Florida prosecutors pick on cripples; grandstand wildly.

About a month ago, I wrote a scathing piece on the chilling effect of private corporate censorship by Amazon against the creeper who authored the "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct".

Therein, I argue that 'tis better to provide legal, if not socially acceptable, fora for pedophiles to learn how to curb their appetites and stay within the law, than it is to permit unpopular, grotesque, but-legal speech to be chilled by any entity; much less a private one.


Seems like the author of that book, Philip Ray Greaves II, is back in the news today. This time for a reason that should pretty much anger anyone who gives a shit about criminalization of speech, police entrapment, and the politicization of the law.

Yep, he looks like a creeper too.

Obviously, not the most popular client to have...

From MSNBC:

Polk County sheriff's deputies arrested Philip Ray Greaves II hundreds of miles away from Florida at his home in Pueblo, Colorado, and charged him with violating Florida's obscenity law.

Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said his office was able to arrest Greaves on Florida charges because Greaves sold and mailed his book, "The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover's Code of Conduct," directly to undercover Polk deputies. Judd says Greaves even signed the book.

Read that again, and process it. What Florida did was solicit Greaves to sell his book in their jurisdiction, where it is deemed criminal obscenity and indecent. Now, the problem is, the book isn't a crime under federal law, nor was writing, manufacturing, or selling it (or its contents) a crime in Colorado, where Greaves lives and where he was presumably minding his own business now that the furor has died down.

There is entrapment, and then there is entrapment. Normally, it is not entrapment if the police solicit someone to do something which is criminal. The reason being is that they are just taking (allegedly)  advantage of the defendant's proclivity towards committing a criminal offense. If someone is trying to do a murder for hire, drug deal, extortion racket, etc. entrapment wouldn't be a defense.

But here, the man writes a vile book, and is literally solicited to commit a crime that he likely did not know was even criminal to begin with. Even worse, the "crime" alleged by Florida is ordinary commerce...that he engaged in legally in Colorado, using the Federal interstate mail system...legally. Even worse than that, the "crime" is repulsive speech whose sale is criminalized in Florida. Just speech, that's it. And interstate commerce, apparently.

But, how do we know it's grand-standing and not a legitimate prosecution. I dare say the presser released by the Polk Co. Sheriff's Department says it all.

"If he will waive extradition, it's my goal for him to eat processed turkey on Christmas Day in the Polk County Jail," Judd said. * * * "If we can get jurisdiction ... we're coming after you," Judd said. "There's nothing in the world more important than our children."

 Yea, that's pretty much what I think of Sheriff Judd...

Lookit. This is repulsive, vile, stomach-turning...you name the adjective. But Florida is on rotten-ass ice here. 1. Colorado shouldn't even extradite him, as this was not a crime. 2. There are serious pre-emption issues here as well. The State used the feds to entrap a guy into a state level crime that is not a federal crime. The crime revolves around commerce. Well, Skippy, this commerce is interstate. Good luck with that one. 3. It's criminalization of speech for fuck's sake, and may be revisited by some very high courts very soon. 4. While communities have a right to police and protect THEIR CITIZENS, the 1st Amendment doesn't cease to be relevant. More important, Florida has no interest in this political prosecution because the crime was manufactured by Florida and brought into their jurisdiction...by Florida officials themselves. 5. Notice is going to be a big big problem. Generally ignorance of the law is not an excuse; however, when the criminality is the exercise of a fundamental right, and the commission of the crime involves participation in interstate commerce, how on God's earth could Greaves know he was engaging in criminal behavior?

 

Besides, perverts always look like pervs. Every lil' kid has built-in molester-radar.

Nevertheless, Greaves is an easy punching bag. Just like the Feds go after Assange because they cannot go after the N.Y. Times, Florida attempts to prosecute another person extra-territorially, who also committed no crime. Why? Because it's ass-fucking lazy, it's cheap populism, it's interference with legitimate law enforcement, and it's a helluva' lot easier than investigating and prosecuting the real problem here: Real Florida pedophiles who have committed unspeakable, unforgiveable violence against real Florida children.

This shit is just window-dressing.

-d.s.