CRIME REPORT

Sneaky Bastards

Sign by Dealighted

So many times we think we are invisible. No one knows who did it. No one will know it was me that sent that email, that made that post, that slandered someone. Even though you post under a name no one recognizes and put in a hotmail or yahoo email address you leave a trail where ever you go on the internet.

Think your boss doesn't know you spend time at your desk looking up porn? Think your wife isn't smart enough to figure out who you are flirting with online? Think you your child is safe online?

Think again.

We just worked a case where a well known person made the mistake most of you have made a time or two.

If you need help let us know. Email us at bluelineradio@aol.com We can make the invisible visible.

FEVER PITCHED

Blogsites in Wilmington are going mad over the recent death of ECU student Sam Flinn who was punched and killed by a UNCW senior when Flinn's friend Doug Reece shouted an insult towards 3 young African Americans who were outside a neighbor's townhouse at 5006 Carleton Place. (see bluelineradio.com for the who's who of landlords)

Almost immediately controversial postings went up on the local internet blogsites.

The Star News was hit with a post reporting the owner of the townhome located at the address listed in reports as to the location of the fight. In an email from the Star News poster, Preacherman, to the Blue Line Radio, the Preacherman said he had posted what he did because the subject of the post lived at the address and that the occupant, Lenwood "Bo" Dean not only works for UNCW but also hold two positions with the City of Wilmington, Parks & Recreation and the Wilmington Housing Authority. (Preacherman makes a good point in his email regarding the lack of oversight of the rampant crime facing some of our public housing developments and local upscale developments such as Carleton Place which Mr. Dean sits on the board of both places) It was immediately after the post was uploaded onto the Star News site, that the newspaper received a threat from Mr. Dean and the post was removed. Several of those following this particular blog have been in constant argument since regarding the validity of a poster's right to post anything they want as long as it has merit. But does it have merit?

As the Star News has their blogsite so does WWAY-TV. WWAY's site is different in many ways. More out of control, personal attacks, profanity and racism.

One post regarding this death was posted by someone purporting to be an Aryan Nationalist, whatever that is. Threats of revenge against a black killing a white and chastising "self-loating whites", calling Wilmington an "anti-White City."

Mostly there have been rumors and misinformation regarding this death. The District Attorney Ben David and Chief of Police Ralph Evangelous both hoped the rumors would quiet down now that the situation was explained to the media.

The biggest misinformation did not come from a blogsite but from the UNCW mass email machine informing students, faculty and anyone else that would listen that this was simply an "altercation" between students.

The next biggest misinformation came from the Medical Examiner's Office, when he said the death was caused by a common phenomenon. Apparently when a drunk gets hit in the jaw he dies ... if Mike Tyson hits him.

Sometimes you can't rely on instant media for news. Blogs are great to ramble on and inflame a fire but nothing beats a good gathering at the fence with your neighbor to learn the "facts"... wait that's exactly like a blogsite. Gossip. Innuendoes, half truths and detractors. But sometimes a lot of genius comes from bloggers.

And look who's talking now, me, blogging to you.

Take two grains of salt and email me in the morning.

INTERNET STINK

You might not know it but at any given time 50,000 sexual perverts are on the Internet prowling for children and the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children tells us that one in five children online have been solicited for sex. AOL, Yahoo and other Internet Providers have, in the past, turned a blind eye to the problem saying it is up to the parents to keep their kids safe. Meanwhile they have allowed various chatrooms to exist with titles such as dad4daughter and boycrazymen. The purpose of these types of rooms is to set up conversation with young, underage, curious, teens with the goal of becoming sexually involved with them either by erotic conversation over the internet or phone or swapping sexually explicit photographs or all of the above including a "face to face" meeting.

The website Perverted Justice (pervertedjustice.com) helped NBC's Dateline Television catch a few perverted men on camera in an extremely eye opening hour long segment on Friday Night.

In the quick little bit that I saw on MSNBC I believe they caught 19 men over a two day period of time. No arrests were made but Perverted Justice has had several successes in catching folks, literally with their pants down, while authorities locked them up afterwards. Bravo!

One of the men featured Friday at 8 on NBC is a Rabbi that thought he was meeting a 13 year old boy for sex but instead was greeted by cameras and reporter.

I encourage any parent that has children on the internet to spend an hour learning about who is out there prowling around for their children.

The sad advantage many of these hunters of children have over most people is the ignorance of the parent as to what their child is actually doing while online. Children are naturally curious and combine that curiousity with their immediate desire to be "older" and experience the adult world in adult terms, the two make for a potential disaster. Just think of how alcohol use is rampant in high schools and being experimented frequently in middle schools. Most of the kids that fall prey to such men are the "good ones" the ones that stay home, do their homework, the ones that aren't as popular or as you see asked time and time again by these perverts, "are you home alone?", "your mom and dad separated or divorced?" Good questions. Easy targets.

Let's agree for one-second that the odds are slim that someone is going to abduct your teenager from a chance meeting on the internet. But there is an extremely good chance that the internet may introduce your child to a world of sexual fantasies that would make Hugh Hefner blush. Do you really want your children learning this sort of trash, seeing it graphically exposed in living color, hearing it from a 40 something year-old man in explicit, hushed tones?

Tune in Friday night on NBC at 8. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9878187/#051103a