This was a great day for Law Enforcement. The judge denied bond for this parasites and that is a good thing. Hopefully more of this will happen and bring and end to exploitation and sexual abuse of children.
Don't get me wrong, this is a fine collection of breeding stock, and any mother would be overjoyed with their addition to the family as son... /s However, I don't like the idea here that the state was advertising "looking for a good time" or that they were doing so in adult publications. I also don't like the idea that the state was, over a period of days and weeks, talking these men into an illegal act. Too many g-d variables. Folks cosplay, roll play and indulge their fantasies online millions of times per day. Also some look mentally ill. Without an overt act aren't we getting into thought policing? From the link: Professional “chatters” posing as 13- and 14-year-old children posted profiles and ads “looking for a good time” on dating websites and sites like Backpage.com, a classified ad site that has been accused of facilitating prostitution and human trafficking, said Gwinnett County Det. David Smith. To me it just seems manipulative. I'm not keen on the FBI nurturing a young middle eastern man into terrorism by giving him a mentor and providing guns and explosives then charging for the weapons and an act that where it not for the FBI would never have happened. It's all fantasy, none of it ever happened other than in the minds of the police and the defendant. Somethings off, just my opinion. Cheers
Possibly, but I can't say it's normal for grown men to be interested in a "good time" with a 13 or 14 year old for any reason. Anyone with 2 brain cells would steer away from that offer even if it was to play a game of Uno online. In short, what I'm saying is that only people who were prone to performing those actions would be tempted even a little bit with following through. If they're guilty, hang em all high.
You're thinking of Hollywood. Do you think these guys could get off if they claim to identify as 14 year olds? If not, why? Because it would be crazy, right?
I agree in concept but the reality here bothers me, there is nothing real. Firstly, there is no victim, not even a potential victim. Secondly, no one was ever "texting" or "chatting" with a child. Thirdly, there was no crime before the police officer or "chatterer" created the illusion of one. Fourthly, the only reality involved that we know for sure, this is important, is that at inception the police officer was the only party that wanted to make it real and worked towards that end at every turn. Both the police offices and the defendants involved were operating within an illusion, a place with no landscape no physical bodies no voice, just the thoughts passed between two adults. Two adults! Many of these conversations went on for weeks according to the article and police statements. Weeks. Damn, people get married within days of meeting, one would think that weeks of talking would build attachments that could be manipulated. Also, after weeks of chatting, don't you think that intuitively one would know if they were speaking to an adult or a child? Not consciously perhaps but in some way aware. No one is that good of an actor, nor can stay on script without error for any length of time. The transcripts I'm sure will show slips, adult slips. Bottom line, I think two adults built a relationship. This is very dangerous ground. There's got to be a better way.
These grown men were also pretending to be teenagers according to the report. Also is this gem: All of the suspects were arrested at a home or a “second location,” both in Gwinnett, where they believed they would be meeting a child for sex.
...and this is part of the problem you develop later in the post. How many of these men are sub 80 IQ? How many truly understand what they are doing? I don't see any likely >100 IQs on that rogue's gallery. These govt honeytraps end up preying on mentally disabled people far more than we are ever told IME. I do not agree with taxpayer money being spent on borderline entrapment, the definition of which is being perpetually eroded by favoritism towards police and prosecutors in the name of "getting tough on crime." Moreover, we are never given the whole story with these things. In many of these honeytraps, age only comes up tangentially, and very mature pictures are used to lure people in and then it only becomes clear it is underaged when it is too late in the scam. I've never seen one with obviously underaged women at the start, but mature looking, and then they kind of weasel into the age topic. This one could have been the exception of course, but as you note, there are many variables. Personally, I don't trust -anything- that issues from the GBI until I know more, and this one is no exception. So yeah, you aren't alone in getting a fishy smell from this, and to preempt, I don't do criminal defense work. I will say this, in my meager litigation experience, police are the most facile and frequent perjurious witnesses I've seen, so who knows what the whole truth about this sting is? I hope it was ethical.
Agreed, that was the overt act necessary for the case to be made, it was what the police "chatterer" worked toward. Look the pedophile aspect here isn't what has piqued my interest. There are some sick individuals out there and in the group photo above they all look out there. My concern is that we're starting with a non crime and through psychological manipulation we are creating crime. In this country and around the world we've come to understand that some police interrogation practices created false confessions, the rate was fairly high. The mind can be manipulated, sometimes we do it without knowing we're doing it. Is an intensive weeks long intimate "conversation" open to psychological manipulation? Yes it is and we may not be conscious that we are manipulating another to do what they otherwise would not do. Cheers Ps: On the pedophile thingy, could you act like a child and talk about sexual favors to a dude online for weeks? THAT must take some kind of special kink, don't you think? I'm partly joking but it seems both parties in these "chatting" events are a little off, could that skew the motives?
The "lure" was apparently police putting backpage ads out and seeing who responded. I don't know that people could "accidentally" be trolling backpage ads for underage kids, while pretending to be underage themselves. I understand what you're saying though. Hopefully there was plenty of oversight on this sting operation. P.S. No, I'm not even going to go there. Gazing into the abyss isn't something I have any interest in. I couldn't do that job....day after day dealing with the worst people in society. It's probably one reason some cops end up on that end. Consort with monsters enough and you turn into one.
Glad they got caught. But seriously, how stupid can people be? Finally, a feasible explanation of how Trump won Georgia 51-46.
I have to agree with Labouroflove here, but I would take it even further and state that this is wrong. Logically it seems to be a form of entrapment, but for whatever reason the DAs must have figured out a way around that. This is sort of like cops going out into an upscale neighborhood with drugs and trying to entice people to buy them, and then arresting them if they do. Some, probably most, of the people would never have done the drugs if they hadn't been enticed. And the results are similar here. Part of it is there is a difference between somebody who foolishly responds to the advances of an underage girl and somebody who actively seeks them out, grooms them, etc. First of all because somebody who doesn't seek them out is unlikely to ever be in that situation unless they're a teacher, coach, or some other person who regularly works with youth.
I have to agree with the people who think there's something wrong with the way this went down, the police had to lie to get a perv to act. I understand cops can lie to suspects, but it doesn't always seem right. The upside is pervs got caught, the downside is how many of those pervs never would have done anything had they not been lead on? And like someone else said, how do these pervs not catch on?
Think about how many times this has been an actual child and not a sting. Look how many perverts were caught in this sting and it's probably just the tip of the iceberg. That's scary.
