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:  [email protected]

Charles Rabin:  [email protected]

Julie K. Brown:  [email protected]

Monica R. Richardson:  [email protected]

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.)