Friday, May 27, 2011

Todays Lesson - Pedophiles.

Today was my son's grade wide park day.  The school does this in the spring, for each grade, so the families can have one day of fun and games in Central Park. Each class in the grade decorates "team" tee shirts and they play all kinds of games, all under the hot sun. 

I wound up joining them as a chaperon and met a few parents, sweating my ass off and got a frightening lesson in pedophiles and the things people will do to provide the images these suck fucks seem to love.


There's a boy in my son's grade with a mohawk.  One of those really cool looking kids.  The kid with great style, handsome face and the personality to pull off the mohawk.  I've seen his dad from time to time, dropping him off in the morning.  He always seemed like your normal dad although he's clearly a gym rat.  Big, muscular guy but, beyond that, nothing out of the ordinary.  Just your standard, run of the mill black guy with a gym membership.

This morning, all the parents gathered in the cafeteria to go over the procedure for getting the kids to the park and in walks mohawk boy's dad.  Dude's sporting a tank top that shows off just how much gym time he's been clocking.  Guy's huge.  He's also sporting a few rings on his fingers.  A closer look reveals the rings to contain  little spikes on them.  He's a friendly guy but he looks like a fucking bruiser this morning.  When the guy leading the meeting asked who would be willing to carry some of the gear to the park, the bruiser was the first to offer his services, saying, in a very soft spoken, almost timid voice "I'll grab a bag."

We trek over to the park, find the area that the school reserved for the day and set up camp in the shade.  The kids run off, playing with balls, frisbees and whatever else they can find that can be thrown around.

I'm standing around, talking to a few of the parents that I know and I see bruiser guy walking up to people outside of our fenced in area, no make that stalking over to them, determination in his walk, and I see the people he's approaching immediately walk away or, from time to time, they actually respond to him before walking away.  He's running from one end of the area to the other, chasing people away.

A short while later I'm talking to a friend and he walks over and the guy I'm talking to introduces us.  Tim asks me which one is mine, I point him out and I ask the same of Tim.  He points to mohawk boy and I tell him how cool the kid is and how my wife and I actually talked about how he's one of the few kids that pulls it off.  Suddenly, Tim says "excuse me" and hustles off to chase someone away.

He returns, apologizes and tells me that, yesterday, he chased away about 25 pedophiles trying to snap pictures of the kids.  I was a bit taken aback by the claim and asked him how he knew.  He said that the pedophiles scour the school websites to see when the class outings are and then they hang around the kids, snapping pictures so that, when they get home, they can photoshop them onto other bodies and sell them.  He said that he's been coming to these events for a few years now (he has two kids at the school) and he said it's always the same people (with a few honest tourists just taking pictures) and they almost always walk away when he walks over but, from time to time, they'll argue with him and he'll offer them two options - kissing those spiked rings or dealing with the cops.

And that is when the argument ends and the people leave.

Now, to me, this seemed ludicrous.  Not every camera is there to snap shots of the kids for nefarious purposes.  He said that I was correct but, more than half are there for that and the only way to ensure that his kid isn't one day spotted on the internet in some crazy photoshopped sex scene, is to ensure that nobody takes pictures in the area.

I agreed and then my son came over and asked me to help them with the baseball game they were starting.

Off I went, to the other side of the fenced in area.

Within 5 minutes of my getting there, a small man, in his fifties, wearing a pair of khakis and a white button shirt, walks into the fenced in area.  He's carrying a tripod and large digital camera with the biggest fucking telephoto lens I've ever seen.  He starts to set up the tripod so I walk over and ask him if I can be of any assistance.  He says no, thank you and continues setting up the tripod.  I ask him which kid is his and he actually says "none of them."

I ask why he is planning on taking pictures of the kids and he says "if you don't want me taking pictures of the kids, just say so."

I lean in close and tell him that I don't want him taking pictures of the kids and I don't want to see him within a 100 yards of the kids and then I pulled out my cell phone and he asked what I was doing so I said "taking your picture so I can show the other parents patrolling the fence for people like him."

He packed up and fled.

Over the course of the next 45 minutes, I chased 5 or 6 more people away and one guy was actually video taping the kids, while walking circles around the area.  Each time I approached him, he walked on, figuring I wouldn't notice.

I did.

And I whipped out the phone and when he came around a third time, I started aiming at him and he took off, never returning.

I wandered back over to Tim at some point and he said he saw me dealing with the scum on my side of the park.  He asked if I was still somewhat skeptical of the number of pedos wandering  around. 

The answer was a resounding no.  When you confront these people, who are alone, in a park, snapping pictures of strangers' kids, their response, when they are dumb enough to respond, is always one of pure innocence, like it's totally fucking normal for a 50 year old man to take pictures of strangers' kids. 

It's like walking into a bank at midnight and finding a guy there with 4 bags of money and having him tell you there's nothing wrong with what he's doing.

The day wore on, the pedos were chased away by me, Tim and several other parents.  On more than on occasion, the argument was given that "I'm taking pictures of the buildings" and the argument was met with "see that rock over there?  it's a better angle."

Sure enough, those people went and took their picture from there but, for the most part, the kiddie lovers tried hitting another part of the fence, only to be met by another pissed off father.

At one point, Tim wound up talking to an elderly woman who had approached him after watching him chase a couple of foreigners away (most of the people were foreign, except the older men).  She asked him what was going on and he told her everything he told me.  The woman sighed and said it was one of the biggest problems the city was facing at the moment.  Her husband is a cop and they are well aware of the smut peddlers who troll the park, not to take a kid or molest a child but, rather, to snap pictures of the innocence of youth so that, at a later date, they can steal that innocence via some technology such as photoshop.  She said that there are guys who run around the park videotaping kids, and women, and they upload the videos right there, on the spot, often to sites like youtube.  She said that there are so many uploads a day, from so many people, that the cops can't even come close to stopping them.

Comforting, right?

My wife arrived at the park and it was time for me to head to work.  I wanted to say goodbye to Tim and thank him for both the education and the job he was doing.  I looked around and finally found him, escorting the small guy with the large telephoto lens away from the area.

He looked up at me and shook his head and held up 3 fingers, indicating this was the third time he'd been found trying to take pictures of our kids.

11 comments:

HKF said...

Wow, that's just sick! I never knew stuff like this happened.

Thanks for that informing story. The next time I'm at the park with my nephew I'll keep an eye out for these sick bastards!

Floogin McNoogin said...

Take pictures of anyone taking pictures of your nephew. A database of these scumbags should be formed so that people know who to look for.

Thanks for taking the time to read the post.

Julie Lamar said...

Nothing is sicker than a pedo.

Not even what I'd do to one if I caught them could compare.

Anonymous said...

Glad I'm not the only one who realizes this is a real problem. I spot them all the time lurking wherever there are children. I knew I wasn't paranoid or crazy.

Lori said...

Wow. I live in Texas, in a medium sized town. Our parks are not nearly as busy as yours, and someone like you describe would stand out like a sore thumb. But it's good to know, nonetheless. Thank you for sharing. I am going to share the link to your post with my friends. We all have kids under 10.

RGC2005 said...

Great post.
I retired from law enforcement last month and can confirm the validity of your observations. Pedophiles operate in age group ranges and only target their specific area of taste. You can find them anywhere kids are congregated. Legitimate photographers will have press ID and have no problem giving you a business card or contact information.
Stay alert.

Anonymous said...

I live across the country, but the next time I go to a park you can bet I'll be looking out for this. That really is a crazy thing. I might be more shocked at the older woman's response than the rest of the post!

Anonymous said...

Not sure if I buy this story. I can see maybe 1 or 2, but this story seemed to have like 30 peds. Maybe some of the people were just tourist or really wanting to take pictures of the park. This is a strange story.

Anniex9 said...

Beautifully written article on a very disturbing subject. You are very talented! Keep your kids close.

Moms Hugs said...

It takes a village to protect the kids no matter what the size or location. Many pedophiles hide in plain sight using women with them.

The Duggard & Smart girls lived in more rural areas as did the young boys abducted in a small town area near St. Louis. These pedophiles were assisted by women & and the latter case involved an abducted boy who grew older then used to abduct another young boy. Although the older boy later helped him escape, the women certainly did nothing to help their captives.

Follow the money & you'll find who is buying kiddie porn. They can be next door neighbors or right under our noses. Many are assisted by women like those who helped abduct & hide the Smart & Duggard girls.

WE must pay attention to our own family members who show an inordinate interest in our precious children & grandchildren. WE must search our own family computers for photos of kids not our own. It begins at home folks!

Anonymous said...

DISGUSTED! Thanks for this blog post. I have often wondered about this as we frequent the beach we live so close to...now, I am POSITIVELY SURE that this is what those peering, sneaky eyes are there for...Taking action!