Adam Walsh Questions Linger

As an activist bearing witness to child protection laws mushrooming from Tallahassee as a result of several high profile Florida child murders, I've become quite familiar with research-based facts.

• The numbers of children under the age of 12 killed by strangers and unidentified offenders are relatively small. Moreover, some of these unidentified offenders are probably family members or acquaintances of young child victims.

Read the research here.

That being said, If I were a journalist with my question antennae up on the "solved" Adam Walsh case, I'd review any and all information regarding house guest James Campbell, who resided at the Walsh home when the six-year-old disappeared.

Although Campbell was eventually cleared of any wrong doing...

"...Hollywood Chief Richard Witt says it's a "physical impossibility" that Campbell did it. The reason: Though no one could vouch for Campbell earlier, he was definitely in town that afternoon and for long after and couldn't have driven that far north and back in time."

Isn't that what Hollywood detectives said about Ottis Toole?

"Retracing Toole's steps in the days before Adam was abducted, police found that two days before Adam went missing, Toole was penniless and without a car, and had just arrived in Jacksonville by Greyhound bus — a trip he paid for with a $72 check from the Salvation Army.

Detectives felt that with so little time and money to make it to Hollywood, it would have been almost impossible for Toole to have killed Adam. They told him so."

Call it obsession, call it whatever you will, but never forget this. Many lives have been unconstitutionally impacted by laws passed to protect children based on dated Friendly Stranger research. And the Adam Walsh case--and Mr. Walsh--played a huge part in the development of state and federal lawmaking.

And I'm not the only blogger asking questions.

From Women in Crime Ink, December 12, 2008:

"...justice has not been served and the killer of Adam Walsh has not been conclusively identified or linked to the crime. The investigation has no more evidence today than it did twenty-seven years ago and the only reason the case has been closed is because Chief Wagner wants it closed. Ending an investigation without a shred of proof is a travesty, not justice."

Am I pointing fingers? Yes. At journalists. Do your job and ask what triggered the closing of this case.

Of course, then there's the whole Jeffrey Dahmer connection.

More on that tomorrow.

Be safe this New Year's Eve.

I offer the following to support my premise that something is just not right with the sudden conclusion of the Walsh case.

As reported by The Seattle Times, March 17, 1996:

It's Aug. 10, 1981, and Adam is missing two weeks. Police fear the worst but hope. So do Adam's parents.

That day, Jimmy Campbell, then 25, walks into the office of Joseph Matthews, polygraph examiner. "Joe, why are they treating me so rough? I know they think I'm responsible for Adam being missing," he complains.

"I was close to Adam, closer than his father. I was his father, brother, uncle and playmate," Campbell tells Matthews. "I could play with him, and John would read to him. Adam would say, `I have two fathers, one stays at home, one works.' We're inseparable - totally. If he got scared, he would sleep with me."

Godfather questioned

That day, Campbell takes his second polygraph test. The first, three days earlier, Matthews classified inconclusive.

Campbell is asked:

Do you know who took Adam? (No.) Do you know where Adam is now? (No.) Did you conspire with anyone to cause Adam's disappearance? (No.) Are you withholding information from the police concerning Adam's disappearance? (No.) Do you suspect anyone of taking Adam? (No.) Did you take Adam? (No.)

"It is the opinion of this examiner based on Mr. Campbell's polygraph examination that he responded truthfully," Matthews concludes.

That evening, one question is resolved forever: Adam is dead. In a canal in Indian River County 125 miles north of Hollywood, two fishermen find his severed head.

Though Campbell passed the polygraph, detectives Jack Hoffman and Ron Hickman go back to him.

On Nov. 25, 1981, they tell him no one can vouch for his whereabouts from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. the day Adam vanished. Campbell explains it was too windy to rent boats at the Golden Strand, so he stayed in his cabana.

The detectives say they think they know his motive: Reve Walsh.

Campbell, who lived with the Walshes for two years, admits he's in love with Reve and carried on a four-year affair with her. He moved out at John's request. "The day I left, we argued," Campbell says.

But Campbell says he dearly loved the boy. "My life centered around Adam. Period." A detective suggests otherwise. "I think Adam was the one that kept John and Reve's marriage strong. And Adam was the person standing between you."

Today, Campbell still lives in Hollywood and declines interviews.

Mark Smith, a detective on the case, discounts the "love-triangle" motive and says Campbell is not a suspect.

Hollywood Chief Richard Witt says it's a "physical impossibility" that Campbell did it. The reason: Though no one could vouch for Campbell earlier, he was definitely in town that afternoon and for long after and couldn't have driven that far north and back in time.

(..)

Initially, police collect the names of eight individuals who "may have seen" Adam at Sears. No one identifies him positively. One is a 10-year-old boy, whose mother reported a "suspicious incident."

On Aug. 14, 1981, Martin Segall hypnotizes the boy. The story: A white man about 6 feet tall with dark brown hair and mustache was hanging around the toy department, reading a comic book. When a little boy - presumably Adam - left Sears, the man followed and got into a blue van.

Two men "wearing stocking masks" pulled the boy inside the van and drove off.

The alleged getaway vehicle: navy-blue Ford van, tinted windows, mag wheels, chrome ladder, no spare tire on the rear.

(...)

In 1995, police look briefly at a second family friend, Michael V. Monahan. He and his brother, John Jr., roomed with Campbell at the time of Adam's abduction.

The investigation comes after a reporter for the Mobile (Ala.) Press Register, Jay Grelen, creates a "furor" with a series of articles, Detective Smith notes. Three days after the abduction, Grelen reported, reports, an enraged Michael Monahan, then 20, slashed a door with a machete in a dispute about a skateboard in Oakland Park.

In a police memo, Smith says he had talked with the reporter - and Grelen raised a startling possibility: "That Monahan committed the murder of Adam Walsh as a favor for James Campbell."

On June 29, 1995, Police Chief Richard Witt writes The Miami Herald to say Monahan has been eliminated as a suspect.

From Volume II, File 17, Page 1090, report of Detectives Hickman and Hoffman:

"We're gonna step on a lot of people's toes in this investigation. And whatever it takes to solve Adam's death, we're gonna solve it."

One way or another.

What to Wear, What to Wear...

Critics Continue to Question "Solved" Walsh Murder

Put the Frog in the critics column....

And why is it important that I--among others--are critical, even suspicious of the sudden "solving" of the Adam Walsh murder?

Washingtonpost.com commenter TroyOi said it best:

"So far I've read 3 online articles on this subject (ie, the final closing of the Adam Walsh case), in WashingtonPost.com, NYTimes.com, and FoxNews.com.

No (sic) one of them has adequately explained what exactly has occurred to trigger this event."

It's almost as if the press is afraid to ask.

What triggered this event?

Is the answer Charlie Manson-esque, certain to bring down the numerous child protection laws based on Adam's abduction and horrific murder as certainly as Manson's Helter-Skelter quite instantaneously ended the peace-love-joy counterculture?

Would the Adam Walsh Act--federal law which stipulates registration requirements for sex offenders (although no proof exists that sexual abuse occurred as part of this crime)--find itself repealed faster than a parole board shouting NO! at old Charlie, should answers prove something is not quite right with the whole "solved" Walsh murder mystery scenario?

Hold that thought.

I bet this story is far from over.

As reported by The Miami Herald (12/28/2008)

Doubts about Adam's killer loom large

Serious questions have been posed as to whether Ottis Toole, identified by Hollywood police as the killer of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, really did it

BY DAVID SMILEY

dsmiley@MiamiHerald.com

From his grave, Ottis Elwood Toole, a career criminal with a penchant for storytelling, still bedevils police.

His numerous murder confessions earned him a spotlight in dozens of unsolved homicide investigations throughout the country and a reputation as one of America's most heinous serial killers.

They also earned the drifter a reputation as one of the country's worst serial liars. Investigators have been unable to confirm many of his stories and in some cases have discounted his confessions altogether.

His most infamous story — of abducting 6-year-old Adam Walsh outside a Hollywood, Fla., Sears store on July 27, 1981, and beheading him in a marshy field near Florida's Turnpike — has sparked controversy anew as Hollywood police this month identified Toole as the man who murdered the child.

That announcement, delivered at a news conference, was welcomed by Walsh family members, who said they finally had justice.

But he announcement drew instant questions from critics who say the evidence against Toole has been shaky, at best, from the start, and who note that police never charged him while he was alive.

"I was appalled, absolutely appalled," Pat Brown, a criminal profiler in Washington, said of the decision to close the case. "There is no reason to close a case without sufficient evidence that one particular person has committed the crime."

When Hollywood police called reporters to the department's headquarters Dec. 16 to announce the case solved, it was the second time they would officially name Toole as Adam's killer.

Police first did so in 1983, when Toole confessed the night after a TV movie about the case was aired.

But serious doubts about Toole's involvement, his constant wavering on whether he really killed the boy, and a lack of direct evidence forced police to back off. They never did charge him.

When a lawsuit by the Miami Herald and others forced police to open their files in 1996, authorities again said they considered Toole a prime suspect. He died later that year, a five-time convicted killer.

In the 12 years since, police were unable to uncover new evidence.

"If you're looking for that magic wand or that hidden document that just appeared, it's not there," Police Chief Chadwick E. Wagner conceded to reporters.

Instead, Wagner said a review of the file showed that "a vast amount of circumstantial evidence" created probable cause enough to charge Toole with the crime — were he still alive.

Hollywood investigators who took Toole's early confessions had significant doubts.

"My opinion, as is most everyone else from the city of Hollywood, is that he did not do this killing," then-Lt. J.B. Smith concluded in 1984. "The only thing that we will say for sure is that 3,500 hours and $62,000 later, we can't confirm anything he has said."

Toole had no alibi for his whereabouts on the day Adam was kidnapped, and witnesses claim to have seen him at the mall that day, police said. Police recovered a machete to which Toole had access. Cellmates claimed that he had confessed to them, and a former co-worker said Toole confessed to him in 1982, even before he first spoke with Hollywood detectives.

But no murder weapon was ever confirmed, and police managed to lose the car that Toole said he was driving when he killed Adam, a 1971 Cadillac, along with a box of blood-stained carpet samples taken from it.

Wagner, who declined through a department spokesman to be interviewed for this report, defended the decision to close the case when he spoke at the news conference. He said the department was too defensive about its mistakes in the past and could have arrested Toole before he died.

Toole became involved in the case on Oct. 11, 1983, one day after the Adam Walsh story debuted on national television. He was in a Duval County jail on unrelated charges at the time, and was confessing to a number of murders in Florida and Texas.

A Brevard County detective was finishing an interview with Toole and had turned his tape recorder off when the killer started to talk about abducting and murdering a boy from Broward County.

Soon, Hollywood Detectives Ron Hickman and Jack Hoffman flew to Jacksonville to interview Toole, who would proceed to confess and recant several times and tell multiple versions of how and why he killed the boy.

Toole's confession was filled with holes.

He claimed that he and one-eyed cohort Henry Lee Lucas had driven to Hollywood in the Cadillac and were in the mall parking lot when they saw Adam running around. They pulled him inside and drove to a remote area off the turnpike, where, he said, Lucas killed him.

But detectives learned that Lucas was locked up in a Maryland prison that day.

Toole later changed his tale. In his new version, he said he enticed Adam into his car with candy and toys. He gave varying accounts of how he killed him.

Although the child's head was recovered, his body was never found.

Toole failed to identify Adam on a missing-person flier, gave an inaccurate description of the boy's features and clothing, and said he abducted Adam about the first of the year.

Retracing Toole's steps in the days before Adam was abducted, police found that two days before Adam went missing, Toole was penniless and without a car, and had just arrived in Jacksonville by Greyhound bus — a trip he paid for with a $72 check from the Salvation Army.

Detectives felt that with so little time and money to make it to Hollywood, it would have been almost impossible for Toole to have killed Adam. They told him so.

"No, I didn't kill Adam Walsh," he then told them on Oct. 26, 1983. "If I did, I would be able to show you where the rest of the body is."

Toole spent the next 12 minutes alone with Jacksonville Detective J.W. "Buddy" Terry, who at the time was acting as Toole's jailhouse custodian. Toole changed his mind and confessed, offering a different account of how he killed Adam.

Those 12 minutes have come up countless times in the years since.

Toole, police say, relayed details that only the killer could know, such as the location of a dirt road leading to the canal where the head was found.

In 1988, a Broward Sheriff's Office detective wrote a memo saying that Terry had signed a book deal with Toole and had leaked information about the case.

Terry did not return messages left with a woman at his Middleburg, Fla., home.

During a 1996 interview with investigators, he denied leaking information and said the deal was inked in jest after Toole told him about a number of other book deals he had agreed to. But Terry's superior, then-Undersheriff John Nelson, felt differently and moved Terry to the communications department.

Jim Suber, Terry's supervisor in 1983, believed "that the information Toole gave regarding the Adam Walsh murder was based on information he had obtained from news sources and perhaps from investigators, including Terry," according to one case memo.

Another flaw: the lack of direct evidence linking Toole to the killing. Investigators had long hoped that the Cadillac would yield evidence.

Blood was found in the car after Toole confessed. But by the time DNA testing became available, police had lost the car, along with the blood-stained carpet samples.

Yet, despite the missing evidence, the waffling confessions and the questions about where Toole got his information, police say they have more than enough evidence to indict him.

"If Ottis Toole was alive today, he would be arrested for the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh," Police Chief Wagner told reporters.

The decision to close the case was supported by the Broward state attorney's office. But Charles Morton Jr., chief assistant state attorney, said police mistakes would have made a successful prosecution difficult.

Michael Gottlieb, a defense attorney, agreed that there are major flaws in the case. "With Toole dead, nobody can really question him as to his motive," he said. "We're all going to be left to speculate."

Longtime case detectives still have their doubts.

"I spent 100 hours with that individual," Hickman, one of the original case detectives, said in 2001. "I'll tell you right now: He didn't do it."

It's Official! Adam Walsh Act Impacts Families

Very little is known about the effects of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws and the resulting collateral damage suffered by the family members living with loved ones who are required to register as sex offenders.

With that in mind, Dr. Jill Levenson, Associate Professor at Lynn University decided to initiate her own research this past July.

Her study--Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders-- is now complete and scheduled for a 2009 publication by the American Journal of Criminal Justice.(The abstract of the work immediately follows this post).

After reading the unofficial copy of the study, the following stood out for me.

Besides the obvious disruption in employment and housing due to residency restriction laws, not to mention threats and harassment to family members as well as the unknown impact to an offender's children due to the stigmatization of the RSO laws, per the study, the "implications for criminal justice policy are clear."

"SORN laws have extended sanctions and their negative economic, social and psychological consequences to others associated with sex offenders....As a result, current policies may have effects that contradict their intentions: by imposing losses on RSOs' family members, the conditions that work to inhibit reoffending are weakened or removed, potentially facilitating recidivism."

Regarding the Adam Walsh Act:

The expanded registration requirements (under the AWA) lengthen duration periods which proliferate the impact of SORN laws on family members.

"Such a system is well-intentioned, but misguided...By reserving public disclosure for those (offenders) who pose the greatest threat, resources can be more efficiently distributed, citizens can be appropriately warned, reintegration obstacles for offenders can be minimized, and collateral damages for family members can be diminished. In contrast to guidelines set forth by the Adam Walsh Act, evidence-based sex crime policies which employ empirically validated risk assessment strategies would be more apt to accomplish goals of public safety and successful reintegration."

In summation:

The family members of registered sex offenders have been...

"...largely unheard, and they are among the collateral victims of sexually violent crime. SORN politics have become increasingly restrictive over the years, exposing sex offenders and their families to public scrutiny and placing severe limits on sex offenders' employment, housing and academic opportunities. Certainly these policies were designed to protect the public from sexually dangerous individuals, but the collateral consequences of the laws to others were presumably unanticipated. Given that there is little research to suggest that community notification laws result in decreased recidivism...their impediments to offenders' reintegration and their consequences for innocent others deserve thought consideration."

But then, we family members already knew as much.

REPEAL. THESE. LAWS.

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of sex offender registration and notification laws on the family members of registered sex offenders (RSO). An online survey was utilized to collect data from 584 family members across the U.S. Employment problems experienced by the RSO, and subsequent financial hardships, emerged as the most pressing issue identified by family members. The likelihood of housing disruption was correlated with residential restriction laws; larger buffer distances led to increased frequencies of housing crisis. Family members living with an RSO were more likely to experience threats and harassment by neighbors. Children of RSOs reportedly experienced adverse consequences including stigmatization and differential treatment by teachers and classmates. More than half
had experienced ridicule, teasing, depression, anxiety, fear, or anger. Unintended consequences can impact family membersʼ ability to support RSOs in their efforts to avoid recidivism and successfully reintegrate. Implications for criminal justice policy and practice are discussed.
Keywords: registered sex offender, family members, Meganʼs Law, sexual abuse

Full reference:
Levenson, J. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2009). Collateral damage: Family members of registered sexoffenders. American Journal of Criminal Justice. Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12103-008-9055-x

To view the unofficial copy, click here.

Will Crist Fund the Adam Walsh Act with Lawton Chiles' Endowment?

I may have happened upon the real reason behind the recent joint appearance by John Walsh and Hollywood (Florida) law enforcement, where the murder of Adam Walsh was declared "solved".

As all Floridians well know, our beloved state is in fiscal melt-down. Governor Charlie Crist has threatened to tap into the Lawton Chiles Endowment Fund (reserved to assist the elderly and children) to financially bail out the state of Florida.

As Florida's checkbook falls deeper and deeper into the red, 2009 federal compliance with the Adam Walsh Act is within sight. Failure to comply results in the loss of 10 percent of the state's Byrne grant money.

From the Justice Policy Institute:

Congress passed the Adam Walsh Act,a federal law that requires states to include children as young as age 14 on registries — often for the rest of their lives — in an attempt to protect our children from sexual violence.

But the Adam Walsh Act won’t keep our children safe.

Instead, this law will consume valuable law enforcement resources, needlessly target children and families, and undermine the very purpose of the juvenile justice system. Thankfully, states can opt out of compliance with this law, and make smart investments in programs and policies that will actually protect our children and our communities.

(Registering Harm, How sex offense registries fail youth and communities)

(...)

Herein lies the difficulty for Mr. Walsh.

In every state, the first-year cost of implementing the Adam Walsh Act outweighs the cost of losing 10 percent of the state’s Byrne grant money.*

Translated-

Florida will save money by opting out of the AWA.

However....?

Is the Adam Walsh Act Implementation on the Florida financial "bail out" list?

Is John Walsh that influential?

Under threat of legal action by the Chiles family, is Charlie Crist about to "borrow" from the late Governer Chiles' legacy to fund a mandate founded on disproved research?

(Search the budget here).

Is Charlie about to borrow from funding set aside for children to include children as young as age 14 on registries for "offenses" such as "...a kindergarten student pinching a female classmate’s bottom?" (page 21, Registering Harm)

Is that what Charlie Crist is about to do for the special interest known as John Walsh?

From what I witnessed a couple of weeks ago, I believe Mr. Walsh may be realizing that the figures on the state ledger are just not adding up in his favor. But don't expect him to bow out gracefully.

One certainty.

Money (or lack thereof) always provides politicians who paint themselves into a political corner with a way out.



AWA Implementation Estimate for 2009

Once again..... In every state, the first-year cost of implementing the Adam Walsh Act outweighs the cost of losing 10 percent of the state’s Byrne grant money.

FLORIDA

AWA Implementation Estimate for 2009 : $29,602,768

Byrne Money Received in 2006**:
$12,402,693

10 Percent of Byrne Money Lost for Noncompliance:
$1,240,269

Dwindling state dollars has Florida justice scrambling. "... Florida's justice system has already suffered through two rounds of budget cuts over during the last 18 months could lose up to 15 percent of its budget during this fiscal year and next." (Tampa Bay Online, 12/27/2008).

***

How much will the AWA cost your state?

First figure: AWA implementation costs Second figure: Byrne Money received in 2006. Third figure: 10 percent loss of Byrne Money for noncompliance

ALABAMA $7,506,185 $3,178,628 $317,863
ALASKA $1,108,573 $565,971 $56,597
ARIZONA $10,281,201 $3,653,881 $365,388
ARKANSAS $4,597,925 $2,180,442 $218,044
CALIFORNIA $59,287,816 $21,876,819 $2,187,682
COLORADO $7,885,178 $2,725,489 $272,549
CONNECTICUT $5,680,602 $2,189,001 $218,900
DELAWARE $1,402,612 $1,248,534 $124,853
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA $954,186 $1,804,991 $180,499
FLORIDA $29,602,768 $12,402,693 $1,240,269
GEORGIA $15,481,193 $5,594,288 $559,429
HAWAII $2,081,603 $933,732 $93,373
IDAHO $2,431,969 $1,170,003 $117,000
ILLINOIS $20,846,306 $8,501,000 $850,100
INDIANA $10,291,799 $3,696,033 $369,603
IOWA $4,846,488 $1,881,623 $188,162
KANSAS $4,502,553 $2,035,999 $203,600
KENTUCKY $6,879,497 $2,702,451 $270,245
LOUISIANA $6,963,401 $3,514,704 $351,470
MAINE $2,136,456 $1,172,583 $117,258
MARYLAND $9,112,724 $4,320,568 $432,057
MASSACHUSETTS $10,461,238 $4,353,201 $435,320
MICHIGAN $16,336,082 $6,793,169 $679,317
MINNESOTA $8,430,328 $3,061,831 $306,183
MISSISSIPPI $4,734,150 $2,065,269 $206,527
MISSOURI $9,534,548 $4,182,382 $418,238
MONTANA $1,553,611 $1,076,424 $107,642
NEBRASKA $2,878,281 $1,288,957 $128,896
NEVADA $4,160,944 $1,808,095 $180,810
NEW HAMPSHIRE $2,134,219 $1,192,435 $119,244
NEW JERSEY $14,088,206 $5,160,709 $516,071
NEW MEXICO $3,195,121 $1,879,901 $187,990
NEW YORK $31,300,125 $11,279,841 $1,127,984
NORTH $14,696,622 $5,460,983 $546,098
NORTH DAKOTA $1,037,592 $554,556 $55,456
OHIO $18,598,869 $6,223,825 $622,383
OKLAHOMA $5,867,138 $2,790,472 $279,047
OREGON $6,078,218 $2,251,312 $225,131
PENNSYLVANIA $20,165,479 $7,640,322 $764,032
RHODE ISLAND $1,715,760 $967,292 $96,729
SOUTH CAROLINA $7,149,123 $3,610,292 $361,029
SOUTH DAKOTA $1,291,426 $513,858 $51,386
TENNESSEE $9,985,946 $4,817,782 $481,778
TEXAS $38,771,924 $14,045,713 $1,404,571
UTAH $4,290,617 $1,557,034 $155,703
VERMONT $1,007,649 $630,419 $63,042
VIRGINIA $12,508,695 $3,943,036 $394,304
WASHINGTON $10,491,519 $3,538,816 $353,882
WEST VIRGINIA $2,939,046 $1,679,108 $167,911
WISCONSIN $9,085,630 $2,982,833 $298,283
WYOMING $848,009 $584,036 $58,404

In every state, the first-year cost of implementing the Adam Walsh Act outweighs the cost of losing 10 percent of the state’s Byrne grant money.* * See Appendix B for methodology and additional information. ** The U.S. House of Representatives estimates that 2009 federal allocations for Byrne grants will return

***

What is a sex offense?

The definition of sex offenses varies widely from state to state. The FBI defines sex offenses as “Offenses against chastity, common decency, morals, and the like.” Frequently sex offenses include behaviors that psychologists consider to be normative for both adults and children, including sexual experimentation.

In some states, sex offenses can also include public urination and streaking.

Specific data on the numbers and types of sex offenses reported are not available on a national scale. The FBI Uniform Crime Report lumps together all sex-related, non-rape, and non-prostitution offenses into the category “sex offenses,”making it difficult to determine where and how sexual violence occurs.*

***

Lawmakers established sex offense registries with the aim of protecting children from strangers. However, research conducted with the Federal Bureau of Investigation has found that 34 percent of youth victims (0-17 years old) were sexually assaulted by a family member and 59 percent were assaulted by acquaintances.

In other words, 7 percent of youth victims in this study were assaulted by strangers.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Bad Santa Deux

Enjoy this Smashed Frog Holiday Best Of, first published December 16, 2007.

Happy Holidays to you all.

I am constantly amazed at the amount of Parental Disconnect during the holiday season.

All the live long year, parents scare the hell out of their children by telling the story of--insert scary music here--The Friendly Stranger.

Around roll the holidays, and these same parents have no problem turning their kid over to an elf--all dressed in glorious green--who promptly plops the squirming mass of cheer on the lap of a gigantic bearded man dressed in fur-trimmed crimson.

The kid bellows out a whoop worthy of yelling Fire! in a crowded movie theater and all the parents laugh, looking at each other in that knowing way, isn't that cute?

Photographs document the onset of early childhood post-traumatic stress disorder and off the lap the kids is swept--sobbing with the holiday spirit--safe, sound back in the arms of the waiting parent, who is ever conscious of the child-stealing riff-raff that hangs out in the mall.

Wow.

Throw a Shoe at George

Twenty six days left of Bush....

Merry Christmas.

Train Your Brain at Mind360.com

In the wake of the shoe-throwing incident at US President George Bush, the Internet has been flooded by online games in which users can throw shoes at Bush, or avoid them...

A screenshot from the Mind360 game.

During Bush's recent visit to Iraq, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes at the American President during a news conference in Baghdad. Since then, at least 10 games were released in less than a week.

One of the first games released is the Bush Shoe Game created by Mind360, an Israeli company that develops scientifically based brain training games.

The game measures response time, a capability that is known to be reduced with age. As soon as the shoes are thrown at Bush, the player must click on Bush to avoid being hit by the shoe.

Other games are actually aimed at throwing shoes at Bush rather than protect him. One such example is Bye Bye Bush, which provides endless supply of shoes to throw at Bush.

Another one called Sock and Awe, was developed by Alex Tew who also created the one million dollar page.

According to Google trends, it appears that most 'Bush and Shoe' searches were carried out in Muslim countries, with Pakistan leading the search volume.

--The Jerusalem Post

Making a List, Checking It Twice

I'm always screaming loud and long about how lawmakers have used people without power as the first step towards shoving their foot in our civil liberties front door.

Well, if you Froggers needed proof, here ya go.

"Due to newly created Florida Statute § 907.043 Pretrial release; citizens’ right to know, the Brevard County Clerk of the Court has created a section to display the Pretrial Release Register. Regarding the Pretrial Release Register, the Clerk maintains the following caveat, “The Brevard County Clerk of Court’s responsibility is to make this report available to the public. For questions regarding the content, please contact the Pretrial Release program at the Brevard County Jail = (321) 690-1514.”

Yep, just click open the month of your choice and take your pick of which ever person's business you wish to stick your nose into.

Check out a sample page from the Register here.

So much for innocent until proven guilty.

How long before you're listed?

Caylee's Law?

As a mother of two, I hoped Caylee Anthony would be found alive.

As an activist, I also knew such a finding could reenergize lawmakers to bleat an I told ya so in defense of child safety laws that have unfairly stigmatized many Americans and their families.

That could still happen, depending on just when the plastic bag containing the youngster's remains was placed (buried?) on the wooded site.

That's a stretch, but either way, questions remain.

Who killed Caylee?

Who put that child in a plastic bag and dumped her like a piece of trash?

If the killer is a family member which lawmaker will step forward first to file "Caylee's Law", some sort of proposal aimed at regular everyday parents and their extended families, grandma, grandpa, etc. etc. etc.

And will the media finally report the truth behind child safety?

That kids are more likely to be killed or kidnapped by their own family members than persons unknown to them? Read the research here.

That child predation is what many have known all along--the worst sort of Fear Card that can be dealt to parents?

How close are we to the ultimate invasion regarding the privacy rights of our children, i.e. the insertion of a GPS microchip to "protect our kids", to proactively address the possibility that a child could go missing? Your child could go missing. A chip could help us find your child.

Because that sort of thinking is the cornerstone on which lawmakers have built the sex offender laws and law enforcement uses to explain away their online sting operations.

It could happen to you thinking.

Now, America's families. It could happen to you.

I envision some sort of minimum time to report a child missing law. Consequence for noncompliance? Third degree felony. One year and a day. Registration as a Child Offender,
a label that really lands a brand on a parent as "neglectful".

The old do you know where your children are logic?

Wouldn't matter if the kid turns up at a neighbor's house. Who knows if the next time the child remains unreported, he or she is found in a garbage bag in the woods.

Governmental thinking:
It could happen, so we are making certain right from the get-go, it doesn't.

Oh, and somehow, the state will profit off the new parental negligence law.

Remember what I have said all along. First, lawmakers start stripping away the rights of those without power through sensationalizing a horrific crime, behaviorally chaining ultimate disgust and distaste to a law that the rest of us immediately buy into, such as the Jessica Lunsford Act.

These horrible people deserved this. And the streets are crawling with them.

Bingo. A straight up my child is safe now because the law protects us fetish is formed.

Once we allow those in power to get away with such psychological damaging unconstitutional lawmaking, it's a slippery slope to us.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Caylee's grandparents start lobbying for "Caylee's Law" themselves. We should have reported her missing earlier. Support our law so other grandchildren don't suffer the same horrible death.

Although our President-elect is a constitutional attorney, we Frogs still live in Florida where the hang 'em high mentality is alive and well.

Although part of me almost hopes I'm right--that such a law is pitched and passed--having lived without privacy as a citizen who has committed no crime (which doesn't appear to matter to the state) yet stands in support of a loved one fallen victim to Fetish Lawmaking...well, I wouldn't wish such a nightmare on anyone.

In closing--

Protect your privacy rights. Protect your family.

Don't. Be. Fooled.

Obama's Rick Warren Bridge

The gay community is feeling thrown under the bridge by Barack Obama's decision to ask pro-Prop 8 evangelist Rick Warren to lead the inaugural prayer.

From a Frog who actually knows people who know people who are living under actual bridges because of policies based on hate and division (and lies and Fear), let me say this about that.

Obama is offering the far right extremists in this country a bridge. To walk, to talk....to help end a divide that has so cemented the thinking in this country that all we can do is stand around like statues and point fingers Right and Left.

Open up your ears--and your progressive brains--and let's meet in the middle.

Bravo Yahoo.

Remember what I mentioned about change sneaking through the back door?

Yahoo has taken the first step.

As reported by The New York Times:

Yahoo said Wednesday that it would limit to 90 days the time it holds some personally identifiable information related to searches to address growing concerns from privacy advocates, policy makers and government regulators.

(...)

Under the new policy, Yahoo will delete the last eight bits of the Internet Protocol, or I.P., address associated with a search query after 90 days. I.P. addresses are digital tags that can identify a specific computer. Yahoo will also hide cookie data related to each search log and strip out any personally identifiable information, like a name, phone number, address or Social Security number, from the query itself.

(...)

Yahoo’s new data retention policy is the most restrictive among major search engines in the United States and will most likely put pressure on rivals like Google and Microsoft to shorten the time they keep information about their users.

It comes at a time when some privacy advocates are planning a renewed push for legislation that would regulate the data retention and online advertising practices of Internet companies, which they say has a stronger chance of passing with a new Congress and president in Washington.

Already Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, praised Yahoo for setting a new privacy standard.

“I urge other leading online companies to match or beat the commitments announced by Yahoo,” Mr. Markey said in a press release.

Previously, Yahoo kept search logs for 13 months. In September, Google began to strip out some personally identifiable information related to searches after 9 months. Microsoft keeps the information for 18 months.

Is the Constitution about to be removed from life support?

***

"Since we enacted the PATRIOT Act almost three years ago, there has been tremendous public debate about its breadth and implications on due process and privacy."

--Howard Berman
U.S. Congressman, (D-CA)

Big Surprise. Ottis Toole.

Seated on the edge of the same coffee table where I watched Barack Obama lay victorious claim to the Presidency, I sat again this afternoon, gaping as John Walsh informed the media that the murder of his son had been solved.

Right off the bat, for those who believe that child protection laws are actually to protect kids and are by no means political, listen up and listen well. At the time of six-year-old Adam's death, my own daughter was one year of age. The boy's remains were found less than one hour from where I lived at the time.

Horrified by the murderer, the proximity and the fact that a few years later, I actually met Walsh on Paradise Island, the loss really stuck with me. As a mother, the incident was so real, for years, anytime I caught sight of the video games during at visit to Sears, I pulled my kids closer in remembrance.

So today, as the Walsh announcement pulled me in, I expected to hear that a DNA match had identified a killer.

When Ottis Toole was named, that's about the time my jaw dropped.

For long-time Floridians, this is not new information. For years, Toole had been assumed to have killed Adam. The jerk was so classy, he twisted the knife to the parents by confessing, recanting the confession, only to finally admit yeah, I did it.

Then he got off easy and died in prison. On his deathbed, Toole admitted to killing Adam.

I feel for the Walsh family. I really do. Even after all the families he has ruined through his hellbent intent to make someone-anyone--pay for his loss through the passage of the Adam Walsh Act (along with his pal, Mark Foley), I empathized with him.

My loved one--convicted for chatting online to a police officer who pretended to be 15 years old, his life, career, financial status and dreams ruined for one dumb move --felt the pain of the Walsh family.

Today, I was completely taken out of the closure moment that Walsh--I'm certain--had hoped to create. One thought kept buzzing through my head.

What is he up to?

Is Walsh washing his hands clean of his part in the creation of "sex offenders", not the vile Toole type, but those Americans who never touched anyone physically, much less a child, but engaged in some stupid behavior choice? (And believe me, those behaviors are numerous).

Is he stepping back as America learns that regular people register as sex offenders and those with power plea down or totally walk, like--once again--his pal, Mark Foley? Or perhaps Josh Lunsford, son of another Mark, who also took his guilt over his poor parenting to state legislatures throughout this country in the form of the Jessica Lunsford Act? Arrested and convicted for a sex offense worthy of registration, Josh Lunsford is another fine example of not what you know, but who you know.

Did John drive by the Julia Tuttle Causeway one day last summer to sight a hot, dirty, sweaty human being living under the bridge because residency restrictions prohibit that citizen from calling Miami home?

Is he sick at heart with the knowledge that he is responsible for young husbands who add "sex offender" to their resumes because too many years--as stipulated by lawmakers--stood between he and his wife while dating?

With the Democrats in power, does he realize that hate crimes legislation is most definitely right around the corner, hate crimes such as those planned by vigilantes who knock on the doors of those forced to register and murdering them where they stand because John played a part in the passage of legislation that required posting the address of the deceased--and their families--for any wingnut to view?

Is the writing on the wall as far as political funding for the ridiculous laws that keep no one safe but many concentrated behind unconstitutional fences? With a constitutional attorney ready to serve the public in the highest office in the land, has "someone" told Walsh to "wrap it up"?

What is Walsh's game?

What does he know that we don't know?

And is this the legacy Walsh leaves behind?

"He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran told the Associated Press.

Go home, John. Let Adam rest.

And let the rest of us be.

You've done enough.

Frog Thoughts

Hey Froggers.

I've been away for a bit of R & R and should be back in true froggin' form this week, quite possibly tomorrow.

It's not easy being green.

Sometimes ya just gotta take a break, if only for a couple of days.

See you soon.

It's not that easy being green;
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold...
or something much more colorful like that.

It's not easy being green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ord'nary things.
And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're
not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water
or stars in the sky.

But green's the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain,
or tall like a tree.

When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why?
Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful!
And I think it's what I want to be.

Looks like it's good for more than just protein shakes!

John Walsh Getting Research-Smart? Finally?

From the man who once promoted anal implants --"People who molest children should have chips embedded in the rectum that would explode if they violate their parole, "--is it possible John Walsh is finally spouting advice based on research?

Well, sort of. Let's say, a bit of the truth that lies amid Walsh's polished ability to Feed Fear to Parents.

"I've seen a huge increase in crimes against children during the past few years over the Internet," Walsh said. "The message I want to leave with you parents today is to make your kids street smart about cyberspace. Predators are looking for unsophisticated children who might be lonely or naive."

Per the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee,, an Internet industry association whose mission is to work with lawmakers on Internet issues:

Myths and misperceptions about online predators are driving adults to misguided efforts to protect young people, according to researchers.

The public impression is that online predators are "Internet pedophiles who've moved the playground into your living room," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) at the University of New Hampshire.

The common wisdom is that predators target young children by pretending to children themselves, and they lure children in using personal information gained by trickery or gathered from the Internet, Finkelhor said. Likewise, society thinks believes predators stalk children, abduct, and rape them, "or even worse," he said.

But, actually, teens, rather than young children, are usually the victims of the crimes, Finkelhor said. Victims often run away from home to be with adults they met online, fall in love with the offenders, and work against police efforts to help them, Finkelhor said.

Only 5 per cent of cases involve violence, only 3 per cent involve abduction, and only 4 per cent of offenders concealed their ages from victims, Finkelhor said. And 80 per cent were "quite explicit" about their sexual intentions.

While authorities work with parents to try to protect kids, the kids most at risk have little trust in their parents. They've been victims of physical or sexual abuse, or have substantial conflicts in their family, he said.

Young people often go online to escape from bad situations at home, said danah boyd, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies how young people interact online.

boyd studies how young people interact online. While society views the home as a safe haven, and the Internet as a dangerous jungle filled with predators, for many at-risk young people, the reverse is true. They go online to escape from abusive or absent parents, or - in affluent homes especially - to escape the overwhelming pressure to achieve.

The good news?

Although Walsh cited these statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children--by the time children are 9 years old, 90 percent use the Internet and one in five children receive a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet every year--what he failed to mention was boyd's findings.

Young people are often resistant to sexual solicitations, the researcher stated. They lump sexual solicitations with online marketing, as nuisances that they delete and move on.

And as Central Floridians are sadly reminded by the discovery of a young child's remains amid the high profile cases of two missing local kids Trenton Duckett and Caylee Anthony, children are more likely to be harmed at the hands of their parents, family members or someone known to them than someone unknown to them.

Read more from the Crimes Against Children Research Center here.

An interesting exit interview

Click on the link to read the full interview . It's hilarious!

Rep. Richard "Rich" Glorioso-(R-Plant City)

Like everyone else, I'm out running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to cram 30 hours into a 24 hour day.

The holidaze are upon us.

But I'm not too busy to notice the first bill filed in the Florida state house. And what a charmer it is.

Question.

Are the proposed loitering laws in place of or in addition to the current residency restrictions confining Florida families into concentrated areas?

Perhaps District 62 Rep. Richard "Rich" Glorioso (R-Plant City) can answer that question for me? Or perhaps this one?

Representative, is this yet another tired, sad political play to earn a quick vote playing the Fear Card?

Because Floridians are a bit more educated than they were a few years back, now that many of their own family and friends have become ensnared in what constitutes a sexual offense these days and the resulting laws of confinement passed by Bible-thumping politicians like yourself who have failed our state.

GENERAL BILL by Glorioso

Sexual Offenders and Predators: Prohibits loitering or prowling by certain offenders within specified distance of places where children regularly congregate; provides exceptions; revises provisions relating to reporting of transient addresses or locations for sexual predators & offenders; requires search in specified sex offender registry regarding sexual predators & offenders when persons are placed on misdemeanor probation; requires additional registration information from sex offenders who are under supervision of DOC but not incarcerated; revises provisions relating to polygraph examinations of specified conditional releasees, probationers, & community controllees who have committed specified sexual offenses; provides additional restrictions for such persons who committed sexual offenses with minors under age of 16 or who have been designated as sexual predators or received similar designations or determinations in another jurisdiction; deletes requirement for diagnosis of certain sexual predators & offenders on community control; revises provisions relating to treatment for such offenders & predators.

Effective Date: July 1, 2009

Mom Stings Back

Giuiliano and Allo

Coming soon to a theater near you.

Mom remakes self to get dirt on her son's juror.

Doreen Giuliano was obsessed with saving her son from a life behind bars after he was convicted of murder.

She gave herself an extreme makeover — blonde dye job, fake tan, sexy wardrobe, phony name — and began spying on jurors. She befriended one juror to root out any possible misdeeds at the trial, and for nearly eight months, they drank at bars, smoked marijuana and shared meals in her tiny Brooklyn hideaway.

The juror eventually opened up to her about his time as a juror, completely unaware that this seductive older woman was the same dutiful mother who sat through the entire trial just a few feet away from him.

The bizarre saga has become the basis for a defense motion filed this week demanding that the verdict be set aside, while exposing the desperate attempt that Giuliano made to win her son's freedom.

"What she did was extraordinarily commendable," said one of Giuliano's lawyers, Ezra Glaser. "It shows the love of a mother and the great lengths she'll go to to help her child."

The juror, naturally, doesn't quite see it that way. Jason Allo faces the possibility of being hauled into court to explain conversations recorded by a seductive undercover mother wearing a wire.

"He didn't do anything wrong," said his attorney, Salvatore Strazzullo. "We're going to defend Mr. Allo's actions to the full extent of the law.

Oh, I see. It's okay for law enforcement to pretend to be someone else in order to entrap another, but when Mom and Apple Pie try the sting on for size, suddenly, suddenly the stingee is on the short end of the justice stick.

Makes me wonder how many of the 664,731 persons registered as sex offenders in this country found themselves lured in much the same way as Jason Allo?

Check out these September 2008 stats from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children...

In May 2007, that number was 602,189. In 16 months, there were 62,524 new registrants added.

That's 3908.8 per month, 130.3 per day, 5.4 per hour.

In other words, every 11 minutes and 6 seconds another person is added to the SO registry.

The lesson learned from the sting--police or citizen--is something our own mothers always told us.

Don't talk to strangers.

Read more about Doreen Giuliano over at the LA Times.

To Catch A Kop

Ah. The sting operation.

Law enforcement has strangled the constitutionality out of this favorite "police procedure" through their target of persons with no predisposition for "crime", entrapping many, many citizens into criminal schemes that they would have otherwise not been a party if government hadn't decided to ruin their lives because they can.

Pardon my chortle as KopBusters--a new reality show--stings back with true intent.

Bad boy, bad boys wearing a badge? What'cha gonna do when KopBusters comes for you?

Per The Raw Story:

Barry Cooper, a former Texas police officer with eight years of specialty in drug interdiction, first made waves when he released the film "Never Get Busted Again," a how-to guide for evading police drug seizures.

Austin, Texas-based Cooper's latest project is not nearly so benign, and will likely generate for the former drug warrior an army of enemies in law enforcement.

'KopBusters' is a reality TV program that aims to sink crooked officers.

"KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana," claims a release from NeverGetBusted.com "When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house."

"The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby.

"The attorney was handcuffed and later released when eleven KopBuster detectives arrived with the media in tow to question the illegal raid. The police refused to give KopBusters the search warrant affidavit which is suspected to contain the lies regarding the probable cause.

"It is not illegal to grow plants under a light in your home but it is illegal to lie on an affidavit and plant drugs on a citizen. This operation was the first of its kind in the history of America. Police sometimes have other police investigating their crimes but the American court system has never dealt with a group of citizens stinging the police. Will the police file charges on the team who took down the corrupt cops? We will keep you posted."

Cooper's "Never Get Busted Again" was a runaway success, the sales of which serve as financial support for this most recent project.

"The drug war is a failed policy and the legal side effects on the families are worse than the drugs," Cooper said to the Dallas Observer in early 2007. "I was so wrong in the things I did back then. I ruined lives."

The 'Kop Busters' sting was the feature of a CBS 7 report, aired Dec. 4, 2008.

One question.

How many Christmas trees constitutes a grow house these days?

"It's been shown thousands of times that police lie under oath. That they violate the very Constitution they are sworn to uphold. Conservatives, while proclaiming an allegiance to law and order, never speak out against the lawless police. Why not? Because conservatives do no care about the law. They only care about throwing people into prison."

As legal as they wannabe.

--Crime and Federalism

America Fights Back.