so that she could send graphic images and promised her that he would likewise send nude photos of himself, according to the statement.

Doyle was charged with seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and 16 counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor.

The Homeland Security Department had no immediate comment.

"We will go after child predators, no matter where they live, to protect our innocent children," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "This investigation shows that the long arm of the law can reach anyone, anywhere, anytime, who tries to harm our youth."

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I heard about this story on the news this morning.  It just goes to show that ANYONE can harm our children.  It's disgusting.  The child molestation cases are always the ones that get me the most.

When I think of the freedom I had as a kid in the 50s, I cannot imagine what it must be to live as a child today. No one even told me not to talk to strangers. It just wasn't part of the thought process. I walked to school from kindergarten on, had a couple blocks woth of allowance on where I could ride my bike from the age of 7 or so, but always exceeded the permitted borders, hung out down by a local creek in a ravine where we'd swing across the water from a rope dangling from a tree on the other side. No adults were ever anywhere in sight but predators COULD have hung out down there had there been any.

Our moms often sent us kids on the two-block walk to the local deli. Here's a quarter. Go get a quart of milk or a loaf of bread. Keep the change! There was a short cut through the back door of a bar -- a neighborhood pub -- and we always walked right through the back and out the front. I never gave it a thought and no one ever suggested we stay out. There was a pool table and a few tables and a long bar. Not a lot of patrons in the day time but no one ever treated us as anything than that which we were -- small children walking through. 

On cold days while walking home after school, often times neighbors would invite us in for hot chocolate. I can remember at least three neighbors who did this just because they liked children. There were no kids in their homes. And it was just kindness.

Halloween there were ONLY children out on the streets going door-to-door collecting shopping bags full of candy, returning home to drop off one sack and going back with an empty bag to start all over again.

Summer days playing on the sidewalks, picking dandelions in an empty lot, flying a kite, roller skating and never never never do I recall anything suspicious in retrospect toward me or any of my little friends. Come back inside for lunch and the doors were unlocked. Of course. We'd then return to the sidewalks until supper time and go back out until the sun went down.  Each child returning to their own house calling out, "Cheerio," "Wheaties," "Sugar Corn Pops" and whatever other cereal you could list, until you reached your unlocked door.

On Saturdays one parent would drop off the lot of us and we'd spend the entire day at the movie theater. Buy a big box of milk duds or jujubes and sit there with all the other kids watching cartoons, serials, newsreels and a double feature. No adults outside of the usher who was there to shine a flashlight on anyone who was talking too loud or throwing popcorn.

We played outside all year round dragging our sleds to a nearby hill in the winter. The only time I remember adult involvement was when we'd have a block party say like on the Fourth of July or a neighborhood New Year's Eve party with adults and kids.

Two negative memories of those days under the age of 10 in Cleveland, Ohio: One was a stranger -- a little girl walking across the street from my house with another little girl. They looked over at me and one of them said, "You're conceited!" She came over and punched me in the stomach. They went on their way and I never saw them again. I learned a new word that day!

The other was the time I returned home from school and the doors WERE locked. My mother told me that a bad man had come to the door and "exposed himself." I learned another new term. The police were called, they found the traveling salesman and took him away but the doors were locked that afternoon at my house. Just like in the movies, the bad guy was always caught and I never felt anything but safe.

Those days are over. I'm glad I grew up when I did.

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

I disagree, and say things have always been the same.  Or if not the same, some of the difference in attitudes is directly attributable to the fact that information spreads so easily.

For instance, we all know that child molestation has been rife within the RC church for many years, going back to God only knows when.  My mother (50) tells a story of meeting a man with a penchant for showing his meat and two veg to her and her sisters while walking through the none more rural and quaint Nevada City, CA when they were young teens. And of course, the man from the TSA is of that generation as well, so unless the times we live in have affected his head, he can't put any blame on Britney Spears' evil influence.  And I don't suppose that the Marquis de Sade had the internet.  My feeling is that these people have always been about, but we weren't made so aware of their presence.  For example, I strongly suspect that someone you would have known growing up in your Mid-west idyll may have been being sexually molested, only you never knew.

I only wish children were not so molly-coddled and kept behind gates these days.  The freedom you describe yourself as having when you were a child is the way a childhood should be, IMO.  It would be good for building self-confidence and self-reliance. 

Yeah, well, uh... you know, that's just, like, uh...your opinion, man. I'm in disagreeance with your disagreeance.

Susan

IMO, people such as this individual have always been in society.  The difference is, I feel, that at certain points in time, there was more of a "Don't Talk" mentality.  This can be seen with the shuffling around of priests who are accused of heinous crimes, sort of appears to be saying "if we pretend it didn't happen it will go away."  Today there is more of a tolerance for people to speak out about things that have happened to them.  There are also more protections in place.  I do feel that new technology has advanced these problems, but an individual who really wants to cause harm will find his victim any way he can.

Was I too obtuse? I was clearly only borrowing from the "Dude" and Kid Rock. THEY are disagreeable. Not I!

Oh, Andrew, I know you alone will be interested but I am having a root canal next week! Yes, in spite of my frequent visits to the dentist. And you? Ever take care of those wisdom teeth?  How's the degree program coming along?  The Log Weasel? Etc.?  Don't think you can just casually drop back in without doing some catching up! 

Susan

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin

Obtuse, no.  Frankly, perhaps a bit obvious, darling. (Smilies inserted to signify the jolly good-naturedness of my banter).

I am now minus two wisdom teeth, and another big tooth 3rd from the back which would have cost the dickens to get crowned, so I just had the man yank it out.

 Root canal?  That is an arse.

Anyway, perhaps I will send you a PM or people will think that this is a tooth-fanciers convention. 

Jordan .

There must have been some primitive root canals done in days gone by (or in the UK today ) that has given them a bad reputation.  But I agree, Smeds, it's not so bad.  I just tend to leave the room during all dental procedures and allow the professionals to work away without my interference. 

Susan 

     
“Half a truth is often a great lie.”

Ben Franklin