-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: June 26, 2007 2:04:05 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: GOPedophiles in America's "Outback"
<GOPedophile Establishment Not Small Potatoes in Idaho>
By Rory O'Connor
AlterNet, June 26, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/54493/
<snip>
Miller's article in the Summer 2006 Issue of Nieman Reports,
entitled "A Local Newspaper Endures a Stormy Backlash," tells an
amazing story of how his paper exposed Boy Scout pedophiles and
those who failed to kick them out of the scouting program," and how
"the community's <Mormon> religion, the richest guys in town, and
the <Republican> machine that controls Idaho" tried to punish the
paper for doing so. Why? Because Miller and his team chose "to tell
the story of powerless people hurt by powerful people who counted
on the public never learning what they'd done."
Here's what happened: after receiving a tip that a pedophile caught
at a local scout camp in 1997 had not two victims (as the paper
reported at the time) but actually dozens, Post Register reporters
went to the courthouse to look for a civil suit filed by victims,
only to be told that there was no such case. They later learned
that the national Boy Scouts of America and its local Council had
hired two of Idaho's best-connected law firms to seal the files --
thus covering up the entire affair.
Or so they thought ... But the Post Register went to court and
"dragged the case file into the light of day." What reporters found
astonished them; scout leaders had been warned about the pedophile
years earlier, but hired him (again!) anyway. Lawyers for the Boy
Scouts knew about more victims, but never told those boys' parents.
Top local and national leaders of the Mormon Church, which sponsors
almost all area scout troops, had also been warned.
The Post Register ran a six-day series about the affair. The first
story featured a 14-year-old camper -- "the son of a Mormon
seminary teacher and a cinch to become an Eagle Scout" -- who
forced adult leaders to call the police about the pedophile.
Then the backlash began. Mormon church members were among the first
to complain, characterizing the paper's coverage as an attack on
their faith. "The drums banged, and we were flooded with calls and
e-mails and letters to the editor from readers who told us that
holding the Grand Teton Council accountable was Mormon-bashing,"
Miller recounted.
The backlash came as well from advertisers, and the economic
pressure built everyday the paper ran the series. "It's one thing
to lose an account when you're an employee," Miller wrote. "It's
quite another when you're also a stockholder; 140 employees hold
close to 49 percent of the company's stock. For many families, this
is their retirement." Nevertheless, he recalled, "Most of what I
heard inside our building were words of support." Publisher Roger
Plothow was also staunchly unapologetic throughout, "standing up
with a stoic and clear-eyed defense ... for the values of journalism."
The attacks weren't just financial, but personal as well --
including the outing of a gay staff reporter, Peter Zuckerman, by a
local multimillionaire who bought full-page ads devoting several
paragraphs to establishing that Zuckerman is gay. "Strangers
started ringing Peter's doorbell at midnight," Miller wrote. "His
partner of five years was fired from his job. Despite the
harassment, Peter kept coming to work and chasing down leads on
other pedophiles ... I spoke at his church one Sunday and meant it
when I said that I hope my son grows into as much of a man as Peter
had."
By then the paper had secured evidence of four other pedophiles in
the local scout council, "about as many documented cases as the
Catholic diocese of Boston when that scandal erupted in The Boston
Globe," as Miller noted.
Laboring in obscurity, and without Big Media resources, community
journalists "often end up dreaming small," Miller wrote. "But my 34
colleagues at the Post Register -- in particular the cadre of
editors who have worked together for a decade and lead a largely
entry-level staff -- refused to pull back in the face of much
opposition."
In his Nieman report, Miller asks, "Was what any of us did
courageous?" I'll say it was! Moreover, the story has a happy
ending -- one all too uncommon in these days of massive layoffs,
dwindling circulation, disruptive technologies and fears that the
entire newspaper industry might be rapidly crumbling. I'll let
Miller tell the tale: "One of the sweeter moments of our year
occurred when we received figures from our circulation audit. While
the sales numbers of other U.S. newspapers were in free fall, we
were among the nation's faster growing daily papers."
So what's the moral of this fairy tale? To Dean Miller and the
other ordinary heroes at the Post Register, it's clear: "For us,
these numbers testified to the value of fortitude. Publishing
uncomfortable truths needn't be an act of hot-blooded courage; it
should be a cool-headed exercise in focus: Find the civic heart of
a story, steer a steady course to it, and serve the public's
legitimate interests in openness and justice. Do that and, even
when the story rocks your boat, trust that the waves won't capsize
it."
Filmmaker and journalist Rory O'Connor writes the Media Is A Plural
blog.
---------------
Wyoming -- a haven for sex offenders?
By KATHLEEN MILLER
Associated Press, February 21, 2007
http://www.trib.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/top_story/
7b21a1a23b621b5b872572880083b207.txt
CHEYENNE -- Wyoming, with its wide-open spaces and crisp, clear
vistas, is starting to worry it has made itself too attractive in
one respect: Convicted sex offenders from out of state are moving
in, apparently because the laws are less restrictive.
"We don't want to become the playground for sex offenders,"
Attorney General Pat Crank said. "But there must be something that
sex offenders are seeing. Otherwise they wouldn't be moving here in
the kind of numbers that we seem to be seeing."
Wyoming is home to about 1,200 known sex offenders. That is not a
large number for such a sparsely populated state. But law
enforcement officials and legislators are worried because 56
percent of those offenders moved to Wyoming after being convicted
somewhere else.
Afraid that the word is out among ex-convicts that Wyoming has some
of the nation's loosest restrictions on sex offenders, state
legislators are rushing to tighten the laws, and they are meeting
little resistance.
"We're going to make it so there's no place for them to hide,"
vowed Republican Rep. Ed Buchanan, R-Torrington, chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee.
While other states often prohibit sex offenders from living near
schools, day care centers or other places with children, Wyoming
has no such laws.
"They can live right next to a school if they want to. They can
live in a home with children if they want to," said Laramie County
sheriff's Sgt. Linda Gesell.
Also, unlike many other states, Wyoming does not require people
convicted of indecent exposure or sexual battery to register as sex
offenders. In addition, ex-convicts who are deemed low- and medium-
risk offenders are not listed on the state's publicly accessible
Web site.
Gary Smith, a 29-year-old cook in Cheyenne, left Wyoming for
Oklahoma after serving about four years in prison for having sex
with a 15-year-old girl. A few months later, a neighbor posted
fliers in Smith's trailer park showing his criminal record, which
had been taken from an Oklahoma Web site on registered sex offenders.
Smith and his wife quickly headed back to Wyoming. Although he is a
registered sex offender here, he is not listed on public databases
because authorities do not consider him at high risk of committing
another crime. Smith is glad the state does not call attention to
his conviction.
"If they ain't supposed to publish stuff about you, they don't do
it," he said.
Wyoming also lacks a standardized system for accepting convictions
from other states. That means authorities must obtain court papers
on each sex offender before determining the corresponding Wyoming
crime and deciding whether that person must register. That can
cause long delays, because only one person is in charge of such
efforts.
"It becomes daunting," said that person, Bob Brackett, program
manager for the Wyoming sex offender registry.
Brackett recalled getting a call recently from a Florida sex
offender who wanted to discuss the state's laws. The man eventually
moved to Wyoming.
"A short time later, he called our office to ask a question,
indicated that it was much easier to live here, and that he was
going to call a buddy of his," another Florida sex offender, to
urge him to move to Wyoming, Brackett said.
Last week, Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed bills that would increase
the penalties for incest and make it a crime to knowingly harbor an
unregistered sex offender.
Lawmakers have also introduced a two-strikes-you're-out bill that
could bring a life sentence for anyone convicted of two sex
offenses against minors. Other proposals would require all sex
offenders to be listed on an Internet database and some to wear GPS
tracking devices.
The few lawmakers who oppose some of the bills warn that the
measures could backfire by driving sex offenders underground,
making it harder for them to go straight, and swamping the registry
with hundreds more names. That, in turn, could make it more
difficult to keep track of the truly dangerous convicts, they say.
Currently, the publicly accessible Web registry of high-risk
offenders has just 120 names.
"I don't want to dilute the effect of the sex offender list" by
including, for example, someone convicted of statutory rape along
with child molesters, said Sen. Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan.
Rep. Jane Warren, D-Laramie, questioned whether the statistics are
being accurately interpreted. She suggested that some out-of-state
sex offenders might be moving to Wyoming because the oil and gas
boom has created lots of jobs.
But others suspect that beefed-up sex offender laws in states such
as Virginia, Vermont, New Mexico and Washington are forcing
convicts to look elsewhere for places to live.
"They look around for states that do not have the strongest laws,
because if you can go someplace and you don't have to be a
registered sex offender, you don't have to check in with
authorities, obviously from their perspective that's a better
situation," Wyoming's attorney general said.
--------------------
Prosecuting Polygamists Persecutes Child Abusers, Say AZ and UT
Attorneys General
06/15/07
http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/index.php/2007/06/15/
prosecuting_polygamists_persecutes_child
Arizona and Utah have so many polygamists that the Republican state
Attorneys General for those two states have stated they will not
prosecute child rapists anymore.
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0627314820070612?
pageNumber=1
Better yet, get this. "We are not going to go out there and
persecute people for their beliefs," said Arizona Attorney General
(R) Terry Goddard.
Then Utah Attorney General (R) Mark Shurtleff stated: "We
determined six or seven years ago that there was no way we could
prosecute 10,000 polygamists and put the kids into foster care.
There's no way that we have the money or the resources to do that."
Ain't it funny how they found the money and resources to arrest,
prosecute and jail thousands of black people for dope, but
arresting, prosecuting and jailing hundreds of white men who [screw
underage girls] is just too difficult for Republican "law and
order" type Attorneys General.
Forcing little girls to marry an old man just for sex is what
passes for religion in this country?
And remember, Utah wouldn't even be a state if it hadn't outlawed
polygamy. I just love the way some religious leaders think they can
pick and choose the secular laws they want to observe, the same way
they pick and choose only the moral lessons they like in the KJV.
--Peter Nuhn
Comment from: Phideaux
They are worried about paying for foster care? That's the excuse
they're using? They don't need foster families. The kids can live
with the mothers just like they are already doing.
Many of those polygamist kids are on welfare. The state is paying
for them anyway. Leave the kids at home since the state already
pays support.
Arrest the men who knock up underage girls. The money would be
about the same because the dad doesn't pay for all the kids anyway.
The polygamists set it up so the majority of wives are not legally
married and get state and federal services. (Your taxes at work.)
Isolated brainwashed uninformed girls (or boys) who don't know any
other situation should not be allowed to marry until they are 18.
They can't possibly be consenting adults as teenagers.
Polygamy is such an ugly problem because the children are isolated
in their religious beliefs. People want the right to teach their
children their religion. They protect the children from ever being
able to make an informed decision. Religious people spend a lot of
time and effort fighting to prevent their children from being
influenced by outside information.
This is an example of the downside of religious freedom. They
remain in willful ignorance. Anything they want to do can be
justified with their religion.
I don't think religion should continue to get special treatment
which allows it to get away with brainwashing children.
-------------
... Today, about 40,000 "fundamentalist Mormons" in Utah and nearby
states live polygamy illegally.
[Republican presidential candidate Mitt] Romney, whose great-
grandfather had five wives and whose great-great-grandfather had a
dozen, has dismissed the practice as "bizarre" -- a comment that
infuriates Hammon, whose father and grand-father practiced plural
marriage.
"If it was me, I wouldn't apologize for my past," said Hammon, who
likened the struggle for acceptance with the civil rights movement.
"It's like the work Martin Luther King did in relation with African
Americans," he said, holding year-old Ava, one of his eight
children, in the living room of his home in Centennial Park, a dry,
dusty Arizona town run by polygamists near the Utah border.
Excommunicated by the church, [polygamists] see themselves as true
believers in Mormonism as practiced by founder Joseph Smith.
A turning point for polygamists came in August 2003 when dozens
made a public stand by showing up en masse at a "polygamy summit"
in St. George, Utah, organized by the Utah and Arizona attorneys
general. "Before then, we discussed all these things in private,"
said Hammon.
Many are finding they have an unlikely ally in Hollywood, since the
start of "Big Love," HBO's series about a fictional polygamous family.
But many polygamists still live discreetly in middle-class
neighborhoods next to conventional families, fearing the stigma of
the practice could threaten careers and cause their children to be
taunted at school.
Although encouraged by the state's reluctance to prosecute them,
several expressed fears of the future and want some legal
protection in case the public mood turns against them.
See what's free at AOL.com.
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