While Child Predators Walk, Marijuana Consumers Nailed

Christopher Largen — 04 Dec 2006 12:00 am

For those of you who retain faith in our justice system, it may shock you to learn that my hometown of Denton, TX is home to dozens of predators convicted of sex crimes against children 13 and younger, all the way down to age 4, who never served a single day in jail. Some of these rapists have been convicted of multiple offenses against multiple children. This same dynamic is occurring across our nation.

Sit with that a moment. The system that sentences prostitutes, vandalists, and marijuana consumers to jail might release a convicted child rapist right back into your neighborhood - as if personal property and morality were more important than public safety, and pilferers and potheads were more threatening than perverted predators.

This disparity is not for lack of resources. The United States leads the world in incarceration rates. Thanks to Draconian penalties for consensual crimes (implemented in the name of "protecting the children"), we lock up more of our population than Iraq, China, Iran, and North Korea. Yet many of our judges go easy on child rapists.

Complacency in the face of evil is inexcusable. Children are being abducted, raped, videotaped for the perverse pleasure of predators, tortured, and murdered. Last year in Florida, a beautiful little girl named Jessica Lunsford was attacked by a previously convicted molester who was set free by the courts to enter her bedroom, abduct her, sexually assault her repeatedly, and bury her alive in her neighbor’s yard.

While Florida law enforcement officials failed to properly monitor and control the convicted predators in their communities, they had plenty of resources to set up reverse marijuana stings, dispatching officers to try and sell small bags of the outlawed herb to strangers on the street. It appears that inciting petty misdemeanors takes priority over preventing violent felonies. Jessica’s father Mark Lunsford, who has spent the past year traveling the country, tirelessly fighting for changes in the law, asked, "Where are our priorities as a nation? Where are our values? Sometimes it seems like we don’t value anything, least of all the children."

http://www.lonestaricon.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=837&z=88

Also archived at: http://www.Building-BLOCK.org/Priorities.html

Congress Votes to Legalize Child Molestation by "School Officials"

Erin Hildebrandt — 23 Sep 2006 7:20 am

Congress voted this week to grant immunity to teachers and school administrators who molest students, provided they claim the molestation occurred during a search for drugs or weapons. Without a roll call vote, the bill called the "Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006 (HR 5295)" was rushed to the floor and passed on a voice vote. Surprisingly, it passed against the protestations of the PTA, the American Association of School Administrators, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National School Boards Association.

The good news is that there's still time to prevent this bill from becoming law. Parents need to contact their senators immediately and demand that this bill either be deeply buried, so that it can never again see the light of day, or alternatively, to kill the bill if it reaches the Senate floor.

Student Drug Testing: A Veritable Smorgasbord for Pedophiles

Erin Hildebrandt — 21 Aug 2006 10:40 am

With all of the sincerity of a used car salesman trying to unload a lemon, U.S. "drug czar" John Walters recently tried to sell student drug testing to the United Kingdom. In the U.K.’s Guardian, Mr. Walters compared drug testing to tuberculosis testing. He said, "Some schools in the United States say a child needs to have a TB test. It's not considered to be an invasion of privacy."

I will not argue with Mr. Walters about student TB testing. Where I take issue with his analogy is in his callous disregard, or ignorance, of the risks inherent to teaching kids to submit to adults who demand access to their most intimate and private moments.

Justice focuses on drug abuse, ignores child predators

Neal R. Peirce — 12 Jun 2006 12:00 am

In 30 years and 1,600 columns, I never once wrote on the issue of sex crimes against children. Until today.

The man whose powerful pitch convinced me is Christopher Largen, a Texas-based freelance journalist and social activist who was a victim of repeated sexual assaults from age 5 through 14.

Largen recently created a nonprofit to gather allies - "Building BLOCK - Building Better Lives for Our Communities and Kids."

Unspoken Injustice; overcoming tragedy for a better future

Stephen Webster — 09 Jun 2006 12:00 am

Many young victims of sexual abuse go on to lead lives just as troubled as their lost childhoods. At the core of Building Block, the child safety activist group The News Connection has partnered with for this series of reports, lays a story of abuse, despair, loss and redemption.

Unspoken Injustice; breaking the silence, cycle of abuse

Stephen Webster — 26 May 2006 12:00 am

Christopher Largen's experiences are what lead him to found Building Block, a national activist group that helps survivors of childhood sexual assault break their silence and confront their inner demons. "Breaking the silence about your victimization is step one. There can be no healing unless you do that," claimed Largen. "I should know."

Unspoken Injustice: Your Neighbor The Sex Offender

Stephen Webster — 19 May 2006 12:00 am

Over the next several weeks, TNC will be running a series of investigative reports detailing the widespread leniency being dolled out to sex criminals, and the cycle of abuse that turns their victims into tomorrow's offenders.

Building BLOCK Debuts

Erin Hildebrandt — 09 Apr 2006 12:00 am

Building BLOCK's founders, Christopher Largen and Erin Hildebrandt, were warmly received at the Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics in Santa Barbara, CA. They spoke on a panel about being survivors of childhood sexual abuse and also patients who have used medical marijuana to relieve symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), resulting from the abuse.

Rape a Child -- Receive a Pell Grant

Christopher Largen — 12 Mar 2006 12:00 am

The following conversation, transcribed from memory, took place between Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's legislative assistant and Christopher Largen.

"Okay. Well suppose I'm convicted of...oh, I don't know...raping and murdering a child. Can I still get financial aid for school?"

Police Sexually Abuse Boy's Father

Christopher Largen — 01 Mar 2006 12:00 am

When Tennessee law enforcement officials showed up at the home of Lester Siler, a convicted drug dealer out on supervised release, they asked his wife and 8 year-old son to leave. They didn't know that Lester's wife had turned on a tape recorder in the kitchen.

When Lester exercised his constitutional right not to sign a consent to search his house, these officers spent the next two hours torturing him.