Text 13273, 127 rader
Skriven 2005-09-26 13:12:29 av Raymond Yates (1:3613/48)
Ärende: Menno Blom
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I'm just going to do this one time, and then y'all can fight it out without
me.

First, the facts as I know them:

Online sting nets 100th paedophile A young Dutchman has just become the 100th
person to be arrested by the Cook County sheriff's child exploitation unit,
after he flew all the way to Chicago for sex with an underage girl. Instead of
the 14-year old he expected to meet, he stepped straight off the plane into
the long arms of the law. Menno Blom (23), pictured above right, is the first
person to have incriminated himself by using the Internet to send realtime
video images of himself to undercover detectives. The 14-year old he believed
he was soliciting was, of course, none other than a burly Chicago cop with a
talent for portraying himself as a teenage girl.
http://cooltech.iafrica.com/technews/774600.htm

Yes, it's legal here for a County Cop to pose as a teen-ager for the puropse
of arresting people who solicit underage children for sex in his jurisdiction.

Similar to the method used by undercover officers in arresting people who
solicit sex from streetwalkers (prostitutes) the officers operate under rules
and restrictions so that they do /not/ behave in a manner that would
constitute entrapment.

You might not like it, but that's simply legal here.

In the article above, you will note the phrase "the first person to have
incriminated himself by using the Internet..." This is important as we will
see shortly.

Contrary to what many of you believe, we in this country are free to think
whatever we please. What we are not free to do however is to act on those
thoughts in a manner that would constitute unlawful activity.

It's that simple, really.

For example; If a wife desires to get rid of her husband and then attempts to
hire a  hit man (assassin) the /action/ of attempting to hire the hit man is
the action stemming from the thought.  If the "hit man" is in actuality a
undercover police officer, and the attempt is recorded, then she is arrested
and brought to court. This has happened from time to time. In one case I know
of the officers went so far as to have the "victim' made-up to appear as if he
had been shot, and a photograph was taken, to "prove" that the deed was done,
whereupon the wife paid the hit man the money she promised... and was promptly
arrested.

Her charge? "Intent to commit murder"

Now, y'all may be confused by the word /intent/...

In legal terms here, intent means that a crime was planned, and actions were
carried out in accordance with that plan, but the act itself was not
accomplished to it's fullest extent. "Intent to commit murder" As opposed to
"Attempted murder" (where the attempt failed) as opposed to "Murder" (where
the attempt succeeded) .

You are not convicted on the basis of your thoughts, but on the basis of your
actions.

She could have thought for decades that she'd like to kill her husband, and
nothing could possibly happen to her up until the moment she acted on that
thought.

We should all be clear on that now, let's go back to Chicago.

Like /many/ communities, Chicago has a program that helps protect their
juvenile citizens. Officers frequent juvenile chatrooms, and pose as
juveniles, for the purpose of detecting those that would prey on children.

As I said, they are bound by ruiles and regulations that prohibit them from
"luring" or acting in a manner that "entices" the other party to violate the
law, that party has to take the initiative in the proceeding or the case
/will/ be thrown out when it reaches trial. Officers are very well trained in
this procedure as the court looks with severe disfavour on entrapment, when
proved.

Now to further complicate matters:

In that the conversation and file-sharing transcended International
boundaries, the case has to be coordinated with the FBI, as matters
international are within it's purview. In the same manner that a US Citizen
uses a computer in this country to enter into another country and violate that
country's laws, and /then/ sets foot in that country at a later time would be
subject to arrest by that country's police system responsible for that
jurisdiction. (crimes across International boundries).

So far?   Good.

Now pretty much all I know is what I have posted above as to the facts in the
case, but I can add this with reasonable certainty:

When time comes for trial the prosecution provided the court with copies of
the text and any other materials that they had at hand that indicated the
action on the intent of the arrestee (much as in other undercover operations
recordings are made of the transaction for trial, which also goes to prove no
entrapment).

The charge formally is "Intent to engage in sexual relations with an
under-age minor" or somesuch, but that /has to be proved/ based on evidence of
/actions/ on the part of the defandant.


Now there are several things we do not know about the mechanics of this
arrest. In some jurisdictions the officers have to either wait for the person
to show up in a pre-arranged place or actually meet with a juvenile posing as
the person they were chatting with before the arrest can be made.

We don't know that that was the case here.

It may have been as simple as his saying "I have to go to a wedding in
Claifornia and I'll stop over in Chicago on my way and I'll meet you at the
airport..." I have no idea,. but I can safely say that something happened,
similar to that, that would nail the case shut, given it's international
implications.

Again, that's speculation. I cannot find details of something that happened
that long ago in the current files in the Net.

The officers were not specifically trolling for an international paedophile,
they just happened to catch one...

OK, I'm all though, and will not respond to this further..

R*

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 * Origin: Ray's Rocket Shop - Out to Launch (1:3613/48)