Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Hidden Article

This posting has been hidden because it breaches the Indymedia UK (IMC UK) Editorial Guidelines.

IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Creating Criminals, from London to LA

Brian Ribbon | 16.08.2007 22:40 | London | World

Society should target offending paedophiles and stop harassing non-offenders.

The Metropolitan Police haven’t been very popular recently. They have been criticised for arresting peaceful protesters, sometimes using force against women. They have been exposed as being woefully weak against organised gangs in London, faling to prevent the murder of countless children from ethnic minorities. Most recently, they have been condemned for shooting an innocent Brazilian man at a tube station, then covering up the true sequence of events [1].

How do the Metropolitan Police deal with this? Their inability to deal with with actual criminals forces them to target those who they can scapegoat, in order to distract people from their miserable failings in fighting serious crime in London. Let’s have a look at what they’re doing….

The Met recently published a proposal to combat serious violence in London, in response to their failings when dealing with the murder of London’s children [2]. The draft consisted of over 80 pages of repetitive text, designed to merely appease a hysterical public. This proposal mentioned plans to “proactively disrupt” the lives of people “with a sexual interest in children.” If one interprets this literally, it sounds like a clear violation of harassment laws and a gross abuse of powers afforded to a supposedly trustworthy law enforcement organisation.

I e-mailed Scotland Yard in order to enquire as to whether they were planning to monitor convicted offenders, or illegally harass non-offenders who are known to be minor-attracted individuals. My e-mail was forwarded to several departments before it reached its final destination, a senior officer in the Met’s Child Abuse Investigation Command center. The result of this was, unsurprisingly, a reply which informed me that they were not prepared to discuss their (potentially illegal) plans.

The Metropolitan Police are treating non-offending paedophiles as future criminals, despite the fact that less than 1% of paedophiles abuse children. What kind of message does this send to naive non-offenders?

In Los Angeles, the sentiments are almost identical. Jack McClellan, a paedophile who owned a website to which he posted details of events which may interest female-attracted paedophiles, has been subjected to a restraining order. He has been prohibited from coming within 10 yards of any child in California. When one considers that it is virtually impossible for any person - minor-attracted or adult-attracted - to maintain a distance of 10 yards between themselves and all children, it becomes apparent that this order is not a sensible or reasonable measure designed to protect children, rather it is designed to trap and imprison someone who has expressed unpopular beliefs.

One of the lawyers involved in obtaining the order actually told one of my colleagues that they were “fortunate” to obtain such an order, which clearly exposes their true feelings about the legality of it.

Jack was arrested yesterday, due to a breach of this unlawful order. He was then arrested again after being lured into giving an interview at an area which he was not allowed to attend because of his feelings for children. The UCLA website states that his actions apparently constituted a “violation of the stay-away order” and that “UCPD officers observed him giving an interview to a television station in a UCLA parking lot at Veteran Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard.” [3] Yes, Jack is not even allowed to speak at certain locations.

The Signal reports a statement by the University Spokeswoman [4], explaining that “There were children present and he was seen on the other side of a barrier near the center. So, he was in violation of his restraining order. He is now in a holding cell.” Clearly, it would not have been possible for him to abuse children from the other side of a barrier. These people clearly hate Jack for who he is and what he thinks, not because they believe he was threatening the safety of the children.

One of the lawyers responsible for the unconstitutional order against Jack stated, “It serves no one’s interests to have him on the street,” as if being a paedophile means that Jack has no right to legally exist. People don’t even pause to consider that paedophiles should have the same right to a free existence as everyone else, with the exception of those who actually abuse children.

Jack has not violated child protection laws, despite his attraction to children. He is one of the vast majority of paedophiles who do not engage in sexual activity with children. Unfortunately, protecting children was not the important factor in this case. Profiteering lawyers - eager to promote their business - managed to obtain an order against Jack, which criminalised his legal, non-abusive, day-to-day activities, activities which would be legal for everyone else. The paranoid and bigoted people who fought against Jack have supported this order - which I feel was merely a marketing attempt by those involved - and have created a criminal. They have only themselves to blame for this, by supporting an order which could never be followed, regardless of one’s orientation.

Society expects all paedophiles to be criminals. When this stereotype is confronted by a few brave individuals, society desperately seeks to criminalise their thoughts or activities, in order to maintain the stereotype. They are prepared to make the law unequal in order to achieve this. Those involved with the law - either through public or private entities - are keen to encourage this. Lawyers can profit through marketing their business, whereas law enforcement are afforded easy scapegoats to distract from their failings.

While my primary concern here is the prevalence of illegal policing against law-abiding paedophiles, I do feel that someone should raise the frequently asked question; Is anyone genuinely thinking about the welfare of children?

[1] -  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6927140.stm
[2] -  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6363303.stm
[3] -  http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=8151
[4] -  http://www.the-signal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=50104&format=html

Brian Ribbon

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. / — /
  2. Re: / — Brian Ribbon
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech