Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Dateline NBC: To Catch a Predator

Okay I have a problem with this show. I just saw it last night at the gym. (I don’t, chas v’shalom, have an avodah-zarah box in my house (well, I do have cable internet…)). If you’ve never seen it, this is what it is – basically, they set up someone to do a crime, in last night’s case, to proposition a minor, and then go in and arrest him, catching the whole thing on national TV – and displaying the perpetrators’ names. They chatted up these guys on the internet, pretending to be 13 year olds (boys or girls), had them come over to a house rigged w/video cameras and then stopped them before anything could happen.

It’s totally predatory and seems wrong. I mean, I get that we don’t want these guys going after kids when they’re not on national television, but is it fair to lure them in to do a crime? If the police were like, hey, want some marijuana, and then they snap the handcuffs on you when you try to take it – that would also seem unfair.

Something about it just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe b/c they’re sensationalizing the process. I don’t know.

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