Who's the enemy now?

Brian Doherty, in Reason, comes to Pete Townshends defense.

While some might—and have—maintained that the mere violation of the law about possessing or viewing the images should be enough to pillory Pete, motive is important. And if Townshend's motive is as he maintained, it ought not be a legal matter. To avoid thoughtcrime, the laws should concentrate on those committing the abuse of making the stuff, not just seeing it under any circumstances. Even what seem to be completely legitimate reporters and researchers can be snared in the web of current child porn law enforcement. The disgust many feel for Townshend does not come from the thought that—my God!—he may have violated a statute. It comes from the thought that he is a predatory creep who gets off on and approves of images of children forced into sexual situations. But not everyone who might ever have seen such an image fits into that mold.

The thinking behind drug enforcement and child-porn prosecution is that if you target the users, you take away the market. But what if this thinking is backwards? What if, in reality, so long as there are producers, there will be a market. Maybe, when drugs and/or porn are easy to obtain, more people are tempted and seduced. Maybe, do you think? If that's the case, arresting a few score violators does nothing to reduce the scourge. With time and resources redirected to consumers, the producers can operate with near impunity.

The cynic in me, of course, suspects that that law enforcement knows all of this, but also realizes that budgets are driven by results. There are infinitely more consumers of drugs and porn than producers, so arresting 100 consumers creates more work, and increases budgets, than arresting 1 producer. Of course, 1 producer may have thousdands of customers, but there's no profit in getting 1 producer off the street or off the net.

Meanwhile, in the case of child porn at least, society is even more damaged. Since porn viewers are likely to be abusers, or graduate to abuse, themselves, the ease at which porn can be obtained puts more children in harms way.

Article Author: Howard Owens

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