Sadly there is more than enough shit-show reporting to go around that FOX does not need to hog it all. NBC was the home for the awful series you’re spoofing.
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This reminds me of the time my husband and I were strolling along a busy street and saw a 5 or 6 year-old girl barreling down towards the intersection. We watched her for a few nervous seconds, getting closer and closer to the road and not slowing down. Finally, my husband’s reflexes kicked in and he lunged to grab the girl just as she reached the curb. We then saw her parents a few yards away with an extremely WTF look on their faces. Even after my husband smiled and gestured he just wanted to make sure the kid didn’t get clipped by a bus, they didn’t respond and kept looking at us like we were freaks.
I can see how some random stranger grabbing your kid is unnerving, but context and setting really matter: A little kid racing towards fast, heavy traffic is understandably alarming and onlookers have only a few seconds to make a decision.
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an undercover pubic restroom sex sting
This is why PROOF-READING MATTERS.
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Wow, that was literally a modern day witch trial.
The breathtaking misconduct by the DA is absolutely sickening.
The cherry on top has to be the parents that, even after the case was dismissed, still though it was true (that their children were flushed down a toilet to a sex dungeon) and actually dug up the ground looking for the evil abduction tunnels. This is the power of belief in action.
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Seriously? Detectives are STILL making arrests for sex in public bathrooms? What the hell is wrong with the cops?
#CopsBehavingBadly
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This guy’s life is over. No matter what he does, or where he goes, any search of his ID will flag back to this event. Sure he’s an innocent man, but i guarantee no one will care. His name is tied up with pedophilia somehow and that is as far as anyone will bother to look, His family will abandon him, his friends will ignore him, and people will forever look at him sideways only because he was once “involved” with this. That’s how the witch hunt works. All you have to do is have YOUR name come up and it’s all over. May as well hang yourself, guilty or innocent.
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The Kern County child abuse cases from the same era were even worse, robbing many people of their freedom for decades. The hysteria ruined the lives of the children as well as the parents, to this day the (now-adult) “victims” have serious psychological trauma that prevents them from having normal lives with their families and children.
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Twice we have found toddlers wandering around. One was in an apartment complex with nobody in sight. We took the kid and went knocking on doors and luckily found his mom on the first try. He’d slipped out following his older siblings,.
Another time there was a naked little girl running down the street having a good old time. Her mother yelled from a balcony “Grab her!” and I said “I don’t grab naked children in the street!”
Sadly public shaming hits a real low where I live. If you’re arrested, the local paper takes it upon its pearl-clutching self to publish your address. You know, just in case…
I hate the local paper. So. Damn. Much.
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JonS, even as an adult I don’t think I’ve ever heard that idea expressed so clearly: “people are good, and anyone you ask will help you, but you have to chose who you want help from.”
That idea applies in the real world too. If you want help making a decision, almost anyone you would ask can give some unbiased advice. But if you do a google search then the info that gets shoved down your throat is likely to be biased.
The Fortean Times has been covering the SRA panics since the 80’s at least. I implore anyone interested in comprehensive coverage and analysis to check out the FT archives (Or if you have a friend who subscribes, ask them to look for relevant issues – any FT nerd worth their sodium chloride would love to jump at the opportunity of mining their collection for a specific vein of data).
LO!
I told my girls the same thing. It was a big part of the lesson when I taught them how to walk to their daycare from school (just a few blocks).
And as they got older, that lesson shifted to advertising. I tell them Don’t buy something just because someone wants to sell it to you. If you want something, you seek out the best place to buy it.
Unlike grandma, who paved her driveway suddenly one day because these guys came to her door and offered to do it. For only $3,000!
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Only the innocent have anything to fear!
I encountered a lost boy about 8 years old in a museum. He was asian and spoke no english. He was was clearly distressed and confused though not crying. I attempted to locate his mother asking nearby women if he was their child. Then I told these strangers I was gonna lead him to the front desk and I did. The front desk was not far thankfully. Told them the situation and asked them to get security. Waited and then let security take over - kind of a gentle hand-off for the kid. His mom showed up at the front desk looking for him in about 3 minutes and they let her have him back.
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That’s a great approach. I would add that going into a place of business and asking for help from someone who works there is also a very good option.
When I encounter anyone in trouble I make sure to stay back, far enough away that no physical contact can be made, and ask if they need help. Any help I then offer is also done while maintaining physical space between us. That’s good to show children I’m not trying to overpower them, and to keep adult con artists pretending to need assistance from overpowering me.
The police were not looking for pedophiles in a public restroom they were looking for gay men.
There are laws against public (and public restroom) indecency but there is only one segment of the population the police feel it fair game to have these kind of crackdowns and to entrap.
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It’s an intersection of two sad but perennial truths about so-called law enforcement in the U.S.: 1) Always go for the easy arrest in order to pump up your stats, and 2) never, ever admit that you were in error, but double down–the arrestee must have done something wrong.
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I was going to say the presence of a badge only increases the fear.
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