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Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
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Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 2, 2007 / 14 Shevat, 5767

The predator next door

By Linda Chavez


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Sure there have always been child predators out there, preying on the innocent, destroying lives, but does anyone doubt that there are more of them today than in the past? And do we ever ask ourselves why that might be? What is it about our modern society that makes grown men want to seek sexual gratification from children? And why do we make it so easy for them to do so?


These questions swirled through my mind as I read the latest sordid tale of a child predator ring exposed. In Surprise, Ariz., last week, a 29-year-old sex offender, Neil H. Rodreick II, was arrested after posing as a seventh grader and attending school there for four months. He enrolled in a local charter school with the help of another sex offender who posed as his uncle.


The two men, along with two others, lived in a rented, three-bedroom house, where neighbors thought they were just another unconventional family — a boy, his uncle, grandfather, and male cousin sharing a home. In our ever-so-tolerant fashion, we'd never think of questioning such an odd "family." What, no mom, no aunt, no grandmother in the house? Think nothing of it. Or if you do, keep your thoughts to yourself lest you expose your bigotry.


Thus our phony "tolerance" allows predators to live openly among us.


And while child predators are living next door, make sure we give them free rein to pursue their twisted desires. Let's be careful what controls we place on the Internet that might endanger their ready access to child pornography or make it harder for them to troll for young boys. After all, the First Amendment was written to protect even the child molesters among us — or so the courts seem to be telling us.


In fact, not only should adults be able to download pornographic images on their home computers, we should guarantee their right to do so in public libraries. It's as if the courts have stipulated: "You have the right to pornography. If you cannot afford to purchase pornography, it will be provided for you at your local library at public expense."


Taxpayers may not object that their taxes subsidize such activity. Nor may parents protest that such policies put their children at risk of exposure to disgusting images — or worse. The only compromise most public libraries will make to such finicky morality is to provide "privacy screens" on computers that make it difficult to see what is on view at neighboring terminals.


Even this concession is provided mostly for the benefit of those who wish to view pornography. The screens are there to protect the viewer's privacy, not the rights of those who might be offended or harmed by the images. And if the pornographic images don't sate the predator's appetite and he decides to snatch a real child, well, who's to blame? Surely not the courts or any of the other enablers.


Three of the four men arrested in Arizona last week were convicted sex offenders. The fourth, although never convicted of a sex crime, "met" the 29-year-old Rodreick, who was posing as an adolescent at the time, through the Internet. The four men concocted the ruse to enroll Rodreick in school so that they might meet other boys. Rodreick is under investigation in three states for similar schemes.


It is not yet known how successful they were, though reportedly at least one videotaped encounter of a local boy engaging in sex acts with Rodreick was discovered at the house occupied by the men. No doubt these predators thought they would have easy pickings among young boys they would meet at school and church.


Lt. Van Gillock of the El Reno, Okla., police department, another venue where Rodreick allegedly posed as a 12-year-old, explained to The New York Times the dilemma law enforcement faces in uncovering these crimes, "With boys it's a really tough deal. If they did it voluntarily, they have the stigma of homosexuality, and if it's forced, well, boys are supposed to be tough. … "


What Lt. Gillock doesn't say is that we've failed in our duty to protect these children. Instead, we've made them vulnerable to the predators next door.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Linda Chavez is President of the Center for Equal Opportunity. Her latest book is "Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.)

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© 2006, Creators Syndicate

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