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A guilty pleasure many people have is watching Dateline's To Catch a Predator. We assume so, because it's on a lot and because there's nothing as satisfying as watching people try to weasel their way out of chatroom transcripts and out of the clutches of swamp things. So we're glad that the Asbury Park Press and Staten Island Advance are keeping tabs on the show.
The APP detailed the recent filming of a sting at a rented New Jersey home (the real estate agent is now worried the show will drive down the price), which became the biggest Northeast sting: "They came from all walks of life — a New York University student, a retired firefighter, a school bus driver, an Air Force mechanic — and ranged in age from 21 to 60." In fact:
Another took the train from New York City to the Bay Head Junction station wearing an oversized SpongeBob SquarePants jacket and, prepared with a large bottle of KY lubricant, walked the two miles to Mantoloking.And according to the website of Perverted Justice, the foundation that lures potential pedophiles, the sting's predators "came from all over New Jersey, New York and, eerily enough, Pennsylvania." The website has it italicized, so clearly, Perverted Justice was expecting more scumbags from NY and NJ.
The Advance mentioned the two Staten Island residents nabbed in the sting: 21-year-old Zigfield Rivera and 46-year-old Anthony Palumbo (the NYU student is 27 year old Malic K. Washington and a "Kazuo Akutso" of "29th Street, New York" was also on the list). But the Advance also raised mentioned the ethical questions that surrounds Dateline's involvement and the instance of one Texas prosecutor killing himself when a Dateline crew was waiting outside his home. Eep. Does that mean we can't laugh at the To Catch a Predator moment in 30 Rock?
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Love the Photoshop. Who knew Spongebob and KY go hand in hand?
SBKY - It's Perverted
Love the graphic!
While pedophiles are creepy and frightening individuals, does it give a TV station the right to attempt to lure them to do lewd acts? Should dateline start standing on W. 27th st selling baking powder as coke to underage clubbers and then bust in at Kane with a big TV crew? Is that fair/moral. Should it be/is it legal?
Is it just me or when you hear "Sweet Tea" it makes you giggle?
#3:
sounds like a party to me.
Zach,
Nobody's forcing the predators to go after kids, just like nobody's forcing your hypothetical clubbers to buy coke. What should we do, just sit back and wait until these guys have molested real children before we arrest them?
I think catching a potential predator, then ruining him in public amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. That you take some sort of glee in what may be, in many cases, a first-time potential offense (note repeated use of "potential") and the ruination not just of the perp, but his KIDS and spouse and parents as well, makes me sick. Okay, arrest the guy (even though I think a good argument for entrapment lurks somewhere here) but give him a chance to rehabilitate himself rather than ruining him forever.
Or am I being too damn incorrect?
Fakeline made a franchise out of this sort of entertainment.
What I find disturbing is they spend 59 mins humiliating these men and only 10 secs to tell parents how to protect their children from on-line predators. And, they tell you to find out how to do that by going On-line.
Don't forget the grandstanding cops and their gillie suits. don't get me started on the "organization" perverted justice and their "actors".
police should be conducting these stings...not dateline... the douchebag host should not be conducting interrogations without first informing the pedos that they have the right to an attorney...
As a former crim defense lawyer, I gotta figure the deterrent value (both specific to the individual – good bet he won’t try to lure kids online again; as well as the general deterrence to those who might otherwise might try to go after kids online) outweighs the concerns regarding the rights of the (potential) perps.
I agree with #3 and #7. Are we going to have a future like the Stephen King/Bachman book The Running Man, where we set up criminals for our TV entertainment, where these people with obvious psychological issues are exploited for ratings. These child predators have problems that public embarrasment and jailtime are NOT going to fix. Of course, this is all well beyond the scope of a nyc blog.
Burn the witches!!!
"What I find disturbing is they spend 59 mins humiliating these men"
These poor, poor pedophiles. I just feel so sorry for them. Why don't they just let these proud citizens go on and continue their fine work of raping little boys and girls?
You sound like a member of NAMBLA
recharger,
I don't think you're being incorect at all. justice does not necesarrily entail public humiliation. we should definitely be weary of sexual predators but publically ruining them should not be the method that is used to prevent crimes from happening. this sort of public shaming does not go to the root of the problem: instead of waiting for crimes to be nearly committed and then pouncing, we, as a society, should look at what is causing all different kinds of men to become sexual predators and then try and head off the problem from there.
Remember that episode where one of them walked into the house butt-naked? That was classic!
How did you know I'm a member of Nambla?
you big whiner. whatsamatter, you no likee sausaaaage!
Ian, the pedos only have a right to an attorney in a custodial interrogation or after arraignment. 'Custodial' does not include a being confronted by non-police with questions. The constitution only applies to state(sovereign) action. Usually the press cannot join a police investigation on invasion of privacy grounds. However, people are stupid and tend to sign waivers. Its the COPS 'look ma, I'm on TV'- even though they are on tv for beating up their wife - effect.
One could make an argument that the dateline crew is gathering evidence for a police investigation, but the individuals seem free to leave and are not really 'in police custody' at the precinct or in cuffs.
Kojak-
He was a piece of work.. showed up the next day at a McDonalds to meet another "kid"... then claimed he was "just getting a burger"..
Apparently, some people can't get enough humiliation..
Good times.. good times..
I'm pretty sure Perverted Justice is just referencing the post secret postcard about "to catch a predator", rather than assuming more scumbags would come out of NY and NJ. Just a thought.
Not be a dick, but Jen, somewhere your high school English teacher is crying b/c you published this. Read your first sentence again.
"A guilty pleasure many people have is watching Dateline's To Catch a Predator. "
This is, for so many reasons, possibly the most feeble sentence with which one could begin any sort of expository piece. That voice ain't passive, it's a bed-wetter.
what people fail to understand is that Pedophiles are the worst kind of criminal known to mankind. Nobody has sympathy for them. Raping Children is a whole bunch more offensive than snorting lines. Hell, Even child molesters hate themselves!!!!! Who hates themselves for doing coke? nobody.
I find these shows prurient and extremely disturbing. People get way, way too much pleasure about witnessing the downfall and humiliation of these people (mostly men). I can understand sting operations and all the rest, but why the hell are these things televised? So we can all feel better about ourselves and fantasize that our streets are safe for children?
Most pedophilia takes place at home, my friends. I look forward to the day when one of these Dateline execs gets caught with child porn on his computer.
re: entrapment
Entrapment- A law enforcement officer or government agency's inducement of a person to commit a crime, by means of fraud or undue persuasion, in an attempt to later bring a criminal prosecution against that person. (Black's Law Dictionary, Third Pocket Edition)
The fake online screennames set up by perverted justice are always contacted by the predator, never the other way around. PJ/Dateline/The police never contact anyone online out of the blue asking them to come over. That would probably be entrapment.
You can read the chat logs at
www.perverted-justice.com
Are you people serious? Cruel and unusual punishment? Public humilation is not the way? I'm sorry, but if you are a grown-ass man wearing a SpongeBob SquarePants jacket looking to slam your KYed weewee into some preteen's mouth, you deserve all the public humiliation in the world.
"I can understand sting operations and all the rest, but why the hell are these things televised?"
Think of all the pedophiles out there that contact children, obviously they do not think through the consequences of being caught, humiliated and imprisioned.
Seeing their fellow perverts on TCAP definitely make them think twice before starting inappropiate online conversations and then acting out on their sick fantasties in person. If this show ends up detering just one pedophile from vitimizing a child, then that's good enough.
wait, did hell freeze over? Gothamist readers who care about children? aren't these the same people who hate strollers on subways and brats in movies?
it can't be.
givemeabreak,
how is public humiliation solving the problem? yea, it may deter some people but it's obviously not rooting out as many perverts as we want because the show airs weekly(?). I'm not saying that we shouldn't arrest these people and be crazy protective of children from them but instead of just throwing on a camera and taping them being caught in the act, how about we try and find the root cause of these types of disorders. we want a society that doesn't produce miscreants but it seems that the powers that be are not willing to put in any preventative legwork.
One can care about the welfare of children while not enjoying their company, especially in a place where kids shouldn't be in my and many other New Yorkers' opinions. Put another way, I also care about the welfare of all animals but would never want to share living space with a cat.
The attitude people like me have about strollers has nothing whatsoever to do with children and everything to do with over-entitled parents. You know, like those who generally live in Park Slope and bitch on blogs how others don't adore your being a mom/dad as much as you think we should.
Back on topic:
While public humiliation does feel like fair game, and while I also share the opinion that anything to stop one of these perverts from the commission of his acts is probably for the betterment of society, there's something in me that finds the way the show is presented off-putting. It might just be that Chris Hansen seems like a smug little prick (and I hope he gets caught on tape in his grandmother's wig and panties or something equally humiliating).
anybody who's defending child molesters on this post is a fucking child molester themselves. Isn't that right, mm and samantha t? sickos
wattsamatta popp? U no likeee sausaaaaagee, too?
now go back and wear your sister's panty on your head.
I don't watch Dateline, but I do watch The Soup, and they highlighted recently a time when TCAP busted a guy who said "Oh, I always watch your show!" So as far as it acting as a deterrent, maybe that just works for the smarter perverts?
A fine line, but Perverted-Justice is not there to "protect children". They are there to "expose preditors". It just happens a side effect ends up protecting the children.
This most heinous crime continues because of people not wanting to talk about it. Keep it out of the public eye. No one talks about "Uncle Billy's indescretion". Keep the Dateline's coming until absolutly no one shows up. Expose every one of these bastards. Make their lives a living hell, because that's exactly what they would have done had a child been there.
I too am sorry for these freaks family, but they are the ones who brought it on, not Dateline, not Perverted Justice, and not LE. The ONLY ones responsible for their sick actions are the preditors themselves.
Wow. I can honestly say I've never been accused of being a child molestor before. Thanks, Popp, for providing me with a first.
My comment was not intended to sympathize with these guys (who I concede are among the lowest of the low) but, rather, question our own glee at witnessing them getting caught and publicly humiliated by the likes of Chris Hansen.
mm.
You said it yourself, it may deter some people. Obviously this isn't going to eradicate pedophiles from the world, but if it can dissuade even one pedo from acting out and molesting a child, isn't that worth it? I think it is.
It would be ideal if we could gather all these people and put them through a "rehabilitation" and give them "proper care" and whatever, but this just isn't possible. Who's going to pay for all that jazz? Furthermore, will they agree to it? Will it even work? I'm skeptical that people will change their ways just because they talk to a shrink once a day.
Bottom line, it's a human nature thing. Some people are always going to do things that they know they shouldn't be doing. The show is distasteful, but its concept as a deterrent is sound.
This is what makes our country great; ALL men are equal under the law including the powerful.
Obviously however, when the powerful get caught they have ALOT more to lose than the average Joe which is why they sometimes blow their own brains out splashing it all over the walls and carpeting and furniture, leaving viscuous, slimey globs of greasy brainmatter dripping slowly to the floor where it puddles into little pools of organic matter mixed together with diverse bodily fluids and blood that gradually congeals into a hardened stinky mass of craplike material that would be avoided by even the hungriest of crows desperate for a meal, ANY meal..