To Catch a Predator Suicide - Writers Forum

AA · 06-26-2008, 02:17 PM

NBC settles lawsuit over manâ€™s suicide - Television - MSNBC.com

smilinghelps · 06-26-2008, 02:22 PM

I read about that AA, very interesting.

I think of it this way. If that man was not caught by NBC and he was able to "hook up" with a 13 year old boy, would it have been better?

I'm not dismissing his family's heartache but how about the families of the boys he's already molested? What about the boys who have already fallen victim to him? That would've been victimized if he hadn't been caught?

To Catch a Predator has caught dozens of internet child molestors, or would-be molestors. The idea that one was humiliated so much so that he committed suicide? He should be humiliated. He should be ashamed. You can't blame his suicide on anybody else but himself.

Sad as it is, when you do the wrong thing, bad things can happen.

seigfried007 · 06-26-2008, 02:36 PM

Have to agree with smilinghelps on this one. No one can make you kill yourself and a full grown man soliciting children isn't some teenaged victim of bullying on MySpace.

Suing for the humiliation in this instance is a lot like a thief's family suing for 'loss of income' when the idiot falls through a skylight onto a bunch of knives and dies.

alanmt · 06-26-2008, 02:36 PM

I disagree with you on this one, smiling. He had refused further contact with the lure before this happened. He had ceased the criminal conduct. The evidence shows that TCAP was orchestrating police action, performed the investigation, and was the driving force behind this whole fiasco. And they used a SWAT team? come on.

Everyone in this country is entitled to the same application of the law, whether they are the most upstanding citizen or the most loathsome. And police actions need to be performed by the police, at the exercise of their own judgment, not by or at the instigation of people in the so-called entertainment or news business.

Sam Winchester · 06-26-2008, 03:04 PM

I agree with both Alan and Smiling on this one. I don't think his demise is any great loss to the world, but I do believe that matters like this need to be addressed by members of law enforcement, not an entertainment business run by a tycoon who is only interested in ratings. Don't get me wrong: the premise behind the show is a good one, but it's still, more or less, a show about vigilantes hunting down sex offenders. When the general public start taking matters into their own hands, what becomes of the law?

seigfried007 · 06-26-2008, 04:31 PM

Good point, alan. I hadn't sen anything about that in the article and I hadn't heard about the case prior to this thread (I know, silly me with no TV).

I'm not a bg fan of any reality tv precisely becasue it dramatizes and sems to glorify and normalize the very kinds of people I don't think should be glorified and/or normalized most of the time. Pedophiles are one of those.

However, if this were a show like COPS, I might find it more reasonable than a bunch of camera guys hounding someone.

Straylight · 06-27-2008, 01:33 PM

The only good pedophile is a dead pedophile. His family should have been ordered to pay NBC for the service that the network did for the community.

I've seen how they set these things up, and there's really no doubt that the people they nail are, in fact, coming out to have sex with minors. And usually not semi-minors, like 16/17 year olds, but usually 12-14 year olds, which passes my Throw-Up test.

I applaud NBC and Dateline for this series.

edropus · 06-27-2008, 01:41 PM

I wonder if the number of guys soliciting girls online has dropped since the series started.

smilinghelps · 06-27-2008, 02:56 PM

Alan,

I didn't hear anything about the "ceased criminal activity" or the rest. I agree that the SWAT team is a bit excessive. And although I agree with the premise of the show I do often wonder how much they edit and how much they leave to interpretation.

If you're caught breaking the law do you give up your right to privacy?

I'm still of the mindset that nobody is to blame for his suicide but himself--but if there are extenuating circumstances to the broadcast of the show then it is possible that his civil rights were violated.

Writ-with-Hand · 06-27-2008, 06:21 PM

"To Catch a Predator" is all entertainment and blood lust. Well, not blood lust exactly but it's getting there.

Now, I damned for sure don't want sexual predators, especially ones that prey on and or abduct children, running around this country or any country for that matter. But on some of this stuff people in the United States are just full of it. Let a 14 year old girl kick some elderly woman into a coma and the adult U.S. will be screaming for her to be tried as an adult and locked away for most her life.

On the other hand if a 14 year old is sexually active with numerous boys and some 29 year old has sex with her, and is caught, the adult U.S. world will act like that 29 year old took away her "Leave it to Beaver" innocence.

Most 14 year olds get more ass than I do. The fuck they're "innocent." (Most of them will club you over the head too)

I'm not suggesting any adults have sex with a 14 year old but I just get a kick out of how some people make it look like 14 year olds are like 6 year olds.

Charlie_Eleanor · 06-27-2008, 08:25 PM

It is getting a bit rediculous. The media is making it impossible and putting children on a pedastol. I used to want to be a teacher, but not anymore after seing what side the media always takes; that of the child.

I understand that in many circumstances children are defenseless, but things get a little fuzier when the kids get older, as Writ was saying. A friend of mine started dating a girl when he was 24, she told him she was 18. He found out a few months later she was FOURTEEN! WTF!?

PageOfCups · 06-28-2008, 08:33 AM

Wait, am I understanding this show properly?

Men on the crew or whatever pretend to be teenage girls who are looking for grown men to shag and convince one of these grown men to go to their house (still thinking these crew members or agents or whatever are teenaged girls) and once they're there they get arrested.

Okaaay. Where's the crime? They were talking to an adult even if said adult was pretending to be someone else. It sounds to me like the crew members are the creepy internet predators.

Ilasir Maroa · 06-28-2008, 11:44 AM

lol, exactly.

But they can also get a bit over-the-top on the online communication, and so they get bagged for "intent".

The Hack · 06-28-2008, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PageOfCups

Okaaay. Where's the crime? They were talking to an adult even if said adult was pretending to be someone else. It sounds to me like the crew members are the creepy internet predators.

Many states have made it a crime to solicit sex from anyone the perpetrator believes to be minor. They go to great lengths to ensure the predator acknowledges his belief that he's talking to someone under-aged.

But you have the show pegged. If it weren't for the fact that you know these guys are pedophiles, the show is actually pretty fuuny; the guy will enter the house, encounter the TV host and, without fail, will claim he had no intention of having sexual relations. The guy will insist he had no improper intentions even when presented with a transcript of his very graphic internet chat with the "minor". Some guys even enter the home in the nude, yet claim they are only there to talk to their internet "friend".

These guys are scum, but I agree w/ alanmt about the integrity of the law enforecment aspect of this circus.

Writ-with-Hand · 06-28-2008, 12:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie_Eleanor

It is getting a bit rediculous. The media is making it impossible and putting children on a pedastol. I used to want to be a teacher, but not anymore after seing what side the media always takes; that of the child.

I understand that in many circumstances children are defenseless, but things get a little fuzier when the kids get older, as Writ was saying. A friend of mine started dating a girl when he was 24, she told him she was 18. He found out a few months later she was FOURTEEN! WTF!?

I don't think young, female, high school teachers who are at times 25 years old, should be going to jail let alone prison for having sex with one of their male 16 or 17 year old students.

I like how someone magically turns into something that is rational and capable at the dot of their 18th birthday.

Let me say this... a 19 year old shipped off to Iraq to get his legs blown off is much more psychologically scared than a 17 year old that gets a blowjob from a hot looking 25 year old teacher.