To Catch a Predator

[Rob]

Take that a step further, how many of them are posting here...or work/go to school with you? 

This is not a failsafe, but everyone with children should use it:

http://www.registeredoffenderslist.org/

I think I started a thread about it a few months back when I first found a similar site.

Obviously it won't tell you about all the dangers because people who are on their first go at this kind of thing and people who haven't been caught yet aren't in the database, and not every one of these pervs are assaulting children, but it's a must for parents.

There are 61 REGISTERED sex offenders in my zip code according to that link.   

According to this one:  http://www.familywatchdog.us/  , in what looks to be about a 3 and a half mile radius of me, there are 1,149 registered sex offenders.  Granted I live in the heart of a major metropolitan area and there are lots and lots of people here, but still....

1149

The freakiest part is seeing little dots near schools and ****.  If you click on the dots you can generally get names and addresses and in most cases even pictures of the offenders. 

The closest one to me is a little over half a mile away:  Lonnie Dye:



Within a block of him are Joe Hubbard, Kenneth Bogda, and someone named Camilo Balderas (no photo).



Creepy stuff.

[Jesse James]

1 in my zip, 2 in my gf's zip...

A trip down near the end of my road makes me think there's more than 1 in my zip though...  I'd wager half the people I see on a trip to town are capable of anything.  Buncha freaks.

BTW the carnival is in town in my hometown right now...  I feel certain our local sex offender list at least quadrupled as they pulled in to set up.

[Jim]

My wife and I watch this every time it is on.  Partially because we had an incident affect us personally this past year.  While at the mall with our daughter and son, a person approached myself and daughter while my son and wife were in another part of the mall.  This guy stood maybe 10 feet away simply staring my daughter down.  She was only 6 months old at the time.  He continued looking at her for 4-5 minutes before approaching.  He then began babbling how much he always wanted a daughter but he and his wife could not have one.  First, he had no wedding band.  Second, I could not see any person in the world being married to this creep.  He went to touch her and I freaked out ready to drop kick this guy.  I asked him in not so many words to move on.  He then moved off about 10-15 feet and just continued to stare at her.  A really uneasy feeling came over me and the whole situation was very strange and uncomforting.  I ended up leaving and finding my wife at that point and explaining what had happened. Then I pointed him out to her when leaving.  Now this happened in a part of the Mall which has a small kiddy play area where usually 10-15 children are always at.  You know the saying that your first instincts are usually right?  I looked up on the state database for sex offenders when I returned home.  Sure enough he was in there.  I printed the picture and brought it back to the Mall explaining what had happened.   Flash forward a few weeks back when another one of these scumbags were arrested in the same mall, this time at a Chuck E Cheese.  This guy had his pants unzipped and was taking photos of the children around him.  Parents beware.  These type of people are in greater numbers than you could believe.  Parents should take the time and review that database occasionally.  Its nice since it tells you how many are in each town, where they work, live, etc.

[Brian]

My wife and I have watched this almost every time it has been on as well, and it is amazing how many sick people there are out there.  Its good to see this brought to a more national level, so hopefully parents or friends of people with kids will realize what a danger this is.  There are so many kids out there now that seem to have unsupervised access to the computer/internet whenever they want, and it seems like this can happen all too easily.  That story Jim mentioned above is just way creepy, and he handled it great.  Hopefully they can continue to get people like this off the street.  We were talking how that must be such a gratifying job to be working towards getting these people the help they need, or sending them to jail.  Plus, with these Dateline shows, some of the things these people have in mind is just weird - and sick - let alone the fact its with children/teens.  I just don't understand it, but it is disgusting to know there are so many people like this out there.

On the other topic, yeah Dateline has really gone crazy with this.  I don't think that the show (at least the Wednesday edition) has had anything but this on for a couple of months.  I was commenting to the Mrs. the other night when watching this again that they just as well change the name from Dateline to "Catching Pervs" or something along those lines.  They don't cover any topics anymore - not that I'm complaining, I'm glad they are working towards getting these people off the streets and keeping children safe - but some of the shows really do milk it to some extent, because it seems like I've seen the same footage of some prevs more than once on there.

[Diddly]

Thanks for that link, Rob. 239 offenders in my town, and one lives on my old street. That freaks me the **** out.

To stay on topic though, I've seen the show, but I don't watch much, as it gets disgusting after a while. NBC is milking it for what it's worth though.

[ruiner]

Jesus, did you guys see the episode of Dateline where the perp brought his 5 year old son to meet his underage "sweetie?"

I can't believe someone would stoop low enough to have sex with a minor let alone bring their 5 year old kid with them!!!

Guys like this deserve prison time --- if you catch my drift.

 

PS - Jim, how did you restrain yourself from not punching that guy in the face?

[Dressel Rebel]

PS - Jim, how did you restrain yourself from not punching that guy in the face?

Intelligence mostly, I'm sure.  Consider this: rather than doing what he did, Jim hauls off and punches a convicted felon in the face.  Fight's on.  Chances of Jim KO'ing this punk without training is not good.  Now he's got a 50-50 shot that he's going to get knocked out, leaving his daughter sitting there with no protection against the creep grabbing her and running off.

He handled it perfectly.

[ruiner]

 

Yeah, I know.  All I do is talk **** - I never throw punches.

[Famine]

Yeah, I know.  All I do is talk **** - I never throw punches.

Thats a good way to get knocked out yourself.

Kevin

[Matt_Fury]

PS - Jim, how did you restrain yourself from not punching that guy in the face?

Intelligence mostly, I'm sure.  Consider this: rather than doing what he did, Jim hauls off and punches a convicted felon in the face.  Fight's on.  Chances of Jim KO'ing this punk without training is not good.  Now he's got a 50-50 shot that he's going to get knocked out, leaving his daughter sitting there with no protection against the creep grabbing her and running off.

He handled it perfectly.

I would've killed the guy.  Of course I'm not a parent yet--just an uncle with 13+ years of time in the military.

[ruiner]

Yeah, I know.  All I do is talk **** - I never throw punches.

Thats a good way to get knocked out yourself.

Kevin

So far so good!   

[Jim]

PS - Jim, how did you restrain yourself from not punching that guy in the face?

Intelligence mostly, I'm sure.  Consider this: rather than doing what he did, Jim hauls off and punches a convicted felon in the face.  Fight's on.  Chances of Jim KO'ing this punk without training is not good.  Now he's got a 50-50 shot that he's going to get knocked out, leaving his daughter sitting there with no protection against the creep grabbing her and running off.

He handled it perfectly.

Actually upon first glance this guy looked like your typical scalper who lives in his mothers basement.  Sweats, greasy hair,  overweight, etc.  My grandmother could of knocked this loser out. 

The problem with reacting how I would of liked to would most likely resulted in this bastard being protected by loopholes in the law.  I get sued and he runs off and buys a stash of kiddy porn with his winnings.  Their are two problems here.  He was in a playground area in a mall.  If this was a normal playground he could of been fined and possibly arrested,  etc.  But since this was a mall and stores surround this area he is protected and his rights allow him to frequent retail stores.   Trust me I let him know how I felt in a few choice words.  And the scary part was there was no real denial from his end when I mentioned these things. 

I am not a violent person and never have been.  But my wife and I agree that if someone ever touched our kids then payback would be in order.  To take a child's innocence IMO is just short of killing a person.  That person's life is forever changed.  Thats why I agree with the few states that have the death penalty for these choice citizens. 

[ruiner]

You're right.

In a perfect world, you'd hit him once and he'd fall while the cops come and arrest him; no questions asked.

My gut would tell me to hit him, but my brain would kick in and tell me to think logically - really, what would punching him solve?  You'd feel good for a second and then all hell would break loose!

I can't remember the last time I was in a fight - I wouldn't even think of getting involved in one now with two kids and a decent career.

I'd probably get ****** up anyway.

 

[Sprry75]

I've spotted this show on several times, but this week's was the only one where I actually sat and watched it for the whole hour.  I say keep it up; the law of averages indicates that the freaks that Dateline catches are just the tip of the iceberg.  Any assistance that law enforcement can get in locking these pigs up should be welcome.

In most cases, I'm against the death penalty, but as a father to two little kids, I think any conviction for anything involving kids should be a capital offense.  And not just lethal injection, but a good old fashioned hangin'.

[Matt_Fury]

Hey Rob,

Thanks for posting those web sites...there are three people near me for "minor" unnamed offenses and one with a conviction for sexual assault on a child by one in a person of trust....and great he's a repeat offender!

I noticed the totals also went down by one...then I remembered Ryan's not in school right now!