[no subject]

Editorial: Townshend's porn crime 
Friday, January 17, 2003

Pete Townshend is a rock 'n' roll genius, but is he
also a pedophile? We don't know, and as the founder of
the Who faces child pornography charges in England,
we'll not rush to his defense. 

But we can't help but note the circumstances of his
arrest. His name was among 7,000 British residents in
the credit card records of a Texas Web site that
featured child pornography. We don't know how often he
visited the site, and whether his goal was "research,"
as he says, or something darker.

We also didn't know, frankly, that you can be arrested
simply for clicking on someone else's Web site. That's
news that may send a chill down the back of many
otherwise innocent Internet surfers.

We can understand arresting the people running the
site. Whether or not they had a hand in getting
children to pose for pornographic pictures, their role
in their exploitation is clear. By generating profits
for the enterprise, Townshend and other customers may
bear some responsibility, but they are at least a step
further removed from the crime.

"It's inherently wrong for anyone to look at this
stuff," Ashland Police Detective Charles Garbarino
told a Daily News reporter. "If you fantasize about
children over and over, you'll act out on that
fantasy. It just mushrooms."

Maybe so. But the law has traditionally drawn a clear
line between thought and action. You may fantasize all
you want about killing your boss or robbing a bank.
You don't get arrested until you act on that fantasy.

But if police wait until fantasy becomes reality, it's
too late to save a child from a terrible crime. In a
dangerous world, preemptive arrests, like preemptive
wars, hold some appeal. But they also hold a treat to
principles, like the presumption of innocence, that
are fundamental to American values. If the government
can arrest you for a crime you have yet to commit, how
do you defend yourself?


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-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
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