To Catch A Predator

I'm sure you've all seen the NBC investigative show where they set up these stings to catch unsuspecting men/predators/child molestors. I was watching a rerun of one of the episodes tonight and was amazed once again at just how many men they catch.

The premise of the sting is they have a group of people who work for a group called Perverted Justice who pose as children around the ages of 13-15 who go into these chat rooms on the internet and lure grown men into conversations where the men end up discussing in very explicit detail what they would and will do to these young girls or boys. Then the men make arrangements to meet the "children" at their perspective homes. Sure enough, they show up with the expectations of having inappropriate contact with the minors. Everyone from the guy next door to priests, rabbis, black men, white men, married men, counselors - any and every type of guy. They come in the house and within a matter of seconds, the host of the show appears through a doorway and informs the perpetrators that they have been caught and that they were basically set up.

Now I have to say, the look on some of these guys face is PRICELESS and so are the stories they concoct! If the situation wasn't so dire, it would almost be funny. They go from being cocky and confident to mere quivering, pleading boys. It must be so humiliating, to say the least. Inevitably, they all say the same thing - I've never done anything like this before; I wasn't planning on doing anything, just wanted to hang out; I knew that this was a sting all along, I was just checking.

Yeah right!!!! Are we supposed to be idiots? Were we born yesterday? Are we naive, stupid??? C'mon! I guess when you are caught red-handed with your hand so far in the cookie jar that you might as well cut it off at the wrist, you say some pretty dumb things - anything to try and get out of the situation.

The dumbest thing is that many of these men have seen the To Catch A Predator show before and in spite of all their misgivings and hesitation, they forego common sense and show up anyway. They should get locked for stupidity alone! My thing is, obviously they have all done this before. You do not just wake up one day and say, "Hmmm, what shall I do today? Oh I know, I'm gonna go molest a child!" These people deserve to be caught. They deserve to be sentenced. They deserve to be humiliated. They deserve everything that comes to them as a result. Lord only knows what happens to those guys when they go to jail. I think I've heard that one of the most hated type of inmate within a prison, is anyone who hurts or molests a child. Oh well, you reap what you sow is what I say.

Can you imagine watching this show and seeing someone you know - a friend, a relative, a sibling, your pastor, your spouse for goodness sakes on there!!! I think nothing would be more mortifying...and so it should be! If this show does nothing else but stop one more guy from molesting another child, then job well done!