Jackson Trial
Sorry, guys, that I didn't pipe in my two cents on this. I guess I didn't keep up with your respective comments. Been busy with summer projects, rearing children and keeping wifey happy.
An uncle/attorney of mine commented that "convicting celebrities is tough" without going any further. I don't know what he meant. I wonder, though, if I were a weak-livered juror on that case, and knew that after a conviction I was going to have to return to work or home and face the guy who held up the sign outside the courthouse which read "On behalf of all humanity, please forgive us, Michael," I might be loathe to find Jackson guilty of anything but some very odd sleeping and social habits.
In CivPro Kelly and I read a case wherein a jury had to find for a 5-star hotel defendant in a case where some 150 hotel patrons burned to death in a horrible fire. One member of the jury felt so badly about the way things turned out for the literally hundreds of grieving survivors, some of whom presumably were friends and neighbors of the jurors, that he sent an anonymous letter to the local newspaper explaining and defending why they found the way they did. In other words, Kirst explained, there is often times tremendous psychological pressure on the jurors to find a certain way. In Jackson's case, maybe the pressure was to find for the defendant even in the face of strong (or even stronger) evidence to the contrary. I hope that those juror's instincts were right, and that leads me what was almost brought up by both you guys; do pedophiles ever progress from furtively molesting children to doing it in the clear light of day? I believe the answer to that is a decided "you better believe they do".
Pedophiles operate on a compulsion to get their hands on children in order to gratify a warped sexual impulse. That compulsion can and will and must grow until he or she gets caught and thrown in jail or dies or gets help, the best help for the offender typically being either being thrown in jail or death. The reason the compulsion grows is due to the immemorial law of diminishing returns. I gets more, I needs more, I must have more.
Allow me to paint a picture of a pederast who is so driven to molest, that he cannot help but put his hands on every single child in his presence, even if he is in a room chock-full of reasonable adults while he is doing it in broad daylight.
Two years ago my mother invited a friend of hers from years back to my folks's house here in Nebraska. The woman and her husband, both of them in their early sixties, came up for a weekend visit. It happened that during the weekend of their stay two of my brother's kids were also staying with my folks. Additionally, my own children were spending a lot of time at grandma and grandpa's, playing with their cousins in the big basement, outside in the woods, etc.. Only hours after this couple's arrival, my wife or my mother, I forget now who said it to me first, commented to me quietly that "Bill" had said to my nine-year old niece (upon laying eyes on her for the first time ever) that he "just loves little girls and would love to take a walk with [you]." My mom's friend confirmed, "Oh, yes, Bill just loooves little girls!" Now my mom has always been a little, just a little, on the overprotective side, but I have to admit when I heard that it did strike me as a bit odd. But, the guy was, after all, a grandad himself and old-timers can say things like that to little girls and it may be, I say may be O.K.. Right? We can laugh when an old man smiles and flirts with a little girl when we can clearly see that the old guy could scarcely climb out of his chair , much less force himself on a kicking, biting nine-year old girl. Old people do like kids, but usually for the right reason, because kids are so alive. But this guy wasn't that kind of grandad just yet, and, apparently, though I didn't see it myself two years ago, he made comments like that all weekend whenever my niece or my daughter were around. "Would you like to take a walk?" he would ask, with my mom always at the ready, interjecting, "Time for lunch, kids!" or "You guys need to pick up your toys in the basement, let's go!"
But the weekend came and went without anything positively gross and we all put it down to bad manners while reserving the right to believe if we must one day that the guy was, in fact, a pervert.
That day did come. Two weeks ago.
My mother (a longsuffering soul) asked my brother to invite this couple to a 40th anniversary bash we were doing for my folks. They came. After the party ended and some of us were hanging around the hall cleaning up, folding chairs, tables, etc.. this guy was at the piano sitting next to my niece. I was told later that he had asked her if he could sit next to her as she was at the piano first. "Sure," she said. When she rose to leave, he took her arm and asked, "Hey, where ya goin?" "I have to go," she answered. "Well, we can play together later at your grandma's, O.K.?" I was also told later that "Bill" had also asked my wife if he could take our oldest daughter (who is disabled) for a walk. My wife answered curtly, "I'd rather she not," and then turned and walked away from him. While we were tidying up the hall, I had noticed that an aunt of mine (who was molested on a regular basis by an in-law when she was still in grade-school and whose predator was jailed some thirty years later for molesting his step-daughter) was playing with ALL of our kids, that is, all my nieces and nephews as well as all my cousins kids, in the vestibule. "Why is she watching ALL those kids?" I thought to myself, but I was busy working and didn't pay much attention.
Then later, back at my folks house, things got worse. By now, word is out to keep the kids AWAY from "Bill". I am thinking, like my dad who later changed his tune, "c'mon" nobody can be that obvious about it, right?" Wrong. My brother says that "Bill" picked up one of my brother's boys in the living room (the child is four) by the lad's feet and began to slowly lower him to the floor, clearly rubbing the kid on his crotch as he is going down! "I can see your underwear!" the man says, then grabs at them. "Hey," my nephew yells, "that's my butt!" And here is when everyone who was in the room at that moment (I wasn't there) decided that the guy is a pervert. "Bill's" wife, who so far during the trip is a soft-spoken, smiling, "Oh, he just looves little girls," suddenly blurts out sharply, "Knock it off, Bill!" Silence.
That is the scene as it was described to me by my mom, my brother and his wife (who saw it all) and, most importantly to me, my dad who also saw it all and is the last one who would believe, but who did finally believe that the guy is CLEARLY A THREAT TO CHILDREN. Additionally, my aunt, who knows a pederast when she sees one, knows how they act, they touch, they "play" and my wife (who's instincts have never, never been wrong on people) each stated that the guy is definitely a sicko.
That night we adults were all sitting around and finding it almost, but not quite, funny that every adult there that day who knew what was going on was dancing around this guy, making sure that NO kid was out of sight. There we were, wanting not to believe it, but at the same time protecting our brood. We determined that "Bill" had touched (not inappropriately, but touched, nonetheless) every single kid who was under five feet tall, had asked if he could take a walk with the most vulnerable of them (he NEVER got to) and finally engaged in inappropriate "playful" touching in the presence of three adults. We all agreed that "Bill" and his wife would NOT be invited back to the place, and, furthermore, my mother has subsequently confronted the wife on the subject of her husband's obvious sickness. And if she hadn't, one of us would have.
Depending on the strength of the compulsion, a pedophile very well may molest a child right in front of your eyes if you let him. He'll do it. He can't NOT do it.
An uncle/attorney of mine commented that "convicting celebrities is tough" without going any further. I don't know what he meant. I wonder, though, if I were a weak-livered juror on that case, and knew that after a conviction I was going to have to return to work or home and face the guy who held up the sign outside the courthouse which read "On behalf of all humanity, please forgive us, Michael," I might be loathe to find Jackson guilty of anything but some very odd sleeping and social habits.
In CivPro Kelly and I read a case wherein a jury had to find for a 5-star hotel defendant in a case where some 150 hotel patrons burned to death in a horrible fire. One member of the jury felt so badly about the way things turned out for the literally hundreds of grieving survivors, some of whom presumably were friends and neighbors of the jurors, that he sent an anonymous letter to the local newspaper explaining and defending why they found the way they did. In other words, Kirst explained, there is often times tremendous psychological pressure on the jurors to find a certain way. In Jackson's case, maybe the pressure was to find for the defendant even in the face of strong (or even stronger) evidence to the contrary. I hope that those juror's instincts were right, and that leads me what was almost brought up by both you guys; do pedophiles ever progress from furtively molesting children to doing it in the clear light of day? I believe the answer to that is a decided "you better believe they do".
Pedophiles operate on a compulsion to get their hands on children in order to gratify a warped sexual impulse. That compulsion can and will and must grow until he or she gets caught and thrown in jail or dies or gets help, the best help for the offender typically being either being thrown in jail or death. The reason the compulsion grows is due to the immemorial law of diminishing returns. I gets more, I needs more, I must have more.
Allow me to paint a picture of a pederast who is so driven to molest, that he cannot help but put his hands on every single child in his presence, even if he is in a room chock-full of reasonable adults while he is doing it in broad daylight.
Two years ago my mother invited a friend of hers from years back to my folks's house here in Nebraska. The woman and her husband, both of them in their early sixties, came up for a weekend visit. It happened that during the weekend of their stay two of my brother's kids were also staying with my folks. Additionally, my own children were spending a lot of time at grandma and grandpa's, playing with their cousins in the big basement, outside in the woods, etc.. Only hours after this couple's arrival, my wife or my mother, I forget now who said it to me first, commented to me quietly that "Bill" had said to my nine-year old niece (upon laying eyes on her for the first time ever) that he "just loves little girls and would love to take a walk with [you]." My mom's friend confirmed, "Oh, yes, Bill just loooves little girls!" Now my mom has always been a little, just a little, on the overprotective side, but I have to admit when I heard that it did strike me as a bit odd. But, the guy was, after all, a grandad himself and old-timers can say things like that to little girls and it may be, I say may be O.K.. Right? We can laugh when an old man smiles and flirts with a little girl when we can clearly see that the old guy could scarcely climb out of his chair , much less force himself on a kicking, biting nine-year old girl. Old people do like kids, but usually for the right reason, because kids are so alive. But this guy wasn't that kind of grandad just yet, and, apparently, though I didn't see it myself two years ago, he made comments like that all weekend whenever my niece or my daughter were around. "Would you like to take a walk?" he would ask, with my mom always at the ready, interjecting, "Time for lunch, kids!" or "You guys need to pick up your toys in the basement, let's go!"
But the weekend came and went without anything positively gross and we all put it down to bad manners while reserving the right to believe if we must one day that the guy was, in fact, a pervert.
That day did come. Two weeks ago.
My mother (a longsuffering soul) asked my brother to invite this couple to a 40th anniversary bash we were doing for my folks. They came. After the party ended and some of us were hanging around the hall cleaning up, folding chairs, tables, etc.. this guy was at the piano sitting next to my niece. I was told later that he had asked her if he could sit next to her as she was at the piano first. "Sure," she said. When she rose to leave, he took her arm and asked, "Hey, where ya goin?" "I have to go," she answered. "Well, we can play together later at your grandma's, O.K.?" I was also told later that "Bill" had also asked my wife if he could take our oldest daughter (who is disabled) for a walk. My wife answered curtly, "I'd rather she not," and then turned and walked away from him. While we were tidying up the hall, I had noticed that an aunt of mine (who was molested on a regular basis by an in-law when she was still in grade-school and whose predator was jailed some thirty years later for molesting his step-daughter) was playing with ALL of our kids, that is, all my nieces and nephews as well as all my cousins kids, in the vestibule. "Why is she watching ALL those kids?" I thought to myself, but I was busy working and didn't pay much attention.
Then later, back at my folks house, things got worse. By now, word is out to keep the kids AWAY from "Bill". I am thinking, like my dad who later changed his tune, "c'mon" nobody can be that obvious about it, right?" Wrong. My brother says that "Bill" picked up one of my brother's boys in the living room (the child is four) by the lad's feet and began to slowly lower him to the floor, clearly rubbing the kid on his crotch as he is going down! "I can see your underwear!" the man says, then grabs at them. "Hey," my nephew yells, "that's my butt!" And here is when everyone who was in the room at that moment (I wasn't there) decided that the guy is a pervert. "Bill's" wife, who so far during the trip is a soft-spoken, smiling, "Oh, he just looves little girls," suddenly blurts out sharply, "Knock it off, Bill!" Silence.
That is the scene as it was described to me by my mom, my brother and his wife (who saw it all) and, most importantly to me, my dad who also saw it all and is the last one who would believe, but who did finally believe that the guy is CLEARLY A THREAT TO CHILDREN. Additionally, my aunt, who knows a pederast when she sees one, knows how they act, they touch, they "play" and my wife (who's instincts have never, never been wrong on people) each stated that the guy is definitely a sicko.
That night we adults were all sitting around and finding it almost, but not quite, funny that every adult there that day who knew what was going on was dancing around this guy, making sure that NO kid was out of sight. There we were, wanting not to believe it, but at the same time protecting our brood. We determined that "Bill" had touched (not inappropriately, but touched, nonetheless) every single kid who was under five feet tall, had asked if he could take a walk with the most vulnerable of them (he NEVER got to) and finally engaged in inappropriate "playful" touching in the presence of three adults. We all agreed that "Bill" and his wife would NOT be invited back to the place, and, furthermore, my mother has subsequently confronted the wife on the subject of her husband's obvious sickness. And if she hadn't, one of us would have.
Depending on the strength of the compulsion, a pedophile very well may molest a child right in front of your eyes if you let him. He'll do it. He can't NOT do it.
1 Comments:
That's a very interesting case study. In all the psychology classes I took, we never once discussed sexual fetishes, which I chalk up to the APA's duressed "acceptance" of homosexuality as "not on the DSM-IV." Ever since then, people have been afraid to talk about any other fetishes for fear that it may one day be acceptable and that people would look back at and deride all the "intolerant" experts of our day.
Post a Comment
<< Home