Man, these stories keep popping up, and they’re not even interesting for the irony anymore. Yeah, another crusader ‘protecting’ children was found to have a stash of child porn.
Michael Dolce, a 53-year-old lawyer known for representing child sexual abuse survivors, was recently arrested by FBI agents at his West Palm Beach, Florida home. Dolce, who founded a group called Protect Our Kids First Inc., was allegedly laying in his bed and downloading sexually explicit images of children when agents broke down his front door.
According to an FBI affidavit, after Dolce’s March 15 arrest, agents found 1,997 images and five videos of child pornography on his computer. The images were of male and female children ages five to 12, including several of a prepubescent girl in a subfolder titled “Sweet Pedo Stars.” Dolce could receive a minimum of 20 years in prison if found guilty of possessing child pornography.
The police are brutal, but sometimes they have good timing.
Except…OK, this Michael Dolce is a sick scumbag, he deserves to lose his job (he already has), and should be mocked and howled at for his hypocrisy, and should never be taken seriously ever again. There ought to be some penalties for his behavior, but twenty years in prison? In our prison system? Is that just? Especially when the article points out what he’s going to face.
If Dolce is found guilty of possessing child pornography, he’ll likely face a “living hell” behind bars, CBS News reported. Inmates with sexual interests in children often occupy the lowest rung of the prisoner hierarchy, with other inmates sometimes defecating in their cells, using them as sex slaves, or targeting them for violence and murder as a way to gain prestige. Even when such offenders are placed into protective custody, they remain widely despised by other inmates, the news outlet reported.
Child pornography is a deplorable crime that rightly deserves to be punished, but you know what else is a deplorable crime? A state-run rape factory that allows inmates to torture each other. I also have to wonder how the police had such good timing — there are serious issues of privacy here (uh-oh, is the FBI going to break down my door and uncover my vast stash of spider images?).
It’s unclear why the FBI was monitoring Dulce and whether he had any anti-LGBTQ+ views. However, he is one of the countless cisgender men who have been arrested for child pornography while right-wingers continually accuse LGBTQ+ people, drag performers, and their allies of being “pedophiles” and “groomers.”
What is up with that? I’m cis, but never had the slightest interest in child porn — it’s repulsive, and if anyone were to send me any, I’d be forwarding their messages to the police.
I wonder how they decide which crimes get which punishments.
What I do see is that people with pedophilic tendencies might be afraid to seek help, and I certainly don’t want that.
Carceral systems are never about protecting or seeking justice for victims, but about satisfying a bloodlust and desire for revenge that is felt by third-parties. We need to advocate for prison abolition and move towards rehabilitative justice that is victim-centered.
The creep who downloads it should get a few years. The POS’s that make should have the key thrown away.
I’m certain the prison inmates will do the exact same thing to convicted animal abusers as they do to true pedophiles, like this guy.
Maybe representing sexually abused children is a gateway behavior, he got hooked, and started seeking new material.
#3 The creeps who downloaded it should be fined, with the proceeds going to a child porn victims fund. The scum who produced or distributed it should be fined a fixed amount, and on top of that disgorge all revenue to the same victim’s fund. Any future earnings from any source should be encumbered until the debt is paid in full. Those who actually raped the children in these videos should suffer the same economic penalties as the producers, and be sentenced to at least 2 years of community service, and confined to some facility for such offenders, where they can be treated.
If only there was a pill they could take to give them a conscience.
Now I can’t help wondering his pants were up or down when the police busted in.
Nathaniel Hellerstein @#7
You didn’t just assume they were down?
The FBI can just monitor someone or do they need a warrent?
@9 Yes.
Prison hierarchies are more than anything about power.Child sex offenders, as a class, tend to be much less criminally connected than other types of inmates. They have less real power inside, so they are often the bottom rung on the “you’re the predator or you’re the prey” system that we enforce on penitentiaries. Wealthy sex offenders, and those with significant gang, political or law enforcement ties often do quite well in custody.
People want to tell a story about how “even the most hardened criminals still have a soul, still care about their kids”, and it’s a little true – but it’s mostly about which kinds of prisoners can they mistreat with the least consequence.
Conservative types are often quite happy to celebrate the extrajudicial punishments they foresee being dealt out in the prisons. They also relish the fact that these environments invariably result in released inmates being more violent, less able to integrate into society and easier to re-incarcerate. What’s lose-lose for society is win-win for the conservative.
Don’t they have protected prisons in the States? Pedophiles and ex-law enforcement are usually sent to a separate jail for their safety in Australia.
My brother-in-law was a person psychologist, and told me about the hierarchy in prisons, and yes, the child abusers are on the bottom. Sex offenders in general are.
Even when such offenders are placed into protective custody…
Aka “PC”, or “Punk City”.
Howard Brazee @1 — They can’t seek help anyway because there is no help for them. Pedophiles cannot change, will always offend given the opportunity, and must be locked away for the safety of society.
I don’t really care what he’s facing in prison, because he deserves whatever they deal out to him.