Hypocrite Detective Kills Self in Wake of Sexual Abuse Charges Against Him
Firstly, let us say that FAC strongly opposes sexual violence and nothing contained in this opinion piece is intended to condone the action of the a**h*** we are about to write about.
Secondly, FAC views the loss of life through any means as a tragedy, no matter the circumstances and no matter the person. Our foundation is built on affording people second chances in the belief that people do change.
That said; sometimes we simply need to point out how clearly irrelevant the sex offender registry is as a tool to prevent sexual violence and how sometimes (rather, in most cases) the offender is someone not on the list and might even be the person entrusted to protect the well being of our community (like a teacher or police officer).
Which leads us to the story of Detective David Edward Abbott of Gainesville, VA, who killed himself as authorities were on their way to arrest him for sexual abuse of two minors.
You might remember a year and a half ago, also in VA, a 17 year old was arrested for sending explicit images to his 15 year old girlfriend. To prove their case, detectives wanted to take pictures of the teen with his penis in an erect state. If you don’t remember the case, FAC posted about it (http://floridaactioncommittee.org/virginia-authorities-want-photo-of-teenage-child-porn-suspects-erect-penis/).
As it turns out; the detective in that case was none other than Detective Abbott – the very detective who thought it prudent to take the picture of the teen’s member. All the while, at the time that he was investigating this sexting case between consensual teens who were dating, Detective Abbot himself had some really ugly skeletons in his closet. Talk about a hypocrite!
The point here being is not to kick a man while he’s down. It’s that the registry and current sex offender management schemes do nothing to keep the public safe. All this effort and money applied to monitoring people who are extremely unlikely to re-offend should be actually used for education and better monitoring of ALL individuals… after all, your child’s teacher, uncle, coach or even the sex crimes detective might be a sex offender.
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Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. – Friedrich Nietzsche
many times those who are sworn to protect will look at monsters straight in the eyes and see themselves as if they were looking onto a mirror. Anybody and everybody is capable of bad things given the right situation and emotional peak. Education and prevention without constitutional trampling are the keys…not unconstitutional persecution and destruction after the facts.
Those who scream or bark the loudest have the most to hide. Seen it manyyyyy times in various settings. Amen!
And another interesting point from Reason:
“the revelations about Abbott should underscore two things: His treatment of the 17-year-old in the sexting case was unconscionable, and laws criminalizing sexting between teens are intrusive and easily abused. There actually was a truly depraved sexual monster in this case, it just wasn’t the teenager.”
There’s an interesting article in the Inquisitor that speaks to our former series on “those who scream the loudest”.
The article asks; “Why go to such lengths in response to a throwaway remark? Why be so terrified that a scheme to obtain a teen’s erect penis being called “crazy” could harm his career? Was it because David Edward Abbott needed that perception of flawlessness to prevent anyone from suspecting that he himself was a child predator?”
Now that he’s dead; maybe John Walsh or Mark Lunsford will have to provide the answers to those questions.