Reading an article on the “Let Grow” website (a common sense blog and website about parenting without fear mongering), I was struck by the ease with which people assume the worst in others. In her Blog entry, the author Lenore compares our societies desire to find someone ‘at fault’ with the social mentality of the ‘early modern period’ (1450ad to 1750ad) witchhunts.
In that case it was that bad things DON’T just happen, someone causes them. God, your neighbor, or maybe a witch. I am struck by the mental picture of how we fear monger our children with thoughts of ‘stranger danger’, the boogey man, and all sorts of fear for those who don’t look, sound, or act like ourselves.
As an avid traveller I’ve often been asked whether I’ve encounter rudeness – toward me as a foreigner, assertive female, or American. My answer to their question is a resounding NO. People are people where ever I go. They are curious, friendly, and talkative. They don’t look like me, talk like me, or act like me but they are all GOOD PEOPLE!
So many of my friends over the years have seen hate and malice where it just doesn’t belong. I have tried, very hard, to always give others respect and the benefit of the doubt concerning things I don’t know. But it seems harder for others to do.
Is it because I am a Midwesterner? Touted as the most friendly area in the U.S.? Is it because I am a free spirit? Is it because I DO travel and am aware of cultural differences? Or is it because, like my family nickname (Stubborn Nurturer), I believe anyone can do almost anything they put their mind to?I’m not sure.
What I do know is that almost everyone, when they first hear my view of proactive police stings, believe these stings are a good thing and that everyone caught was up to no good.
Why is that?
The Lady Justice Myth 
I’m guessing they are taking that “People are good” to include Police, faulty logic, and that as such these Stings are setup to target child sexual offenders and will catch them in the “act”, slippery slope; which will make all of our children safer… red herring!!! In other words a lot of false logic that is actually counterproductive. 🙄😐
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Why? It’s pretty obvious to me that the only people who think stings like the one you and your family have experienced are a good thing are people that have had no experience with them.
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The reason many people believe that these proactive sting operations are a good idea is because they could be if they were done correctly, with maturity and with the right intentions (to truly protect children and other people).
The problem is that we have corrupt individuals working in our system, and it is so easy for them to convince everyone around them to go along with what they say, do, and want. These people are good at convincing everyone around them to believe and trust them, and many people end up ignoring the clear red flags that are there, because these corrupt individuals will just keep talking to distract everybody, and they know the right words to use. I mean, look at how much they’ve gotten away with. How many innocent people has this Carlos Rodriguez guy put behind bars, while he’s keeping the focus off of true predators who are targeting children online and grooming them for sex? This is really evil. He’s using resources, lying to people, playing stupid games, etc. all for self serving purposes. There are no children being protected from what they have done. They just keep filling their pockets, and that has been their goal all along. People who truly care about protecting children are disgusted by this. People working in our system who do things like this are a huge embarrassment to our legal system and to the public.
Another big problem we have is that there is no requirement to drug test the people working in our legal system who have so much power over everybody else’s lives. I think this is insane! I am certain that we have many people working in our legal system whose judgment and common sense is impaired by drug use, yet nothing is done about that. Everybody is just supposed to trust and and believe them because of the positions they hold. These individuals who have shown these red flags should definitely be drug tested. That would at least help us all understand if their thinking and behavior are messed up because of drug abuse or simply because they are some kind of psychopath. Either way, it’s insane that these things are just being ignored. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and those in law enforcement should all be required to pass random drug tests. It’s definitely a big problem with our system.
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Thank you for your bravery in continuing to blog about this. Here is a resource exposing the horrific corruption of WSP and Net Nanny stings: https://netnannyuncovered.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-truth-behind-wsps-net-nanny-stings.html
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Thanks for pointing that to me – is this you? Do we know who it is? I’d like to speak with them.
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We are going through a similar/identical situation where a relative was charged with solicitation of a child and it was a police sting. The charged person went to an adult site and ended up getting arrested based on internet text exchange. There was no intent/effort/desire to actually find a juvenile but the police (Virginia) charged him with multiple felonies. This is not justice. We may not be able to help you but are willing to try and/or share notes and thoughts if it might help. From reading about this type sting it is clear that hundreds or thousands of men (young, mostly) are getting caught in these types of stings nationwide and they are clearly not targeted at finding child abusers but at finding (easy) marks that can be charged as if they were. I didn’t know about the ICAC reimbursements until I found your blog and followed a thread.
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Interesting blog. You seem to have a good handle on the stings going on in Washington. Definitely reach out to us so we can work together and share information. The only way we are going to get these stopped or redirected is by working together and working on changing the laws/tactics of these operations. You can email me, samuel at my website http://www.ssrepentance.com.
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