Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bacasper]

Can someone actually be trying to inject some sanity here? Unfortunately, it takes someone at the end of his career who has little left to lose.

Defiant Judge Takes On Child Pornography Law

By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: May 21, 2010
In his 43-year career as a federal judge, Jack B. Weinstein has come to be identified by his efforts to combat what he calls �the unnecessary cruelty of the law.� His most recent crusade is particularly striking because of the beneficiary: a man who has amassed a vast collection of child pornography.

Judge Weinstein, who sits in the United States District Court in Brooklyn, has twice thrown out convictions that would have ensured that the man spend at least five years behind bars. He has pledged to break protocol and inform the next jury about the mandatory prison sentence that the charges carry. And he recently declared that the man, who is awaiting a new trial, did not need an electronic ankle bracelet because he posed �no risk to society.�

There is little public sympathy for collectors of child pornography. Yet across the country, an increasing number of federal judges have come to their defense, criticizing changes to sentencing laws that have effectively quadrupled their average prison term over the last decade.

Last week, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a 20-year child pornography sentence by ruling that the sentencing guidelines for such cases, �unless applied with great care, can lead to unreasonable sentences.� The decision noted that the recommended sentences for looking at pictures of children being sexually abused sometimes eclipse those for actually sexually abusing a child.

Judge Weinstein has gone to extraordinary lengths to challenge the strict punishments, issuing a series of rulings that directly attack the mandatory five-year prison sentence faced by defendants charged with receiving child pornography.

�I don�t approve of child pornography, obviously,� he said in an interview this week. But, he also said, he does not believe that those who view the images, as opposed to producing or selling them, present a threat to children.

�We�re destroying lives unnecessarily,� he said. �At the most, they should be receiving treatment and supervision.�

The man he has spent three years trying to save from a long incarceration is Pietro Polizzi, a married father of five who collected more than 5,000 graphic pictures of children. If prosecuted in a New York State court, he would have faced a maximum prison sentence of four years. Instead, in federal court, he faced a minimum of five years and a recommended sentence of 11 to 14 years. Because of Judge Weinstein�s intervention, he remains free as he awaits another trial.

continued at link

[Forever]

what link ?????????

[Fox]

[bacasper]

[geldedgoat]

[mimis]

Difficult topic... I believe in great personal freedom. But where to draw the line? Surely, somebody watching child porn can't be a good thing. And that specific Polizzi guy actually has (five!) children Sorry, but that just doesn't sound healthy to me.

Maybe it's different for me, as a girl, but "just watching" child porn should be illegal and punishable by a strict sentence. What else is going to deter these people? Is there really a difference between "just watching" and making it and selling it? If nobody would watch, it wouldn't be very interesting for others to make it, no? The people who are "just watching" are enabling and at the very least supporting this awful and disgusting practice.

Destroying lives unnecessarily? What about the children's lives? They are kids for god's sake. If people don't watch child porn, they won't have to deal with long jail sentences- funny how that works, eh.

[Fox]

[jvalmer]

Agree with Fox and disagree with mimis. I used to think like mimis, but I learned about Traci Lords.

She was 15 when she started appearing in porn films, because she lied about her age. But the people watching were under the impression she was 18. Where do you draw the line on that one?

Someone who downloads some videos, or likes some pornographic Japanese comics is not the same as someone who creates child porn.

[kabrams]

[riverboy]

I also think there should be restrictions on people in possesion of childporn.

I'm of the opinion that the viewing of porn brings normalises and desensitizes the individuals who view it. Many-not all- will come to see it as normal and their desires will turn from the video screen to actual live victims. Eventually it will lead to more and more abuse and a worsening of the problem.

I know a lot of people who were abused as kids. I think it is much more prevalent than Bascasper does and I also think it is much more damaging to the victims. People should not be in the possesion of kiddie porn. If they are caught, they should be arrested, fined and their names published for all to know they are a potential threat to society.

And if someone happens to give them a good old fashioned beating aloong the way, may the judge give them a little leniency.

[Fox]

[riverboy]

[Fox]

[kabrams]

[Fox]