Residents beat, hold man accused of showing kids porn

[SlowwHand]

Opened a 10 pound can of whoopass on him.

10:33 PM CDT on Thursday, September 21, 2006

By HOLLY YAN / The Dallas Morning News



A man accused of showing a pornographic magazine to four children as young as 7 at an Oak Cliff playground was beaten by nearby residents and held until police arrived.

Police said Brandon Scott Burke, 20, went to an apartment complex in the 1700 block of Pratt Street about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and sat down at a playground where several children were playing.

Elizabeth Williams' 7-year-old daughter was one of the children at the playground.

"At first he sat there for a while," said Ms. Williams, whose daughter was being watched by another child's mother. "From what [my daughter] told me ... he came up and pulled out some dirty pictures and showed them to the kids. He pulled them out of his backpack."

At least four children – a 9-year-old girl, a 7-year-old girl and two 7-year-old boys – saw pictures of a nude woman in the magazine, police said. Police reports indicate Mr. Burke briefly held the hand of one of the children.

Ms. Williams said the other mother saw Mr. Burke and asked what he was doing.

"He tried to run then," Ms. Williams said. "She was screaming, and some of the people living by her held him until the police got there."

According to a police report, Mr. Burke said about 15 men "jumped him and hit him repeatedly on the face with their fists." He suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene. A detective is investigating the case, but no arrests for assault have been made.

Mieshia Wesley, who baby-sits Ms. Williams' daughter, said she's not surprised so many people rushed to the playground to stop Mr. Burke. She estimated about 40 to 50 people gathered at the scene.

"Everybody knows everybody around here," she said.

Police seized the magazine and arrested Mr. Burke on suspicion of harmful display to a minor, a Class A misdemeanor. He was being held at Lew Sterrett Justice Center on Thursday in lieu of $6,000 bail.

Mr. Burke does not appear to have any criminal convictions in the Dallas area.

Dallas police Lt. C.L. Williams said it was unclear what Mr. Burke's intentions were and whether he was trying to entice the children.

"We interviewed him, and the information we've gotten is still kind of vague," said Lt. Williams, who heads the department's Crimes Against Children Unit. "When you look at these [cases] and try to consider them rationally, it tends to boggle the mind. It's hard to understand the motive."

Mr. Burke's listed address is in Pleasant Grove, about 10 miles away from the playground in central Oak Cliff.

"He said he was looking for a friend," Lt. Williams said. "We've not been able to verify that."

Ms. Williams said she appreciates her neighbors' help, but no one should have beaten Mr. Burke.

"I wish they would just hold him," Ms. Williams said. "I'm glad someone was there to stop him, but I'd rather police handle the justice."

[LordShiva]

Lynch mobs

[SlowwHand]

They didn't lynch him.

[PLATO]

Vigilante justice can't be allowed. This guy probably deserved it, but you still can't have it. If they were making a citizen arrest and he tried to flee then reasonable force should be used to detain him, but beating him for his crime is wrong. The justice system should be allowed to work.

[SlowwHand]

In a somewhat related article, more good news.

Making child porn sites go away getting easier

Barton-led effort can close operations not under investigation

10:30 PM CDT on Thursday, September 21, 2006

By LAURA SCHREIER / The Dallas Morning News


It's impossible to catch every person operating a child pornography Web site. But child protection advocates said Thursday that shutting down some illicit Internet operations is about to become easier.

Ernie Allen, president of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., announced an initiative at a congressional hearing in which his organization will work with Internet service providers to shut down such Web sites, even if they aren't under criminal investigation.

"We're going to eliminate as much of that stuff as possible from the Internet," Mr. Allen said.

The center picked up the idea from Texas Rep. Joe Barton, Mr. Allen said, after the Ennis Republican learned of a British organization that aggressively reports and helps close Web sites that contain illicit images of children.

The group, Internet Watch Foundation, says its efforts resulted in a major decline of Britain-based child pornography sites. Britain is home to fewer than 1 percent of the world's child porn sites, according to foundation figures, down from 18 percent in 1997.

"Well, hell, if they can do it over there, why can't we do it over here?" Mr. Barton said. "Nobody really had a rational reason why they couldn't do it."

Callers have long been able to report child pornography Web sites to service providers, law enforcement or through a Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Web site, Cybertipline.com.

Mr. Allen said his organization investigates complaints and has always passed information to law enforcement. But unless those sites were the subject of criminal investigations, they remained up and running.

Under the initiative, the center will continue to confirm the presence of illegal images on reported sites and pass information to law enforcement, which "gets first crack" at them, Mr. Allen said. Authorities will decide if enough information is available to track down the site's operators and victims. In that case, the site stays up so officials can monitor it.

If law enforcement can't pursue an investigation, the center will send information about the site to Internet service providers. Those companies will then take down such sites if they are based on their systems or will block subscriber access using filters.

Participating entities include the U.S. Internet Service Provider Association, as well as AOL, Earthlink, Google, Microsoft and United Online. Most Internet traffic within the U.S. will be covered, Mr. Allen said.

Analysts with the center make sure images on the objectionable sites are illegal, Mr. Allen said, though his statements at this week's hearing didn't deal with what recourse Web site operators would have if they disagreed with such judgments.

Mr. Barton said fighting child pornography has become a priority for his oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has had a series of hearings on the subject. Initiatives complicating access to child pornography might prevent victimization, he said.

The Center for Missing and Exploited Children still emphasizes catching child pornographers and rescuing their victims, Mr. Allen said, but the initiative helps "disrupt this insidious business."

"We want to get it off people's computers and out of people's homes because every time it's distributed, that child is victimized again," he said.


The New York Times contributed to this report.

[SlowwHand]

Originally posted by PLATO
Vigilante justice can't be allowed. This guy probably deserved it, but you still can't have it. If they were making a citizen arrest and he tried to flee then reasonable force should be used to detain him, but beating him for his crime is wrong. The justice system should be allowed to work.

From the article you didn't read.

"He tried to run then," Ms. Williams said. "She was screaming, and some of the people living by her held him until the police got there."

[PLATO]

I read the article...did you not read my response? or did you just not understand the word "reasonable"? C'mon Sloww! Keep up!

[SlowwHand]

Grrrrr.

He isn't in a death bed condition. They used reasonable force.

[Wezil]

"He said he was looking for a friend," Lt. Williams said. "We've not been able to verify that."

I bet he was....

[Proteus_MST]

...
According to a police report, Mr. Burke said about 15 men "jumped him and hit him repeatedly on the face with their fists."
...

They used reasonable force, sure

[SlowwHand]

Mr. Burke said. We know his word is solid gold, don't we?

[Lul Thyme]

I also think that just holding him was enough.

[Proteus_MST]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Mr. Burke said. We know his word is solid gold, don't we?

He may be wrong in the number of men and blows,
but his face looks like he was beaten more than once.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Lul Thyme
I also think that just holding him was enough.

I'd like to think that would be my approach.

Would I think the same if my child were at the playground that day?

[ajbera]

If they did indeed beat him, he has the same legal recourse as anyone else. A judge and jury will decide whether these people acted outside reasonable boundaries.

I wouldn't have beaten him as a punitive measure, but if he was struggling to free himself I'd probably pop him once or twice to get him to settle down. Then I would let society decide if I had acted properly.

There's nothing wrong with vigilantism per se as long as the vigilantes recognize they aren't above the law. The cops can't be everywhere, and sometimes citizens have to act.