Catching a Bullet

And here we go.

So. I wrote about my opinions on the "To Catch a Predator" Dateline series here, and followed up with an opinion piece on the "Sexual Predator" boogeyman here. Take a look, if you need a refresher. And let me just repeat the disclaimer:

1. I do not support or condone anyone that sexually assaults a child.

2. I am not in any way suggesting that convicted sex offenders should not be punished for what they did.

3. I believe that extra caution and taking steps to protect children from being assaulted is a good thing.

Right.

I didn't want to rain on everyone's election parade earlier this week, so I sat on this until today. From Tuesday's NYT (bolds mine):

Prosecutor Kills Himself in Texas Raid Over Child Sex

TERRELL, Tex., Nov. 6 — A prosecutor in this North Texas town killed himself Sunday as the police tried to arrest him on charges of soliciting sex over the Internet from a person he thought was a 13-year-old boy.

The prosecutor, Louis Conradt Jr., 56, had been caught in a sting operation set up by Dateline NBC, the television news magazine, and an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice. An NBC camera crew was outside the house to film the scene when the fatal shot was fired.

Mr. Conradt had refused to open the door when police officers arrived at his house, where he lived alone, said Sgt. Snow Robertson of the Police Department in Murphy, a nearby town where officers said Mr. Conradt intended to meet the boy he thought he had communicated with.

Officers eventually forced their way into the house, only to find that Mr. Conradt had shot himself in the head with a small-caliber semi-automatic handgun, Sergeant Robertson said. Mr. Conradt died later at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

So, the usual "sting" is set up, talk "of a sexual nature" happens, the guy doesn't meet up with the child, although they claim he "planned to do so," the cops show up, camera crew in tow, and force their way into his house.

And he's blown his head off.

Allison Gollust, an NBC News spokeswoman, said the crew for Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” series was taping as the police approached the house. But Ms. Gollust added that no one from Dateline had had contact with Mr. Conradt and that there was nothing to suggest that he had seen the crew before he turned the gun on himself.

“There’s absolutely no evidence that would suggest that he was aware of us,” Ms. Gollust said. “We don’t anticipate making a change to our reporting.”

Of course, there's also no evidence to suggest that he wasn't aware of the camera crew. Call me nuts, but I think a couple guys running with cameras, a boom operator, and Chris Freakin' Hansen would be kind of hard to miss. And of course they're not going to have contact with him before hand; that would have given the game away. We could also question whether he actually planned on meeting up with the "boy" he thought he talked to, or if he was just having some really sleazy underage cybersex. He could have forgotten about the conversation immediately after emptying the kleenex box, or he could have actually been planning on going over to the "boy's" house. We don't know. We could ask Conradt, but he's, well, dead.

And, of course, why should they change their sensationalist garbage "reporting?" Why consider Conradt's family? Why consider that something this horrifying might not be in the best of taste to air? The guy ate lead, and that's television gold, baby.

Xavier Von Erck, director of operations with Perverted Justice, said Mr. Conradt had made contact in an AOL chat room with a decoy from Perverted Justice who was posing as a 13-year-old boy. Mr. Von Erck would not disclose the details of the chat, but he said, “It was sexual in nature.”

Unlike some suspects in pedophile stings that appear on “Dateline NBC,” Mr. Conradt had not actually met the person he thought was the teenager, but Sergeant Robertson said he planned to do so. Perverted Justice staff members found profiles from Mr. Conradt on AOL, Yahoo and MySpace.com, Mr. Von Erck said. He also said that he thought Mr. Conradt had tried to erase at least one online profile, on MySpace.com, a popular online social networking community used mainly by teenagers, in the moments before he shot himself.

And, of course, the Myspace bugaboo rears its head as well. Couldn't have a pedophile story without Myspace; it's the lollipop in the stranger's car of 2006.

Perverted Justice stings have led to the arrests of 260 people nationwide this year, Mr. Von Erck said.

Several residents in this town of 14,000 about 30 miles east of Dallas said they were shocked to hear the accusations of pedophilia against Mr. Conradt, who had served two terms as district attorney.

Kirby Webb, an investment advisor from Terrell, said he never wanted to hear about people taking their own lives, but he applauded law enforcement’s effort to catch online child predators in the town.

“This is a good family town,” Mr. Webb said. “We want to preserve that image.”

And if that means a scumbag or two takes his own life, well, that's just fine.

Look, I hate pedophiles. The thought of what happens to their victims sickens me. But this is exactly what I talked about in my earlier posts. Sensastionalist television, witch hunt mentality, and greed caused a man to kill himself before anything had happened. I understand that he was allegedly soliciting sex from a minor, a criminal act, but this whole thing stinks to high heaven.

If you've watched the "Predator" shows, every segment, and I mean every segment, involves Perverted Justice getting some sicko to show up at a house where they assume a minor is waiting to have sex with them. Once they're in the house, Hansen pounces. He makes them squirm on camera for a while, then lets them leave the house, where they're promptly tackled by law enforcement and carted off to prison. Where they belong. Again, just because I think this sadistic televised lynch mob programming is disgusting doesn't mean I think the sexual offenders shouldn't be punished.

So,why the change in routine? Why go to the house this time? Why break down his door? Was he a particularly tempting target and he wasn't going for the bait? Was this a new style experiment in "catching a predator?"

I guess we'll never know the whole truth, because one side of the story redecorated his walls with his brains.

There is no way that Conradt didn't know about the television show. It's been one of the most popular Dateline series in history. And if you're a pedophile, I'm sure you're keeping tabs on the lastest ways to catch your slimy ass. He knew that capture meant public humiliation on national television, and I'm sure he knew what happens to pedophiles in prison.

Boom.

So, I'm not exactly shedding tears for a pedophile. But I do find it very disturbing that pedophile hysteria and crap T.V. have caused someone to take their own life.

Last night, I saw and advert for the latest (ALL NEW!!!) "To Catch a Predator."

I wonder if they got good audio of the gunshot.

(Cross-posts and broomsticks)