Off His Rocker!!

Last night while I was driving around, I was listening to Mike Gallagher. He is a generally conservative talk-show host who touches on a variety of topics. Contrary to other popular hosts who can only seem to talk about politics, Gallagher talks about any social topic that raises his hairs a little. He is very willing to voice his opinion on issues, even if it is not the most popular one. I usually agree with him.

Last night, however, he had me talking back to him. Outloud. In my van. By myself!! Ooohhh..I am pretty sure he was way off base.

He was talking about Dateline NBC's series To Catch a Predator. Most of you probably have seen this show...but basically it's a sting operation where decoys pretend to be 13 or 14 year old kids and try to lure sexual predators to a house for a sexual interaction. The predator arrives, often bringing alcohol, gifts and condoms, among other disgusting stuff. He is met not by a 13 year old, but a journalist (Chris Hansen), a video crew, and a gang of police officers. Hansen presents the chat log, which always proves that the predator had good reason to think that if he came he would get to have sex with a minor. Then he is arrested on his way out because he chatted with, and then came to meet, a minor who doesn't even exist.

Gallagher had a news story about some DA in a small Texas town named Murphy who had been in contact with a decoy whom he believed to be a 13 year old boy. He did not actually go to meet the boy, but the police were pretty sure he would have. When police came to his door to serve him an arrest warrant the DA shot himself and later died at a hospital.

Even though the DA didn't actually try to physically contact the "boy", online solicitation of a minor is an offense in and of itself. Therefore, the police were not serving him for something he hadn't done. I'm pretty sure that he shot himself to save himself the embarrassment of being caught in such a nasty situation. I'm really sorry he died because of this situation, especially because a child was not hurt, but I'm not sorry that he was involved in a sting operatoin trying to catch perveted child predators.

Anyhow... Gallagher went OFF about how this is SOOO not fair. He said the poor guy didn't really do anything wrong. He got in trouble for talking to someone who didn't even exist. Sting operations are not fair for anyone...a cop posing as a prostitute, someone posing as a minor trying to get someone to buy alcohol for them, or decoys pretending to be 13 or 14 years old.

WHAT???? I think sting operations are a GREAT way to catch some nasty predator BEFORE they hurt an innocent child. There are disgusting pervos sitting at their computers all over the world talking to kids. Gaining their trust and trying to become their friends. Then, if the opportunity presents itself, they will accept an invitation to come meet them. Or in even worse cases, they come uninvited.

As a parent, I am thankful that Dateline's undercover investigation has exposed over 200 potential child predators--all without bringing physical, sexual or emotional harm to any children.

Come on...I know you've got something to say about this...how do you feel about sting operations? How do you feel about To Catch a Predator? Do you feel that it's the show's fault that the DA killed himself because he was caught doing something despicable?

I think Mike Gallagher was off his rocker last night!

You tell me...Am I right, or am I the one who's way off base?