Oftentimes, when it’s three o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep, I’ll turn on the television and search for the most mindless program I can find in the hopes that it will bore me to sleep. Last night I stumbled onto a History Channel program about ancient engineering feats (an Archimedes invention and the Lighthouse of Alexandria were featured). That worked for a few minutes, but then I started to find it fascinating, so I changed the channel. I happened upon an episode of To Catch A Predator, and holy shit was my mind blown.
That show is wrong on so many levels, I can’t even begin to dissect it. There’s the fundamental “These people are sick, what the fuck is wrong with them!” reaction, but I soon found myself considering NBC to be equally depraved. I don’t know anything about the law, but it seems like what they do is entrapment. They create profiles on social networking sites and and join chats in the hopes of finding a mark. If contact is made they go along with the IM conversation without hesitation, and eventually consent to a meeting. At that point, I thought the watchdog group members were the predators.
It gets worse. The fake children invite the men to their house, and swear that they will be home alone. Twice last night the guy arrived and stood outside asking, “Are you sure you’re alone? This isn’t fake or anything?” and the girl they hired to coax the guy inside said, “No, no! Come inside, it’s cold out!” At which point the guy would either a) Walk inside, meet the host of the show and the camera crew waiting for him, then get mauled by the policemen who are laying in wait or B) Try to flee and get mauled by the policemen who are laying in wait.
Isn’t that entrapment? Is making a fake online profile or waiting in a chat room for someone to contact you making the initial move? And isn’t inviting someone to an undercover house and lying to get them inside inducing them to commit a crime? Also, the predator is already going to get jail time and mandatory counseling, do they really need the added bonus of having their bumbling idiot reactions broadcast for millions of people to laugh at? It’s not like the Megan’s Law website that you have to actually find before you see their ugly faces, it’s right there on the television, being force-fed into your home. By the way, I found out through the NJ site that there’s a child molester who lives down the street from my mother. What a scummy neighborhood!
The show deals with what I believe to be the most despicable human act imaginable, committed by deranged scum, yet for some reason I was angered by the whole operation. Yeah, when I read articles about abused children I’m sickened, and wonder if those responsible (including the kid from my Alma Matter) can ever truly be brought to justice. I just don’t get why NBC felt the need to create a TV show expressly interested in inflicting bonus punishment on a person’s family? And who the fuck does that smug host think he is playing psychologist on-air. He’s a news correspondent!
You could argue that if NBC didn’t give the watchdog groups a forum, the predators would initiate contact elsewhere, which could lead to a much, much worse outcomes, and by airing the cringe-worthy sting operations, they’re striking fear into the hearts of potential predators. Isn’t this something that local police forces or community watchdog groups could do without the aid of a television program? Wouldn’t they might see better results by not televising their practices? The real psychos are just going to learn to adapt and use alternate methods.
What a world.
