I was recently at a pro active sting trial. I was listening to a specifically difficult testimony given by Detective Carlos “god told me to save the children” Rodriguez.
The lawyer for the defense, an outgunned but capable, compassionate man, interrogated God’s personal Detective about the statistics and numbers being thrown around willy nilly. Per this detective, only about 7% of those caught in proactive stings have child pornography on their cell phone. The lawyer on the side of light and truth was questioning how many of the cell phones from these stings are actually searched.
When asked how many phones they have searched, he had no idea. When asked how many phones they were blocked from searching, he had no idea. When asked how he came to know his statistic? I don’t exactly remember but I think he didn’t reply.
I found this piece disturbing, that police are throwing around that its normal for guilty people looking for children to have no pictures on their phones. I have heard it from many of the families I have spoken to – that their loved one also had no child porn. The truth is – they did search Jace phone. He had no kiddie porn. They did not bother to come to the house to confiscate or search his other devices. We lived in fear of them coming to the house, not because we felt in any way guilty but because of the trauma we already experienced. Little did we know the trauma we had was nothing compared to what was to come.
I also received a comment on my blog asking if having child pornography is normal for those looking for children. You know, I’m not arrogant enough to know, quote, or make up ‘actual’ statistics on these things. What I do know is if you are thinking of doing something illegal, it is controlling your life. If you are looking to purposely have sex with a child – there are obvious signs in your life.
As my sister and I often refer to the movie ‘Silence of the Lambs’, the word ‘covet’ covers what I am trying to express here. People who ‘covet’ children, in the way we are referring, have pictures of what they want. They have conversations about what they want. They have friends who feel the same. They do things that feed and comfort that need.
After jace was arrested I RAN to his computer and tablet. In a haze I searched it all. On the stand my son explained his sexual ‘turn ons’. On his PC, tablet, and phone were plenty of pictures of women – mature, even full bodied.
My point is IF police proactive stings are ensnaring a significant number of innocent, naive, often young men – as I have been saying – then wouldn’t the fact that so few detainees have child porn on their phones be a clue that maybe these stings are ineffective at ensnaring ACTUAL child predators???
The Lady Justice Myth 
‘God told me to save the Children ‘, great line to easily sway the jury. I would reckon why don’t police not only search computers and such devices, but get an IT expert to search ALL searches and history on any electronic device, erased history, by this i mean get a way to get the internet provider to give you access to the believed defendants history on the web. Take it one step further.
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In Midland, TX, out of the seven they trapped in the sex sting operation, where police posed as a female offering free sex to men on Craigslist, then later pretended to be a teen, only one of the men they caught had a history of sexually preying on minors. Realistically, there more than likely, are even less than one in seven true child predators being caught in these sex sting operations they are conducting on adult sites to supposedly catch child predators.
You’re right, most don’t have any history or any other evidence of being child predators or being interested in minors. The people conducting and supporting these sex sting operations are just too proud or afraid to admit that they are simply wrong. They’ll come up with dumb excuses like, “Well, he may just snap and do it some day.” Lol!! It’s beyond my understanding why we have people who are this clueless about things like this, working in jobs like this. Someone who is not a child predator, has no signs of being a child or any kind of predator, may someday just snap and become child predator? It’s their jobs to know and understand these things! Don’t they have trainings about these things?? At the very least, they can google this information. There is absolutely no reason why they should be that clueless about these things. It’s their jobs to know!
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There are really 2 questions that need answering. 1) Do those who look at porn, including CP, with no history of any actual contact with minors eventually escalate to physical contact? 2) Do the majority of those who have actual contact with minors also view CP? Too often in the courtroom (and with law enforcement) in my opinion, it’s emotional, not scientifically backed factual information that rules the day.
The same can be said of stings. Would the person involved in a sting who wasn’t initially looking for contact with a minor escalate to that eventually or did the sting entice the person’s response to the non existent minor? Does an arrest in a sting warrant looking at all devices when it wasn’t a CP case that was being pursued? I don’t believe it does.
I don’t believe in stings myself, but when it comes to the pursuit of sex offenders, it’s no holes barred with law enforcement trying to round them up one by one, no matter what it takes, including creating them (by luring them into breaking the law) in the first place. Why is there so little pursuit of the source of websites that have CP or offer sex with minors? It’s like only pursuing someone with an ounce of marijuana in their posession vs the drug lord creating and selling the drugs. It makes little sense to me. The FBI actually uses CP sites with real children on them to ensnare those who view them. How is that right? How does that protect those kids?
Sex offenders are treated as sub humans in this country. Instead of looking at their problems from a mental health viewpoint, it is far easier to lock them up and put them on a public registry which will further keep them from reintegrating into society successfully and leave many of them homeless, jobless and suicidal. And let’s not forget, that there is a lot of money involved so keeping arrests and prosecutions flowing is important to the “industry” this has created.
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