A pedophile by any other name

August 30, 2006 at 12:20 am (Uncategorized)

From now on, can we refer to the washed out suspect from the Ramsey case as Mark-Friggin-Karr? Or maybe, “that douche bag?” There is just something about that spooky-eyed, loud-mouthed geek that I find loathsome. And I know we’ve batted the Ramsey case around in here a time or two, but now a new conundrum is at hand. What do you do with an obvious pedophile who has confessed to an old child murder but who is not linked to it in any physical way? Do you just drag him out of the jail cell against his protests and throw him back on the street, like an undersized fish tossed back into a pedophile pond? No obstructing justice, creating false alarm, or illegal possession of douche bag characteristics?

Pedophiles are everywhere and they are all despicable. But they come in different forms. You have the slobbering wolf-like rippers who prey on kids because they want to and they maintain secrecy by threatening the victims of their nasty impulses. Then you have the Mark Karrs and Michael Jacksons of the world, men (in a loose sense of the word) who insist they only have a special affinity for tots and they would never harm them in any way.

The Peter Pans of the pedophile world are particularly troubling. They might be camp counselors, little league coaches or teachers. And that’s a real bitch, because there are counselors, coaches and teachers who have a genuine affinity for children that does not involve touching private parts or being touched. These good men and women will always be under at least partial clouds of suspicion because, really. Who among us really trusts anyone around kids these days?

Mark-Friggin-Karr did the world a disservice in many ways. He clouded an already hopelessly murky investigation. He provided false hope for the people who are desperate to see Jon Benet’s killer strung up sooner rather than later. And he further illustrated that child molesters are monsters with human masks, and that monsters prowl every segment of society. When the Halloween movie hosts say “lock your doors, hide your children,” it doesn’t just apply to 90 minutes of Creature Feature any more. That’s real world advice because people like Mark-Friggin- Karr and other mincing, child-hungry lechers undermine the trust, not only of children, but the people who protect them.

Confessing falsely to the rape and murder of a six-year-old doesn’t qualify as free speech, but it doesn’t qualify as a crime, either. Mark-Friggin-Karr will probably take his child desiring ass off to another foreign country and get his teaching career back off the ground. Because he loves the little ones so. Because he understands and identifies with them.

Because he’s a complete and utter douche bag.