238 arrested in sweep of suspected child sex predators

[proverbialwisdom]

Source: BY VERONICA ROCHA, Los Angeles Times

June 21, 2016, 11:31 a.m.

A monk from Riverside and an Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California, officials said Monday.

Conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III” targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Among those arrested during sweeps in April and May were entertainers, community leaders, white-collar professionals and clergy members, said John Reynolds, acting special agent in charge for U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations.

“The incidence of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,” he said at a news conference.

Read more: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-87639358/

---

http://www.lapdonline.org/home/news_view/60843
http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/20160620/238-suspects-nabbed-across-southern-california-in-child-predator-sweep
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/238-arrested-california-sting-child-predators-article-1.2682918

[Skittles]

1. WHY do so many men want fo fuck children

WHY

[840high]

2. Sick creeps.

[FrodosPet]

4. Because they are self-centered assholes?

These evil individuals value their immediate gratification over the physical and emotional safety of the children they are victimizing.

Sad. Infuriating. I have known FAR too many women who were damaged by child rapists. It is, as one friend called it, soul murder.

[Craig234]

10. Why pedophilia

I'm not sure we understand pedophilia much yet as a society - the hatred for its harm - justified - overwhelms any effort to understand it, much as it long had - unjustifiably - for homosexuality, and which we're in transition on for transexuality.

My own view is that pedophiles did not choose their orientation - but unlike other orientations, it is not harmless, it's incredibly harmful.

I'm for a humane and caring policy for the pedophiles before they act against children - which treats them with justice at PREVENTION of acts and protects society.

Like drug use being underground multiplies the harm by creating massive criminal distribution enterprises, the lack of society to try to do anything constructive on pedophiles other than arrest and punish, with no help for prevention, seems to increase the harm done.

Everything I've seen said there is no 'cure' any more than there are ways to change other orientations, but we could do a lot more to help pedophiles deal with their orientation and prevent any acts.

[AllyCat]

18. Interesting. Clearly by locking people up, we are making no progress in stopping this horror.

We need to find a way to stop this. I don't know much about psychological disease, but was under the impression this is a disorder that is learned around early adulthood. If that is the case, we need to figure it out and figure out how to stop it. In the meantime, I don't see that we have any other way to stop this besides massive sting operations, public education, and locking these people up (probably institutional, not penal).

People wonder why we are now a nation of helicopter parents. From talking with parents I know, this is why.

[Craig234]

34. I don't know what 'causes' pedophilia

But it does seem more 'nurture' than 'nature' in one area, that reportedly child victims of molestation have a high chance to become molesters as adults.

But the pedophiles seem to have no choice about their attractions, and the things I've heard suggest there is no changing it (like most sexual attractions).

So that leaves looking for ways to deal with it, and what makes sense to me are human ways that respect the person afflicted with pedophila as part of finding how to protect society from them. If they act and are a threat to children, that changes to criminal justice.

[Akicita]

69. Locking these 238 sickos up surely saved many, many children from being abused.

[yardwork]

20. I disagree, and as a gay person, I find the comparison to be deeply offensive.

The comparison is grotesque.

Adults who prey on children don't have an "orientation" any more than sadistic serial killers do. These people are predators who enjoy raping and torturing other people.

Please self-delete your post.

[Blackjackdavey]

21. Science

He's right. The current thinking in the research/treatment is that attraction toward kids is a sexual orientation. It isn't and shouldn't be taken as a comparison or as analogous to other orientations.

[yardwork]

23. Science used to say that being gay was a mental disorder.

[IronLionZion]

26. Many freepers still think so

and a lot of freepers openly connect gay people to child molesters and feel that gay people should be kept away from children.

[yardwork]

28. I noticed. And I notice that gay people are often referenced in DU threads about pedophiles.

[Craig234]

32. So let's be clear again

There are ignorant people who link homosexuality and pedophilia (and other things, while we're at it).

I did not and do not do that. You reacted to seeing the phrases near each other but did not read what was actually said.

There are many 'sexual orientations', obsessions - we haven't even gotten into things like fetishes, look at the movie just out, "tickle", about a wealthy man who spent a fortune and years and commited crimes around his videotaping young men in bondage tickling.

Some are harmful, some are not. Homosexuality is no more linked to pedophilia than heterosexuality is.

So we're agreeing on the issue, and only disagreeing with your incorrectly reading the comment.

[yardwork]

37. I see exactly what you're doing.

[Craig234]

43. If only.

[LanternWaste]

35. I thin you're confusing Science with "a number of so-far untested hypotheses..."

I thin you're confusing Science with "a number of so-far untested hypotheses..."

[Blackjackdavey]

49. "a number of so-far untested hypotheses"

I think you just partly described the scientific method.

However, in this case, there has been hypothesis testing --
"a decade of research by Dr. James Cantor at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health."

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/pedophilia-the-next-sexual-rights-revolution/#TA0vbSiqtBjvGTHU.99

There is absolutely no evidence, nor is there any reason to equate or connect pedophilia to homosexuality.

I understand the defensiveness of folks who believe that "minor attraction" is the gateway to the right of sex offenders to offend or perhaps "normalizes" the behavior to the point that it is no longer illegal. Well, I'll leave that to the hand wringers but those are in no way end points I would support.

[yardwork]

38. How do you know I'm not an expert?

I think that your posts here are deeply offensive and disturbing.

[Craig234]

40. Because your comments are so offbase and poor quality and uninformed on the things you mention

Sorry, you asked. There is nothing offensive or disturbing about them, but someone will always imagine those things.

I tried to help, I tried to point out where we agree, I tried to correct the errors you made leading to being offended.

[WhiteTara]

39. As a children's advocate, I saw many pedophiles. They look normal

the thing that sets them apart is the absolute control they seek over others. Children are easier to control than adults. Most the pedophiles I saw in court were married and had families. Their own children were often the victims. They seek authoritarian positions; teachers, counselors, foster parents and other activities where children are in their control. I don't see it as a sexual preference but a control issue.

[Craig234]

42. Interesting point

I don't see those issues as exclusive to sexual attraction, though, both can be correct.

I also don't know how widespread those issues are among pedophiles, but it sounds like you spotted one important aspect.

We usually think of the predatory pedophiles going for those positions simple to get access to children, but maybe there is more to it as you say.

[Craig234]

44. Your post looks delusional to me.

I'd say your post is the vile screed, mine is far from any such thing.

[Orrex]

45. I have no doubt that you see it that way.

More's the pity.

[Craig234]

46. You're clearly crossing the line of personal insult

I won't return it in this post, however deserved.

[yardwork]

50. Orrex, thank you for speaking in support of victims of child molestation, sex trafficking, and rape.

[The2ndWheel]

36. I get why people don't want that to be the case

If it's something more foreign, something that isn't in the inner workings of living beings, it's easier to dismiss it. As you say, the idea of it is so repulsive to society, that even in prison child molesters are looked at differently.

Then you get into all the avenues of if this orientation is wrong, well what about that one? If that one isn't wrong, why is this other one wrong? With right and wrong being subjective, it gets into a murky place where who gets to draw lines, where they get to draw the lines, how, why, and all the rest, it becomes a huge issue.

With 7+ billion people on the planet, you're bound to get a lot of different variations of human beings. That's where the fight between right and wrong has always ended up. Obviously that's been the case as long as people have been around. That's just how diversity works. The scale of that diversity can only increase with ever more people.

[Haveadream]

58. Pedophilia is not an orientation

It is a crime.

Orientations are those that involve consenting adults. Orientations do not cause harm to the participants. Sexual behaviors that harm those who cannot consent are at best, serious disorders or fetishes. That is what makes them different. Expanding and redefining the established meaning to include the desire to commit crimes against children simply because they also happen to have a sexual component is an attempt to give credibility, humanity, and protection to monsters who are least deserving.

Your idea of having a humane and caring policy for pedophiles is as useless as treatments for psychopaths. They are one and the same; their methods of self indulgence at the expense of others simply varies. To date, as a variant of psychopath, they are untreatable and to indulge them with sympathy (for which there should be none) and tolerance (for which there should be zero) relieves them of responsibility for their own sick behavior and most important of all, does not work. If there does come a time in which a treatment is found that does work, it should be provided to protect communities from this form of psychopathy.

[The2ndWheel]

64. We've defined it as a crime

You're using the word consent as if the concept exists somewhere outside of the human mind. Human created laws and biology are two different things.

[Akicita]

66. Whether or not pedophiles were born that way isn't the problem. The problem is when they

actually molest children. I am sexually attracted to what I find to be good looking adult women. I am positive I cannot be cured of that.
But I could never, ever have sex with a woman without her consent. That would be sick, wrong, illegal, and a violation of her human rights and dignity. I would go without sex first.

Pedophiles should be expected to have the same mindset. Children are not capable of consenting to sex and having sex with a child violates all sorts of human rights and is very damaging to the child. So a good person who is a pedophile should seek treatment on his own. If he/she can not or will not be treated and they cannot be trusted to remain celibate with children then they must be kept away from children at all costs.

A pedophile's rights stop when they violate or threaten a child's human rights. That might not always be fair to the pedophile but it is necessary for the protection of our children.

Those pedophiles who have been convicted of actually sexually abusing a child should be locked up for a long time. It is the same as committing rape of an adult. Only worse.

[Egnever]

68. Well argued

Agree completely.

[Haveadream]

71. +1

Exactly. It is the "acting out" on those desires that puts pedophiles in a different category. It is not only fair but merciful to the innocent to stop the rights of those who harm others for their own gratification.

[Mojorabbit]

11. I don't understand it

and so many of them. It is horrifying.

[IronLionZion]

25. 5 Things I Learned Infiltrating Deep Web Child Molesters

http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-1760-5-things-i-learned-infiltrating-deep-web-child-molesters.html

Here's a very sick and disturbing article about it that might answer some of your questions as to why.

And it's people. There are plenty of female teachers who prey on children in the news with increasing frequency. The belief that men want to fuck children is exactly how many female child molesters get away with it.

and here are some disturbing thought catalogs:
http://thoughtcatalog.com/lorenzo-jensen-iii/2014/08/19-men-share-stories-of-being-raped-by-a-woman-nsfw/

http://thoughtcatalog.com/jim-goad/2015/11/10-ways-that-women-rape-men-and-boys/

http://thoughtcatalog.com/jessica-winters/2015/12/16-harrowing-accounts-from-men-who-were-raped-by-women/

[Aerows]

52. I read that article.

It absolutely scares the hell out of me that it is a $20 Billion "industry".

My God, and we waste so many damn resources locking up people for possession of pot. Can somebody adjust their damn priorities!?

[Sand Rat Expat]

60. Oh God, that article...

I've regularly read Cracked for years, and even the most disgusting "shitty jobs" or "gross things in nature" articles couldn't bug me. I remember when that article was published, I had a very, very hard time reading through it. It was just stomach-turning reading the justifications advanced as a defense for what they do.

[Blue_Adept]

27. I'm in no way excusing it

But there is very, very, little research into the why. The revulsion it creates makes it a hard area to study and figure out.

But there is the simple thing that for many of them, it's really just how they're wired. It's what they're attracted to and there are very little ways for them to get help to deal with it because of the instinctual revulsion many have. It's a bad, vicious circle that they're in.

There were some exhaustive articles about it a few years ago on the lack of research and understanding of it and that there is no active pursuit in trying to help medically either, i.e. through medication to ease that desire, etc.

It's a "jail 'em" or "kill 'em" response individuals/society/mob has over it.

[smirkymonkey]

30. Seriously!

I really can't get my mind around it. It's sick.

[Akicita]

3. “The incidence of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,”

There needs to be a much, much bigger effort made to end this scourge to humanity.

[Aerows]

54. If we spent even a tenth of what we spend

on locking up people for pot, we could prevent the destruction of innocent souls. Human trafficking, child pornography and sexual abuse are FAR more damaging than people freaking growing pot or smoking it. Hell, I'd prefer to divert funds from pursuing people making meth or crack to prioritize battling human trafficking and child abuse .

[Akicita]

55. Do people still go to jail for smoking pot?

[Aerows]

56. I know they go for possession.

I'm by no means an expert on smoking/possession of pot, but still there are plenty of people in jail for it. I don't know how much or what the circumstances are for most of them, but surely that isn't a speck of dust in a tornado compared to the horrors wrought by child molesters and human traffickers!

[Akicita]

57. I would hope that a child molester would never be let out of jail early to make room for a pot

smoker. You would think that would never happen.

[cstanleytech]

61. Barring a means to implement mind control and literally change peoples

minds and or some form of treatment I dont see it happening within the next 100 years.

[Akicita]

62. We can at least bust up the rings and put as many away as possible. And that would be a lot if we

focused on it. Keeping them away from innocent kids is first and foremost. Treating them is a nice afterthought.

[cstanleytech]

65. Certainly you can try just dont get your hopes of it really accomplishing to much

as there will always be more of them to replace the ones that are sent to prison.

[Akicita]

67. The 238 sickos they just arrested undoubtably saved many, many children from being raped and abused.

I'll toast the cops involved in the arrest for that tonight.

[bluestateguy]

5. Disgusting

Throw the book at them.

And I'm so glad that we are past the perverse era of Chris Hansen's stupid TV show.

These are serious violent crimes, not people's fucking prime time entertainment!

[proverbialwisdom]

6. On this issue, Wasserman Schultz is superlative and, frankly, an irreplaceable advocate.

GOOGLE: debbie wasserman schultz site:protect.org

BACKSTORY: http://protect.org/oped/eric-holders-dirty-secret
Read and wonder what's changed since this was written in 2011. Big data, actionable, yet ignored?

http://www.protect.org/
https://twitter.com/PROTECT
https://www.facebook.com/protectnow/

[ReRe]

7. We're a sick, sick country...

... but they sure do boast about how "Exceptional" America is. I don't find anything exceptional about our industries of death (gun manufacturing and MIC) and the sexual trafficking of our children. Every time I hear someone say we're "Exceptional" I want to slap someone or some thing,
or do this with my head:

[whathehell]

12. Did you miss the part about the Australian man involved?...This is a worldwide problem, not

a.specifically American one.

[ReRe]

13. Sure, it's a world problem.

But that damn sure doesn't erase or lessen America's guilt does it?

[whathehell]

14. -++-+++

"but that damn sure doesn't erase or lesson America's guilt, does it"?

It puts it in perspective so that singling out America as a "sick, sick country" for this crime seems inappropriate. The more fair and accurate response would be decrying a "sick, sick world".

[ReRe]

15. Bye-Bye

[whathehell]

16. Lol..

..Always good to know your own limitations...See ya.

[snooper2]

22. Most animal sex acts not against Canada's bestiality law: court

Interesting this came out just this month---


Canada's bestiality law only bans sexual acts that involve penetration, the country's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, a blow to advocacy groups who argued animals should be afforded the same protection from exploitation that humans are given.

Supreme Court judges ruled 6-1 in favor of a man from British Columbia in western Canada convicted for sexual assault and bestiality after he involved the family dog in the abuse of his two stepdaughters.

The man, known only by the initials "D.L.W." to protect his stepdaughters' identity, successfully appealed his bestiality conviction in a provincial court, arguing that according to the law, the offense of bestiality requires penetration, which his actions did not involve.

Justice Thomas Cromwell, writing for all concurring judges, said in the decision that penetration has always been required to secure bestiality convictions and courts do not have the power to rule otherwise.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-court-bestiality-idUSKCN0YV1QX

[Akicita]

63. The animal has to be penetrated before a sexual act is illegal.

So I guess what a women does in the privacy of her bedroom with a consenting German Shepherd is nobody's business.

[alp227]

8. better link

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-operation-broken-heart-arrests-20160621-snap-story.html

[montana_hazeleyes]

9. Perverts who prey on children are the lowest of the low.

[secondwind]

17. This is a big industry in the Dominican Republic, where the govt. looks the other way, and

the wealthy don't care.

When I was down there the last time, in June of 2015 [I owned a beachfront apt that I was emptying out in order to sell], a man in his early 40's was walking down the street with a little girl who was clearly not his, as he was white and she wasn't. She was dressed in a bikini, and she had the most angelic face I have ever seen. I went up to her, bent down and asked her, in Spanish, what was her name, and he responded "Cynthia", and she responded "Evalina". I knew I couldn't do anything about this, because there were no police around, etc., so I berated him loudly and told him to his face what he was: a pedophile, who should seek help. I bent down and told the beautiful little girl (no more than 3-4 years): DON'T LET THIS MAN TOUCH YOU.. NEVER!! [no one was around to listen, except the guards across the street, in my complex. they are powerless]....

[Snarkoleptic]

19. In related news, former republiClown Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert

reports to federal prison today. Maybe now they'll quit using the "Hastert Rule" as an excuse to obstruct?
Prolly not, as these are the same folks to gave Sen. Vitter a standing ovation upon returning from his prostitute/diaper scandal.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/inmate-47991-424-hastert-report-prison-40006658

Former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert must report to a federal prison in southeastern Minnesota by Wednesday afternoon to begin serving a 15-month sentence in his hush-money case, one that revealed the 74-year-old sexually abused at least four boys decades ago when he coached wrestling at a suburban Chicago high school.

When he enters the prison gates, the nation's longest-serving GOP speaker who for eight years was second in the line of succession to the presidency will be known to prison guards as Inmate No. 47991-424.

A look at what's expected to happen in the coming days and what awaits Hastert, who will become one of the highest-ranking U.S. politicians in history to do prison time:

[Aerows]

53. A fucking 15-month sentence.

Probably get out in less than a year. For destroying the souls of boys.

He shouldn't ever see the light of goddamn day again outside of a jail cell.

[zentrum]

24. I doubt the proportions have

…..in fact increased. It's that we have more ways of detecting them now.

In the old pre-internet says—they were still out there.

[getagrip_already]

29. i remember...

back in the 70's you could walk into a sex shop in times square and the booths had child porn mixed in with all the other types.

There were also obviously child prostitutes openly walking the streets.

It wasn't that long ago.

[Haveadream]

59. Yes

Better detection and unfortunately for the victims, the internet also provides a larger hunting ground.

[proverbialwisdom]

33. June is National Internet Safety Month, hence, the timing of the 3rd annual so-called sweep?

Not intended to diminish in any way the efforts detailed in the OP, but the scope is unacceptable given that "the ICACs have identified tens of thousands of suspects" in California.

http://www.protect.org/California-SB178

...California's five ICAC task forces are on the front lines of the fight against child sexual exploitation:

• Los Angeles
• San Diego
• Fresno
• San Jose
• Sacramento

Working with a national and international network of counter-child-exploitation professionals, the ICACs have identified tens of thousands of suspects in California trafficking in video and images of children (often infants and toddlers) being raped, tortured and abused.

What to do? Grier Weeks, focusing on VA, writes about the need for new expertly crafted state laws. Not sure what happened in CA (SB-178), personally.

http://thebullelephant.com/support-the-sexual-predator-notification-bill/

February 23, 2015
Guest Contributor Grier Week

I was alarmed by expansion of government surveillance before Edward Snowden was even born, back when “NSA” stood for “No Such Agency.” And I am grateful to those who fight to protect the Bill of Rights. But there is dangerous confusion going around about a sexual predator bill that is dividing advocates of privacy rights and protectors of children.

<>

In Virginia, law enforcement estimates nearly 20,000 child pornography suspects (a number not surprising given convicted offenders and known rates of sexual abuse), but authorities simply don’t have the resources to go out and arrest most of them.

They cope by triaging. Desperately outnumbered investigators pursue those cases most likely to involve hands-on sexual offenders with local child victims. In other words, they race to rescue children in danger. Before requesting an administrative subpoena in these cases, law enforcement has actually seen the crime take place. But all they have is an ip of the offender and in order to serve a warrant against the suspect they need a name and address.

This is equivalent to a police officer seeing a hit and run, he pursues the vehicle, can’t catch the car but gets the license plate number and gets an administrative subpoena for the name and address of the owner of the vehicle. In that scenario would you want DMV to tip off the owner of the car that law enforcement asked for the information?

<>

Grier Weeks is Executive Director of the National Association to Protect Children. He began his career in Washington in 1984, working on Capitol Hill promoting prison reform. During the '90s he was a marketing and communications professional, a small business owner and a political campaign manager, featured in the 1996 PBS documentary, "Vote for Me." In 2002, disgusted with partisan politics and the lack of attention given to the treatment of children, Weeks joined with Andrew Vachss and others to form PROTECT, the first national lobby dedicated exclusively to child protection.

More on California, here: http://www.cpoa.org/ADVOCACY/Electronic-Communications-Search-Warrants-SB-178

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/10/victory-california-gov-brown-signs-calecpa-requiring-police-get-warrant-accessing

[Initech]

48. Lock 'em up and throw away the key!

[Aerows]

51. What is horrifying

is that, according to one of those links, this is a $20B -Billion with a B- "industry".

There are apparently a hell of a lot of these predators out there

My GOD I can't wrap my mind around how many people doing this there would have to be to generate $20B. 80% of the traffic is dedicated to this. Stop going after the damn drug dealers, I could give two shits if somebody wants to buy pot, or hell, even heroin on the dark web, go after these destroyers of innocent souls!!!

[Akicita]

70. Serious question. Does castration cure pedophilia?

If so, it might be a way to allow otherwise uncurable convicted pedophiles who volunteered to rejoin society.