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Consider the following:
WHERE
DO VICTIMS GO FOR HELP? Pornographers: Those living high off the abuse and exploitation of women and the weakness of men would have you believe that victims of pornography exist only in the minds of "right-wing religious zealots." Pornographers and their allies want no fence around the cliff and do their utmost to destroy those that exist. Congress: Legislators build fences by passing laws. For the last several years, Congress has acted to prevent more victims of pornography by passing new laws to make it easier to stop illegal pornography, especially on the Internet. Courts: These are the fence inspectors. All too often they find fault with new fences and order them torn down. Some judges seem to care more for those who don't want a fence than for those who are falling over the cliff. Still, there are several federal obscenity laws that have been tried, tested and proven effective when they are enforced. Law Enforcement: Fences need enforcement — vigorous, unrelenting enforcement. In the federal government, that's the job of the Department of Justice (DOJ), including the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service and Customs. It's illegal to mail obscenity, ship it via an instrumentality of interstate or foreign commerce or in the federal maritime jurisdiction, transport it on an interstate highway, including in your own vehicle, broadcast it on radio or television, distribute or acquire it via an interactive computer service — you get the idea. The DOJ has a special section, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), experts whose job is to enforce the federal laws in conjunction with the U.S. attorneys. www.obscenitycrimes.org: This is a great place to report the fence-busters. Last June, Morality In Media (MIM) launched this website so that the public can file complaints about online obscenity, including porn spam and websites offering hard-core pornography. Hard-core porn is the kind the Supreme Court has said can be prosecuted as obscene. From June 2002 through April 30, 2003, MIM has forwarded to CEOS 22,897 reports from citizens that were filed on the website. Copies of the complaints have been sent to all 93 U.S. attorneys. The question is: What are they doing about it? President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft have made clear that they want the federal obscenity laws enforced:
WHAT
CAN YOU DO? Write a polite but firm letter to the U.S. attorney in your district stressing that the "priorities" and "needs of their communities" include obscenity enforcement. Limit it to two pages. (You can get the name and contact information from this link. They are listed alphabetically by state. States with larger populations are divided into federal districts, each with a U.S. attorney. Some states have only one.) Tell him that you agree with 81 percent of Americans polled in 2001 who want the federal obscenity laws enforced. Tell him that the president and the attorney general have made it clear that they want the federal obscenity laws enforced. Tell him that you know that X number of complaints have been sent to his office from the obscenitycrimes.org website. If you've made a complaint, tell him. (You can find out the number of complaints that have been sent to them at this link.) Ask what is being done about the complaints. Ask how many investigations are in progress, the names of those who've been indicted, the names of those who've been convicted, and what was the penalty? All of this is public information. Tell him that child-pornography enforcement is important, but it doesn't affect adult obscenity such as the 100,000 hard-core websites with thousands of free teaser images available to your children and grandchildren. Tell him that as long as prosecution is focused on the higher offense, child pornography, it will have no effect on the "adult" pornography industry. That is why there is so much hard-core adult obscenity pandered so brazenly and fearlessly. There was no virtually no federal enforcement of obscenity in the eight years of Clinton/Reno and only a few prosecutions in the two years since. Tell them the federal government must send a clear message to those who produce and distribute illegal adult obscenity. Tell him that Rudy Guiliani and New York's finest made the NYC safer from crime than at any time in recent years. They did it by enforcing all of the laws starting with low-level street crimes such as prostitution, pick-pocketing, petty theft, sleeping on the streets and public intoxication. They didn't ignore murder but they didn't focus on it; yet, the murder rate dropped 50 percent. Even the dumbest criminals get the point. Tell him obscenity isn't a "victimless crime" and that pedophiles use obscenity to seduce children. Tell him he has no authority to ignore an entire section of U.S. law, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1460-1470. Tell him that it's up to a jury to say whether material is obscene. And the people in their district are being deprived of their right to set their community standards if the laws aren't enforced. If you don't receive a prompt response, follow up with a phone call or, better yet, make an appointment to see him in his office and take others along who share your concerns. If you don't think the answers are satisfactory, find out the reason. And if you're still not satisfied, tell him that you're writing to his boss, the one who said, "Saddam Hussein knows that I mean what I say." The victims need help. The fence needs enforcement or there will be more victims next year and another remembrance. Write a letter. Pray. Spread the word by giving copies of this article to others where you work, live, and worship. Ask them to read it and help you make a difference. Send us copies of your letters. We will consider it a privilege to hand deliver them to the White House. Let's make next May a celebration instead of a remembrance. — Jan LaRue is chief counsel of Concerned Women for America. |
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ach May is "Victims of Pornography Month" — nothing to
celebrate — just a month-long remembrance of something we'd like
to forget. We pin on another ribbon, hold a press conference, pass a resolution,
and do whatever else we think will help the cause with the hope that it's
the last time. But this one that just ended should be the last one. Don't
wait until the victim is the face of someone you love.
"A military jury Wednesday gave a 25-year prison sentence to a lieutenant
colonel who admitted killing his wife during an argument about his use
of the Internet to view pornography, an Army spokesman said." Associated
Press, October 30, 2002.
