All right
Let's light this candle.
The Epstein Files have been released to a tremendous amount of outrage, and I find myself conflicted. There are definitely victims of that virulent parasite, but I worry they’re about to be overlooked.
I’m afraid that this whole mess is starting to remind me a great deal of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s - 1990s.
For those who may be a little too young to remember that little blot on the Copybook of History, it started with a “psychiatrist”1 who had a fondness for the woo-woo — and incredibly debunked — practice of “Recovered Memory Therapy”2, and was spark-plugged by well-meaning3, yet clueless, people who used suggestive questions and leading questions when interviewing children … and wound up with about 12,000 reports of ritual abuse of children — including, but not limited to: child sexual abuse, ritual sacrifice of children, cannibalism of children, child pornography, child prostitution, murder of children, torture of children, and incestuous orgies.
A large part of the American population became convinced that paedophiles associated with Satanism were running child care centers across the country for the express purpose of providing a steady supply of children for devil-worshipping rites.
As one might expect day-care workers and pre-schools took it in the neck … but so did fathers. The “experts” — untrained, inexperienced, unqualified — had a particular case of the ass towards fathers, with the result that several fathers spent years in prison for crimes never committed.
Yeah. Not a one of those reported 12,000 cases turned out to be substantiated. And when I say “Not substantiated” we’re talking about stuff like:
Children were coached to testify that they had been taken to a cemetery where the graves were dug up and the corpses used for violation. It is physically impossible to dig up an entire cemetery and leave abso-bloody-lutely no trace behind.
Children were coached to testify that a teenager with Noonan Syndrome had cut the throat of a giraffe, and used the dying corpse for ritual violations. Seriously.
Children were coached to testify that they had been given to aliens, flown up into space, and violated.
In addition to the coaching, case files were built from statements given by diagnosed schizophrenics; anonymous statements given by people who were later tracked down and found to be — let us be precise here — flat barking bugnuts; and was fueled by the political desire to make hay, or make the other guy look bad rather than — you know — justice.
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Other than the fact that innocent people got dragged through the legal wringer, spent years in prison, and had their lives ruined for nothing; the mass-hysteria moral panic4 meant that actual, provable cases of child molestation got short shrift.
A vast underground network of Satanic peadophiles conducting ritualistic abuse, cannibalism, and unholy rituals was far more toothsome to prosecutors, the Media, and the public at large than Uncle Badtouch.
Given the choice of making his name by becoming the hero taking on a vast international cabal of highly-connected Satanists … or the day-to-day boring grind of prosecuting the creepy dude at the park — well, District Attorneys are politicians. And politicians gotta politick. Heroes poll better than the unsung.
Which brings us to the Epstein Files.
Let us get one thing straight right out of the gate: There are victims there. Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sexual predator and pimp. Undeniable. Him being a paedophile is entirely in the realm of probability.
However we must heed the lesson of the Satanic Panic and refuse to focus on the extraordinary claims at the expense of the ordinary crime. Actual paedophiles — the ordinary child molesters — got away with it during the Satanic Panic because the entire nation was focussed on the extraordinary claims. And I don’t want to see actual victims get ignored in favour of bushwa Hollywood lurid fever dreams.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Allegations that are sensationalist, over-the-top shocking, and suggestive are, unfortunately, extraordinary claims. That sort of thing leaves all kinds of physical evidence. Until such evidence is discovered, our focus should be on the sexually assaulted.
Procuring and providing prostitutes — even teenage ones — is, unfortunately, an ordinary crime. These crimes need to be, have to be, prosecuted.
Anonymous reports of torture/cannibalism orgies involving toddlers in a Washington DC basement is an extraordinary claim, and requires evidence before we start taking away resources from the victims and crimes listed in the previous paragraph.
Please don’t blow up my comments regarding QAon, Pizzagate, or other conspiracies. I’ve been involved in various levels of government — to include Federal — since I was 18. I worked CaPERS5 too long, I was a very good investigator, and I have never found any wisp of evidence to support any sort of global cabal of ritual paedophiles.
The uncomfortable truth is simply this: People don’t need conspiracies to be absolute utter rabid bastards.
TL;DR: There are victims revealed by the Epstein Files. Let’s make sure we get justice for them instead of chasing the red herring of a moral panic, ok?
Ian
I use the scare quotes because he should have been struck off for his wanton destruction of families and innocent people.
Really good at implanting false memories, not worth a bucket of warm rat spit at recovering memories.
And let’s face it: Some ill-intentioned folks.
This went on for years.
Crimes Against PERSons.
Egad. The voice of reason. From a retired LEO no less.
Prepare to be excoriated by all sides and the middle, Ian. Thanks for writing for the voice of reason.
Epstein's death was inconvenient (or very convenient, YMMV) from the perspective of acquiring information more-or-less first-hand.
I will admit, not being a sworn officer, that given the opportunity I'd have used methods for which you'd have been forced (at least under the U.S. Constitution) to arrest me. Not that our government has ever used illegal methods of interrogation. Oh no, not us. Never.
ADDENDUM: No. No charcoal braziers, hammers or tongs. Scopolamine and it's successors come to mind. Accomplished interrogators (like the late David Drake) don't need them, just time. I'm sort of a knuckle-dragger, chemicals work.
I freely admit I haven’t dug deep into it because I have not been in the headspace to handle horrors, but every time I see a claim about “pizza code” or “cream cheese” it makes me angry… because you’re right. The wild-ass theories are removing attention from actual victims.
I’ve been on both sides of the information fence regarding investigations, and I watch people make shit up out of whole cloth that I *know* is false all the time, even just in my little corner of the world. And just because no one who actually knows immediately steps up saying “that’s wrong” they run with it.
The thing so many people don’t understand, or refuse to acknowledge is this: if you are not in an investigative role, you will never get all of the information about any investigation. Ever. Active investigations require discretion and even secrecy to be effective. Multiple suspects will circle the wagons and get their stories straight, hide or destroy evidence, or disappear. Not to mention victims, particularly victims of violent or sexual crimes, deserve to not have their genuine trauma put up on billboards for the world to see.
It’s bad enough what victims go through to get justice in the easiest possible scenario: a simple investigation followed by charges and a plea deal. Even there the victim is traumatized again with at least one interview, and knowing that law enforcement, prosecution, defense counsel, and their abuser get to see it all. If it goes to trial it’s on show for a judge and or jury, all of the aforementioned, plus whoever chooses to attend. And in this day and age, criminal proceedings are live-streamed, increasing the exposure.
As a member of the public even if a case goes to trial and you’re there for every second… you still won’t find out everything. Evidence is cherry picked for trial, on both sides, things can be disregarded or disallowed. All of the details are not presented.
There’s a murder case in Texas County Oklahoma involving five defendants, two have taken plea deals for reduced sentences in return for testimony, one has pled no contest, and two are at this point planning to go to trial. One of those defendants’ counsel filed over twenty motions recently, including motions to remove the death penalty from consideration and- and I wish I were kidding about this- a motion asking the judge to order the victims families not to show emotion in the courtroom during trial. They seriously asked a judge to order the families of two women who were brutally murdered not to have facial expressions in the courtroom. Because it might influence a jury.
That is the level of fuckery possible in a trial, and things like that are why the public will never have all of the information about an investigation, until after the fact, and only if they get the records from every entity involved and go through it themselves. Even then, unless you know how to go through those records, (and let the evidence show its own conclusions) you aren’t going to be able to put all of the puzzle pieces together.
People need to stop creating more horror than already exists in that situation… the real victims do not deserve to be disregarded for wild ass conspiracy theories.
Ok rant over.