This Way to the Egress
While many kids dream about running away and joining the circus, who knew it was common to kiddie diddlers too. Carnivals have always meant weird things going on: rides that might be a little rickety, crooked games and, possibly an apocalyptic battle between good and evil. But Jeremy Duffer, a man on the run for raping a boy under 12, was caught working in a carnival in Tennessee, which was the same state he was wanted in. So, this genius ran away to across the state. Thank the gods criminals are stupid.
Jeremy Duffer cut the state mandated electronic leg iron and joined a traveling carnival. Now, as ideas go, this isn't the worst idea of all time. No neighbors to rat you out if you get on America's Most Wanted, little chance of being around a school where people are watching and generally, people don't like looking at carnies. Of course, the problem was he was wanted in Memphis and he was found in Eastern Tennessee. Mr. Duffer literally cut and run after being informed by his lawyer that he had no chance in hell of being found not guilty. Which is probably true. He was a former video arcade owner (they still have those? I've been looking for good one since that kick ass one in State College shut down) who was up for molesting a kid, even by certain's people standards.
To nip this is in the God damned bud: Pedophilia (n) from Gk ped- child, phil- love, -ia act of. Child (n) while Webster's might define that as between birth and puberty, American law puts it as anyone less than 18 years old. 216 months. 6570 days. 157,680 hours. 9,460,800 minutes. Math even I can fucking do. Yeah yeah, girls are more mature than they were in your day, even though they're getting married later, holding jobs later, less likely to move out, and having kids later, yes, they're more mature then when you were kid. Keep telling yourself that. While people are all ready to jump on the difference between ephebopihlia (sex with children who have gone through puberty) and pedophilia (sex with a kid who hasn't gone through puberty yet), few have talked about how to measure that. Age can be determined from an ID (oh, and for the record, girl flashes a fake ID to a guy, he shouldn't be charged with statutory rape so long as it is a reasonable fake), but, how exactly would a prospective suitor prove siad prospective date's puberty? Or say, what about, like woman I knew, who didn't have her first period until she was almost 20, or a girl who had her first period at 9? If you can look me in the eye and tell me just because a girl had her period one day earlier than another she's okay to have sex, then what kind of standard could you use?
Argue realtive maturity all you want. Argue "I knew someone at that age who could handle it". Argue "I DID hande it at that age." As a scientifically minded friend keeps reminding me, one person's experiences do not make a representative sample from which to draw conclusions. For every "friend" or "self" who made it through okay, there are plenty of others who didn't "make it through" okay. And the fuzzier people make the line, trying to base it on "how old she/he acted", how "mature he/she really is" or some other subjective judgement call, the easier it is for scummiest of scum to get away with things. Even in my most Vic Mackey moments, I recognize there is a vast difference between a 21 year old having sex with a 17 and a half year old than a 13 year old. The trick is reminding people the difference between and 12 and 13 year old is almost nothing.
This guy had sex with a boy younger than 12, decided it was not worth the fight and ran. He knew as soon as jury heard the words "sex" and "12 year old" in the same sentence, he'd be toast in a trial. His lawyer advised him of this also, so he gave up on having a normal life and went to hide away in the circus. He was caught when he asked a fellow carnie where he could go to get a tatoo removed. And while this is an odd question, this ALONE could not have been enough to get a carnival worker to call the cops and report this guy as sketchy. He probably saw Jeremy scoping some kids wrong, made another wrong comment somewhere or something else suspicious.
And odds were, he probably wasn't acting maturely himself.
So it is written, so do I see it.
Jeremy Duffer cut the state mandated electronic leg iron and joined a traveling carnival. Now, as ideas go, this isn't the worst idea of all time. No neighbors to rat you out if you get on America's Most Wanted, little chance of being around a school where people are watching and generally, people don't like looking at carnies. Of course, the problem was he was wanted in Memphis and he was found in Eastern Tennessee. Mr. Duffer literally cut and run after being informed by his lawyer that he had no chance in hell of being found not guilty. Which is probably true. He was a former video arcade owner (they still have those? I've been looking for good one since that kick ass one in State College shut down) who was up for molesting a kid, even by certain's people standards.
To nip this is in the God damned bud: Pedophilia (n) from Gk ped- child, phil- love, -ia act of. Child (n) while Webster's might define that as between birth and puberty, American law puts it as anyone less than 18 years old. 216 months. 6570 days. 157,680 hours. 9,460,800 minutes. Math even I can fucking do. Yeah yeah, girls are more mature than they were in your day, even though they're getting married later, holding jobs later, less likely to move out, and having kids later, yes, they're more mature then when you were kid. Keep telling yourself that. While people are all ready to jump on the difference between ephebopihlia (sex with children who have gone through puberty) and pedophilia (sex with a kid who hasn't gone through puberty yet), few have talked about how to measure that. Age can be determined from an ID (oh, and for the record, girl flashes a fake ID to a guy, he shouldn't be charged with statutory rape so long as it is a reasonable fake), but, how exactly would a prospective suitor prove siad prospective date's puberty? Or say, what about, like woman I knew, who didn't have her first period until she was almost 20, or a girl who had her first period at 9? If you can look me in the eye and tell me just because a girl had her period one day earlier than another she's okay to have sex, then what kind of standard could you use?
Argue realtive maturity all you want. Argue "I knew someone at that age who could handle it". Argue "I DID hande it at that age." As a scientifically minded friend keeps reminding me, one person's experiences do not make a representative sample from which to draw conclusions. For every "friend" or "self" who made it through okay, there are plenty of others who didn't "make it through" okay. And the fuzzier people make the line, trying to base it on "how old she/he acted", how "mature he/she really is" or some other subjective judgement call, the easier it is for scummiest of scum to get away with things. Even in my most Vic Mackey moments, I recognize there is a vast difference between a 21 year old having sex with a 17 and a half year old than a 13 year old. The trick is reminding people the difference between and 12 and 13 year old is almost nothing.
This guy had sex with a boy younger than 12, decided it was not worth the fight and ran. He knew as soon as jury heard the words "sex" and "12 year old" in the same sentence, he'd be toast in a trial. His lawyer advised him of this also, so he gave up on having a normal life and went to hide away in the circus. He was caught when he asked a fellow carnie where he could go to get a tatoo removed. And while this is an odd question, this ALONE could not have been enough to get a carnival worker to call the cops and report this guy as sketchy. He probably saw Jeremy scoping some kids wrong, made another wrong comment somewhere or something else suspicious.
And odds were, he probably wasn't acting maturely himself.
So it is written, so do I see it.