The Final Tally

The final tally, counting trackbacks and comments that weren’t mine, was $65. There were a couple of trackbacks that I found on Technorati that don’t show in the comment section for some reason, but I think I caught them all. But here’s something even better: Because many of you not only participated here but also made your own contributions, the amount is really much, much higher. Go look at Scout’s blog post: 44 commenters who all donated! Even if each one gave $1, that’s another $44 over my $65. That ROCKS! And if the meme spreads, think of how much help could go her way and also to help others caught in the same kind of idiotic judicial trap, since that’s what they plan to use any funds they don’t use for her defense. Which leads me to the rest of what I want to tell you all…

Why this case has me so outraged, beyond the obvious reasons

I’ve had some people ask me via email why I feel so strongly about this case when there is injustice happening every day in our society. Why Julie Amero and not Genarlow Wilson, whose sentence is outrageous in proportion to his “crime” (and I use the term loosely). Why THIS case?

Starting with the obvious, I hate injustice.
We have one of the most elegant legal systems in the world, yet it will only work when all parties exercise good judgment, prudence, and approach the law with respect and seek the truth. There wasn’t any truth-seeking in this case at all. It was, as many commenters noted, a witchhunt in a Yankee court with no regard for getting to the heart of the matter. It was an exercise in shirked responsibility on the part of the school district, who should have stood up and defended her to the hilt instead of pandering to the girdled, constipated parents who were calling for heads to roll because Little Johnny might’ve looked at (SHUDDER) ‘bodily fluids’ on the screen.

It could just as easily have happened to someone I love.
In the past three years, I’ve disinfected machines, reinstalled operating systems and locked them down by paying out of pocket for antivirus software for: My mother, my father-in-law, my pastor, our music minister, my uncle, the Eldest, Sticks, DG, and my husband. The worst times were the end of 2004 and beginning of 2005 — the same time frame Julie Amero found herself in this mess. Can you imagine what would have happened if porn started popping up on a CHURCH computer?

What kind of world are we living in where someone who is victimized by rogues on the internet becomes the criminal? How can we stand for that? And why would we stand for ANY trial where the defendant was not permitted to defend herself properly. What if it were YOU?

We live in a world where fear threatens to overtake good judgment permanently.
This witchhunt gained traction because a group of ‘outraged parents’ called for the head of Julie Amero on a platter. Never mind that their precious Johnnies and Janes go to school in a place where violence is escalating. Never mind that the largest group of pornography consumers on the Internet today are those same precious babies age 12-17 and I assure you the Preciouses are viewing their pornography on screens that aren’t in school. Just never mind all that, because somewhere in the last couple of years a group of Cowboy Congressional Crusaders led by the likes of Ted Stevens and his ilk have cropped up and decided that Big Brother USA must watch us, and must watch our children.

Yes, it’s all about the children, isn’t it?

Hey. Just last week I mopped up a porn mess on Sticks’ computer — one of his own making, and I’m a savvy parent who monitors Internet use regularly, updates the firewall and antivirus definitions daily, and has a hardware firewall on the wired and wireless network blocking IP addresses known to be pornographic sites. You know how he got around ‘em? He just logged off our network and onto the neighbors’ open wireless connection. Simple as pie. And it cost him $125 and a pile of embarrassment when he had to admit to me that there had been no hack, no malware, no spyware, nothing other than his own choices. Poor ones, I might add, but certainly not choices that will damage him for life or endanger him (other than possibly infecting our network when he logged back on — that’s how I discovered it). 

As I explained to him firmly, calmly and without hysterics, the problem with pornography is that it leaves the wrong impression in so many ways. At 30, he’ll get that. At 17, it’s just about getting off and having something to look at, but those images are not real any more than Superman is. You’d be amazed at how many kids think it is, though. That’s really my biggest beef — pornography marginalizes relationships and leaves false impressions. We certainly don’t need to call out the Congressional Cowboys and ban all social networks because Janey and Johnnie might see breasts and genitalia and wonder if they measure up. (and oh lord, am I going to have to lock this post down to the spammers…LOL.)

You know what scared me the most about that incident? Not Sticks’ foray into viewing erotica, not the fact that he willingly opened his debit card to it, but the thought that I could go to jail because my son figured a way around our firewall. That scared the living hell out of me. Moreover, it made me FURIOUS. Why do I need Tubal-Man Stevens in my kid’s bedroom? If Sticks got hammered, it was on that point and that one alone — that he could have set up a situation which could have sent ME to jail. 

Extreme? A year ago, I would have said it was. Today I don’t think it is at all. Paranoia strikes deep. There are way too many holes in our Bill of Rights, thankyouverymuchGeorgeBushwithyourHomelandSecurityCrap, that leave me vulnerable to actual criminal charges.

Baloney, you say? Well, get a load of THIS.

Jeremy and Amber are going to directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200.   Thou shalt register as sex offenders at the ripe old ages of 17 and 16.
Via BoingBoing this story from CNET:

Two Florida teenagers, Jeremy and Amber, ages 17 and 16 respectively, boyfriend and girlfriend — snapped digital photos of themselves engaged in sexual activity. They were prosecuted under state child porn laws, and convicted.

Snip from CNET story:

Each was charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Based on the contents of his e-mail account, Jeremy was charged with an extra count of possession of child pornography.

Jeremy and Amber are caught in the ultimate catch-22. Boyfriend and girlfriend, children prosecuted as child pornographers for snapping digital photos of themselves. Catch this reasoning from the court if you can:

…the photographs which were taken were shared by the two minors who were involved in the sexual activities. Neither had a reasonable expectation that the other would not show the photos to a third party. Minors who are involved in a sexual relationship, unlike adults who may be involved in a mature committed relationship, have no reasonable expectation that their relationship will continue and that the photographs will not be shared with others intentionally or unintentionally. One motive for revealing the photos is profit.Unfortunately, the market for child pornography in this country, according to news reports, appears to be flourishing.

So if I read this right, Jeremy and/or Amber could really be child porn predators snapping lascivious photos in order to profit from them? What the HELL? What planet are we living on that two kids, impulsively shooting and sharing photos with each other via email turn into child pornographers? They’re victimizing themselves? Oh, my.

This is such a complete misapplication and unjust interpretation of the law that it defies all reality, much less logic. These two kids will forever be branded as sex offenders because they thought they were enjoying a private moment of sexual play.

When did our society turn back to the 19th century with Victorian values? When did the flower children become tight-assed prudes? Do I agree that kids should be having sex? No, of course I don’t, but I’m not stupid, either. They do and they will, just like we did when we were teenagers. I was the exception, waiting till I was 18. The rule was much younger and that was 30 years ago. It hardly warrants a criminal conviction of a couple of wide-eyed teenagers who live in a society where they document their lives, their identities, their social status with their digital cameras and MySpace profiles.

One question came to mind as I read this: How did this come to the attention of the court in the first place? Wanna bet that a tight-assed mommy or daddy called the cops? I wonder if they knew what slippery slope they would slide down.

Here’s a question for the idiot judge in this case: What do you suppose is worse? The possibility that these photos might be shared with third parties after the relationship dies, or being branded as a sex offender? How do you justify such nonsensical applications of the law as to prosecute CHILDREN under CHILD PORN laws?

The Real Predators Walk Free
The real predators are the ones sending our kids to die in Iraq, saber-rattling with Iran, tapping our phones and reading our email, getting into bed with us at night “for the children”, wasting time and court bandwidth with non-criminals in criminal applications of the law. The real pornography is the images of dead soldiers, Iraqi, American and others, blown to bits on the side of the road because of our ill-advised choice as a nation to intervene in their business. Those are the villains, not Jeremy and Amber and certainly not Julie Amero. It’s time for pushback. It’s time for someone to give the zealots a reality check and tell them to get the hell out of our bedrooms and our lives, to make peace with technology and take responsibility for their Johnnies and Janeys and stop expecting Congress to do it for them.

For the children. Really.

Technorati Tags: justice, law, injustice, Florida, Jeremy and Amber