The world according to Airboy - Airboy's comments on the news
By: Airboy
7 and 8 September 2000. Vervloesem's empty threats
On 7 September, the Belgian newspaper 'De Standaard' brings an interview with Marcel Vervloesem, head of the child pornography hunting party known as "Morkhoven". In this interview he threatens to publish on the Internet a list of 980 names of Belgian, German and French (suspected) pedophiles.
His reason for doing so is rather crude: he sees it as a way to force the court to punish a woman who gave publicity to a verdict in 1997 in which Vervloesem was found guilty of blackmail. It turned out that a mistake had been made in the process of reaching the verdict, and the sentences of a namesake of Vervloesem's had weighed in determining the penalty.
I consider it odd: trying to be cleared of blackmail by threatening with blackmail.
Vervloesem declares in the "Standaard" interview: "If the court does not act now, there will be no more barriers, and anyone can spread whatever they want about others." Apparently, Vervloesem wants to prove this by publishing a list containing not only the names of convicted sex offenders, but even of names appearing on lists that were seized from pedophiles.
The interview does not reveal that Vervloesem is speaking on behalf of the Morkhoven group. The threat of blackmail thus appears to be his personal scheme, but the data he plans to make publicly available appear to have been collected by Morkhoven.
From the way Vervloesem intends to put the data on the Internet it becomes apparent that he realizes that the government will want to counter his moves. He says, "Let them come and search my house. The data for the Net are being prepared from several locations in several countries. We will be moving continually, so the sites with the data can practically not be shut down."
He is equally confident in declaring the date on which the plan is to take effect. As soon as he leaves court on 7 September with the knowledge that his case has been postponed, he tells the press that publication of the data will ensue immediately. But the next day, Morkhoven declares (it's a team cooperation after all) that they have decided not to publish the names.
7 September. Relapsing pedophiles possibly to be castrated in Latvia
The climate in Latvia has become extremely hostile towards pedophiles. After the organizer of a beauty contest abused several young girls (as the press reports had it) and was arrested in 1999, similar reports inundated the country. Some Latvian members of parliament, for instance, were said to have used underage prostitutes.
Parliament decided to meet the wishes of the public, who were hungry for action, by drawing up a bill enabling relapsing pedophile delinquents to be castrated.
This absurd idea materialized after the physician and member of the ruling conservative party, Vidins, declared that pedophilia is a disease that can be cured by castration.
9 September. C&A children's wear contains link to porn site
Is this digital child molestation? Belgium went into a scare when it became known that a line of clothing distributed by the C&A clothes chain for children aged nine to twelve contained a website address to a gay porn site. C&A mounted a full-scale recovery operation while meticulously keeping the exact website address a secret. The clothes with the address were sold throughout the whole of Europe, but well... Belgium is a wee bit more sensitive to sexual issues.
14 and 19 September. Keeping track of pedophile delinquents?
The Dutch cabinet have agreed with a proposal of Minister of Justice Benk Korthals that impliedly gets back to the earlier discussion about monitoring released sex offenders. Mr. Korthals argues that there should be conditions on the early release of sex offenders. In Holland it's customary for prisoners to be released with no further conditions after they have served two-thirds of their time. By belatedly introducing conditions on the premature release of sex offenders, Korthals presents the government with the possibility of subjecting delinquents to therapy, prolonged supervision, or prohibition to enter certain areas.
Korthals' discriminatory proposal boils down to a more severe penalty for those types of delinquents who are the least popular in society. Sadly, the law will be changed.
On 19 September it was announced that an amendment would be introduced that would enable mandatory DNA testing upon release or upon the commencement of TBS (the detainment of delinquents involving mandatory therapy as specified per case. TBS detainment can last an indefinite period of time until the detainee is considered fit to re-enter society). The press release of the Department of Justice specifically mentions sex offenders.
14 September. Child pornography at gas stations and at the Bruna office stationer's chain
It all started when a former staff member of the Child Welfare Council decided to wage a war against child pornography. He bought a couple of porn booklets such as "Shaved Teeners" and "Seventeen" at the Amstelveen branch of the well-known office stationer's chain "Bruna". What he saw in the pictures were girls who, in his own expert's assessment, were as young as thirteen.
He reported his findings to Bruna but was not taken seriously. The conflict worsened when one night the good man whitened the windows of the chain store with latex. Upon his arrest he related his discovery of the alleged child pornography to the police. The police confiscated the booklets and the man filed a charge of distributing child pornography against Bruna.
The Amsterdam vice squad are to decide whether the charge is well-founded. According to Sandy Wenderhold, owner of the publishing company Bookpress Inc., the models are all over eighteen. The company requires passport verification, among other things.
In order to be taken seriously in his struggle against child pornography, the former Child Welfare Council member voluntarily sought a psychiatrist's assessment to obtain a written statement declaring he is not insane.
15 September. Quality mark of children's organizations as a weapon against child pornography
Organizations that arrange holiday visits to Holland for children from poor countries need to obtain a "quality mark". In this way, Minister Korthals wants to avoid children being victimized, for instance, by being involved in the production of child pornography. Korthals wants host families to be screened and monitored.
I gather from this that any generous host family is now obliged to prove it is innocent. The "guilty until proven innocent" method is not how Dutch law is intended to work.
18 September. Senior police officer kicks eight-year-old boy in the face
A debased police officer ... senior police officer, even ... thought it necessary to kick a boy of eight in the face after a short argument. The boy says he asked the police officer (who is of Asian descent): "Why are you slant-eyed?" The officer responded, "If you say that again I will make you slant-eyed." During the ensuing argument the boy was kicked.
26 September. Pedophile man killed by boy's father
A 22-year-old pedophile man was stabbed to death by the father of a young victim of his. Young victim? Well, he had felt up an eleven-year-old boy. At least, all the news reports I could find only mention that the boy was touched.
This is tricky. After all, such behavior is illegal, but I do think there is a difference between touching and rape. Does the offender/victim dichotomy always have to be applied? Of course it's a handy thing for the media. The offender had a victim, and the victim had a father. The media concluded by expressing their sympathy for the father, who now had to face court, after the family had already been "afflicted" by a pedophile touching their kid. Gee, what a pity for that family. Meanwhile, nobody is mourning the death of the boy of twenty-two. Except me.
29 and 30 September. Child pornography in Russia, Italy and Germany
In Russia, some distributors of child pornography have been released, because in Russia there's no law against distribution. The producers who were identifiable in the images remain in custody. Those distributors of whom it could not be proved that they had played a role in making the pornography were released.
When the Italian broadcasting system RAI showed parts of the child pornography in its television news bulletin, all of Italy was in a state of clamor. The news editors, however, were not detained on the ground of distribution, although I believe that Italy has a law against it. Under pressure of the public outcry the director of the news resigned.
Meanwhile, in our neighboring country, after the German police had found a website containing child pornography, they decided to request the log files from the provider and to scrutinize the five hundred thousand hits the site had received. The logs contain the IP addresses of visitors, and these are being linked to names and addresses with the help of Internet providers. In this way, the German police intend to persecute hundreds of visitors to the site at once.
I wonder how safe it is to carelessly click your way through the Internet without knowing the content of a site up front: before you know it, there's an unacceptable image on your screen. In times of old it sufficed to click this image away, but today that alone may lead to a rap on your door (or the door of anyone whose computer you've been using).
In the case of all these reports, it is important to see if a distinction is being made between pedophiles and non-pedophiles when the government has to decide whether or not to prosecute. Apparently, non-pedophiles are allowed to possess child pornography (such as the editors of the RAI television news), but similar ownership warrants prosecution in the case of pedophiles. Are some more equal than others?
5 October. District Attorney thinks Brongersma collection is not scientific
The collection built up by the late senator Brongersma has no scientific value, according to the DA. The child pornography in it will be destroyed, but the government will keep part of the collection, since they reckon they can prosecute about forty people with the evidence the documents and images provide.
I think Brongersma would turn in his grave now that his correspondence with pedophiles, which he kept confidential, is being scrutinized for past criminal activities so that people can be prosecuted accordingly. I wonder to what extent, if at all, the DA will take into consideration the principle of complaint (no interference in sex with 12-16 except if kids, parents, or the Child Welfare Council lodge a complaint). Meanwhile, the DA has cunningly decided not to prosecute the board members of the Brongersma Foundation. As it is, the board will not be appealing to a higher court, so the DA has all the freedom in the world to scrutinize Brongersma's private correspondence.
6-12 October 2000. Vervloesem's empty threats (2)
On 6 October, after his complaint has been dismissed, Marcel Vervloesem again announces he will publish lists on the Internet containing names of convicted pedophiles as well as persons who "ordered pornographic images of children". He would start to publish the lists on Monday, 9 October, and inform the press of the lists' location on Thursday, 12 October. Thursday came and went without a list becoming available.
Does Vervloesem actually have such a list? I'm starting to wonder.
source: Article 'The World According to Airboy' by Airboy; OK Magazine, no. 76; December 2000