John Grisham: Some Old White Dudes Who Look at Child Porn Deserve Leniency...
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latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-john-grisham-troubling-statements-about-child-porn-20141016-story.html
John Grisham is known for writing bestselling legal thrillers like "The Firm," "The Client" and "The Pelican Brief." Promoting his upcoming novel "Gray Mountain," he told England's the Daily Telegraph that America's prison system is out of control.
And in the process, he said some pretty creepy things about people viewing child porn.
"We have prisons now filled with guys my age. Sixty-year-old white men in prison who've never harmed anybody, would never touch a child," Grisham said. "But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons, went too far and got into child porn."
The description of "white men in prison who've never harmed anybody" is problematic on its own -- particularly in the wake of Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed young African American man, was shot and killed by police. Grisham's racially-loaded statement raises questions of what constitutes harmlessness, and how race is a factor.
Grisham's explanation that reaching child porn online must be a mistake, and that being ? somehow constitutes an excuse, seems equally troubling.
Grisham went on to explain what happened to an old classmate:
"His drinking was out of control, and he went to a website. It was labeled '16-year-old wannabe hookers or something like that.' And it said '16-year-old girls.' So he went there. Downloaded some stuff -- it was 16-year-old girls who looked 30."
He continued, "He shouldn't have done it. It was stupid, but it wasn't 10-year-old boys. He didn't touch anything. And ? , a week later there was a knock on the door: ‘FBI!’ and it was sting set up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to catch people -- sex offenders -- and he went to prison for three years."
Grisham went on, "There's so many of them now. There's so many 'sex offenders' -- that's what they're called -- that they put them in the same prison. Like they're a bunch of perverts, or something; thousands of ’em. We've gone nuts with this incarceration."
The Daily Telegraph writes, "Asked about the argument that viewing child pornography fueled the industry of abuse needed to create the pictures, Mr. Grisham said that current sentencing policies failed to draw a distinction between real-world abusers and those who downloaded content, accidentally or otherwise."
Grisham responded, "I have no sympathy for real paedophiles,” he said, "? , please lock those people up. But so many of these guys do not deserve harsh prison sentences, and that's what they're getting."
UPDATE (12:02 PM EST): Grisham published this apology on his personal website:
Anyone who harms a child for profit or pleasure, or who in any way participates in child pornography—online or otherwise—should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
My comments made two days ago during an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph were in no way intended to show sympathy for those convicted of sex crimes, especially the sexual molestation of children. I can think of nothing more despicable.
I regret having made these comments, and apologize to all.
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The user and all related content has been deleted.
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Stumble on child porn?
That's ? is literally impossible. -
Bruh you have to literally go find child porn. That ? aijt on xvideos or tube 8. How the ? you 'stumble' across chikd porn?
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Can't really take people seriously who start copping pleas after they say something stupid.
Outside of the racial connotations, there was some truth to what he was saying.
Not enough to garner them any sympathy though. -
The user and all related content has been deleted.
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The user and all related content has been deleted.
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Ppl like him is why sandusky was able to do what he did for so long. ? pervert
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people aren't going to prison for looking at "16 year old wannabe hookers"... GTFOH!
these freaks are searching out, creating, and downloading the most horrendous acts of sex and violence on defenseless children for their personal gratification...
when they get caught, I hope they get beat and tortured everyday while they are incarcerated for their crimes... -
I've watched an incredible amount of filth in my days. So much so that I'm probably 85% desensitized to the ? .
Not once have I ever 'stumbled upon' some child porn.
Somebody lyin.
John Grisham just outed himself. ? him and his imaginary ? friend. -
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but any white ? can say a black dude ? her and its the death penalty for him and no asking questions.
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I hope he know how to erase his hard drive.
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If there is going to be leniency in sentencing because the convicted are often victims of circumstances that are beyond their control then it needs to be extended to all criminals from all walks of life. This is not a phenomenon that is particularly new nor is it exclusive to old White pedophiles. If equality under the law is to be maintained this is something that needs to be considered in all criminal trials.
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His argument is flawed too. He alleges that there is no harm done but by being a viewer to illegal content they are supporting that kind of content. Unless he sees the content as permissible then there is no reason for their actions to be permissible if it contributes to the spread, creation, and popularity of this prohibited material.
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Speaking of children and leniency I hope he feel sorry for all the middle aged "harmless" black men being locked up and extorted for unfair child support laws. These are part of the overcrowding he trying make an argument for too
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This ? ? didnt stumble IC
He Dove into it!!!
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"But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons, went too far and got into child porn."
This is just tragically hilarious.. word thats your justification.. -
John Grisham had a youth baseball camp. This is creepy
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heaven forbid white people go to prison for breaking the law
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Lol @ "they just stumbled over it"
even if someone stumbled over it, that wouldn't be enough for them to go to prison.
Stumbling over it = being on 4chan or something and someone randomly post it, which probably doesn't happen often. -
Stomp Johnson wrote: »I've watched an incredible amount of filth in my days. So much so that I'm probably 85% desensitized to the ? .
Not once have I ever 'stumbled upon' some child porn.
Somebody lyin.
John Grisham just outed himself. ? him and his imaginary ? friend.
Back inna day, when a lot of y'all were prolly still watchin "Hey Arnold" or "Ahhh Real Monsters", I "stumbled upon" some extra questionable ? while browsing the old black porn site OnProbation. One of the links up there led to a "teen modeling" site and while the ? wasn't necessarily porn per se, it was disturbing enough for me to back up all of my files, reboot my pc, jump into my SCSI controller's BIOS, and do a complete low level format on my hard drive. -
konceptjones wrote: »Stomp Johnson wrote: »I've watched an incredible amount of filth in my days. So much so that I'm probably 85% desensitized to the ? .
Not once have I ever 'stumbled upon' some child porn.
Somebody lyin.
John Grisham just outed himself. ? him and his imaginary ? friend.
Back inna day, when a lot of y'all were prolly still watchin "Hey Arnold" or "Ahhh Real Monsters", I "stumbled upon" some extra questionable ? while browsing the old black porn site OnProbation. One of the links up there led to a "teen modeling" site and while the ? wasn't necessarily porn per se, it was disturbing enough for me to back up all of my files, reboot my pc, jump into my SCSI controller's BIOS, and do a complete low level format on my hard drive.
the site name... damn that's funny but smh -
konceptjones wrote: »Stomp Johnson wrote: »I've watched an incredible amount of filth in my days. So much so that I'm probably 85% desensitized to the ? .
Not once have I ever 'stumbled upon' some child porn.
Somebody lyin.
John Grisham just outed himself. ? him and his imaginary ? friend.
Back inna day, when a lot of y'all were prolly still watchin "Hey Arnold" or "Ahhh Real Monsters", I "stumbled upon" some extra questionable ? while browsing the old black porn site OnProbation. One of the links up there led to a "teen modeling" site and while the ? wasn't necessarily porn per se, it was disturbing enough for me to back up all of my files, reboot my pc, jump into my SCSI controller's BIOS, and do a complete low level format on my hard drive.
the site name... damn that's funny but smh
OnProbation, KaraDavis, Asswatcher, Onionbooty... all them the GOAT black porn sites. -
konceptjones wrote: »konceptjones wrote: »Stomp Johnson wrote: »I've watched an incredible amount of filth in my days. So much so that I'm probably 85% desensitized to the ? .
Not once have I ever 'stumbled upon' some child porn.
Somebody lyin.
John Grisham just outed himself. ? him and his imaginary ? friend.
Back inna day, when a lot of y'all were prolly still watchin "Hey Arnold" or "Ahhh Real Monsters", I "stumbled upon" some extra questionable ? while browsing the old black porn site OnProbation. One of the links up there led to a "teen modeling" site and while the ? wasn't necessarily porn per se, it was disturbing enough for me to back up all of my files, reboot my pc, jump into my SCSI controller's BIOS, and do a complete low level format on my hard drive.
the site name... damn that's funny but smh
OnProbation, KaraDavis, Asswatcher, Onionbooty... all them the GOAT black porn sites.
LOL. Them AOL days, right there. -
Haaaaa OnionBooty was GOAT