Thursday, February 22, 2007

Internet Predator Sting, Four Months Later

This past Tuesday, Dateline NBC aired the second of two "To Catch a Predator" stories filmed in Murphy.

When the sting was in progress in November, 2006, it set off an intense debate in the community. Among the issues brought out in the town hall meeting: Citizens said they didn't feel safe because the Internet predators were being lured to their town. Some said the Murphy Police Department shouldn't work with Perverted Justice. On the flip side, many citizens fully supported the operation, with several residents offering their houses for the next sting. They said it was important for the police to do everything they could to take the Internet predators off the screen, so to speak.

In November, Murphy was a town divided.

What about now, four months later? Now that more details of the operation have been released (Murphy Monitor, 11/23/06), have those against the sting changed their opinion? Have those who supported the operation changed their mind, or do they still back the blue?

Please post your thoughts.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What I got from the show was that most of the people caught turned around and did it again as soon as bail was posted. Most of them had either seen the show or been on the show before.

This is a sickness and being broadcast on national television is not going to stop these very sick people.

The only good I can see out of this show is making the public aware of the situation, but it's not going to deter an addict from getting online to meet young kids.

Anonymous said...

and even after five months no charges brought?

Jenny said...

Wow! just wow. I can't imagine not wanting to help in every way I could.

The world is watching.

Jenny in IL