by Ted Sherman

Created on: July 26, 2007

Call me a dirty old man, but no matter how sleazy and disgusting those losers are who get caught on camera arriving for sex with 13-year-old girls, they still have some legal rights. Maybe not rights to privacy (nor their privates), but at least for the basic presumption of innocence.

The entrapment is absolutely obvious. I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, but the entire operation of the TV show ... which is just about as sleazy as some of the horny predators it captures ... is to set the guys up, arrange a bunch of cameras and cops, and then use a fake teenager to entice them with sexy internet promises and phone calls.

Then, when the baited and hooked predator is thinking great thoughts of soon-to-be passion, a holier-than-thou, snotty reporter comes out and, with samples of incriminating emails, lectures the poor, sweaty schlub on how evil he is.

I wonder how the snotty reporter would fare if someone did the same third-degree on him and his personal life. Further, what court of law appointed him the judge and jury in these cases?

Frightened out of his wits, and to the laughing and giggling of the reporter and most of the TV audience, the alleged predator bolts for what he thinks will be freedom. As he runs from the trap, he's tackled by a squad of goon cops, cuffed and led away to the hoosegow, sadder, but not necessarily, wiser.

The instinct to run is in everyone, but knowing his face and confession have been recorded on camera, why would any of the alleged predators run? He certainly knows it wouldn't do much good to try to get away from the carefully constructed trap. Or entrapment.

I know. I know. Some people believe those predator and child-molester slimeballs should be neutered on the spot with a dull, rusty knife, and my personal feelings tend to go in that direction. But, hey, even the murderous Saddam Hussein had his day in court before he was hanged. These poor losers, who probably can't otherwise get sex without paying or sneaking around for it, are labeled instantly guilty by TV camera.

Rich guys with fancy cars do the same thing all the time, and the only reactions they get are knowing winks from the guys and admiration from the ladies. Or in Michael Jackson's case, a payoff of millions of bucks to the kids' parents.

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