Dateline NBC show by Chris Hansen – ‘To catch a Predator’
Just watched a Dateline NBC show by Chris Hansen – ‘To catch a Predator’. The show’s about online predators who solicit sex from minors…and they arrested a total of 179 people over a 2 year sting operation!
I was stunned to see atleast 20% of the people who ACTUALLY came to meet this 13 year old girl were INDIANS!!! I mean it’s bad enough, improper and illegal to chat with minors but to actually take it to the next step from online to real life….that’s plain fucking stupid!
Desi Software Engineers, desi guys here in the US on short time assignments, one even boasting of having a PhD in Computer Engineering….all got arrested and sent to prison.
Other people included soldiers from the US Marines and the Army, a physician, software engineers from the Silicon Valley, Mexicans, school teachers and even a frickin’ Rabbi who came looking for a 13 year old boy. They were from age groups ranging from early 20’s to even 50 + years old, some of whom HAD teenage kids themselves! Many sent in pictures of their “unmentionables” to the sting agent…..and this agency had stored all data related to the explicit content of all the chat transcripts. Almost all people were asked to and DID bring condoms on them when they came to meet the girl….
Our initial stunned silence grew into utter disbelief that this was actually happening….then come to find out this was not the first time this was televised….and a couple of guys even KNEW and HAD SEEN a previous episode of the same show. They all intrinsically KNEW this was wrong…and it was evident on their faces when they were interviewed. They all gave some screwy and clueless excuses but INSIDE their hearts and minds, they knew it was wrong!
In the chats, it was made plain and clear that it was a 13 year old girl and this was repeated a couple of times in most cases…..EVEN then, EVEN though the guys knew that she was a minor, they still went ahead and chatted seriously explicit nonsense and sent pictures anyway…. Now what could have caused this sort of situation? I mean there is the obvious answer of internet addiction, porn addiction and perversion and what not…. There must also be this thrill of grabbing an opportunity. Maybe it’s just plain stupidity or maybe even a disease…
All in all, it left a pretty bad taste in my mouth to see so many Indians getting arrested…by all means they deserved to get the punishment for their crime…as that’s what it really is…..but somewhere inside, incidents like this tugs at one’s heartstrings when it involves one’s own countrymen.
Bottomline - I guess the “thinking” is best left to the head that’s supposed to be doing it…and not the other one…if you know what I mean :-)
posted by De-Silva | 10/20/2006 10:49:00 PM
5 Comments:
I thought I was a dirty old bastard but when I look around and hear stuff i feel pure as driven snow.
I guess i should not generalise but being Indian I do think we give too much leeway to semi-porno talk, thereby justifying from teenage itself that womankind are just items! Rapchick, Maal, Doodhwali - all part of college talk and none of us ever directly opposed it even if we did not participate in it :(
I know I am rambling and I am also sure that this is not an Indian phenomenon but I am just frustrated with us Indian Men!!!
I am surprised people still watch this blatantly exploitive show week after week after week (for e.g. the Dateline 'Special' - To catch a Predator - is probably in its 20th episode by now. They should drop the 'Special' by now.) I understand the need to highlight the problem - but week after week after week of the same stuff (only the faces change) for an hour?
Wouldn't two - 1 hour long or 2 hour long "specials" be enough to tell people that this is a problem? Now lets talk about other things 0 like overweight kids or school bullies or guns? Nope - you don;t want to hurt our sponsors like Lays and Kraft, or the NRA with the anti-gun message or even most Americans with the anti-bully message. No sir. The only issue we see that affects kids today is crazy macaca's lusting after your teenage daughter.
CBS 60 minutes would probably do the same thing in one 15 min segment maybe once a year at the most. Thats the difference between real journalism, i.e. one that highlights several or all issues of real relevance to pseudo-journalism i.e. focus on one issue that you know people will watch because of morbid fascination with all things sexually explicit and the wonder why other people keep getting caught doing it.
Ok - I am rambling myself too! :)
Maybe it was just me watching it for the first time that triggered these thoughts....didn't know that it was being aired for a long time! fair enough...I agree that the attention needs to be diverted to other critical areas too...specially around school shootings and the relevance of guns...man there's been a bunch of them lately!
my real worry from the episode I watched was that 20 odd % of the people caught were of Indian origin...and that sort of hit home a bit...just wondering what the triggers were behind this?
Venky: Based on your comments I assume you've caught the program at least once.
:)
@Sarat - Nopes my frnd - I still dont watch the telly ... I was making a statement there :)
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