CALL TO ACTION: Correct the Miami Herald
It started off as a story of FBI agents coming under attack in the Miami/Dade area with two being killed. Then there was the mention of the man being served the warrant to allegedly having CP. We all knew what was coming next: The Miami Herald’s coverage went from reporting the attack to turning this horrific crime of murdering two agents into one of “domestic terrorists”.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in this country who have been caught viewing CP, served or are serving time in prison, with their only desire now being to live their lives as law-abiding citizens. They are NOT monsters! Yes, there are some bad actors out there that will always need to be monitored, if not incarcerated, but most people caught viewing CP do not re-offend.
The Miami Herald needs to hear from us. They will not listen if we attack them but will listen to the facts if presented in a civil manner by enough people. I have contacted/commented on two of their previous articles and will be contacting the journalists/paper on their most recent article, “The monster next door: Florida law officers struggle to curb dark underworld of CP”.
Contact information:
Miami Herald
3511 NW 91 Ave.
Miami, FL 33172
1-800-843-4372
Jay Weaver: jweaver@miamiherald.com
Charles Rabin: crabin@miamiherald.com
Julie K. Brown: jbrown@miamiherald.com
Monica R. Richardson: mrichardson@miamiherald.com
For those who need some talking points, the following information comes from recent Miami Herald articles:
In the Miami Herald’s “Murders of FBI agents of SWAT in Florida CP raid”, the following information was given:
Records at the Sunrise Police Department showed two calls in the last year to Huber’s address – one for a man who was hallucinating, the other about a man screaming at a neighbor and making a throat-slashing gesture. Huber had also pulled a gun on an exterminator hired by his apartment complex. A former co-worker at a computer firm said that Huber once told him he was bipolar, and he feared Huber might shoot up the office after being fired over an angry outburst. (OUR TAKEAWAY: There is no evidence in this case that CP made Huber violent. Even though most mental disorders do NOT make people violent, it does have some bearing in this case.)
Former Broward County Sheriff Israel was quoted as saying that the public might underestimate the danger of CP suspects because their profile is not that of a hardened criminal, but it seems that as a subculture they’re known to be HEAVILY ARMED. Another law enforcement officer said: “…they’re armed to the teeth.” (OUR TAKEWAY: There is NO research to back up such statements. Ask the Miami Herald to print the research that Israel and the other LEO are using. We hear of people being arrested all the time for CP. Ask the Miami Herald how often we hear of violent attacks from these suspects.)
In the Miami Herald’s “The monster next door: Florida law officers struggle to curb dark underworld of CP”, the following information was given:
South Florida CP busts often happen under the radar, earning modest headlines. (OUR TAKEAWAY: Where is the mention of “heavily armed” or “armed to the teeth” in these under-the-radar arrests? It is not mentioned because it is not true.)
Every day, hundreds of thousands of images of children are being spread to every corner of the internet through social media platforms. CP imaging crimes are proliferating faster than the internet companies and law enforcement can keep up with them. Technology has gotten way ahead of law enforcement and now it is dangerously out of control. (OUR TAKEAWAY: The viewers of CP are not the real problem — it is the producers. Take them down, and the viewing will stop. But viewers are “low hanging fruit”; producers require more effort and working with other countries to take them down. Eighty percent of CP is produced outside the U. S. According to the New York Times in “The internet is overrun with images of child $exual abuse”, 2019, Lt. John Pizzuro a task force commander in New Jersey stated: “You got nine million people in the state of New Jersey. Based upon statistics, we can probably arrest 400,000 people.” Where are we going to find the prisons to house all of these people? It is the producers, not the viewers, that law enforcement should be going after. Think of all the manhours and money spent on finding viewers – what could have been done with those resources to take down the producers, including in conjunction with law enforcement in other countries?)
In the FAC Weekly Update 20210-02-08 Ref#135, the following information was given:
What we already know is what we have come to anticipate whenever an extremely rare tragedy occurs involving someone associated with a sex offense…things get worse. In an effort to pacify an angry public who wants swift action, lawmakers and law enforcers generally go the easy route and dump on the segment of our population that’s already reviled…no registrant in the community has ever shot a law enforcement officer…somehow the perception will be that those on the registry, in addition to sexual deviants, are also violent domestic terrorists. And fueling that belief and the further villainization of those on the registry is the MEDIA, who wants to capitalize on the low hanging fruit. (OUR TAKEAWAY: We don’t want to set aside concern for the safety of law enforcement…nobody should be killed for doing their job. We just hope that the event does not spur a series of knee-jerk-reaction legislation or policy changes. If law enforcement is encouraged to proceed under the presumption that a registrant is “armed and dangerous”, how will it impact routine address verifications? Will second amendment rights be stripped from those on the registry who have adjudication withheld? Will the law enforcement community hold us accountable for the act of one person and take their anger out on all of us? If any of this comes to fruition, the Miami Herald will have played a big part in fueling this fire for the many registrants who are leading lives as law-abiding citizens.)
People in the know are aware that people who have no connection to CP are framed by our government who place CP on innocent people’s computers who the government wants to disappear. Also, FBI allows officer to commit murder once inside lockup, then gives immunity when he will testifies against another officer. That officer is given probation and no consequences. This is what is happening with Larry Earvin murder.
Currently the ex-President of the Us is being accused of starting a insurrection by stirring up an already misinformed and upset portion of society that only needed the slightest motivation to attack the most powerful nation in the world. Word have meaning!!! When the Miami Herald purposely uses lies to stir up a segment of society that is already on the verge of violence and mayhem, Are they not putting themselves in the same position as Donald Trump when he stirred up the mob in DC.?
You can be either part of the problem or part of the solution.There actions and words will determine what there intentions are.
Below is my email to the Miami Herald. I hope it helps a little.
In reporting on the recent tragic shooting of two FBI agents, your paper placed great emphasis on the fact of a warrant being served was for possession of child pornography (CP). Broward County Sheriff Israel was quoted as saying that CP suspects are known to be “heavily armed.” This is blatantly not true, and could have been easily verified by your paper.
From my reading, the suspect had a history of concerns regarding a propensity for violence. Your articles conflate violence and even domestic terrorism with CP, leaving the impression that all possessors of CP are prone to extreme violence. This is verifiably untrue, creates unwarranted fear and is a disservice to the public. Most readers would miss the point that Mr. Huber was not a registered sex offender, which further adds to public apprehension and hysteria.
In former days the newspaper mantra was “if it bleeds, it leads.” That has now morphed to “if it sizzles, it sells.” It is not hyperbolic to say that your recent coverage represents yellow journalism at its finest.
My name
Albuquerque, NM
I’m troubled by our suggestion that we view possession as “not a real problem.” This suggestion will turn some readers off. Please avoid using it.
I get your point that production is way more serious than possession. But production is beside the point of the article, and nevertheless has already been addressed by Congress— in the feds, production gets you 15-30 years, while possession does not. And the notion that we can eliminate viewing simply by eliminating producers is not supported by the data— there is too much content out there already. Finally, remember that FAC’s member pool includes families of those who, at one time or another, took pictures of their teenaged girlfriend or other production, at one point in their lives. FAC should not throw such individuals under the bus while appearing to minimize viewing.
Miami Herald is right about something— CP possession and viewing IS a problem. We are just pointing out that the notion that such people are armed monsters— or, in Sheriff Israel’s weaselly and cowardly language— “seems that as a subculture they’re known to be” armed monsters— is unsupported by the data, and they are ALREADY subjected to disproportionate punishments.
Otherwise, thank you FAC for staying on top of this stuff, and continue to stick to your positions of not condoning lawbreaking and including everyone.
I understand what you are saying, Jacob, but it is just not working — not even putting a dent in the problem. It is as though someone poured fertilizer over the problem with the exponential growth. If it continues to grow at the current pace, it is absolutely unthinkable what the situation will look like in a few years.
Since the New York Times article in fall of 2019 revealed how bad the situation has gotten, some law enforcement agencies have beefed up their IT capability, particularly when it comes to the dark web, but it still is not doing any good.
So the question becomes: Do we continue with the same old strategies that are not working? If law enforcement could arrest every viewer/possessor in our country, there are not enough prisons to hold everyone — not even a minute fraction of these viewers/possessors.
So much of the production is overseas. If all the money this country has put into going after the viewers (possessors) had instead gone to the sources outside of our country, could more have been done? I am not saying just hand the money over to these countries, but have our people working with them, training them, forming task forces with them.
Absolutely. I just wanted to avoid us saying that viewing is not a real problem. It is a real problem, it’s just that we’re dealing with it all wrong, as you point out. And Miami Herald readers need to be educated on the difficult truth that most viewers are not “monsters,” as the Herald puts it, but ordinary people who are unarmed, haven’t committed other crimes, and won’t commit other crimes, once they’re caught and held to account. For the Miami Herald to simplify viewers as monsters runs contrary to the experience of virtually every treatment provider that has worked with them.
So viewing is a problem whose current solution is not working because we assume viewers are monsters.
Not sure where you heard CP does not get 15-30 years… I see all the time people incarcerated for LIFE on the news for possessing CP. Possession often times get as much or more time than production
Possession of child pornography in the feds gets no more than ten years, unless there are or have been additional convictions.
That is the statutory maximum. By contrast, for production the Federal MANDATORY MINIMUM for production is 15 YEARS, up to a statutory maximum of 30 years.
I’m aware of not even a single case where a Federal possession conviction resulted in more time than a Federal production conviction. Not. One.
Don’t know if this is different than CP. but I read an article last week about a man that had approached a 14 yr old girl asking for some nude pictures. The prosecution was asking for 50 yrs. in that case. There wasn’t even any CP found that the article mentioned. Just requesting it. The girl reported it. Sorry but I lost the article .Didnt pay much attention to it so I don’t have the source for the article..
An attempt is also a federal crime, and perhaps in the state. 18 USC 2251(a) says “Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in….” This means the production does not actually need to occur. The 50 years could be applicable if he had a prior conviction. The lesson is, don’t even consider it.
Veritas.
Thanks, I am not familiar with federal laws since the vast majority of offenses are adjudicated by the states where they add points for every possible reason on each image and more than 10 images results in a second degree felony making each image charged with possible to be imprisoned for 10 years . Even a class three at 5 years an image can be sentenced sequentially if the judge feels like it up to life.
18 USC Chapter 110 contains CP statutes including the ones below.
18 USC 2252(a)(4) CP Possession. Sentencing is in 2252(b)(2)
–max 10 years for possession normally.
–max 20 years If there is a child under 12.
–min 10 years, max 20 years If there is a prior conviction for CP, sexual abuse (18 USC chapter 109A), obscenity (18 USC ch 71), or transportation for illegal sex (18 USC ch 117), or any equivalent state or military convictions.
18 USC 2255(a)(1),(2),(3) CP Sales or Distribution. Sentencing is in 2252(b)(1)
–min 5 years, max 15 years
–min 15 years, max 40 years If prior convictions above apply.
Production is covered in 18 USC 2251, and penalties (2251(e)) are VERY severe–as they should be.
–min 15 years, max 30 years
–min 25 years, max 50 years if 1 prior conviction as described above
–min 35 years, max life if 2 or more prior convictions
The complicating factors with the feds are the sentencing guidelines where prosecutors can enhance the recommended sentencing range with numerous and often obscure factors.
Veritas (I hope I got it all right).
Once a person is chosen by the government to have CP placed on their computer, the plan is also in place to have police shout “Stop resisting! STOP RESISTING!!!” before they even enter a foot into the door so all the witnesses will be aware that the person “resisted arrest”. After officers assault the victim, physicians will make false medical reports to indicate that officers did not assault the victim and that the officers were instead the victim. An example is Kavita M. Babu MD at UMassMemorial who falsified a medical report on 12/30/2015 at 12:27 AM. Yes, I DO have a copy! Feel free to contact me for copies of medical report, photos of injuries, and falsified police reports!
‘Once a person is chosen by the government to have CP placed on their computer—‘
How does it work? What is the government agency that makes this selection? What is the review process that this decision goes through? What agency carries out the order to make that placement? And how can the public protect their computers from such things?
How do they get an arrest warrant before they’ve even executed a search warrant for the computer that’s supposedly infected?
How does the prosecutor prove to a jury that the possession of such material was knowing and willful, if it was placed there by the government?
If you are accusing Dr Babu of fraud, have you brought a complaint to the state medical licensing board?
Also everyone, can we use more caution when using this platform to accuse a named individual of fraud.
Jacob and others, I continue to believe that what law enforcement is doing in spending most of their efforts in catching viewers/possessors to try to reign in CP is not working.
“One study of 150 adult survivors, who indicated they had appeared in sexual abuse material as children, found 42% identified their biological or adoptive/stepfather as the primary offender. More than two-thirds of such images appear to have been made at home.”
We all agree this is sickening and horrible, but catching what is probably a small percentage of the viewers/possessors will do nothing to stop CP while these parent figures, for the most part, remain unscathed. All resource should be put on finding these individuals — to stop the problem at the source. Just my opinion.
https://phys.org/news/2021-02-parents-major-child-sexual-abuse.html
Lets not ignore another possibility. The government does not want to curb the supply because it produces more arrests of “viewers”. It’s literally the bait they allow to remain out there despite numerous available technologies that can flag and block these images. Not only do they allow it to remain out there, but for a period ending in 2014 the FBI literally operated “PlayPen”, which was one of the largest portals for this content.
Yes, and I read that at that particular time, the FBI had put out more CP online in the state of Florida than any other source had. So the FBI victimized more children than any other source at that time. The FBI came under so much public criticism that they had to take a lot of it down — hopefully all of it.
The public largely sees CP viewing as a “real” crime in and of itself. If we make a public suggestion to the contrary, we can expect pushback. I think FAC’s position is that we do not condone sex crimes of any kind.
Now, it’s true that production— often done by someone close to the victim, as you point out— is more serious. But that difference is already addressed in Federal sentencing.
No question that going after viewers hardly puts a dent in the supply of such material. But, again, the public and most prosecutors see viewing as its own crime, a hurtful form of exploitation that is less than production but nevertheless a choice that should have consequences. Are sentences too long for viewers? Probably in many cases, but that’s a different question than whether viewing is a “real” crime or not. I have worked with a number of former viewers, all of them regretted viewing and none of them felt viewing should be decriminalized (though they were shocked at their sentences and collateral consequences).
This addresses only a small piece of our feedback towards the Miami Herald, of course. The rest of it reminded me how grateful I am to our Media Committee.
So thank you for this small opportunity to influence and fine-tune the message coming out of our Media Committee.
Jacob, I agree with everything you are saying, and FAC is not trying to decriminalize it. What law enforcement is doing, though, is not really helping the situation. There are better ways at stopping the problem. This is only my personal opinion and not necessarily the opinion of others in FAC.
I am old enough to remember when viewing any type of pornography was illegal. Then came the internet and changed everything. I can remember hearing on the news that viewing adult pornography would no longer be illegal in Florida because an estimated 17,000 people were online viewing it — too many for law enforcement to keep up with.
I see the same thing happening with viewing CP — too many to catch them all, let alone find the prison space for them. But CP is too horrific to ignore, so law enforcement needs to start thinking “out of the box” — what would really help to stop the problem? — it’s not what they are doing now. Again, just my own personal opinion.
Exactly— more resources need to be devoted to the development of software that locates and zaps, less resources to locking up former viewers for excessive periods or policing those who have successfully completed treatment.
I think you are right. However, is it illegal to view pictures of murdered children? If not, why not? How about just plain old violence against children? Illegal to view a child being punched? That obviously can be a lot more harmful than plenty of sex things. That can kill a victim. Is viewing that illegal? To me, that is where the nonsense of CP fails.
And of course, why isn’t it a crime to view an adult being harmed? Viewing either hurts people or it doesn’t. It can’t just be about sex.
They are forming a task force to figure out what happened. Well, most of us can tell them, plain and simple. If you don’t do your homework, you fail the exam, and that is what happened here.
Nicely said!!!
How far the Miasma Herald has fallen.
Quoting disgraced ex-sheriff Israel, the coward from Broward, the guy who had his own officers poorly trained to handle the Parkland shooting is laughable. Hey, let’s get the guy who mismanaged a REAL crisis talk about handling another crisis. What a joke.
It seems to me they’re not the least bit interested in discussing why these entrapment operations and compliance checks are bad ideas. They would only care about the impact on us if it was an event that would interest the BLM crowd.
“Will the law enforcement community hold us accountable for the act of one person and take their anger out on all of us?”
Ha.. that was happening even before those agents got killed. If anything, that incident will only serve to amp up their already elevated hyper-vigilance and animosity towards everyone with a sex offense.
A thought that nobody seems to have expressed or thought of…
Until the laws are change to be fair and just, this type of activity will probably keep occurring as the last resort. I know it is not LE fault, since they don’t write the laws, but the thought of being dozens of years in prison and after being put on the registry or worse civil incarceration for life, has caused many people to commit suicide or go out shooting rather than be prosecuted.
The registry is so punitive that it seems to be made to induce offenders to commit crimes such as these rather than be taken alive or commit suicide before being tried, as we read about in the news constantly.
This would NEVER have happened if there was no public registry that seems to be designed to destroy a persons life forever no matter whether there are actual victims and non contact offenses. Everyone knows the draconian punishment and banishment from society that the registry causes.
Had the punishment been probation for a few years and no registry, this person would undoubtably gone peacefully and accepted a reasonable punishment, that is consistent with other crimes of severity.
An idea the I wish lawmakers would consider before blindly making the registry laws and sentencing worse and worse to win votes.
We need to be smarter than the problem. Law makers and LE need to educate themselves on the underlying issues behind CP offenses.
While they shouldn’t be swept under the rug, using the criminal justice system to prosecute and incarcerate 400,000 people in just one state alone is a ridiculous notion.
Rather, I think that the legal liability created by a first time CP offense should be redirected from the criminal system to trigger a mandated course of cognitive therapy (with no LE probing for additional charges in polygraphs or registration consequences that would hinder honest participation in the process) that can help the person understand the reasons for their inappropriate sexual interests and direct them back on a path to healthy sexual interests and behavior.
Think of how many lives we can save from being thrown in the waste-bin of society as a result, and how many potential future CP and contact offenses would be avoided.